The NOVEMBER RAIN sailed this morning for a half day bass trip. We headed out at around 6:00 am and had the eels in shortly thereafter around the Elbow. The action was instant with fish up to 25-30 lbs. By 9:00 am, the guys had their fill and called it a day. Certainly can't complain about that!

The NOVEMBER RAIN sailed with Zibby Chrzanowski and crew for a half day trip on Saturday morning. The gang was from Pennsylvania and, for a few of them, fishing the waters off Montauk was a first. We left the dock shortly after 6:00am and were welcomed by pea soup fog. We had the flood tide for just about the entire trip, but the bite was a little slow getting started. Fortunately, that changed as the morning progressed and the bass fishing came alive. We were fishing eels and managed to put five nice-looking bass in the box. The crew was not looking for their limit and we therefore tossed back a couple of other fish that were caught after the first five. By the end of the trip, the guys went home with plenty of bass as well as a few bluefish fillets (I'm told that bluefish stuffed with crabmeat can actually be quite tasty). The trip was a great way to highlight the very well-known Montauk bass fishing, especially for those who don't get out east very often!

This morning we sailed with half of a 12-man bachelor party -- Doug, Matt, Patty, Anthony, Jimmy and Jeff. We left the dock shortly after 6:00 am and had the eels in 30 minutes later. The first couple of drifts were a little slow, so we relocated about a mile and a half SE and were greeted with immediate action. With the exception of one mystery bite, which I think was just a hungry bluefish (I suppose they are always hungry), we were hooked into bass for the next few hours. At times, we had fish on before all the rods were even back in the water. Our biggest was just under 38 pounds with a number of others in the low to mid-30s. The guys wanted just a few fish, so we ended up taking four and successfully releasing at least another dozen at the boat. All in all, a great day with non-stop action. This is the way fishing should be! The guys were awesome and it was a morning of laughs, to say the least.

For the afternoon, we fished with 4-year old Jordan and her 9-year old brother Joe, along with their parents. With wind against tide in the p.m., I thought it may be too nasty to bait fish at the point with kids, so we decided to run up north and do a little bottom fishing. It proved to be a good call as we had instant action with the porgies. Jordan and Joe had the rods bent for the entire afternoon. I must say, they were an impressive duo, requiring minimal help from me or Steve. It's always great having kids on the boat...especially when they enjoy fishing as much as I do!

This morning, we had the pleasure of fishing with Allen & Ryan Kass. We left the dock at 6:00 am and had the flood tide just about all morning. We started with the parachutes and hooked into some bluefish immediately. Had a couple of short bass as well. We then switched over to the eels and had instant action. Due to tackle failure, we dropped a couple. (Note - if you bass fish with Gamakatsu circles, make sure you're using the 4x hooks.) However, we also managed to land some nice bass. The guys were looking for just enough fish to feed a group of eight, so we needed only two fish for the box which we were easily able to send them home with. Quite a change from last weekend!

Since I try to post all reports, and not just the good (or even decent) ones, I'm keeping true to my word and am reporting today's trips.

We sailed with two groups – Mike Rotter and his buddies in the late morning and then again with Kevin Wishe and crew for an afternoon/evening trip. Both trips had a full tide each - ebb on the earlier and flood later on. In most instances, conditions would have been ideal for bass fishing, especially in mid-July. However, with the weak tides, it was just the opposite. With both groups, we tried the chutes, the tubes and the bait. Nothing seemed to really do the job and fishing was a struggle all day. We had a couple of "mystery" bites and also landed a few fish -- bass and bluefish -- but it definitely was not what you'd normally expect of Montauk fishing. Looking forward to a better bite later in the week!

We fished with Rafal Uszyouski and crew for a morning bass trip today. We didn't bother with the bait and focused only on trolling parachutes. Fortunately, that seemed to work for us and the guys were kept busy fighting fish for most of the trip. We had a slight lull during slack tide but had pretty steady action otherwise, including bass up to around 25 lbs. The guys got to the boat in the morning with coolers and coolers of food and beer and I'm glad we were able to re-fill them with fillets at the end of the trip!

We were scheduled to head out for an afternoon trip but got word that the guys had to cancel about 2 hours prior to our scheduled departure. As it turns out, however, another group – Ronda, Mike, Liz & Lance - were looking for a boat to head out with for a few hours this afternoon. So, we hooked up with them and were off the dock by around 12:30 pm. It was an extremely slow afternoon and while we were able to send them home with dinner (except for Mike, who swore he'd be staying away from the fish and having pizza!), it was a struggle to put a catch together. The group was awesome, however, and we spent the majority of the afternoon laughing. As with all of our trips, we hope we'll have the pleasure of fishing with them again!