Viking Long Range Wreck Hunt - The Full Story
Viking - Montauk
December 3-5, 1999
Let's put things into perspective. Mother nature is off her rocker. We've had unseasonably warm weather with average temperatures of 55 to 60 degrees...and it's December! Hello out there...not the norm. Remember December?....30-40 degrees, frost, snow, ice...not t-shirts. Ahhh, please pass the suntan lotion....where's my polaroid sunglasses? Water temps are the name of the game, and 58 degree weather is not for cod and even sea bass to move their little butts. Why bite when bait is abundunt. Looking for tuna? Rumor was 5 days ago they were slamming in the Hudson canyon. Not the norm in any book. Bluefin were spotted 20 miles out off Jones Inlet. The fish are moving to their local haunts, but taking their long, sweet time. They're between busses. Don't worry, I have a feeling nature is going to turn real ugly, real quick in the coming days.
So now I can get to the story at hand. It was a hard pick for Steve and he played his cards as best as possible. We caught fish and I mean all the species. But nowhere near the normal numbers that I am used to seeing on these wreck trips. No one and I mean no one did fantastic. From Rhode Island to the Nantucket wrecks, it was slow. There are bluefish being caught in these wrecks. Mike (from Captain Mike) and my good friend Barry Delisle are top notch fishermen and they did the pick "dance". Some of the boys from the Freeport Tuna Club got a few nice fish, but this is fishing not every time is a grand slam. I wish it was.
The weather was incredible. I mean slamming. It felt like I was in the bag, the seas were so calm. No need for a snowsuit, just a sweater, if that. The mates did a great job. We did get a few wolf fish, some nice jumbo sea bass, big pollack and some really big hakes on the second night. And some silver eels right out of a horror flick. (Eels with bad up bringing). Compared to what I heard about the other long range wreck trips, Steve did well....trust me on this one.
What we need is some cold weather to stick around and lower the water temperatures. (I never thought that I'd be praying for cold weather! I'm a palm tree sort of a guy!)