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Very Late Report and Light at the end of the tunnel

2K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  steelheadmike 
#1 ·
Been a while since I posted so here is report from my last day on the water:

01/02/05
NW Winds 5-15mph. Light chop and a few white caps. Found the Stripers using my nose. Thats right.. nose!! If the Stripers or Bait is thick enough you can smell them. Thats RIGHT .. SMELL I said.

Anyway.. could smell them on the North wind so I knew they were ahead of me somewhere. We stopped the boat where the smell was the strongest and all 3 of us made a cast. 2 With Flies and I went for Light Spin to cover the water faster. Sure enough all 3 of us were in on the 1st cast. CHINESE FIRE DRILL......!!!! :Eyecrazy: We fished until our arms were sore. I mean SORE. We landed over 80 fish between us in 4 hrs. Only 1 fish was under 5lbs. Most were 8-15's. We only had to move the boat once to chase a HUGE fish that damn near spooled me when he decided he wanted to head out to the Atlantic. I may have had 15 turns left of backing before I lost it all. The fish finally broke me off after 10-15 minutes out in the deep water. What a way to end a year.. or should I say Start!

NEWS FLASH 02/21/05: The fish are BACK. Not quantity yet but quality. I have had 5 confirmed reports and saw a picture of a 39lb Line Side taken on light tackle and a Rapala Husky Jerk. The fish was weighed and released by the Angler. Had a few more reports of VERY BIG fish breaking up tackle in the last week.

My Maritime will be in the water 03/01 so soon I will be knee deep in Striper Slime. Damn!!!! Two months without wetting a line seems an eterninty. At least there is a light at the end of the tunnel!. :smokin:
 
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#4 ·
OOPS

Dble Haul said:
That's good news and great to hear, but you forgot to tell all of us what area you were fishing (generally, not specifically). :wink:

Im fishing in the Hudson river. Generally I fish between the Tappanzee Bridge and the Bear Mountain Bridge. Now thats a HUGE stretch of water.. maybe 25 miles of water. Thankfully there is only 2 or 3 places these fish hide.

These arent scout fish. These are winter over Male fish with a few COWS mixed in. Generally the Females start really pushing through in Late April - May. However there is alot of males ... I mean 10's of Thousands of them that winter over in the warm bays and outflows. Forage for them is MINIMAL. Since the water is only around 38 degrees their metabolizm is slow. So... when the sun is out and the air temps hit 45-50 the water temps JUMP on the Mud flats to mid 40's making them much more comfortable and more willing to eat.

As far as flies....... pretty much anything will work. I only use Decievers in size #2-3/0. That covers the bases. Colors... well.. thats another story. Local knowledge dictates that they are awaiting the Herring Run. So Blue and White or Gray and White are the Ticket. But when the fish are on ..... a Three Muskateers Wrapper works ( I know I hooked 3 on a Wrapper I lashed to a #2/0 Hook with Kevlar Thread.... just to show you could do it ) :chuckle:
 
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