I received a call from a rod building friend from Pennsylvania that had a few days vacation time available. She and her rod building friend had never been to Montauk and wanted me to give them some suggestions as to charter boats and motels. I was finishing up my latest assignment for work and was available to join them. I quickly made some phone calls and set up a charter for striper chunking and fluke for the following week with Captain Roger of the Obsession out of Gone Fishing Marina.
The bass recently started to respond to bunker chunks but were still a little finicky. It was only the end of June and chunking really does not get going in earnest until July. Captain Roger told me of a recent chunking trip when he had to bring out his "Lightning Rod". Apparently the bass were just beginning to take chunks and the charter customers that day were continually missing fish. In frustration, the Captain went down into the cabin and brought up his personal custom rod that I made for him. He usually never uses this rod on a charter, but he was desperate to put a fish in the boat. He baited up with a chunk and immediately hooked a bass. He did this three times in a row, then passed the rod to the customer to fight the fish. When the customers saw what was happening they asked the captain about the rod. Roger calls it his "Lightning Rod", to be used only when the fishing gets tough. It never misses. With that, the charter proceeded to catch twenty keeper bass to thirty pounds. Several days after the trip I received an email from his charter customer thanking me for building a great rod.
Our charter and motel were booked. Lorry Mangan and "Screamingreel" Dave Richichi were also coming on the trip. However, the weather reports were ominous with possible heavy winds and thunderstorms forecasted for later in the day. As I drove to Montauk Monday afternoon to meet Sharon and Mike, I had concern that the weather could scrub the charter. Heavy southwest winds would limit us to only fish the north side of Montauk, and I did not know if the bass were on the north rips or on Great Eastern east of the Point.
On my way out to Montauk I stopped at J&H in Oakdale to have two reels filled with line. I set up my chunking reels with 30 pound mono backing with 200 yards of 50 pound Spiderwire as a top shot. Then, 30 feet of 50 pound mono as a shock leader. The next stop was at The Lobster Roll restaurant at Napeague for lunch and to pick up two pounds of lobster salad for the trip as a treat for my friends from Pennsylvania.
I arrived in Montauk at 4 PM, checked in to the motel and then I went off to the docks to check out how the charter and party boats did for the day. There weren't too many smiling faces coming off the boats. Apparently the wind kicked up with the change of tide, and it was blowing at least 25 knots from the southwest. Maybe we would be lucky tomorrow and be able to sneak in the morning before the wind would kick up again.
Mike and Sharon arrived at the motel at 7 PM. We went to dinner and I gave them the 25-cent tour of Montauk. The both of them were psyched for the trip, since I had told them so many stories about previous trips out here. We were up at 4:30 AM and met Lorry and Dave at Salivar's for breakfast. Then it was off to the boat for a 6 AM departure.
We headed out of Montauk harbor and proceeded to Great Eastern Rip. The weather was cool and overcast with some fog, seas were 1-3 feet, but no white water. Since it was a full moon tide, the tide would really be ripping. That meant rigging with fish finder rigs and initially fishing on the bottom until the tide slowed down. Later, as the tide slowed, we would free float the chunks. To rig up with a fish finder rig, take a fish finder clip and run your mono shock leader through the eye of the clip and then tie on a 100 lb black barrel swivel. To the other eye of the swivel tie on an 8/0 Gamakatsu Octopus 4X hook snelled to six feet of 60 lb mono. Tie on a 5 inch sinker loop to the clip and attach a 6 ounce sinker. Bait up with a good size bunker chunk. Make sure there are no scales on the point of the hook.
The boat is anchored uptide of the rip because the bass usually take up station on the downtide side of the rip. The object is to lower your rig to the bottom and slowly walk the sinker and bait back into the tide to locate where the fish are feeding. Small chunks are slowly dribbled over the side to create a chum slick to draw the fish closer to the boat.
About fifteen minutes into the first drop we hooked our first fish but unfortunately the hook pulled out. We missed the second and the third fish, than finally put a small keeper into the boat. The bite slowed for about a half-hour, and then Captain Roger brought out the new rod I just made for him. He started to free float a chuck at mid tide and immediately hooked up three consecutive times. I quickly changed my rig to free float and also hooked up right away.
You can free float a chunk from an anchored boat usually when the tide is a little slower. I like to fish the last of the flood and first of the ebb tide. You basically use the same rig without the fish finder rig and sinker. To free float a chunk, bait up with a good size chunk and flip the chunk up towards the bow of the boat. Keep the reel in free spool and let the chunk sink and drop back in the tide. Keep your thumb on the spool lightly and allow the bait to float naturally back in the tide. Let the line run freely through the fingers of your other hand. If the line speeds up, than put your thumb on the spool, engage the reel while pointing the tip of your rod at the water. Wait for the line to come tight and then lift to set the hook. That first initial run will be strong. Keep your rod at 45 degrees and let the fish run against the drag. When the fish stops his run, than start reeling the fish back with short lifts.
The blitz had started. We were hooking two and three fish at a time. At one point we had four on and it was wild in the cockpit. I hooked a fish and passed my rod to Sharon so she could get in on the action. Since this was her first bass trip, a little coaching was in order. Short stroke and reel on the down stroke. Don't give him any slack. After her sixth fish she was fishing like a pro.
I hooked another fish that seemed like a good one and again passed the rod to Sharon. I told her to just let the fish run and let the rod tire out the fish. The only trouble was that the fish was heading for Block Island and points east. The fish took her well into the backing on the reel and when it finally stopped running she had a long way to bring it back to the boat. She fought it well for about twenty minutes and then the fish made another run and popped the hook. That was a good fish, but all we could do was reel up and start over again.
We wanted to try to get some fluking in before the tide changed since it would be too rough with wind against tide conditions. We decided to continue chunking for another half hour before leaving to try some fluking. With that in mind it was time to have some fun. I broke out my light baitcasting rig that I use to bucktail fluke with and proceeded to free float a chunk. Everyone looked at me strangely to see what was going to happen if I hooked a decent fish.
I wasn't out 75 feet when I hooked a bass and began to bring him to the boat. In ten minutes a 22 lb bass was laying on the deck. This time Dave also grabbed his light rig and was immediately into a good fish. Two minutes later I hooked another fish and passed the rod to Sharon. With a little coaching, Sharon did battle and land a 25 lb bass on the light outfit. Than I rigged up Mike's light outfit and he hooked up. While all this was going on Lorry was still using the fishfinder rig and in her usual style, and methodically putting fish in the boat.
Time was running out. The wind was building and it was now or never if we were going to try for fluke. We left the bass biting and headed for the north rips. Dave and I rigged with Silver Bullets and Teasers and everyone else used bait rigs. We still had wind and tide together, but the wind was blowing 25-30 knots and we were flying over the bottom. In a half hour I hooked four shorts and Dave had one keeper. We tried a couple of drops near the beach for a better drift, but the fish were only on the rips and the conditions were horrible. We decided to call it a day.
Final count was 40-50 bass from 30 inches to 30 pounds. We kept our limit of fish around 15 pounds each and released the rest, particularly the larger fish. Bass over 25 pounds are predominantly females, spawners and represent the future of this great game fish.
It was another great trip at Montauk with good friends to share it with and the anticipation of another great season ahead of us.
Tight Lines.
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