Team Ludwig

Mike and Kevin Ludwig joined me today for a LT tuna outing....We ran to the grounds and it didn't seem overly fishy....A bit but not like you are hoping for....Within 5 minutes we were tight to our first tuna of the day.. The fish burned off many yards of backing but we paced it and when things settled down applied the wood to him. At 40 minutes the hook pulls while Kevin is in the harness....ugggh!

Things settle down and we get another boil on plastic but he doesnt connect....Big bass do however and we release many bass in excess of 20lbs. Eventually it died off and we made a run to another area and were pretty much all by ourselves...Whales were showing with many birds...We shut down and started blind casting. After 10 minutes we got tight on the sea cucumber and had the fish boatside in 10 when the hook pulled!..uggh squared!

We rig back up, this time with big rubbah and Kevin gets two huge boils on a got stryper rubbah bait....The third time he inhaled it and after 20 minutes we have a fish to the gaff. We finished the day chasing breezers in the slop with a few opportunites but with the gift of one and the day winding down we were content to head in...

Great guys that I hope to fish with again in the future...

Radar Love.....

Got the new radar and multidisplay unit put in....So far the radar is cool........

Today I had Jerry and Ryan Gilbert onboard for a LT tuna outing. We found some life on the bank and started jigging and blind casting. Eventually we came tight with a nice fish on rubbah and Jerry put the wood to him. He was a feisty SOB!....We had another blind strike then went for a run only to come back and catch slob bass....On the way in we found alot of breezing fish that we were unable to connect with. Great day fishing with this father son team and I look forward to getting them out again...

Holy butt fart batman!

Today I had Mike and Bill Barton onboard.. This is their third year fishing with me and we always manage to have a great time. Mike is a diehard fly guy and Bill throws the spin with the best of them. They booked me for wed but being a commercial day and having more pressure on the fish than I would like I decided to try and push it to Friday...Fridays weather looks like it could be nasty so we opted for today a commercial day as well...

Long story short, I have never seen so many commercial bass people in all my years fishing the gounds as I did today....Mostly eeling, but there was wire line jigging , tube and worming and *US*!!....I tried my damndest to stay out of the armada and actually found several pods of fish but as soon as we had a bent rod we were surrounded with eelers....We got 5 nice keepers and decided that was enough and went and had some PHENOMENAL top water bluefish action all by ourselves....Teased up bluefish then casting a fly popper or slider in is way too much fun...We ended the day on a great note and had alot of fun with the yellow eyed devils...

On another note, I finally ordered a new radar and gps unit....Make a little...spend alot...Seems to be the story of my season to date!!

Bass fishing is top shelf

It's been an odd week chartering. I had two last minute cancellations that left me hanging so spent a day OTW with buds chasing tuna. Scott Simard and Rocco the muscle man and I head out in Roccos beautiful 26 Regulator...This trip was just what the doctor ordered...No stress as I was just along for the ride. We hit the numerous breezing fish that had been showing and it wasn't long before I got crushed on an Ocean Lure swimming mackeral. We lost the fish after a minute but it was a pig none the less....The day wore on and I even downed a few ice cold bud lights...We got tight a total of 10 times but all fish spit the hook but one which I hooked and Rocco landed in less than 3 minutes..

Bass fishing has been top shelf the last week....We have just CRUSHED them on Lt and fly...Yesterday we boated 30 plus fish over 34 inches in just over 3 hours of fishing......

My schedule is only half full so if you would like to get out on the water then give me a jingle...

Sol Watson and his fishing pal Percy met me at the ramp at 4;30 am yesterday and we had high hopes for the day. I explained that the bite was waning on my usual grounds and we might have to pull out the stops and find these fish elsewhere. The forcast was totally off and we were met with a stiff 15mph NW wind which made for a very uncomfortable trip to the grounds...Upon arriving I could tell it was dead for that amount of wind. We did mark a few but after an hour of releasing dogfish and bass we decided to make a move...Going farther north was going to be very uncomfortable so opted to run east which showed no life as well....From here we swing south and find the mother load of life and setup but not marking or seeing any charlie....I tell Percy to start blind casting the big Got Stryper bait and have Sol start vertical jigging with the RONZ...I pick up a rod and start to re-rig a dogfish torn leader when I hear *BOOM*!! and look up and see a whole in the water the size of a volkswagen...Percy is tight on the St. Croix Stella combo....We get to chasing the fish as I help Percy with technique....We decide were going to beat this fish fast and Sol and Percy change off every 10 minutes...At 25 minutes they hand off to me to get the fish up the last 30-50' or so....I get him up quick and add just a bit more drag...He is on the surface and just before we go for a gaff shot he rolls over and away on the outside of a circle and spirals his body in the leader. I go to release the drag but he kicked his tail hard a few times before I could and parted us off....Next time I will keep my hands out of the game...
We stick with this area for another hour or so until slack and the life and bait just DIES....So we pick up and head to another area that is just as lifeless....After an hour here we see breezers and I explain the game to these guys and Percy gets hooked up on a BEAST that was an awesome take....Before I can even get the boat turned around the fish is gone....We got one more boil but the boys had a deadline to get to the ferry. We ended the day 0 for 2 and worked very hard for what we got....
Somedays you just step in it and somedays you gotta work it out....Today we definently had to work it out....
Pics on blog..

July 4th week in review

We made it through the holiday weekend and managed to still find fish among the crowds created by the weekend. There was a reduction in the amount of bass found on the inshore waters that I frequent but if you stuck with it keepers would finally come over the rail. The bluefish however invaded big time which seemed to push alot of the better bass out of the area. Besides Steve and his boys, I had a couple from NY area and another father/son from Turo/Sarasota. Getting calls from Scott and Terry and literally had to turn my cell phone off cuz I couldn't take it anymore...If anybody knows me, they know I am tuna crazy... Yesterday Steve L and I prepared for a full day of tuna hunting. After the day before's tuna fest we were hopeful but with the forcasted SE wind and full moon timing I must admit to a dark hole in my stomach. We arrived on station to some life but not a ton of it...Scott called and said they were tight and before I hung up with him my fishfinder lit up like a christmas tree....I told Steve to cast anywhere and after 3 pops with the Got Stryper bait a very large tuna sucks it down and Steve is off to the races...I had calibrated the drag so that with quarter turn increments I would know where 30lbs was. After the initial run and getting back on top of the fish we cranked her down. Steve did an awesome job until his back started giving out but still managed to put good pressure on the fish. At 40 minutes with the fish under the boat, Steve reared back and the hook pulled....As he tumbled back my gut wrenched as I wondered if the new Sebile knot I learned and used let go. Luckily the knot held fine and the owner 11/0 just pulled. We had a bit more action but no commitments from fish until it was time to move on. The wind kept coming but we kept trudging and found alot of bait and birds which we hung out in for sometime but never developed.. Eventually we ended back where we saw our first group of the morning and had a couple awesome opportunities but just could not seal the deal...SE wind in CCB creates a very confused sea...Not sure why but it is downright just uncomfortable...Cold and defeated, we headed for the barn...