Fishing FINattic's Adventures

7-9-2009 The Race

2009-07-14T05:45:00.002-05:00

Headed out to the race to fish the end of the ebb tide -
The fishing was hot with the first drift producing four fish on.
A nice mix of small bass and big blues were caught on diamond jigs and bucktails.
The tide was switching at 7:15 and the fishing died right off an hour before.

6-27-09 Sharking

2009-07-14T05:43:00.002-05:00

Heading out sharking today in foggy conditions.
This was the second day of the Montauk Marine Basine tourny and there were 5 other boats withing two miles of us.
One boat came close enough for us to see that the crew of this boat were jumping off of the hard top into the water!

Star Island Shark Tournament 6-19 & 6-20

2009-06-22T22:41:00.010-05:00

Fished the Star Island Shark Tournament on board the Lady Irene II - a 46' Ocean Yacht Sport Fisher owned by my buddy John.

The crew consisted on Captian John, myself, Joe, Clint, Rob and Jay.

We left around noon on Thursday and stopped at the race for some live bluefish.

It was pooring rain with the forcast threatening rough and raining conditions for days to come!

Lady Irene II

This boat was just amazing- this was my sleeping quarters!

Day 1

The first day was rough conditions, seas were recorded at 6.2ft and 7 seconds apart.

The seas were so rough we had to slow to 11 knots just to get out to the fishing grounds!

We set up in foggy, sporty conditions at the outter butterfish hole.

We managed 34 bluesharks - it was like I have never seen before with non-stop shark action.

Day 2

For the second day start there was a very nice triple engine edgewater that snuck by us as we idled out to the break wall.

The edge water got to throttle up before we did -

It was the one boat in the close pack taking off that the Lady Irene did not completly smoke right off of the line - but John was able to catch up to the triple engine boat before hitting a wall of fog and having to throttle back -

The conditions were much more enjoyable with flat seas.

A little fog was close to shore, but once we made it 25 miles out the sun came right out.

We fished 50 miles south of the point.

The kite rode was used for the first time!

Our eighth fish of the day was big blue shark that measured 8'3".

These are a money fish if they weigh 25olbs so we took the fish and headed into the scales.

This fish missed the money by 22lbs -

It was truely a great three days of fishing with the guys!

Thanks again for inviting me along!

6-17-09 Fluke

2009-06-21T13:36:00.001-05:00

Time: 3:00pm to 7:15pm
Crew: Donp, Bobbie, Tony
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Flood
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny and nice
Fish Caught: Many short fluke, one keeper fluke

6-10-09 Sharking

2009-06-21T13:31:00.002-05:00

Time: 4:45am to 4:15pm
Crew: Pat, JayW, John, Greg
Water Temp: 55.5
Tide: N/A
Wind: light
Conditions: Sunny and nice
Fish Caught: One Blue Shark

Headed out for the first shark trip of the season - on the way out in 140 feet of water we found huge packs of dog fish sunning themselves on the surface.

We pushed on to 180 foot of water and fished 17 miles south of Montauk in 55.5 degree water.

The water looked fantastic, and with nice conditions we put the lines out.

It wasnt too long before we were completely covered up in dog fish!

The dog fish made the day nearly unfishable, but still a fun time!

We managed one small blueshark before we thru the towel in at 2:00pm!

6-05-09 Stripers

2009-06-07T17:42:00.002-05:00

Time: 4:45am to 8:15am
Crew: John B
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Flood
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny and nice
Fish Caught: Five Stripers

Went back to the race this morning to find the birds still working and the fish not biting!

We did manage a few stripers but not nearly as many fish grabbing the jigs and the bucktails as I had hoped.

I believe that the fish are so honed in on the sand eels they are ignoring everything else!

6-04-09 Stripers

2009-06-07T17:31:00.005-05:00

Time: 4:45pm to 7:45pm
Crew: Pat
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Flood
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny and nice
Fish Caught: Six Bass and three bluefish

Pat and I have been waiting for a break in this rainy weather to sneak out fishing again after work!

With the sun finally shining, headed out again!

Birds were work hard, eating sand eels.

Fish were all over the surface eating the sand eels but wouldnt touch anything we thru at them.

The fishing only turned on for a few drifts, but when it did we managed doubles (twice) and Pat even caught both a bass and a blue on his diamond jig/ bucktail set up!

The fishing shut right down as quickly as it picked up.

We tried moving, and then tried eels with no luck.

6-01-09 Stripers

2009-06-07T17:21:00.003-05:00

Time:4:45pm to 7:15pm
Crew: Pat, Duane, JohnB
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Flood
Wind: 10-15knots from the south west
Conditions: Sunny and choppy
Fish Caught: 12+ stripers

Caught the last 2 hours of flood in the race.

Once we got out we started marking fish immediatly!

The fish were stacked in 120 to 160 feet of water south of the green.

The birds were working this area also.

We managed a nice time until the tide stopped with lots of stripers up to 34" being caught.

Many doubles and triples!

Here is some typical fish!

5-31-2009 Napatree

2009-06-01T04:42:00.002-05:00

Time: 8:00am to 9:30am
Crew: Me
Water Temp: Unkwown
Tide: Low
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny and nice
Fish Caught: One schooly

I figured this would be the last morning at Napatree for a little while so I headed out determined to catch a keeper - it didnt happen - only one small schooly to show for my efforts.

I did take Lyndall and Brooke out after breakfast for a short attempt, and the highlight being us being able to watch the boat next to us land a nice 36" fish!

6-30-2009 Napatree

2009-06-01T04:39:00.002-05:00

Time: 7:00pm to 8:20pm
Crew: Brooke
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Low
Wind: East 15 knots
Conditions: Windy
Fish Caught: On schooly striper

Dropped anchor at Napatree for a family weekend and took my niece out for tube-n-worm as the sun started to drop.

A little windy, and we were only able to find one small fish before heading back in to watch the sun set!

5-25-2009 Napatree

2009-06-01T04:37:00.002-05:00

Time: 9:00pm to 10:30am
Crew: Me
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: High
Wind: None
Conditions: Sunny and nice
Fish Caught: One small schooly

Tried my hand at tube and worm again - one small striper to show for my morning efforts!

5-24-2009 Napatree

2009-06-01T04:33:00.002-05:00

Time: 9:00am to 10:30am
Crew: Me!
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: High
Wind: none
Conditions: Calm
Fish Caught: Two 30" stripers

Dropped anchor friday for the annual Memorial Day weekend at Napatree -

Sunday morning head out with my new spinning rod and some sand worms to try tube and worm!

What do you know! It works! Picked up two small stripers in about for feet of water!

5-20-09 The Race

2009-05-21T21:33:00.005-05:00

Time: 5:00pm to 7:30pm
Crew: Russ
Water Temp: 52
Tide: Middle of Flood
Wind: South West 10 knots
Conditions: Sunny and nice
Fish Caught: Seven Nice Stripers to 36"'s

Went out with Russ for a quick trip after work -

I thought I would lead the post with a picture of what was in the belly of one of the 36" bass!

Full size butter fish and a 12" herring!

Fishing was great at the race.

Caught the middle of the flood with good action in 150' of water just south east of the green can.

The fish were hungry for diamond jigs and hanging close to the bottom!

Russ end up with four nice stripers and brought three over the side - letting all but two go!

No shortage of action! We fished for about two hours and had fish on most drifts!

Just a real fun time on the water!

I tried some buck tails, thinking they would imitate the small butter fish, but the diamond jig saw all of the action!

5-13-09 Stripers

2009-05-17T08:08:00.004-05:00

Time: 4:45pm to 7:30pm
Crew: Donp, JohnB, Brian
Water Temp: 48 (56 at MillStone Outflow)
Tide: Low
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny and nice
Fish Caught: Three Schooly Stripers

Fished the Millstone out flow - had a nice increase of 8 degrees in front of the outflow -

Managed three strippers between 20" to 24" all caught on soft plastics -

Lot of stripers following the lures in but not hitting!

4-11-09 Cod Fishing Stellwagen Bank

2009-05-17T08:05:00.003-05:00

Went on a charter boat "Reelentless" out of GreenHarbor Mass for cod with Tony F, JimF and family.
Met at Tony's house at 2:30am and packed into Jim's full size Ford SUV - loaded gear, coolers ect and off to Marshfield -

Arrived to the marina at 5:00am and was meet by the mate saying "Lets go! Tide is very low and we are going to get stuck if we dont leave NOW!"

Threw everything on the boat and shoved off - just made getting out of the marina as some boats were hard up leaning on their keels-

An amazingly calm ride out to Stellwagen bank -Once there we could see whales surfacing and birds diving everywhere - plus alot of other boats!

We managed a nice pick of cod in amazing spring like conditions!

Weeding thru many shorts we managed 29 keeper cod fish!

Mid day we decided to try for some haddock!

It was lock-n-load for 2 1/2 hours bringing 55 keeper haddock over the rails!

What a great day on the water!

11-17-08 End of the Season

2008-11-20T03:50:00.003-05:00

After a weekend of rain, high winds, and extreme tides I had the boat pulled!

Let the cold winter begin!

I am already looking forward to the start of next season, with some boat upgrades planed for 2009!

Have a good winter!

11-08-08 Togs

2008-11-20T03:36:00.007-05:00

Time: 8:45am to 11:45am
Crew: Donp and Jay
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Unkown
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny and nice
Fish Caught: Five togs

Headed out for what turned out to be the last trip of the season.

Jay is really taking to fishing, here is getting the bait cut up waiting for Don!

Jay is patiently waiting for Don!

We set up just south of Pine Island in 15 foot of water.

It was very slow, but Jay did manage to score a really nice fish!

We moved to a little deeper water with no luck.

Then moved over to 30 foot of water at Sarahs ledge.

Don picked up a couple of really nice 5lbers!

The boat next to us pulled up to 10lb fish so deep seemed to be the trick!

I finally managed my only keeper of the day!

11-07-08 Togs

2008-11-20T03:30:00.002-05:00

Time: 11:30 to 12:45
Crew: Mike D
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Flood
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny
Caught: None

Snuck out with Mike D for some togs during lunch - we set up just south of PineIsland in about 15 foot of water - nothing - not one bite, nibble, or anything.

11-02-08 Togs

2008-11-20T03:14:00.007-05:00

Time: 7:00am to 8:00am
Crew: DonP
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Flood
Wind: 20-30 knots from the north
Conditions: Windy and Sunny
Caught: 8 togs

I meet up with DonP and headed out at 7:00am to see if the flood tide would give us any better luck - things sure were different -First, NOAA got it wrong! It was forecasted for 5-10knot winds and we woke up to a steady 20knots with gusts nearly 30!Here is a snap shot from ledge light - we were fishing within a 1/4 mile from the light!

We left the marina to catch a nice sunrise over Pine Island.

We set up in 12 to 15 foot of water just south of Pine Island, close the passage out of the marina that is ridled with rocks.

First fish on in ten minutes!

It was very windy and cold!

Luckly we limited out in less than an hour! Largest fish to 5lbs!

11-01-08 Togs

2008-11-02T17:02:00.002-05:00

Time: 12:30pm - 4:30pm
Crew: Al, Dan
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Ebb
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny
Caught: 3 Togs

With the birth of little Tony I wasnt sure I was going to get use the boat any more this year -
He kept me awake most of Friday night, so I wasnt able to get out hunting saturday morning like I wanted.

I ended up inviting my buddy Al and Dan out for some tog fishing.

We fished the outgoing tide on Saturday with only three keepers to show for the day.

No fish on seaflower - fish were caught by PineIsland and by Ocean Beach.

10-24-08 Togs

2008-11-02T16:36:00.008-05:00

Time: 8:00am - 4:00
Crew: Rick, Russ, Deb
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Moving
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny
Caught: 6 Togs

Headed out on Ricks 30' Wellcraft for day of togging.

I meet the guys at 3 Bells marina in Niantic to find heavy frost on the docks and the boat - this was going to be a cold morning!

We set a course for the red can by Pine Island

We managed a bunch of shorts from this area-

We were able to pull one keeper from here-

We went to seaflower - an area that produced well early in the season -pulled one keeper

We then went in front of ocean beach and managed some quality fish!

These fish have some funky teeth!

10-17-08 BEST DAY OF MY LIFE

2008-10-30T17:24:00.005-05:00

Today was the best of my life - period -

My son Anthony Clarence was born at 8:03pm!

He weighted 8lbs 5oz!

Here is Tony only minutes old!

And here is my soon to be best fishing buddy!

10-12-08 Togging

2008-10-30T17:20:00.002-05:00

Time: 10:00am to 2:00pm
Crew: Jeremy, Tim
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Moving
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny and warm
Caught: 1 short

Heading out with my brother in law and Jeremy.

Set up on sea flower reef with no luck, went and anchored south of the marina with nothing, went in front of ocean beach, for nothing.

There we alot of people out and every spot had two or three boats set up on it!

10-11-08 Togging

2008-10-12T18:37:00.003-05:00

Time: 10:00am to 1:00pm
Crew: Jeremy, Duane, Bobbie
Water Temp: 62.5
Tide: Moving
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny and warm
Caught: Five night togs to 6lbs!

Was really looking forward to fishing with Bobbie again.

Since the little guy has been getting bigger, she hasnt really been fishing, but with calm seas, and a short ride to the tog grounds she was up for the fun!

We set up at SeaFlower reef, south side, in 15 foot of water and had an absolute catching togs!

Here is Bobbie with a nice keeper! Not bad for being due in less than two weeks! :D

Here is Duane with a really nice tog that we weighted out to be five pounds!

This is my personal best weighter out just shy of six pounds!

This fish actually is in the lead for my marina "Biggest Tog" contest, but I dont think it will hold!

10-10-08 Togging

2008-10-12T17:11:00.006-05:00

Time: 3:00pm to 4:30pm
Crew: Dad and Shawn
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Moving
Wind: West 5 knots
Conditions: Calm and sunny
Caught: Six black fish

Met dad and Shawn again to repeat some fun time with togs!

We set up at Sea Flower reef again with similiar results - six nice togs in an hour and then ran out of bait!

What a lot of fun!

10-08-08 Togging

2008-10-12T17:07:00.002-05:00

Time: 3:00 to 4:30
Crew: Dad and Shawn
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Moving
Wind: West 10 knots
Conditions: Calm and sunny
Caught: Six black fish

Snuck out to meet dad and Shawn for some togging!

Managed six nice togs in 15 foot of water on the south side of Sea Flower before running out of our five dozen crabs!

10-05-08 Sharking

2008-10-12T16:43:00.014-05:00

Time: 5:30am to 2:30pm
Crew: Pat, Don, Jeremy, Ralph
Water Temp: 62.0
Tide: Unkown
Wind: West 5 -10 knots (Storm came thru 15-20knots)
Conditions: Calm and nice then storm came thru bringing lots of rain
Caught: Five Blue Sharks

Headed out Sunday for some sharks.

I finally was able to convince my sister in law that her son, Jay, was old enough to come watch shark fishing!

I told her it would be a trip he wouldnt forget - well I dont think he will!

My nephew and I met up with Pat, Don P and Ralph (the owner of the boat next to me)at 5:30.

Loaded the boat and we were off.Made great time around Montauk and got to watch a fantastic sunrise!

Stopped to check out a dragger at butterfish hole, but he was just putting his nets out so we continue to Ryans Horn.

Set up shop in 62 degree water.

After a little over an hour we had our first blue shark on - what a treat for my nephew to see this great four foot shark released at the side of the boat.

He didnt want anything to do with reeling them in, but he did enjoy five bluesharks that we released.

Dolphins came around the boat for a period of time!

Jeremy manning the chum bucket!

We had a large pod of dolphins come thru our slick and stay around the boat for awhile!

Pat got some rod time in too!

Then things changed!

The skies darkened - the threats came over the radio - I kept in contact with a few people going into the storm, only heavy rain.

As the rain started coming down hard the deep bait starts to really scream on the International 50 - set up hard on the fish - full drag and he is still running!

Chase him down and start getting line on him - fought the fish for about a half hour - then the line broke - found the smoking gun - the weight chaffed the line!

I believe that this was a solid thresher - and to be honest - it would been three or four hours of tug-o-war with this fish in pouring rain.

It was about 2:00 so we headed north and came in.Still a really fun time!

10-04-08 Tog and Bluefish

2008-10-08T17:44:00.004-05:00

Time: 12:00 to 6:00pm
Crew: Pat, Mike, Jeremy
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Flood
Wind: West 15 knots
Conditions: Windy and sunny - seas 2 to 3 feet
Caught: 14 Blackfish

Headed out to the race for bluefish to be used the next day as bait - it was too rough to fish the area so we headed over to an area 1/4 mile west of SeaFlower reef.

Managed some porgies and one short black fish.

Set up in 15 foot of water 20 yards south of SeaFlower reef - this was the spot!

We had a good pick of black fish between 14 to 18 inches!

Here is Pat with a nice keeper!

We had a real fun time!

10-02-08 Tog Fishing

2008-10-08T17:41:00.002-05:00

Time: 3:00 to 6:00pm
Crew: Don P
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Moving
Wind: 20 to 25 knots from the south west
Conditions: Rough Rough Rough
Caught: None

Headed out with DonP - it was really too windy to fish -

Set up by PineIsland - water was murky - went for shelter in front of NewLondon - no luck at all

10-01-08 Tog Opener

2008-10-02T05:07:00.002-05:00

Time: 4:30 to 6:30
Crew: Mike D
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Slack at 6:00
Wind: West about 10 knots
Conditions: sunny
Caught: None

Headed out with MikeD for the tog opener after work.

It was supposed to be a rainy day, but the sun had been out all day and I couldnt resist.

Picked up two dozen crabs and went to Sara's Ledge - tide was dying quickly and only a small sea bass to show.

Went in front of ocean beach with no luck either. Tide was not moving at all.

Planning on hitting the black fish hard over the next few days!

9-28-08 Looking for Blues

2008-10-02T05:03:00.002-05:00

Time: 11:00 to 12:30
Crew: Me
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Slack
Wind: None
Conditions: Overcast w/ slight rain
Caught: 1 bunker

Today was the day of the baby shower, and I was out killing time.

Decided to take the boat out and look for top water action.

It was slack when I got to the race with no action at all.

Headed up the Thames River to bridge looking for bunker, none.

Decided to head into the marina - wouldnt you know it - bunker!

Snagged on and waited with the hopes that bass of blues would be under, nope.

Put the boat away and meet the boys for lunch.

9-21-08 Bass/Blues Porgies

2008-09-30T18:22:00.002-05:00

Time: 5:00am to 9:30am
Crew: Don
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Unkown
Wind: None
Conditions: Calm
Caught: 2 stripers, couple bluefish, limit of porgies

Meet DonP for a morning of fishing on the old Trophy.
We first slung some eels before sunup for a one keeper striper before the blues started destroying the bait.

Decided to head to a different spot and anchor up for some porgies.

I forgot how much fun I had catching porgies.

What a blast!

We managed to limit out of porgies, with some really big ones being caught!

The Edge

2008-09-29T18:56:00.005-05:00

Time: 1:30pm to 2:00pm the next day
Crew: John, Jay, Clint, John
Water Temp: 69 to 72
Tide: All
Wind: 15knots SE
Conditions: A little bouncy and rainy at the edge
Caught: 1 Yellow, 12 Mahi, 2 Albies, 2 Bluesharks

Hit the edge on John's 46 Ocean. What a nice ride. Made good time to the tails in calm conditions.

Once there is was a little over cast.

The mahi were loaded onto the pots and made for some real fun!

We picked up a really nice Yellow!

And more nice mahi!

Settled in for the over night with wind blowing pretty good. We drifted from 69 to 72 degree water.

Two blue sharks were the only fish caught on the night bite.

Squid and jelly fish were all over the place.

Put the spread out first thing and quickly found acres of dolphin!

It began to become over cast and rain.

It wasnt long until we were covered up with Albies.

Two fish stayed on and we went 2/2 on nice fat albies.

No other knock downs, but we did come across a nice white marlin slashing bait, but he wasnt interested in anything in our spread!

We flew home at 30 knots, finding the seas flat and sun shining by the time we got the horns.

9-11 to 9-12 The Edge

2008-09-29T18:38:00.005-05:00

Time: 9:00am to 4:30pm the next day
Crew: Greg, Ernie, Todd
Water Temp: 69
Tide: All
Wind: South West 10-15 knots
Conditions: Sunny - Cold - Choppy
Caught: 4 Albies and 1 Yellow

Meet Greg, Ernie and Todd at Crockers to head out for an overnighter on Greg's 25' Parker.

I have been fishing offshore with Greg for a few years now, and this is my 3rd or 4th offshore trip with Todd - but Ernie was new - and I am always cautious with a new crew member - but he jumped right in before we even cleared the tressel to help out with getting things ready!
(Ernie you are welcome on my boat anytime!)

The seas were alittle sloppy, but not really a big deal.

We decided to put lines in 4 miles north of the tails - this proved to be a good desicion since we had our first knock down pretty quickly.

None of the fish seamed to be schooled - I dont think we had one double knock down!

With the sun setting, and one mahi and one albacore in the box I was personaly satisified with the trip.

I wasnt expecting much from the over nighter, and was hoping for a sword or shark - but I will take a nice fat albie! This guy took a sardine 75 feet down -

We did have a nice run off on the sword rod - nearly got spooled and then the line broke.

One note - boy was it cold out there!

I dont ever remember being so cold on an overnighter - Oh well

I was really happy with the outcome! Went home with more than enough tuna!

I ate about a pound of sushi with my buddy - then out to dinner.

When my head finally hit the pillow at 9pm I slept a solid 12 hours!

A really fun time with Todd, Ernie and Greg!

9-04-08 The Race

2008-09-07T17:29:00.002-05:00

Time: 4:30pm to 7:30pm
Crew: Mike D, John K, Shawn
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Ebb
Wind: South 10 knots
Conditions: Sunny and calm
Caught: Over two dozen bluefish on top water

Took the guys from work out again.

Found the bluefish pretty quickly and had a blast catching them on top water.

They were eating 3" to 4" minnows.

This is a great video of teasing the fish to bite!

9-03-08 The Race

2008-09-07T17:15:00.007-05:00

Time: 4:30pm to 7:30pm
Crew: John, Andy, Brooke, Dave
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Ebb
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny and calm
Caught: Over two dozen bluefish on top water

Hit the race after work to catch some shark bait for John and to try and put Andy and the kids on some fishing.

Nobody was disapointed!

Quickly after arriving the race the fish started to cooperate - nearly jumping into the boat.

Nearly every drift we had two or three fish on.

The kids really had a great time, each with at least a half dozen bluefish under belts from this trip!

Here is Brooke with a nice bluefish!

Here are the kids checking out the fish in the cooler!

9-01-08 The Race

2008-09-07T17:07:00.005-05:00

Time: 9:00pm to 11:30pm
Crew: Bill
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Flood
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Sunny and calm
Caught: Over a dozen bluefish on top water

Hit the race with my nephew Bill.

I was hoping to come across the top water action from the week before, and we found the fish, but for the first hour they were not feeding on the top.

Then at about 10:30 they came up and feed for about half an hour, resulting in us both catching top water fish.

The fish were eating 3" to 4" bait fish.

8-30-08 Sharking

2008-09-07T16:55:00.007-05:00

Time: 5:00am to 3:30pm
Crew: Pat, Rich, Bob, John
Water Temp: 65 to 70
Tide: All
Wind: South 10 knots
Conditions: Sunny and a little bumpy
Caught: Two blue sharks

Headed out sharking fishing with Pat, Rich, Bob and John.

Had some nice bluefish blood from Thursdays trip, but we still stoped at the race looking to pick up a few live blue fish - due to failing gear we left there with two live bluefish.

I was hoping to stay close and fish the acid barge, so we set up there. Within 10 minutes all of the baits were robbed by dog fish.

We headed south west for about 5 miles placing us on the warm side of a 5 degree temperature break. People were catching tuna right in our slick.

Set the rods out and it was about two hours until the first rod off on a live bluefish.

Let the fish run for awhile and set the hook only to end up with a chaffed, broken line. We think the fish got caught up in the line while he was running with the fish.

We accidently killed the second live bluefish with a hook thru the brain.

Pat had some fun catching and disecting dog fish.

This is an egg sack from one of the prego dogfish.

We tried everything and onlhy managed two blue sharks.

The rain started to come in so we called it quits.

8-28-08 The Race

2008-09-02T18:02:00.002-05:00

Time: 4:30pm to 7:30pm
Crew: Mike D, John K, Shawn
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Flood
Wind: South 10 knots
Conditions: Sunny and calm
Caught: Over a dozen bluefish on top water

Took the guys from work out for some bluefish action, and to get some shark bait for weekend!

The birds were working top water for acers and acers - what a great time -

I tried fly fishing but couldnt get a hook up.

John was able to get three hookups on the fly rod, and land one of the fish.

The fish were feasting on small 3" long squid!

Fished for a few hours and left with plenty of bait for sharking, blood for chum, and bluefish for smoking!

8-20 to 8-21 The Edge

2008-09-02T17:39:00.006-05:00

Time: 8:30am to 1:30pm
Crew: John, Brian, Dan, Jay
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: All
Wind: South 10 knots
Conditions: Sunny - a little rough day one, flat calm day 2
Caught: 4 Yellow Fin (1 Short), wahoo, hammer head shrk.
Had the great opportunity to head out on the maiden voyage of the new “Lady Irene”

A beautiful 46’ Ocean Yatch fishing machine!

Loaded the boat with food and gear, headed out about 8:30am cruising a solid 28 knots to the tails. About 10 miles before the edge we put out the gear and quickly picked up this nice wahoo!

It took a deep running bonita lure - John's first fish on his new boat! What a catch!

Trolled for the rest of the day with the only action being skip jack.

As the sun started to set we got covered up in skip jack and the deep bonita lure went off again, turned out to be a yellow fin that was feeding on the skip jack.

Set up for the night south of the dip and drifted for the evening.

Slow night with the shark rod going off at 1am - turned out to be a really cool hammer head.

Had a runoff at 2am and popped the leader on a decent yellow fin at the boat.

Another runoff at 3am resulted in a boated small yellow fin.

Trolled the next morning for hours with no knock downs at all.

The edge is surprising slow right now - we did better than most!

Still a great time on the water!

8-17-08 Shark Fishing

2008-09-02T17:09:00.004-05:00

Time: 5:00 am to 3:30pm
Crew: Pat,Tim, Shawn, Duane
Water Temp: 68
Tide: Moving
Wind: South 10 knots
Conditions: Sunny and calm
Caught: One blue shark

Headed out with Pat, his buddy, Duane and a co-worker Shawn.

The reports have not been good and with the calms seas that are forcasted I knew there would be a ton of people out there trolling for bluefin.

This prompted me to pick a no-name piece of water - with Coxes Ledge at 70 degrees and tuna ridge at 75 degrees I picked the body of water right in between.

Set up shop at 8am - by 10am our first run off is on the only live bluefish. It resulted in no hook up a dead bluefish.

Another run off and ended with a broken line WTF!!!!

Waited four more hours with a solid hook up coming at 2pm. My co-worker was able to bring in his first shark ever - a nice blue shark! A real treat for a first time sharker!

Stayed another hour - at the finishing bell the deep bait peels out line only to of missed the two hooks!

My buddy Rick did pick up a small mako at the fingers!

8-7-08 Porgy Fishing

2008-08-26T19:58:00.003-05:00

Time: 4:30pm to 6:30pm
Crew: Frank and his two boy
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Moving
Wind: South 10 knots
Conditions: Sunny w/ Storms
Caught: Plenty of Porgies

Took Frank and his two boys porgy/fluke fishing.The fluke were not co-operating, but once they got the nack of hooking the porgies they pretty much had non-stop porgie action.It was a great time by all!

8-01-08 to 8-02-08

2008-08-26T19:48:00.005-05:00

Time: 2pm Friday to 5pm Saturday
Crew: Pat, Harrison, Greg,Tim
Water Temp: 78.0
Tide: All
Wind: South West
Conditions: Day 1 Sunny and calm Day 2 Bumpy w/ Storms
Caught: Nice Yellowfin and 4 mahi

Well folks, we didn’t slay them out there, but we did bring home fish and have fun!I meet Greg, Harrison, Tim (recommended by Zyg) and my nephew Pat at the marina at 1:30 in the after noon - loaded the bait locker with three flats of butter fish (WOW - $35 a flat now) a flat of sardines, a flat of mackerel, a bucket of chum and four huge squid.

Filled the fish locker with ice, and after a quick VST fuel filter change on the port motor we were ready to go. (I started noticing a little hesitation in the motor coming in last week so it is better to be safe than sorry - I like the twins to behave when getting ready to run 250+ miles!)

Left the marina and pointed the bow towards Montauk - five big guys, full of bait, 250 gallons of fuel, ice, boy was she heavy - forcing us to run at only about 28 mph.

The seas were nice with only a little bounce now and again as we made our way to the edge – tried for Mahi about 40 miles out and found one pot swarming with mahi.

Only one fish was aggressive enough to take something in our spread, but if we had the time to stop and chunk we could have had a bunch.

We put the full spread out in about 300 foot of water and headed to the east side of the dip.

As the sun approached the horizon the spread got attacked by skip jack’s – a good fire drill to show Tim how landing tuna could be.

Another attacked by the skip jack’s right before sundown was the only action we saw on the evening troll.Set up past the dip in about 600 foot of water for the night.

The wind was blowing and pushing the boat a solid 1 mph.

What a nice night with clear skies and stars as far as the eye could see.

We set out two sword rods – one at 200’ and one at 50’ – two tuna rods and a shark rod.

There was good life around the boat all night, with live squid being caught for tuna baits.

A small mako charging into the slick about 2am gave us some hope – then the 50’ sword bait goes off, hook is set and just out of sight we hear crash as the suspect mako flies out of the water, but it was over as quickly as it began with the line going slack.

Chatter on the radio bolstered confidence that it wasn’t just us, nobody was picking up fish up on the chunk.

Right as we are reeling in the rods for the night a small fish darts into the slick, Greg puts out his 16VSX with a jig and is rewarded with a nice fight from a small yellow – fish is only 24 inches so it is released, but still fun.

Put the trolling spread out and head off the edge with hopes of some big eye.

At about 6:30 we get covered up by yellow fin – the gas is hit a couple of times with about five rods getting bends in them.

Unfortunately nearly all of the fish came unbuttoned before the rod was even taken out of the holder, with only one rod still peeling line it was given to Patrick to fight.

After a nice battle we boat this nice yellow – I thought this was a nice large fish and decided to have it weighed – would anyone care to guess the weight – as we were all shocked with the reading on the scale!

That was it for action – we hit the area hard trolling from 1000 feet to 300 feet and back again, working the dip, south of the dip and to the east.

Nothing at all.Picked up lines and headed north to try our action in 250’ of water.

We were rewarded with a few more mahi off of the pots, but that is it.

Made good time home in flat seas until we rounded Montauk and we could see the strong storm clouds.

By the time we got the race we were in the storm – it sucked – heavy rain, strong winds – but with three miles to get home we made due at 15knots.

Of course the rain stopped once we got the marina.

It was a really fun time on the water, and to be honest, with the reports and conditions out there, I am happy with one nice solid yellow as some people weren’t getting anything.

There was some talk of a big eye bite the day before, but for the most part the fish have not been co-operating.
_________________________

Thames River Shark Tourney

2008-08-03T18:47:00.015-05:00

Time: 4am to 5pm
Crew: Don, Jim and Jeff
Water Temp: 72.0
Tide: All
Wind: South West
Conditions: Day 1 Sunny and calm Day 2 Bumpy w/ Storms

Caught: Thresher (lost), Dusky, mako, Blueshark

Headed out with JimF, JeffF and DonP.

This was a seasoned crew that I have fished with in the past.

I left the dock very comfortable with this crew and very positive that if given the opportunity to take a large fish, it would be done safely.

Day One

Headed out at 4am and pointed the boat east.

We made good time past the acid barge, past the gully to a no named spot of water with a good temp break.

Set lines out that included a deep bait, a thirty foot bait, a sixty foot bait and a live blue fish.

After two hours of watching the balloons the live bait reel starts to scream – the hook is set and the battle is on.

This is a good fish, but beatable (not like last weeks monster that was fought for 7 ½ hours at OakBluffs).

We take turns on the fish - First Jim

Then Don (No Picture)

Then me!

After two hours of doing everything right we catch a glimpse of the fish and it appears to have strips on the tip of its tail – it then runs out 150 feet of line, we debate but think it might be a tiger shark (not weighable, waste of time) but we aren’t sure.

We now want to indentify the fish, so we switch out the rod man. Fitted with a bucket harness Jeff is able to apply an enormous amount of pressure to the fish.

For over an hour we work to get the fish back up, thumbing the reel to keep this “waste of time fish” from taking any more line.

As a larger shape appears under the boat we quickly realize that the striped tip we saw before was just the tip of a huge thresher’s tail, easily 400 lbs….

This fish is now doing death circles 20 feet below the boat, every time getting a few more inches, the leader is four feet – three feet – two feet – one foot – FOUR INCHES – one swipe of the fishes enormous tail rips out 10 foot of line, thumb on the spool – line breaks (there is no forgiveness in 10 foot of 80lb mono)

We are disappointed to say the least, but it happens.

Lines back out and be pick up either a dusky or a brown shark (cant quite tell the difference)

Right at closing time we picked up a short Mako.

Day Two

Headed back to the same general area and set up shop.

Some thunder clouds could be see in the distance as we started the slick.

A nice run off on the live bluefish resulted in a broken line (we thought maybe the fish got tail wrapped in the line)

The second run off resulted in the line breaking again.

These two break offs were on the same thresher rod from the day before, not sure if the line was permanently damaged, but we took the rod out of commission.

Fishing the rest of the day was slow, had mahi in the slick and managed to catch a nice bull mahi on a shark rig – back out he went as a live bait.

Strong thunder storms were coming so we throttled up to New Harbor Block –waited out an amazing storm and then flew home.

This is the fast I have driven this boat, a solid 36 mph home!

It didn’t take long to get to the new marina.Left the boat dirty and went home.

It was a real fun time, but I really want to weight a fish.

7-25-08 The Race

2008-08-03T18:37:00.003-05:00

Time: 1:30am to 4:30pm
Crew: John
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Flood
Wind: Unkown
Conditions: Sunny and calm
Caught: Ten Bluefish

In preperation for the Thames River Shark Tourney I headed out with John to catch some bait!

What a fun time! We got out the the race and the birds were working hard with fish pushing the bait right to the surface!

Most of the bluefish were caught on top water poppers!

Three were kept alive to be used as live bait with the rest going into a cooler for shark bait!

7-22-08 Fluke

2008-08-03T18:34:00.001-05:00

Time: 4:30m to 7:30pm
Crew: Bill and his grandson
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Unkown
Wind: Unkown
Conditions: Sunny and calm
Caught: Two short fluke

Took Bill's grandson out fishing for fluke.

Went to Vixan's Ledge with a short quickly being hooked.

Handing the rod off to his grandson resulted in his fish caught fish!

Move over by seaflower reef and the little guy was able to pick up another short all on his own!

Bill said all he was talking about for days was catching the fish!

I am glad I could of been a part of the little one's memory!

7-19-08 and 7-20-08 Oak Bluffs Tourney

2008-07-28T18:51:00.007-05:00

Fished the Oak Bluffs Tourney on my buddies John's 34' Luhrs - "Lady Irene".
We left thursday to OakBluffs in the Vineyard with Brian, Jay, John, Rob and myself on board.
Nice flat seas out made for a fun trip with much anticipation of the upcoming tourny!

This is the entrance to the harbor!

This is the boat we fished the two day tournment on!

The wifes and kids took the high speed ferry over and were waiting for our arrival!

Day 1

Woke up at 3am and meet the guys at the boat - off we went south west of the island.

Set up shop in some really nice looking water.

There is not much to say - the deep bait went off at 8am - this was on a 80W reel with 130 lb test - I some how got stuck with the rod and for the next 7 1/2 hours played tug of way with an enourmous shark - this fish drug us 13.6 miles!!!! Our only conclusion is that it was either a great white, hammer head, or a large tiger shark.

Day 2

Boy was it a rough day!

The boat was really rocking and there was a small craft advisory for the area.

At about 10:30 a 70" mako took the bluefish rack and we decided to take him for the dinner table.

He was not a weighable fish since he didnt meet the 200lb minimum weight, but he was still good eating!

What a fun long weekend! Cant wait to do it again!

7-11-08 to 7-12-08 The Edge

2008-07-22T19:58:00.007-05:00

Time: 2:30pm to 4:30pm (OverNight)
Crew: Pat, John, Duan, Dave, Todd
Water Temp: 78.5
Tide: Unkown
Wind: South 5 Knots
Conditions: Sunny and 2 - 3 foot seas (a few larger rollers)
Caught: 7 Yellow Fin and 10 Mahi

I have been watching for a weather window and had a crew lined up to head out on my boat.

Dave from my new marina keeps his boat a few slips down and wanted to go out, and offered to take us in his 33 Grady Express.

It was a no brainer so my nephew Pat, buddy Duane, and John (toprod) were ready and geared up to go!

A last minute drop out (litterly hours before we were going to leave) opened up a spot for Todd (HookemHemm).

We loaded up the Grady at 2pm Friday, gased up and pointed south.Hit some pots on the way with no luck.

Put the spread out for the evening troll and watched the sun go down.

No luck on the evening troll so we set up to sword and shark east of the Dip.

We had squid and other life around the boat all night, but the only fish on was a sluggish blue shark.

Morning troll we decided to move to a different area a few miles away.

It wasnt long until we saw life again and bait fish jumping so we put the spread in.

At 7am we had a double knock down leading to two nice fish in the boat!

This is Todd and John with the first two fish!Notice Todd's smile with his first tuna ever!!!!

We put the spread back out and it wasnt long until another knock down, tapping the gas a few times turned it from one to three rods screaming.

Some great work by the crew and these three made for five in the box!

We had fish chasing bait out of the water as we were gaffing these fish!

Trolled to the west side of the tails and managed two yellows, one of these was a really really nice fish that Pat got to catch.

I didnt snap a picture but I hope someone else did.

We managed ten mahi off of pots while we were out there!

It was a great trip and that 33 Express is one comfortable ride!

7-06-08 The Race

2008-07-22T19:50:00.003-05:00

Time: 7:30am to 11:30pm
Crew: Greg, Deidre, Jay, Bill
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: End of Ebb then flood
Wind: Unkown
Conditions: Sunny and calm
Caught: Two striped bass

Took Greg, Jay, Deidre and Bill out for some bass and blue action. We headed to the race were I botched the tide and got there right before slack! The bluefish action was none, and the bass was limited to only two fish.

Here is Jay with his first striper ever!

Here is Bill with the only keeper fish of the day, but we let it go to grow a little bigger!

6-25-08 Sharking

2008-06-28T06:49:00.012-05:00

Time: 4:30am to 4:30pm
Crew: Pat, Russ, Rick
Water Temp: 64.5
Tide: Unkown
Wind: North West 10-15 knots
Conditions: Sunny and 3 - 4 foot seas
Caught: 66" Mako, 5 Blue Sharks

We had another great day aboard the Fishing FINattic today.

Headed out with Russ (RV6), his friend Rirck and my nephew Pat.

I had meet Russ last year when we won the Capt Hoop fishing trip raffle.

We had a great time down at Hoops together and have been planning to get out sharking/tuna this year, possibly on Ricks boat – but mechnically issues with his boat lead to using mine.

We meet down at the marina at 4:30 and quickly shoved off.

Stopped at the race for fresh bluefish – a big thanks to Carly for finding the school of fish for me – both rods with umbrella rigs going off with two and three bass and/or blues on each pass.

Typical bait harvesting - stripers were released and bluefish kept alive!

Some of the bluefish were used to make a special chum mixture!

Once we got out in some bumpy seas we set up shop - putting out four lines, one was a live bluefish!

Rick actually got bit BY THE BAIT!!!!

By this time the boat is really rocking as we are putting out baits.

I am so weak from seas sickness I can only get the live blue, a short bait and middle bait out.

It usually takes a few good sporty days until I get my sea legs.

After about an hour I ended up added some special sauce to the slick – “I don’t remember eating that” I recall saying out loud.

It isn’t too long and the live bluefish rod goes off – “A tail was slapping the balloon” the crew tells me bringing me strait back into the action.

The boat is started before the hook is even set.

We set the hook hard and Rick takes the rod and does a heck of a job with first ever shark.

After about 15 minutes the line is going strait away from the boat fast “LOOK LOOK LOOK HE’S GOING TO JUMP”.

We all get to see this five and half foot shark fly completely out of the water.

“Mako – Perfect Size” I think to myself!

We get the shark along side of the boat and Pat tries his hand at gaffing, a swing and miss, re rigg and he tries again, strike two, he re-riggs and goes for a third time with perfect accuracy.

A quick tail rope and we have our fish!

The fish is dragged behind the boat to be sure that he is dead!

We went back and reset out slick catching 5 more blue sharks.

We trolled back for about an hour without any knock downs.

I call this picture "Smile!"

Just a great day on the water!!!!

6-21-08 Sharking

2008-06-22T14:50:00.011-05:00

Time: 4:00am to 4:30pm
Crew: Greg, Chris and John
Water Temp: 64.5
Tide: Unkown
Wind: South West 5-10 knots
Conditions: Sunny and 2 - 3 foot seas
Caught: 214 Thresher, 10 Blue Sharks

When I go shark fishing I often tell the crew as we are heading out "Today could be a day you will never forget" , we had one of those today.

Met up with Greg, Chris and John a little after 4am and I was delighted to see the dock at my new marina was alive with activity.

The old marina we would of been mouse like quite loading the boat, this marina there was two dozen people up and walking around getting ready to go fishing!

My intention was to do some trolling for some bluefin and try to find a good spot for sharking – I knew were I wanted to go, just didn’t know if someone was going to beat me to it or if there would be any life in the area!

Headed out and it was a little bit choppy so I kept the speed down to a comfortable 25mph cruise, rounded Montauk and pointed the boat south and was able to increase to a normal cruise of 30 mph.

There was a layer of clouds so we didn’t catch that early morning sunrise, but the clouds quickly burned off.

Put the tuna spread in once we hit 64 degree water.
Got the lines all set up and then was treated to a pod of dolphins playing in front of the boat.

Trolled for about an hour making our way to the area I wanted to fish and was really happy to only barely be able to see one boat miles off to the west.

The water color had also improved quite a bit over the four mile trolling.

Not perfect water, but really good.

We set up four baits, one at the thermocline, one at 60 feet, one 30 feet and a pitch bait right under the boat.

I was anxious to try out my new Penn International 30’s that I had just bought from J&B a few days earlier.

A little over an hour into the drift the 30 foot rods goes off and we quickly bring in a small blueshark.

For the next four hours we have a steady time with blue sharks as we slide down from 200’ to 230’ of water, just the drift I wanted.

Sometime shortly after lunch the close international 30 starts to really scream.

Greg is already fighting a blueshark but this new fish is taking line fast.

The hook is set hard and the fish makes a run on the surface strait away from the boat.

“This is a nice fish” I hear someone say!

“Jump! JUMP! JUMP!” someone (maybe me) screams.

Greg has perfect timing, releasing his blueshark just as this mystery fish dives deep, really putting the 60 lb line to the test!

Chris is just doing a great job with the rod and the boat is already running as we work to keep the fish positioned in the back corner.

After half an hour of tug-a-war -

"We lost it” Chris says as the line goes slack –

“REEL REEL REEL” we all yell and he cranks fast – fish is still on but coming up fast….

The fish skirts across the top of water from starboard to port in a matter of seconds, tail slapping out of the water confirming what we all suspected, a thresher.

We are then treated to witness this majestic fish fly completely out of the water about 100 yards off the back of the boat!

We had discussed how we would handle a keeper shark early on and we all get into position.

John does a great job handling the boat, Chris is playing the rod man part perfectly, Greg grabs the leader and brings it to me like a pro, and I hit the fish with the fly gaff, the fish rolls, and the gaff pops out?????

Quickly reset and hit him again, again he rolls and it pops out??!??!?!?!?

“Don’t screw this up now” I am thinking to my self, one more time I quickly re-rig the fly gaff and hit him, he rolls, and buries the hook deep inside.

A quick tail rope and it is game over.

Drag the fish backwards for a while and then up and over the side!

Cheers from all of us! The fish measures out at 72” and we place our bets on the weight.

Flew in at 32 mph is some very nice rolling following seas!

A quick call to the new marina confirms that they have a scale that goes to 500lbs.

The fish weighted in at 214 lbs.

It was just a great day for all four of us! We gave steaks to the crew that helped us unload the fish and to HookemHemm who recommend the marina. I think it made a good day for them too!!!

This fish took a long skinny bluefish fillet set about 30 feet below the surface. We were about 5 miles west of the horns.

6-19-08 Bass and Blues

2008-06-22T14:24:00.011-05:00

Time: 4:30pm to 9:30pm
Crew:Pat, Shawn and Katie
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Ebb and then Flood
Wind: West 5-10 knots
Conditions: Sunny and calm
Caught: 3 Bass 29" to 38", 5 Bluefish

Decided to head to the race right after work to get some bluefish for saturdays shark trip.

Had a quick bite to eat at the marina, picked up some eels, and left for a highly anticipated eel fishing evening.

We were marking fish pretty quickly.

And it wasnt long until the first bluefish came over the sides!

After a few blues are caught the tide goes slack and I manage to hook this guy!

The tide starts to move into flood and we tried wire lining with only one bluefish to show.

Switched to eels and just about the last drift we boat this nice 38" striper!

And in the very last drift Shawn nails his first keeper of the day!

All fish before sundown were caught on diamond jigs and after sundown on eels.

6-14-08 Fly Fishing

2008-06-22T14:20:00.002-05:00

Time: 7:30am to 9:30am
Crew: Me and Bobbie
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Ebb
Wind: None
Conditions: Sunny
Caught: None

I tried fly fishing again with no luck.
I am getting a little better at casting!
Maybe next time!

6-06-08 to 6-08-08

2008-06-09T19:05:00.008-05:00

Head out for a long weekend with Bobbie and Rocky.
Left Pine Island marina after some morning rain, the weather was overcast, but the forcast promised 90 degree days ahead.

We were heading to Napatree for the weekend, but stopped off in front of Misqumicut to try for at least one keeper fluke for dinner.

After a few drifts and Bobbie releasing two shorts we manager a keeper for the "Stuffed Fluke" dinner and to Napatree we went.

The next morning we were completely fogged in. Almost needed radar to dingy the dog to shore to use the bathroom!

Tried some fly fishing both mornings without even a hit to show for it! I am getting better at casting!

I really liked this blue herring fly!

We rafted up with The Great Debate, Mystic Pearl, JanieO and Greg in his 28 carver.

Managed to sneak out fluking with Bobbie, Dad, Wes and Greg. A few shorts were caught but no keepers.

We did come across this dead two point buck floating in the water. I have never seen that before!

Bobbie and I fell asleep sunday and woke up around 4:30 to a significant storm warning.

It was too late to run to NewLondon so we tighten out lines to weather the storm!

Please note the small boat in the middle in the picture below.

The seas and wind really picked up!

Press play on the video!

The green sailboat in the picture above drug anchor and got jambed between JanieO and Gregs boat. Greg cut his anchor line and dock lines and drifted away from the sailboat.

The sailboat was then stuck hitting JanieO. Dad cut his anchor line to try to work to minimize damage caused by the sail boat. After a few solid hits between the sailboat and JanieO, along with much fending off the sail boat pasted by.

Here the boat is behind us, unfortunaly Greg was motoring around and got the anchor line stuck in both of his props, killing his motors.

Another anchor line was ran out to him, and once the storm stoped the props untangled.

We all headed home and made if back before sunset!

5-29-08 Bass and Blues

2008-05-31T17:14:00.009-05:00

Time: 7:30am to 10:30am
Crew: Dad and Duane
Water Temp: 52.5
Tide: Ebb
Wind: West 5-10knots
Conditions: Sunnt
Caught: 1 34" bass, 1 short bass, 5 bluefish

I was really itching to get some fishing time in, and thursday morning before work present the perfect weather/wind/tide combo so a quick call to dad and Duane and we were ready to go!

Meet at the marina at 7:15 and quickly pushed off.

Arrived at the race with the tide just starting to move.

After a few drifts picked up a just short striper.

A steady pick of bluefish were caught on diamond jigs along with a nice double that included a striper and a bluefish!

It was just what I needed - a nice morning on the water!

5-25-08 Fluking

2008-05-31T17:08:00.005-05:00

Time: 11:00am to 12:30pm
Crew: Bobbie, Mom, Dad, Wes
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Flood
Wind: Calm to 15knots southwest
Conditions: Sunny
Caught: 1 Short Fluke and 3 skate

Headed out to the "Pink House" in front of Misqumicut. Russ James had just picked up a nice 30" fluke the day before, and the reports have been good in this area.

First drift I hook into a nice fluke that measure 19.75" - to short for the 20" minimum in RI.

A few more drifts with only skates to show then the wind really kicks up and it become cold.

We shoot back around the point and drop anchor to continue out nice weekend.

This is the sunset that night!

5-24-08 Fluke

2008-05-31T17:05:00.001-05:00

Time: 9:00am to 11:00am
Crew: Bobbie
Water Temp: 52.5
Tide: Unkown
Wind: 10 knots south west
Conditions: Sunny and windy
Caught: None

Tried to catch some fluke on the way to Napatree for our anniversary weekend.
Drifted by Vixans Ledge and then north of the Dumplings with no luck at all.
Thru the towel in after a few hours and made way for our weekend get away.

5-18-08 Bass and Blues

2008-05-31T16:54:00.007-05:00

Time: 7:30am to 11:00am
Crew: Bobbie and Dad
Water Temp: 52
Tide: Flood
Wind: None
Conditions: Sunny and high 60's
Caught: 1 Bluefish

Headout with Dad and Bobbie with high hopes of hitting the race for some bass and blues action.
Meet early and everyone enjoyed coffee on the smooth ride out.

We were marking fish, but had trouble getting them to bite. Other reports indicated the fish were biting, but we had trouble getting anything to come together.

We managed one bluefish on a diamond jig for our efforts.
He came home for shark bait!

4-24-08 Tog

2008-04-26T07:22:00.006-05:00

Time:4:30pm to 7:30pm
Crew: Tim, Pat, DonP, Shawn
Water Temp: 51.5
Tide: Ebb
Wind: North 15 knots
Conditions: Sunny and High 60's
Caught: 2 Cunners

Headed out after work for a quick trip and try for some Tog.

Was hoping to bounce around the rocks in front of Ocean Beach, but the fixed GPS was still not working so I found us at Sarah's Ledge again.

No luck except for some cunners.

Had a fantastic view of the sun setting over the light house.

4-19-08 Tog & Striper Fishing

2008-04-20T07:33:00.007-05:00

Time:7:00am to 11:30am
Crew: Tim, Bobbie, DonP
Water Temp: 48.0 @ 7am - 54.0 @ 11:00am
Tide: Ebb
Wind: South 5 knots
Conditions: Sunny and low 70's
Caught: 5 schoolie stripers

Loaded the boat with fishing gear for the first trip of the season.
Bobbie and I meet DonP down at the new marina for 7am.
What a fantastic morning, headed to Sarah's Ledge to try for tog.
My GPS was not working so I couldnt venture to other possible tog areas.

We drowned some worms and clams with no luck, but still was really nice!

Moved to the mouth of the river and got the skunk off the boat with Don bringing this nice crab over the rail.

We quickly dicussed aborting the tog/flounder effort for a trip up the Thames to a location that usually holds schoolie tripers.
Flew up the river right next to the old marina and put some lines out to troll and find the school.

We quickly found the school surfacing with another CTF'er already taking advantage.

We had some good schoolie action for about an hour.

The stripers were caught on white lead heads and white/red swimming lures. What temp was 55 in front of Hortons Cove.

4-15-08 Let the Season Begin

2008-04-15T17:56:00.005-05:00

I got a call from the marina today.

"Tim - This is Galesferry marina, we have a problem"
"You boat is on the Sling and needs to go in"

Well, this wasnt a problem, 15 minutes later I am at the helm as she is being lowered into the salt!

I have been trying to get in the water since last week!

Took her out for a spin and all systems running great!

LET THE SEASON BEGIN!

Hope to get out for some stripers and black fish this weekend!!!!

New Home for Fishing FINattic

2008-02-10T09:49:00.000-05:00

After many years up the Thames river at Galesferry marina, FishingFINattic has found a new place to call home.

I decided that as gas approached $4 per gallon, it was starting make sense to pay the extra money and put my boat down closer to the fishing grounds.

I had narrowed it down to two marinas; Burr's in NewLondon or PineIsland in Groton.

We spent some time at both marinas yesterday.

We sat on the pier at Burr's and watched the ferries pass. I really think the rock pile offers unique protection from the ferry wakes as I did not see any rocking from the slow passing ferries. I have to say that some other larger boats probally wont slow down as much, and could cause some shaking, but I didnt see any. We walked the neighbor hood and looked at the local reasturants. I could certianly see parking becoming an issue if I was meeting 5 guys (with 5 cars) to head out for a two day trip. Other than parking, the marina would of fit the bill.

We went to PineIsland, checked out the marina, plenty of parking, excluded site, close promity to the fishing grounds, sheltered, bait shop on site, yamaha service department. It almost became a no brainer.

We chose PineIsland. This marina is 1.5 miles from Ledge light, 7 miles from the race, 22.5 miles from Montauk point and 3 miles from my work.

I could actually leave work @ 4:30, hit the on site bait shop to pick up eels and have the lines wet at the race by 5:00pm.

Here is the marina location:

The slip location is great with a strait shot to sound!

This is the view from the pier!

One of the things I am going to miss is being in the same marina with my parents and my brother. My brother is staying at Galesferry and my dad is going to Burr's.

2007 Offshore ReCap

2007-12-23T17:33:00.000-05:00

It is two days before Christmas, hunting season is winding down and I am missing the boat already. Stopped down at the marina today to just visit and make sure she was sleeping nicely.

I have put together a video of offshore trips that were memorable to me.

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

See everyone in the 2008 season!

11-04-07 Tog Fishing

2007-11-04T16:18:00.000-05:00

Time:11:00am to 1:30pm
Crew: Tim, John, DonP
Water Temp: 55.0
Tide: Flood
Wind: 10 knots
Wind: North West
Conditions: Sunny, hurrican came thru offshore yesterday
Caught: 12 Keeper Tog

The boat was scheduled to come out yesterday, but due to the winds the marina cancelled.

Since she hasnt been used in exactly one month I decided last minute to put a crew together and try for togs.
John from my marina was a quick yes and as I was debating calling DonP (he already told me had family obligations) when my cell rings and it is him asking if I want to go!

He becomes my second crew member and we have our crew!We meet at the boat at about 10:45

Put a little gas in and we are off steaming down the Thames River to the fishing grounds by 11:00am.

What a nice day on the water, we anchored in front of ocean beach with one other boat, it wasnt long until there was a half dozen of us there.

One hour and fifteen minutes we have out limit, with some really nice ones mixed in!

Don with a nice keeper:

Me with a nice keeper!

John with a nice tog!

This was the perfect way to end the season, my personal best tog trip ever!!!!

The boat is coming out Tuesday, so this is definity the last trip of the year!

10-6-07 Sharking

2007-10-08T16:43:00.000-05:00

Time:6:00am to 6:00pm
Crew: Tim, Pat, Chris, Greg, Harrison
Water Temp: 63.5-64.9
Tide: Moving
Wind: 15 - 17 knots Wind West/SouthWest
Conditions: A few clouds and 23-4 foot
Caught: About Six Blue Sharks

We had planned on doing an overnight tonight, boy and I glad we didn’t.
Scraped the overnight tuna chunking trip for a sharking trip.
Met Greg, Harrison, Chris (Mygirl) and my nephew at the marina at 6am.
Off to the race in some hazy/foggy conditions for bluefish.

Couldn’t catch a bluefish to save my life...
Headed to block and hit a wall of fog.
Maneuvered by the boats at the south west ledge and tried for blues... nothing again.... figures....
Decided to head out only a little ways because the seas were a little sketchy and wind was blowing a solid 15.
Set up 10 miles south west of Block Island.
After and hour and half the slick attracts it first visitor, a huge blue that takes a live dog fish

We had plenty of blue shark activity through out the day, even a nice dragger came by!

He came with 50 yards of the boat.... so close I could hear he was playing the same radio station we were!

That is okay, because his slick blended with mine and his had sharks in it!!!

Once the dragger passed, we had trouble keeping baits in the water!

(Keep in mind, some f these blue shark took nearly 1 hour to release!Here is Pat working a fish on full drag!

This is the ONLY blue that would allow to pose for a pick!

Cute little guy!

Bring the gear in at 3pm, just about to pick up the last rod to reel in and the live dogfish is attacked!

Set the hook, I worked the fish for a while but find myself tiring quickly..... handed the rod off to

Harrison works the rod for nearly 45 minutes, Since time is running out, I am telling him to fight the fish past strike!

That is 27 lb of drag!

He tires and Pat jumps in.

Time is running out and it is getting to the make it or break it point..... well, we broke it....

Full drag and both thumbs of the reel the 80 lb line breaks... oh well

Came home is some really really really sporty conditions... rough seas, wind just at the wrong angle..... very limited visibility....

Still a real fun day on the water!

9-09-07 Trolling

2007-09-13T19:32:00.000-05:00

Time:5:00am to 5:00pm
Crew: Tim, Bobbie, Chuck, John, Neil
Water Temp: 68.5-70.5
Tide: Moving
Wind: South/SouthWest
Conditions: A few clouds and 2-3 foot seas
Fish Caught: None

Saturday was forecasted to be pretty rough, but things looked like they were going to lay down nicely for Sunday, maybe a little bumpy on the ride out, but I felt it would sit right down.

Reviewed the temp charts and seas, I was not up for an edge trip, but there was nice two degree temp break at the 35 to 40 fathom curve.Planned out a course that would take 8 hours to troll.

Trolled for 8 hours without one knock down. Found water from 68.2 to 70.4 and worked the break.Saw a whale, and a turtle.Marked bait on the finder.

Nothing off of the high flyer's (although there are some new ones just put out with a dark green ball, never saw those before)We also came across miles and miles of stuff in the water making it look dirty, almost like oily?

This murky stuff formed miles of defined lines.

We scooped some up, and it may of been eggs or plankton, as it became clear it was not oil.

Any way, flew home at 32mph in some great seas.

Cleaned the gear, and put away the boat dirty.Everything was just as expected, the sea conditions, water temps, except no fish!

A little disappointed, but that is fishing.

8-26-07 Sharking

2007-08-29T00:48:00.001-05:00

Time:5:00am to 5:00pm
Crew: Tim, Rick, Pat, BobB, Al
Water Temp: 66.5-67.5
Tide: Moving
Wind: South/SouthWest
Conditions: A few clouds and 2-3 foot seas
Fish Caught: One blue sharks

Left at 5:00am in calm seas.
A little bumpy past Montauk but not to bad.
Went about 15 miles out with the hopes of getting one of those big guys close to shore.

Set up our slick in nice seas and a nice breeze.

Four hours goes by without any action.
Finally the live dog fish get nailed.

Set the hook and fish is off.

Put the dog fish out again.... entire balloon is pulled under... set the hook, fish off....

Put him back out again.... reel is screaming..... Rick sets the hook this time.... fish on....

Al fights the fish for about 20 minutes and it comes unbutton.....

Dead livey out AGAIN..... another run off.... set the hook.... off again.... this time the far balloon with the blue fish fillet starts to scream..... set the hook fish on....

My nephew was determined to the beat the fish... fought it for over an hour.... saw the leader once but could only see a silhouette of the fish.

He hands the rods off to Rick.... after some more time he get to the fish to boat.

We identified it as an enormous blue shark.....

At this point we have now wasted a bunch of premo fishing time....

Rick cranks the reel to full drag, and putting both thumbs on the reel.... another 15 minutes and we have our hands on the leader....

This fish is not done yet, down he goes!

Rick hands the rod off to me..... full drag......thumb on the reel...

to the surface again... down again.... the line breaks...

This was a very large blue shark..... possibly foul hooked close to the head.....

He fought just like a thresher.....Oh well....

Picked up our chum bucket and heading home in very nice seas... less than a 90 minute ride home.

8-24-07 Fluking

2007-08-25T16:29:00.000-05:00

Time: 8:00am to 2:00pm
Crew: Tim, Chuck, Eric
Water Temp: 68.5

Tide: Ebb

Wind: None

Conditions: A few clouds and 1 foot seas

Fish Caught: Seven Fluke, two Bluefish and 4 shorts

Headed out with Chuck and Eric from the marina.

Fished Groton Long point just north of the Dumplings with the drift moving us east/west.

We pick up the fish drifting up the east side of the hole in about 40 feet of water.

8-11-07 Sharking

2007-08-14T18:31:00.000-05:00

Time: 6:00am to 5:00pm
Crew: Tim, Greg, John, DonP, Pat, Rick
Water Temp: 66.5-68.5
Tide: Moving
Wind: None
Conditions: A few clouds and 1 foot seas
Fish Caught: Six blue sharks

It was my in-laws 50th anniversary picnic this weekend and with my wife being one of six sisters we had family up from all over the place.
My brother in law came from Jersey with his daughters boyfriend "John".
We joked that we were going to take him shark fishing, 5 people leave, 4 return.
Left Galesferry marina at 5am with DonP, Rick, My Nephew Patrick, My brother in Law Greg and his daughters boyfriend John to try our luck at sharking.
Since John was only 16, and never been before, I didnt want to go to far and selected the acid barge.
Heading out in pitch black darkness!
This is the GoldStar Bridge!

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Patrick and Don somehow were able to sleep!

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The sky really lite up right before the sunrise!

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We set up at the Acid Barge with four rods.

Direction was given that John is getting the first fish.

We didnt have to wait long, within 15 minutes the rod goes off, a not so good hook set and the fish comes off.

Ten minutes later it is game on for John!

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Not being used to fighting sharks, John is ready to hand the rod off.

I am not sure what Rick and Greg are doing here to get ready???

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Greg fought the shark for a little while.

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And we released a nice blueshark.

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We were using live dogfish for shark bait.

And one of them was pregnant with babies!

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The babies were still alive so we put them in a chum bucket with water.

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We had some good blueshark action thru the day.

At one point, we had two sharks around the boat for so long we named them, Dotty and Hooky.

These sharks would not take anything!They just swam around the boat!

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So we decided to toss out one of the little dogfish babies!

The blue shark inhaled it!

We then rigged one on a hook!

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And managed to catch Dotty! (Note, You can see the scare/dot on the side of her head!)

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We managed to release a half dozen blue sharks thru out the day!

Flew home is some fantastic seas!

It was another great day aboard FishingFINattic!

8-11-07 The Race

2007-08-13T21:18:00.000-05:00

Time: 8:00am to Noon
Crew: Tim, Greg, John, Jay
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Flood
Wind: North 10 knots
Conditions: A few clouds and 1 foot seas
Fish Caught: Six bluefish and one fluke

Head out to get some shark bait.
When we got to the race, we quickly found the fish stacked up on west side of the race.

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At first Jeremy was not interested in fishing the race. After John and Greg picked up a few fish on diamond jigs, he then became interested.

Jay hooked his first bluefish!!!

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His was rewarded for his efforts with a nice bluefish that went into the live well to bleed out for sharking.

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We then decided to try fluking so we headed over to Groton Long Point.

Fished the area for two hours with two shorts and Jay catching the only keeper.

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We saw Al and Hans anchored north of the sub base on the way home!

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8-09-07 The Race

2007-08-13T21:09:00.000-05:00

Time: 5:00pm to 8:00pm
Crew: Tim, Pat, Rob B, Andy B
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Flood
Wind: South 5 knots
Conditions: A few clouds and less than 1 foot seas
Fish Caught: Lost one bluefish at the boat

My buddy Rob came over from Indiana for a week so we took him and his son Andy out to the Race for some bluefish action.
The fishing was slow on the west side of the ripe with on fish being lost at the boat.

8-1 to 8-2 Canyon Overnight

2007-08-03T11:58:00.000-05:00

Time: 5:00pm on 8/1 to 3pm on 8/2
Crew: Tim, JimF, DonP, Jeff, Mike
Water Temp: 76-78
Tide: Unkown
Wind: South 5 knots
Conditions: A few clouds and less than 1 foot seas
Fish Caught: 70" Mako, 10 Mahi 16"-30"

Managed to get Thursday off of work and planned on heading out for an over nighter at the edge. A shifting of boats and crew had me meeting JimF, his cousin, DonP and Mike(Sparky45) at Galesferry marina at 4:40pm wednesday after work.

We pushed off with high hopes and planed to head out to the edge to shark/sword fish and then tuna troll in the morning.

We spotted dolphins before even reaching Montauk!

We flew out at 32 mph in fantastic seas and no wind, only stopping to pick up a few mahi at some of the high flyers.

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Mike's first ever mahi

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We trolled for a little.

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Managed a few dolphin.

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We enjoyed a fantastic sunset!

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Pitch black darkness had us taking special caution heading south to the edge.

We set up for the night in 750 foot of water, two shark rods, two sword rods and a tuna rod. Chunking for the next hour produced a mako darting thru the slick.

The water was so clear, we thought it was a pup at first cruising the surface, but it was actually a keeper fish 30 feet below the surface.

Some enticing with the mackeral fillet yielded a solid stike and the battle began!

Here is the fish coming along side of the boat hooked up solid!

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We saw it was a keeper and our half-ass measuring attempts with the thrashing mako put it at least at 64" fork length...well over the 54" minimum!

We got the tail ropes and flying gaff at the ready.

I pulled the mako back to within leadering and POP!!!!!.....the rod's main line line snapped and I yelled &$@^*$%%&*%^$!!!!!!!....I lost him!

The line parted at the mono just before the wire leader!

Then we noticed my swordfished rigged Chaos rod and Penn 50VSW which was dropped 150' straight off the port side midship was under a load!

The mako which just snapped off had gotten himself tail wrapped in our swordfish rig!!!! I quickly grabbed the rod and began slowly and gingerly......well as much as one could with a pissed off mako.....reeling the tail wrapped mako up to the boat.

We didn't have high hopes for the outcome.

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Amazingly the mako came up tail first and HEAVILY wrapped in the 80# Suffix Hi-Viz mainline and Jeff hit him right through the gills with the big new flying gaff!

....a tail rope was added and GAME OVER!!!!!!!

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Again taking advantage of the Grady's huge fish locker, we stuffed this 70" fish in there with some mahi and packed it with ice.

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We set out four sword rods and one tuna rod for the rest of the night without any luck.

We did keep in contact with snafu out there, who keep us waiting to hear back from him, but I will let MajorWoods share the story with you.

Morning troll yielded no knock downs except for the typical mahi-mahi. We trolled the tails hard, both east and west walls, out into the deep, west and then the flats.

We did run into a dead whale/shark floating.

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Back to the marina by 3pm, boat cleaned, fish cleaned and back at home before 6:30.

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Another great overnight trip on board "FishingFINattic"

7-27 to 7-28 Canyon Overnight

2007-07-29T17:24:00.000-05:00

Time: 5:30pm on 7/27 to 3pm on 7/28
Crew: Tim, Bobbie, Pat, Rick, JimF
Water Temp: 72-73
Tide: Unkown
Wind: South 5-10 knots
Conditions: A few clouds and less than 1 foot seas, Storm front coming
Fish Caught: 68" Mako, 10 Mahi 16"-36"

We have been watching the weather closely for a small boat overnight that included sharking and then trolling for tuna.
We left Galesferry Marina Friday 5:30pm with Bobbie, Pat, Rick and JimF with the plan to run as fast as possible to the little fish tales and put lines in at 8pm to try and capitalize on the last hour of the troll.
The seas were flat and the ride out was very nice!

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The evening trolling resulted with only one knock down from a small mahi that quickly came unbuttoned.
Headed south under the moonlight until I found temperature and structure that I liked.
Set up for sharking at 10pm.
We put out a sword rod w/ big squid at the thermocline.
Two sharks rods, one with a bluefish fillet and one with mackerel.
A light stick in the water and we were ready.
As expected, sharking was slow at the edge, not the blue shark after blue shark one sometimes gets closer to land.
A few squid and small bait fish were our only company until 2:30 when a blue shark came to the bucket.
We are all looking over the side when the short bait starts to click. Quickly setting the hook, handing the rod off to Pat the fight was on.
Bobbie was the light girl and was instructed to follow the line to the fish.
This fish ran away from the boat at the water line peeling line quickly off of the reel. Bobbie managed to get the fish centered in the light about 40 yards from the boat and Jim and I both said out loud "MAKO".
The fish was breaching the water line and clearly not happy. Not that I have a ton of experience, but I have caught my share of short mako's, and I knew this one was a keeper!
A few typical mako runs, one under the boat, one around the motors and then Jim has his hand on the leader.
The fish is going berserk at the side of the boat, the head is far out of the water, it is equal with the gunnel!

"GAFF This fish" Jim yells!

I stick it with the fly gaff, and before I can even separate the head from the stick the fish does some aerobatics and now the leader, and rope are wrapped around the fly gaff, stuck in the fish, with the worse gaff job possible, just barely thru the skin.
Luckily, we quickly tail rope the fish and we have our mako! He measured 68 inches from nose to center of the fork, about 140 lb fish.

Now, what do you do with a mako at 3:30 am with still over twelve hours of fishing ahead on a 26 foot boat?

We gutted the fish.

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And put it in the box!!! This Grady has one of the biggest fish boxes I have seen in boat of it size!

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We slowly head south to the tails, with a six rods spread out, giving the crew a chance to catch a few winks.
We made it to the tails well before sunrise and worked the tails and surrounding areas hard.
We saw whales, dolphins, mola, and really good signs of life in the 73 degree water.

This is one of three different species of whales we saw:

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This species of whale came in a large school (we thought they were dolphins at first):

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The hot lure was a small pink smoker on Jim's 16VSX!

Here is Bobbie dressed the part of a great fisher-woman!

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We caught quite a few mahi like this one!

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Here is Rick with another Mahi!

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We called it a day early and was back at the marina by 3pm.

Shark, fish and boat cleaned by 5pm.

Total results were 10 mahi, one mako and five tired but happy fisherman!

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7-25-07 The Race

2007-07-26T20:01:00.000-05:00

Time: 4:45pm-9:00pm
Crew: Tim, Bobbie, Pat, Rick
Water Temp: 64.5
Tide: Max Flood to Slack
Wind: South 5 knots
Conditions: A few clouds and less than 1 foot seas
Fish Caught: None

Headed out to the race in great seas and weather.
Flat calm seas and very little chop in the race.
We marked fish and bait but couldn't get them to hit anything.
Other boat were live lining porgies, snapping wire, ect. without any luck.
We tried diamond jigs, buck-tails, eels and trolled umbrella rigs without on hit.
I believe they were focusing in on a specific species of bait, and we didn't have it.
We did see a few fish breaking surface but they wouldn't take a plug.

7-14-07 Sharking

2007-07-19T17:54:00.000-05:00

Time: 4:00am-5:30pm
Crew: Tim, Don, Todd, Katie, Patrick
Water Temp: 68-68.5
Tide: Unkown
Wind: West 5-10 Knots
Conditions: A few clouds and 2-3 foot seas
Fish Caught: Two Blue Sharks

Went out with Bill Brown Thursday, just to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong.
A slight change to the chumming and some other shared tips sent me out on my 8th sharking trip of the season Saturday.
Left Galesferry marina with my nephew, his girlfriend, DonP andn Tmack at 4am.
Hit the race only to catch a striper.
Started heading to block and hit some good fog.

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It did clear up as we approached block.

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Picked up some live bluefish south of the island and steamed to my new "Secret Spot".
This was a hole that I found that is not on the charts.
It goes from about 160 feet to 200 feet and is a few football fields in diameter.

Well, it was a not a secret.... two draggers were working the area and no less than 10 boats were trolling.
Decided to head to tuna ridge.

The place was a parking lot with 7 others boats in sight.

Set up the slick, within an hour the wind changed slightly forcing us to miss the structure and right into someone else's slick.

We had a mystery run off first thing and then went until 2pm to catch our first 5' blue dog.

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We landed one more off of the short bait when were reeling the lines in.

Really slow day.

We did see tuna jumping and bait busting the surface in our slick.

Tuna were busting bait at 40' 54.011N 71' 14.181W

All of the components were there for a good day..... just too many people

7-11-07 The Race

2007-07-19T17:41:00.000-05:00

Time: 45:30pm-8:00pm
Crew: Tim, Tommy, Duane, Pat
Water Temp: Unkown
Tide: Max Flood to Slack
Wind: None
Conditions: Littly foggy leaving the marina turning to no visibility
Fish Caught: none

Headed out for stripers tonight. There was a little fog at the marina.
When we got to the race there was zero visibility.
We couldnt find the fish.
Drifter for about an hour and I decided to head in before the sun went down and made the commute really tough.
Duane was able to catch one starfish!

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7-8-07 Sharking

2007-07-09T15:16:00.000-05:00

Time: 400am-5:00pm
Crew: Tim, Bobbie, Mike (Sparky), JimF, Andy, Rick
Water Temp: 63
Tide: Unkown
Wind: South West 10 - 15 Knots
Conditions: A few clouds and seas 2-3 foot and building
Fish Caught: Seven Blue Sharks

I had six fresh bluefish from the day before so we cruised to the south of block just in time to catch the sunrise over Block Island.

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With the seas forecasted, wind direction and Snugharbor tournament pressure I wanted to be sure to select a good spot that would allow us to zip home if the seas really kicked up and also not a known piece of structure on a map that other people would be fishing.
I selected an area about 10 miles south of the acid barge.
For the first two hours I was really questioning my decision, since we did not have any runoffs.
But it wasn't to much longer until a REALLY little guy took the bait.

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After that we had some fun sharking.
No mako's or threshers, but we did release 7 bluesharks at the side of the boat.
Every one on board had a chance on the rod.
JimF also got to try his new 16VSX on a nice blue dog!
That is one powerful reel!

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Came home is some choppy seas, but kept it down around 20mph for comfort.

I did mark a nice hole about 1 mile in diameter that is not on the charts. It is about a 40 foot drop. I going to give that a shot next weekend!

7-7-07 The Race and Fluking

2007-07-09T14:49:00.000-05:00

Time: 5:00am-1:30pm
Crew: Tim, Pat, Greg, Dee, John
Water Temp: Unknown
Tide: Start of Ebb
Wind: West 5-10 knots
Conditions: A few clouds and calm
Fish Caught: Six Blue Fish and Four Keeper Fluke

Headed out of Galesferry marina with Greg, Dee, John and Pat with the intention of catching some shark bait and some fluke for lunch. Greg, Dee and John were up from New Jersey and I wanted to show them what Connecticut fishing was all about!

What a fantastic sunrise view from the mouth of the Thames River!

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When we got to the Race the Ebb was just starting. It wasn't to long until Dee pulled in her fish bluefish ever!

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Of course, John had to keep so he managed two bluefish for the shark bait box!

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Everyone on board managed at least one bluefish. No stripers were hooked and it was hard to find the bluefish.

The fish were not stacked up as they are earlier in the year!

We went to Groton Long point and set up for fluke.

It wasn't long until Greg pulled a nice keeper over the rail.

Pat managed two keepers and Dee scored us one for the box.

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It was challenging fluking with four people who really don't fish that much!

Here is a typical rats nest!

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Made it back to the dock and to the family picnic for 2:30, of course with fresh fluke for all!

7-1-07 Sharking

2007-07-04T17:13:00.000-05:00

Time: 5:30am-5:30pm
Crew: Tim, Rick, Bobbie, Bob Bradley, Chris
Water Temp: 64.5-66.5
Tide: Unknown
Wind: West 10-20 knots
Conditions: A few clouds and 3-4 foot seas
Fish Caught: Four Blue Sharks

We meet at Galeferry and left in the light at 5:30am.

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We stopped at the race and Montauk for a short try at bluefish, but I had a few frozen and plenty of other bait.
Today NOAA was wrong and a day like today would of been a small boat (20' to 22') nightmare.

It was scheduled 2-4 with 5-10knot winds.... it was blowing 15-20 and the sea period was close.

With the promise of calmer seas later in the day we plowed to the horns.

We made it to the horns for 8am and put the tuna spread out. Ten rods trolls very nicely.No knock downs by 9am so we set out the drift.A short period into the drift and we release a small blue.

We drift for a few hours with sharks appearing but very hook shy.

I suspected it was becaus of all of the chum in the water due to a tourny on friday and saturday. Bill Brown confirmed this later in the evening.

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We did manage to catch a few blue sharks.

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And everyone on board had a shot as reeling in a fish, here is Bobbie looking like a true fisher woman!

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NOW HERE IS WERE IT GETS INTERESTING

Bob Bradley is checking the deep bait while I am sleeping in the chair.

He puts the bait down and I half here him say"Uh Oh, we have a problem"

The ballon is moving out from the boat pretty fast.

We wait a few seconds, put the boots to the fish, and the fight begins.

We all know this is a good solid fish....

The pole is bent right over and then we hear "CRASH" about 15 feet in front of the boat.

We look and there is a hole in the water the size of small car. I yelled "Big Thresher"... the fish goes down again and screams to the opposite side of the boat peeling line out and rubbing against the bottom of the boat.

The line could not take all of the punishment of the heavy drag coupled with peeling off the spool and broke rubbing the painted boat bottom.

It was over as quickly as it began.Came back in some nice seas.

We did see tuna chasing bait, but couldnt get them to hook up.

Can wait for the next trip scheduled for Wednesday!

6-21-07 Sharking

2007-06-25T14:49:00.000-05:00

Time: 4:30am-5:30pm
Crew: Tim, Eddie, Duane, JimF, Mike
Water Temp: 59.5-60.5
Tide: Unknown
Wind: West 10-20 knots
Conditions: A few clouds and 3-4 foot seas
Fish Caught: None

Well guys, not going to sugar coat it, we did not do well.

It we were trying for bluefish this would be a different report because as JimF put it “Didn’t have to deal with any of those pesky sharks”

The weather changed last minute to include 20 knot gusts.

The boat can handle it, as I have found out the hard way in the past, it can take more than I can.Left Galesferry marina with JimF, Duane, Sparky (Mike) and my greenhorn brother Ed (poor guy, a real trooper)

The seas were fine until we started to get past Fishers Island, there weren’t bad, they were just coming from the NW, a direction I have found out the hard way means for a crappy ride back.

We listened to the latest weather and the report from buoy 44017 was 3 foot seas at 4 seconds….. Since we were planning on the horns, I weighted hard and decided against a full contact day of fishing.

We changed plans and headed for the acid barge.

Dropped a chum bucket off with a fender attached to start the slick and the we started trolling for tuna and trying out the new twelve rod spread.

The spread works fine but a bluefish proved that problems can happen when you have to clear the lines….. we had a couple of knocked downs, stolen lures, and landed one blue fish that would be come live bait.

Couldn’t find out chum bucket ughh….

Started a new chum slick…..

The wind was howling a solid 15 knots minimum and we were cranking.

The seas may of averaged two or three foot, but trust me, there was periods of closely packed two foot seas and then periods of four foot seas closely packed!

The boat was really rocking!

We had fresh caught bunker for a deep bait, bluefish fillet for medium bait, live bluefish and then another short bait…..

Drifted six hours……

Not one shark…..

The baits were constantly robbed by the bluefish…..

Came home in uncomfortable seas….. had to keep the boat around 18 to 20 knots to keep the pounding down…..

6-19-07 The Race

2007-06-20T05:59:00.000-05:00

Time: 5:30pm-9:30pm
Crew: Tim, Andy, Duane, Rick, Patrick
Water Temp: Unsure
Tide: Max Ebb to Slack
Wind: 10 knots
Conditions: A few clouds and 1 foot seas
Fish Caught: Three Stripers (42", 35", 28") and about Ten Bluefish

Reviewing the tides for my favorite “Perfect Tide” scenario, I pin pointed last nights tide from 6-9 as the time I wanted to fish.
A few planned calls ahead of time to Andy, Duane, Rick and Pat secured the crew.We left Galesferry marina at 5:30 to a stiff 15 miles per hour wind.
At the mouth of the river the wind sat down and we flew out to the race to find only a few boats fishing this area.
You have to love this type of fishing during the week days!
I really enjoy evenings on the water. This picture does not do it justice as there was a horizontal rainbow below the cloud line.

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Birds were working the surface with blue fish popping up here and there. It took us a few drifts to find the fish, but then it was none stop blue fish action all night. We kept five to smoke and five for shark bait.Around 8pm we switched to eels.

Giving lessons to Duane, who had never eel fished, we would have some run offs, but I believe they were still blues chomping on the eels.

Then I hear what I was waiting for, “Tim, I got something big!” from both Pat and Duane.

I could tell they were nice fish as Pats pole was bent right over.

Pat lost his fish, but Duane landed this nice 35 inch striper.

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A few more drifts the same words were uttered from Andy, who had caught his biggest striper the week before, a 34 inch fish.

He told me that this was a “Big Fish”

Well, he wasn’t kidding, here is Andy with his biggest striper ever, a 42 inch cow!

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Left the fishing grounds around 9:30 and came home at 20 knots maneuvering to avoid the navigational lobster pot hazards. Boat clean and in bed before midnight!

Another great trip aboard the “Fishing FINattic”!

6-14-07 The Race

2007-06-14T22:39:00.000-05:00

Time: 6:00pm-10:00pm
Crew: Tim, Andy, Brooke, Rick, Patrick
Water Temp: Unsure
Tide: Flood
Wind: North East 10-15knots
Conditions: Overcast and 1-2 foot seas
Fish Caught: Three Stripers (34", 29", 24") and Two Bluefish

When I got to work this morning my nephew expressed interest into heading out to the race for some bass and blues after work.
A quick call to my brother and he was in for some eel action.
After lunch I extended and invitation to my buddy Rick and we had our crew.

We left Galesferry marina close to 6pm and zoomed out to the race to find only two boats there!

A few drifts into the trip and Andy boats this nice fat keeper.

The action has peeked my nieces interest and she asks to reel the next one in. Here she is with her first blue fish. She may of had a little help from her uncle.

A few minutes later she is crashed in the seat. She didn't wake up until she was being loaded into the car!

Patrick landed his first keeper of the year!

What a fantastic sunset!

The fish were stacked up in 100 to 125 feet of water on the east wall. Green buck tails did the job until the sun started to set and then the eels were the bait of choice.

6-03-07 Thames Stripers

2007-06-05T06:39:00.000-05:00

Time: 10:30am-11:00am
Crew: Tim
Water Temp: 70.5
Tide: Flood
Wind: South 5knots
Conditions: Sunny and calm
Fish Caught: none

I decided to try fly fishing again in the river. I only had a short period of time so I motored out in front of AES and did a few drifts. I was casting a blue&white shiner looking fly. I actually had a fish on and fought it for about 30 seconds before it got off. This is a big improvment as I have had the fly rod for right about one year and this is the first time I have hooked anything!

5-28-07 The Race

2007-05-30T06:03:00.000-05:00

Time: 9:00am-3:00pm
Crew: Tim, Bobbie, Russ, Deb, Adam
Water Temp: 51.5
Tide: Slack to Ebb
Wind: West 5knots
Conditions: Sunny and calm
Fish Caught: 10 Stripers 26" to 36" and 10+ bluefish

Before I tell you our story of five people fishing the race, I will let you in on how the trip ended…..

I have been trying to get together with RV6, Deb and Scupmaster since our trip to Capt Hoops in February.
We selected memorial day since everyones schedule allowed for a day of fishing.
The seas were calm and the sun was out when we meet at 9am at the marina.
Steamed off to race explaining the passing scenery to Russ, Deb and Adam as we passed the sub-base, coast guard, EB, Ledge Light ect.
It was a great ride out and we arrived at the race at dead slack.
The tide started to ebb and we could see the fish starting to stack up on the finder.
It wasn’t long before we started to hook up and had non stop action till we left at 2:30pm.

Deb managed her first real striper!

The action was so hot that on two drifts Bobbie hooked TWO fish on one setup! In this picture we had double fish on and Russ landed a nice 36” fish, Bobbie landed a nice keeper and then a smaller one that one released!

Adam managed a keeper size fish that we release.

It was just a great day on the water with great company. I just made a great bouillabaisse and we have plenty of shark bait!

Details:

Marked the fish close to the bottom. When we marked alot of fish across different heights in the water column, we caught bluefish. When we marked less fish, but holding the bottom, we caught stripers. Diamond jigs or bucktails did not make a difference. In the stomach of one fish was a small baitfish. Nothing in the stomachs of other ones.

5-24-07 The Race

2007-05-28T05:01:00.000-05:00

Time: 3:30am-4:30pm
Crew: Tim, Bobbie
Water Temp: 51.5
Tide: Flood
Wind: West 5knots
Conditions: Sunny and calm
Fish Caught: 1 Striper 26" and 4 bluefish

Today is our 10 year anniversary with the intention of spending four days at Napatree on the boat we headed out of the marina. Of course we had to stop at the race on the way by. Only did a few drifts. All fish were stacked up in 90-120 foot of water. Diamond jigs and a green buck tail caught the fish today.

5-20-07 The Race

2007-05-20T17:32:00.000-05:00

Time: 9:30am-12:30pm
Crew: Tim, Bobbie
Water Temp: 49.5
Tide: Flood
Wind: West 15-20knots
Conditions: OverCast w 2-4 foot seas
Fish Caught: 3 Stripers 28" -34"

With the recent reports of activity in the race I decided to head out today and give it a try for a few hours.All of the usually players couldn’t make the trip either getting there own boat ready, yard work, or just couldn’t get a hold of them so it was just Bobbie and I.We headed out in an inaccurate one foot or less seas. Wind was hard from the west 15 knots at least, but it produced nothing that the full canvas on the Grady couldn’t block. The race was in flood so we had a typical wind vs tide scenario.

Bobbie was fishing a white buck tail and I was working the diamond jig. We were marking a few fish in 125-140 foot of water. A couple of drifts into the trip I hook a barley legal fish and put him back in to grow a little.I gave Bobbie the “Hot” diamond jig and I took the buck tail (green on now), only to hook a nice 30 inch keeper that goes into the fish locker for a meal!We trade back and I am working the diamond jig and hook even a nicer fish.

We only stayed for a few hours and headed back in for a lunch that included nice fresh striper on the grill at the marina!What was interesting is that when we were filleting the fish I looked at the stomach contents, the smaller fish had a 3”-4” fluke in its stomach!!!!

The race is certainly heating up and the sun stayed out for the trip! A great morning on the water!

5-12-07 Montauk Fluke

2007-05-16T07:12:00.000-05:00

Time: 8:00am-4:00pm
Crew: Tim, Chris, JimF, Bob Bradley, Ron
Water Temp: 48.0 - 48.5
Tide: Ebb
Wind: South Eest 15-20knots
Conditions: OverCast w 2-4 foot confused seas
Fish Caught: 3 Keeper Fluke 19.5"-20"; Aprox 30 Shorts

I dont think that anyone heading out had a clue it was going to be full contact fluke fishing on this trip.Left will calm seas and Bob Bradley, Mygirl, JimF and Ron on the boat.Snagged a bunker in the river and then had a nice ride to Montauk.

We arrived at slack and the tide started to move and the wind picked up... Soon it was blowing 15knots and we needed 10oz weights to hold the bottom. The seas were building too as the wind was from the east/southeast.We managed three keepers while getting bounced around.

We saw Fish Won out there picking up some fish. He was using the motors to combat the fast drift.

Here is Chris with a typical keeper.

This is a picture from Fish Won's boat of the sea conditions.

5-05-07 Montauk Fluke

2007-05-06T07:26:00.000-05:00

Time: 8:00am-5:00pm
Crew: Tim, Bobbie, Chris, Greg and Harrison
Water Temp: 46.0 - 48.00
Tide: Ebb
Wind: South West 5knots
Conditions: Sunny w Flat 1 foot seas
Fish Caught: 12 Keeper Fluke 19.5"-25"; Aprox 30 Shorts and 1 Bluefish

Looking back thru my previous trips, the boat had a stellar trip last year on May 6th so I thought we would give it a shot. With the forecast of less than 1 foot seas and sunshine we pushed off from Galesferry marina with high hopes. We would not be disappointed.Seas we nice and calm as predicted and we were able to cruise out to the point at 32 mph.

Rounded the point to the usual Montauk Crowd

We had good picking throughout the day with a total of 12 keeper fluke from 19.5” to 25”. We ended releasing about 30 short fish, many were 18" to 18.5"......Here is Bobbie with a nice keeper.

Here I am with an average keeper.

Here is one of Greg's keepers:

I think Harrison was tired from catching all day!

Look at the fillet table!!!!

Details:

We arrived at 9am with the tide just starting to move. Picked up a few fish on green colored lures with squid/fish sandwich in front of the radar arched. Moved down the point to 41'01.865N & 71'54.063W in about 48' of water. This was in front of some cottages on the beach. Drifted into 30' of water for some good keepers. Lure of the day was a green rubber trailer hooked with squid/fish. Went back to the point with the crowd for a few more keepers. Left to head home at 3:30.

4-29-07 Thames Stripers

2007-04-29T17:22:00.000-05:00

Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
Crew: Tim and Bobbie
Water Temp: 56.5
Tide: Ebb
Wind: Calm
Conditions: Overcast
Fish Caught: No fish caught

Work the area by AES for a few bites but couldnt get anything solid. I think I was using the wrong lure as three guys in a small boat were pulling fish after fish out of 3 foot deep water on the east side of the river just north of the marina.

4-28-07 Thames Stripers

2007-04-29T06:10:00.001-05:00

Time: 3:30pm-5:00pm
Crew: Tim, Bobbie, Patrick and Katie
Water Temp: 58-56
Tide: Flood to SlackWind: 5-10K SW
Conditions: Overcast
Fish Caught: 4 Stripers 10"-18"

We planned to cook lunch on the boat and head out, giving us probably the worst tide possible, the end of flood. Watching the water temperature during lunch it was a solid 60 degrees. By the time we finished lunch and cleaned up the water temperature had dropped two degrees.We had some nice striper action mostly on blue and white jig heads, all in about 10 foot of water, once the water hit about 56 the fish turned off.

Here is a typical schoolie:

This is Katie with the record “Smallest” fish on the boat so far.

We only fished for an hour and half when the sun disappeared and the skies started to darken up coupled with the water temp cooling off and tide stopping prompted us to head in for the day.

4-22-07 Thames Stripers

2007-04-22T18:07:00.000-05:00

Time: 8:30am - 10:00am
Crew: Tim
Water Temp: 50
Tide: Ebb to Slack
Wind: None
Conditions: Sunny
Fish Caught: 3 Stripers 16"-18"

Fished for Stripers in the river this morning, this was the end of the ebb tide to slack. It was a little hard to find the school and managed three 16"-18" fish all on small storm shad bodies

4-21-07 Thames Stripers

2007-04-22T06:06:00.000-05:00

Time: 10:30am - 11:45am
Crew: Tim, Rocky
Water Temp: 48-48.7
Tide: Ebb
Wind: North light
Conditions: Sunny
Fish Caught: 2 Stripers 16"-18"

Headed out to give the Thames River a try again today.I was out before all of the rain, and the water was just too cold topping out at only 40 degrees.Left the marina at a little before eleven and was happy to see that the water was 48 degrees, nice jump from last week.

The Ebb tide was helping the temperature and I knew it would continue to rise.I brought my little fishing buddy with me!

The fishing was slow at first, but as soon as the water hit 48.6 the fish turned on and started getting hits on most casts. Managed two smaller strippers before my own stomach convinced me to bring the boat in. The fish were caught on storm lures fished slow in about 10’ of water. I only spent a short time fishing, but the fish are there and it is my experience that this river will get better and better fishing over the next few weeks.I will be heading out again today and plan to spend a little more time fishing. I am even going to try the flyrod!

About the Boat

2007-04-18T13:12:00.000-05:00

Fishing FINattic is a 2000 26’ Grady White 265 Express fishing boat powered with twin 200 horsepower Yamaha HPDI’s. Her home port is the Thames River in Connecticut.