2014 Kayak Fishing Classic at Jamaica Bay

It was a mixed bag of fishing at the Kayak Fishing Classic this year with inclement weather playing a big role in the fishing. For me, I fished all four days and caught some quality weakfish, blues, and stripers. The striper fishing gets tougher during the tournament every year, with the Pumpkin Patch yielding fewer and fewer bass with bunker fishermen and tubers scoring some quality fish near the airport and Mill Basin.

On the first day of pre-fishing (Thursday, May 16, 2014), I fished with Eric Harrison, Gary Ward, and Mike Bartkis looking for weakfish, blues, and stripers in the Pumpkin Patch using soft plastics. We launched at dawn and I fished until 10 am in heavy fog. The striper fishing in the Patch was slow, with only one striper being caught between the four of us. However, we scored very well on weakfish catching at least a half dozen between us. I also caught a 34" bluefish on a Hogy that put up an amazing fight on light tackle. The weakfish were also caught on Hogys.

The first day of the actual tournament (Friday, May 16) was cancelled due to a small craft advisory with  winds out of the southeast at 30 knots. As such, the second day became another day of pre-fishing. With high winds out of the southeast, the only area that was fishable was Mill Basin. In addition to the wind, rain and fog also made the fishing challenging. Tactics were different on this trip and we fished with live bunker. I started out by snagging about 7 bunker and putting them into the live well. After this, I trolled the channel edges with this live bunker on leadcore line. Soon after, I had a nice runoff by a striper that left a mangled bunker. Later, my bunker was cut in half by a gator bluefish. After fishing for about 90 minutes, the rain and wind both started to increase and I was about to give up. While trolling towards the launch, my leadcore line started to get pulled off hard and I knew that a fish had taken the live bunker. So, I counted to ten and set the hook hard. After a great fight, I landed my first fish ever on a live bunker which turned out to be a 33" striper. After this, I went back to shore.

It rained hard that night and there were flashfloods everywhere. This was a bad omen for the fishing on Saturday. Jamaica Bay doesn't fish well after heavy rains. The runoff from the airport runways dilute the salinity of the water. Bunker don't like freshwater and this usually spreads them out more. The runoff and wind also made the water brown. The dirty water makes it more difficult for predators to find your presentation. This was certainly the case on Saturday, which was a very tough bite. I started out fishing with a few friends from NEKF (Eric, Mike Baker, and Eric Hromada) and we headed towards JFK airport. As Friday, the goal was to catch stripers on live bunker. So, we started looking for bunker schools to load up the live well. Although there was plenty of bunker to be found, they were more spread out moving fast in smaller pods than encountered the previous day. For this reason, we couldn't get as many as we needed. Again, my strategy was trolling the live bunker on leadcore, and I had very good action as long as I had livies. First, a bluefish cut one in half. Later on, I hooked into a very big fish but lost it soon after. This felt like a big striper to me. The bunker was chopped in half but completely taken. Tough break for me because Saturday turned out to be a tough bite. For the rest of the morning, I trolled a tube and caught 5 stripers to 27". I was disappointed with the lack of size, but had at least eliminated one species from the slam. I was pretty sure I could manage a 32"+ bluefish and at least a 28" weakfish over the remainder of the tournament. Eric Hromada caught a nice 31" bass which was the biggest of the day for any of us. After targeting stripers in the morning from the west, we  headed back west to target weakfish in the Pumpkin Patch. However, the west wind had picked up hard and was double digits by the time we left at 11 am. This made for a long and strenuous trip back to the Pumpkin Patch. After arriving, we found it full of whitecaps, and it was a long journey to some of our weakfish holes. With brown water and a bad drift, we decided to head back to the Floyd Bennett area to look for some fluke in the lee of the wind. But, we got shut out with this as well.

For the last day of the tourney, I fished with Eric Hromada. Our plan was to fish the Pumpkin Patch out of Floyd Bennett. We knew that there were a good number of gator bluefish holding on the west side of the Pumpkin Patch and intended to begin the morning by targeting big bluefish. My weapon of choice was a Krocodile spoon. My strategy was to speed troll through the deeper channels in the patch. Eric caught a bluefish on his first cast. I started trolling and soon hooked into a 24" and a 27" a little later. Further along, I caught hooked into a nice fish and I knew I had what I was looking for. After a strong fight, I landed a fat 32.5" gator blue and Eric caught one about an inch smaller. We were satisfied with our blues, so we decided to focus the remainder of the morning on weakfish. While fishing for weaks, I caught a 16.5" fluke. So, I had my slam but a little bit small. By this time, it was 7:30 am and I had about 3.5 hours to find a weakfish. Although Eric caught a 21', I couldn't find them and was shut out for the first time in a while on weaks. I believe the brown water and runoff was a major factor for this.

My tournament slam was a 32.5" bluefish, a 27" striper, and a 16.5" fluke. This didn't put me in the money.

My pre-tournament slam was a 34" bluefish, a 33" striper, and a 28" weakfish. This would have put me in the money - story of my life with the Jamaica Bay Tournament.

I had a great time fishing with some fishing buddies that I only see a couple of times per year. Congrats to Elias Vaisberg who took first place for the second year in a row. George White also took first place in the fly division with a beautiful 36" striper.

It was a mixed bag of fishing at the Kayak Fishing Classic this year with inclement weather playing a big role in the fishing. For me, I fished all four days and caught some quality weakfish, blues, and stripers. The striper fishing gets tougher during the tournament every year, with the Pumpkin Patch yielding fewer and fewer bass with bunker fishermen and tubers scoring some quality fish near the airport and Mill Basin.

On the first day of pre-fishing (Thursday, May 16, 2014), I fished with Eric Harrison, Gary Ward, and Mike Bartkis looking for weakfish, blues, and stripers in the Pumpkin Patch using soft plastics. We launched at dawn and I fished until 10 am in heavy fog. The striper fishing in the Patch was slow, with only one striper being caught between the four of us. However, we scored very well on weakfish catching at least a half dozen between us. I also caught a 34" bluefish on a Hogy that put up an amazing fight on light tackle. The weakfish were also caught on Hogys.

The first day of the actual tournament (Friday, May 16) was cancelled due to a small craft advisory with  winds out of the southeast at 30 knots. As such, the second day became another day of pre-fishing. With high winds out of the southeast, the only area that was fishable was Mill Basin. In addition to the wind, rain and fog also made the fishing challenging. Tactics were different on this trip and we fished with live bunker. I started out by snagging about 7 bunker and putting them into the live well. After this, I trolled the channel edges with this live bunker on leadcore line. Soon after, I had a nice runoff by a striper that left a mangled bunker. Later, my bunker was cut in half by a gator bluefish. After fishing for about 90 minutes, the rain and wind both started to increase and I was about to give up. While trolling towards the launch, my leadcore line started to get pulled off hard and I knew that a fish had taken the live bunker. So, I counted to ten and set the hook hard. After a great fight, I landed my first fish ever on a live bunker which turned out to be a 33" striper. After this, I went back to shore.

It rained hard that night and there were flashfloods everywhere. This was a bad omen for the fishing on Saturday. Jamaica Bay doesn't fish well after heavy rains. The runoff from the airport runways dilute the salinity of the water. Bunker don't like freshwater and this usually spreads them out more. The runoff and wind also made the water brown. The dirty water makes it more difficult for predators to find your presentation. This was certainly the case on Saturday, which was a very tough bite. I started out fishing with a few friends from NEKF (Eric, Mike Baker, and Eric Hromada) and we headed towards JFK airport. As Friday, the goal was to catch stripers on live bunker. So, we started looking for bunker schools to load up the live well. Although there was plenty of bunker to be found, they were more spread out moving fast in smaller pods than encountered the previous day. For this reason, we couldn't get as many as we needed. Again, my strategy was trolling the live bunker on leadcore, and I had very good action as long as I had livies. First, a bluefish cut one in half. Later on, I hooked into a very big fish but lost it soon after. This felt like a big striper to me. The bunker was chopped in half but completely taken. Tough break for me because Saturday turned out to be a tough bite. For the rest of the morning, I trolled a tube and caught 5 stripers to 27". I was disappointed with the lack of size, but had at least eliminated one species from the slam. I was pretty sure I could manage a 32"+ bluefish and at least a 28" weakfish over the remainder of the tournament. Eric Hromada caught a nice 31" bass which was the biggest of the day for any of us. After targeting stripers in the morning from the west, we  headed back west to target weakfish in the Pumpkin Patch. However, the west wind had picked up hard and was double digits by the time we left at 11 am. This made for a long and strenuous trip back to the Pumpkin Patch. After arriving, we found it full of whitecaps, and it was a long journey to some of our weakfish holes. With brown water and a bad drift, we decided to head back to the Floyd Bennett area to look for some fluke in the lee of the wind. But, we got shut out with this as well.

For the last day of the tourney, I fished with Eric Hromada. Our plan was to fish the Pumpkin Patch out of Floyd Bennett. We knew that there were a good number of gator bluefish holding on the west side of the Pumpkin Patch and intended to begin the morning by targeting big bluefish. My weapon of choice was a Krocodile spoon. My strategy was to speed troll through the deeper channels in the patch. Eric caught a bluefish on his first cast. I started trolling and soon hooked into a 24" and a 27" a little later. Further along, I caught hooked into a nice fish and I knew I had what I was looking for. After a strong fight, I landed a fat 32.5" gator blue and Eric caught one about an inch smaller. We were satisfied with our blues, so we decided to focus the remainder of the morning on weakfish. While fishing for weaks, I caught a 16.5" fluke. So, I had my slam but a little bit small. By this time, it was 7:30 am and I had about 3.5 hours to find a weakfish. Although Eric caught a 21', I couldn't find them and was shut out for the first time in a while on weaks. I believe the brown water and runoff was a major factor for this.

My tournament slam was a 32.5" bluefish, a 27" striper, and a 16.5" fluke. This didn't put me in the money.

My pre-tournament slam was a 34" bluefish, a 33" striper, and a 28" weakfish. This would have put me in the money - story of my life with the Jamaica Bay Tournament.

I had a great time fishing with some fishing buddies that I only see a couple of times per year. Congrats to Elias Vaisberg who took first place for the second year in a row. George White also took first place in the fly division with a beautiful 36" striper.

Jamaica Bay Stripers

No more weakfish for me last weekend, but the bass bite was still really good for 30"+ stripers, and I believe building up to a peak. Wish I had a little more time to explore the bass bite, but was very busy last weekend. 

A good amount of bunker in the area, but the schools were moving around pretty fast, and definitely not as much bunker around as at the peak. 

The cocktail blues have also shown up in hoards as well. My buddy also happened into a 25" fluke while we were fishing for weakfish, so it looks like everything is around in at least some numbers now.

The fishing isn't peak yet but getting very near. I'm hoping that the weakfish bite becomes more consistent as the weather warms. The water temp is now 60 degrees. 

Tiderunner - 30" Weakfish

I returned to Jamaica Bay again on Wednesday morning in pursuit of stripers and weakfish. 

I caught a striper on my first cast, and thought that it was going to be a lights out day on the bass . . . . but it turned out to be a  little slow. 

Early in the trip, I caught a fat 30" weakfish on a 7" Hogy. It was caught near the kayak. My retrieve was bouncing the bottom after three twitches. 

It was my second tiderunner in less than a week. Bother were caught on a 7" Hogy. The Hogy line of plastics has become my go-to presentation for spring weakfish. 

Both of the big weakfish I have caught this year were in areas where I haven't encountered spring-run weakfish since the last cycle, which ended about 5 years ago. 

This fish was certainly a spawner with gnarly and tattered fins. The weakfish swam away strong upon release and I even got a video of it. 

Wind was a big issue and it was also a bright day. While fishing shallow water, this made for a tough morning striper bite. Originally, the forecast was no wind. But, it was blowing into my face on the way out and the coming back. The only slack period was during the time I reached the prime fishing grounds, which was the worst time for it to stop. Coming back took me much longer than expected with a sturdy wind in my face. 

Here are a few pictures of the tiderunner weakfish:

28" Weakfish - Jamaica Bay - May 2,2014

I fished Jamaica Bay last Saturday with Hogy Pro Eric Harrison in pursuit of striped bass and weakfish. 

It was a flat calm day and we had a good incoming tide coming a few days off a lunar period.

Between the two of us, we totaled almost 40 stripers but the highlight of the day was a 28" weakfish that I caught on a 7" Hogy. I caught stripers on the 4", 7", and 10" Hogys.

I've been fishing plastics for stripers more and more over the last two years and Hogy has now become my go-to lure for striper fishing. I especially like the Hogys for targeting shallower areas in the 8' - 20' range, but I've also been having great success fishing them over deep water as well during the winter. With a good drift, you can cover more water with these jigs than any other presentation, including a Tube & Worm. Additionally, it covers more of the water column than any other presentation for stripers. More importantly, you can control where this is presented more than any other lure I fish. The precision that it brings makes success much easier to achieve in the striper game. In my mind, plastics on a jig head are the best horizontal presentation for stripers from the kayak bar none and I believe Hogy produces the best striper plastics. They are so diverse that you can fish them in almost any situation. The Hogys have also become my go-to lure for weakfish in the spring as well. For weaks, the only problem I have is getting them down into the deeper channels in the summer. For this reason, jigging spoons become my go-to for summer run weaks.

In any event, here is a picture of the weakfish and another of Eric Harrison landing a striper. As always, Eric caught the lions share of stripers, but learning from watching an expert weave his craft is worth far more than high hook.

April 25, 2014 - Round Valley Reservoir Lake Trout

I made one final trip to Round Valley Reservoir before transitioning to salt for a little while and fishing the spring striper run on Long Island. Again, I targeted lake trout and it was a slow bite over an early four hour morning. My usual spot did not produce, so I explored some other deep water and found only one 21" lake trout. I also caught a very nice 17" rainbow that skied out of the water next to the kayak. 

Both trout were caught about 70' down over approximately 90'. I marked most of the trout at 70' as well.

I definitely enjoyed the early season lake trout and salmon fishing this year and it was a big learning experience about spring turnover. At the beginning of the season, the colder and less dense water is located near the top of the water column so the comfort zone for most fish is far below the surface over deep water. I only found lake trout in 70' water this spring. Leadcore was a must and I needed seven colors trolled at 1.5 mph most of the time.

For me, Round Valley is about the closest trout fishing to my home at a 90 minute drive. It is well worth the trip.

Here are some pictures from April 25: