As the month of November comes to a close we have seen quite a few changes right before our eyes. Cold nights have forced the first substantial drop in the water temperatures over just the past several days and the fish have been on the move. I had reported last week that there were massive schools of baitfish moving out of the Bay and along the coast. This continues to be the case; over the weekend with near mirror like conditions you could see fish everywhere. Gannets and Gulls diving on feeding Blues and Stripers along with giant piles of who knows what all along the bottom, sounds almost to good to be true. Don’t get too excited. Most of these fish were outside of the three-mile line making them inaccessible to all but ballsiest of anglers. Federal laws prohibit landing Stripers outside of three miles so we have to just ignore them until these laws change.

While the Weekend brought fantastic weather I am sad to say that I believe our Sea Bass fishing has come to a screeching halt. With the nice Ocean I once again made the run out to wrecks in the 100 to 130 foot depths. After some of the catches that we have had over the past several weeks, Saturdays trip was disappointing at best. Top hooks had only about fifteen keeper Bass and most folks had just a handful. We didn’t even catch many Blues. Most of the big Blues seemed to be closer inshore this week. I will be giving up on the Sea Bass fishery with the regular full-day trips for the ’05 season. It’s just too long of a ride for too few fish. Riding for 2 hours plus seriously cuts into our fishing time and with just “picky fishing” I don’t feel that it’s worth the ride. For those wishing that last Sea Bass trip, our twelve-hour trips are the last shot. We have three or four more on the schedule for this year. These 12-hour trips will depart at 5:00 a.m. on Saturdays and do require reservations for a spot.

As of now our regular trips will be spending all of our time fishing for Blackfish (Tautog). These fish are abundant now and we will have much better trips by days end targeting these fish. After the sting that I had on Saturday with the Sea Bass, Sunday’s trip was very refreshing, we had over six hours of fishing time and just about everyone on the boat walked away with a limit of Tog up to eight pounds! Today’s fishing was almost just as good. Mother Nature made it a little tough with the anchoring conditions but we caught a lot of very nice fish despite several anchor drills. Remember these tog are crafty and will humble even the most experienced of anglers. I suggest a minimum of 25-pound test line with a fairly stout rod capable of 8 to 10 ounces of lead and a lot of patience. We will run for Tog daily at 7:00 a.m. until the 18th of December. Also remember with the water temperatures cooling down, any breeze out on the water or if the sun is behind the clouds can make for some down right chilly conditions out there so dress accordingly. Layered clothes with a windbreaker are a good choice. A lot of folks will bring rain gear at this time of year.

Striper fishing continues to be a little frustrating. Even though the boats targeting these fish continue to bring in quality fish it is the general consensus by veteran Captains that these fish should be a little more consistent right now. This past weekend saw varied success with a lot of Slammer Blues mixed in for everybody. Water temperature seems to play a big role with these fish and with the present drop things could pop at any given moment. As I stated earlier there are a lot of these fish around right now however some of the bigger schools of fish are just outside of the line. We will continue to target Stripers until after Christmas sailing Daily at 8:00 a.m. All of our boats will have heated cabins for those cold days so you can get warmed up when you need to. If you would like any more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf or you would like to make a reservation for a special trip or charter please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA.

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

Capt. Rick Yakimowicz
Keen Lady IV
catchfish@verizon.net