Well, it's been a long winter and I'm glad to begin reporting on our fishing activity for 2012. I cut the reports short last year. While we wrapped up our Montauk fishing around Halloween, we spent the last few weeks of the year blackfishing off New Jersey. Shame on me for not posting any reports or photos, but it was a productive last couple of months of 2011. We pulled the boats (the November Rain, as well as our 21' Kencraft which we also fish in the winter) right before year-end and spent the first few months of 2012 getting them both ready to get back into the water. The November Rain was afloat by mid-April but we won't start doing much fishing until this month. Looking forward to the season!

Sunday morning we had the pleasure of sailing with Josh Rogers, who's been fishing with us for years. Unfortunately, and as I'm sure Josh and the crew will agree, we did not have a very productive day. In fact, today was probably the most unproductive day of the season in terms of our catch. I hate to admit it, but for the few hours that we fished together this morning, we did not land one bass. I know...how horrible! The guys preferred not to troll so we spent the morning trying to get them to bite on eels...rather unsuccessfully. The bluefish were in attendance, as usual, and we did put a few in the box. We busted off a fish that had bass "potential," but never saw it to legitimately claim that it wasn't actually just another gator bluefish. The guys, many of whom are avid fisherman and understand that bad days are inevitable, really did make the best of day day - eating, drinking and just enjoying their time on the water. It made me feel a little better, although we're certainly looking forward to getting them out for a better time some day very soon!

On Sunday morning, we headed back out for a half day at around 7:00. We started with the wire but had only bluefish for the first hour or so. We then switched over to the bait and while you had to fight through the ocean of bluefish again, we were fortunately able to pull some bass out as well. All in all, a great weekend, especially given that we were unsure whether we'd make it at all.

Many thanks to the guys for fishing with us again this year...and special thanks for the outrageous dinner they shared with us on Saturday night...very nice cooking Wayne! The home made pasta & broccoli rabe was the best!

We sailed this weekend on both Saturday and Sunday with Billy Williams & crew for the third straight year. Given the forecast (25-30 knot winds), we questioned whether we'd make either trip. Hats off to the guys though, because they were vikings and we sailed both days.

We left the dock on Saturday morning at around 7:30 and had eels in at the Elbow shortly thereafter. The bluefish were unbearable and although we boated a few bass, we quickly went through just about all of the bait. We finished up the day pulling chutes and filled the box with a few more nice-looking fish.

We sailed this weekend on both Saturday and Sunday with Billy Williams & crew for the third straight year. Given the forecast (25-30 knot winds), we questioned whether we'd make either trip. Hats off to the guys though, because they were vikings and we sailed both days.

We left the dock on Saturday morning at around 7:30 and had eels in at the Elbow shortly thereafter. The bluefish were unbearable and although we boated a few bass, we quickly went through just about all of the bait. We finished up the day pulling chutes and filled the box with a few more nice-looking fish.

This morning, we had first timers Jackie (4), Shannon (5), Andrianna (17) and their parents for a late morning trip. We headed back out with the eels and fished the ebb. Although not as bothersome for us during the flood, the blue fish were unbearable this morning, destroying almost every bait we put down. Fortunately, in between that slaughter, we were able to land a few bass. Not the slobs we had the night before, but more than enough for the girls!.

During the afternon/evening, we had the pleasure of again sailing with Kevin Wishe & crew. We left the dock at around 3:00 p.m. and had the eels in by 3:30, just in time to start the flood tide again. We limited out within a couple of hours with bass up to 40 lbs. Definitely one of our best trips so far! Although the others are veterans of the NOVEMBER RAIN, this was a first for Nick (the pimp) and he had more than his fair share of fish to fight.

During the afternon/evening, we had the pleasure of again sailing with Kevin Wishe & crew. We left the dock at around 3:00 p.m. and had the eels in by 3:30, just in time to start the flood tide again. We limited out within a couple of hours with bass up to 40 lbs. Definitely one of our best trips so far! Although the others are veterans of the NOVEMBER RAIN, this was a first for Nick (the pimp) and he had more than his fair share of fish to fight.