My friend and I put in at Shelter Island around 6:30 in gorgeous weather. The plan was to head toward the South 9 and look for birds to target bonies. We saw a little fog in front of us but figured it was like normal summer stuff.
Then we got in it… it was thick.
We changed plans to work the jetty since we could get close enough to see it. There were so many boats around that I just didn’t trust. Who knows who is going to be going 35+ knts in 100 yard visibility and run my little boat over.
The jetty yielded 3 Calicos and some Johny bass on the spinner baits. Then I shot across the channel to look in the Pt. Loma kelp off the point. The kelp looked good, but the water was a little dirty and it felt dead. The only thing we did there was laugh at some of the jerks on the radio. Some of was actually very funny. Saw a few pencils, but no fish.
The the visibility went up a little. We worked our way around the kelp and headed toward the South 9. We were going pretty slow. We thought we saw some life after about 2 miles and decided to put a rapala in. Just then I see a silhouette off the port bow. About 15 seconds later I can read “New Seaforth” and they are less than 200 yards away making good speed. Glad we were going slow enough to have time to react if we needed to.
I do wonder if they saw us on radar since I’ve got an aluminum boat, or if we were totally invisible…?
We gave up on the troll and continued toward the S 9. As we got closer, the fog started to break. Within about a mile of the 9, we saw another boat and started to troll again.
We were hooked up in about 2 minutes. About a 5lb bonie (my guess). It was super fun for the next 15 minutes which is kind of a blur. No time to grab the camera, so no pictures.
About that time we realized that there weren’t many birds and we would have to troll to find them. I also realized that the fog ws clearing there were a lot of boats around. Sort of weird to be all alone in the fog, and then in central park.
Trolling little krocodiles with bass gear (Curado 300 on 15-25lb rod) was super fun. We were getting double hookups and having a blast.
We release all of them except the ones that we eye hooked bad or would have killed any way. We bled them right away and put them on ice.
Ultimately, there weren’t many birds, but there was life. The radio chatter was pretty pathetic, but some was good. It really feels like spring is finally here. Except for the predicted cold front next week.
I grilled up some of the fillets when I got home and they were very good. They very much so beat my expectations. You have to take care of them, so they are more work than most fish to eat, but it was a good treat. My father in law loves them, so he gets a nice present.
With fuel prices at their current highs, it is good to know that we traveled over 35 nautical miles on a 6 gallon tank and it looks like there is still 1-2 gallons left.