Another J-Bay Kayak Classic in the history books! As always a different story to go with the event. Weather good and bad. Broken gear and decent fishing!

As my previous post stated, the weather wasn’t predicted to be fish able Thurs night into early Saturday morning as a slow moving but very strong storm system was predicted to pass through the area. Thought about staying home Thursday night and leaving very early Friday morning to beat the traffic. I was unsure of what the weather would be like so the decision was made as soon as 5:30 came and work was done a day early for the week. Finished my packing and left the house a little after 8:00 PM to arrive at Floyd Bennett Field by 9:00. It was too windy for night fishing so a few brews and a little catch up and sleep for the morning.

Friday:

Around 7am it was still very windy. We hung out for the morning and awaited the captains meeting at 11 AM. After the rules were explained it was decided the tournament is to be postponed until 5AM Saturday morning. The video shows the morning before the captains meeting.

A group of us went fishing anyway. It was quite windy at least 10-15 with 20-25 mph gusts. Mill Basin was the only place sheltered from the direction of the wind. It seemed like a good spot for fishing. The area was loaded with bunker. Using 1 oz a weighted treble hook snag the bunker. Then reel it in and hook it up on a live line setup.

A live line setup consists of a Heavy rod be it a jigging rod or just good 7 foot 4-8oz rod. I use a custom 7′ heavy rod with a Abu Garcia 7000 C3 reel spooled with 65lb Power Pro spectra Braid  Terminal tackle consists of a 9/0-10/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook with 50-60 lb mono or fluoro carbon leader a barrel swivel. For weight you can use a nylon slide on the main line with 12-16″ leader extension for a bank sinker or use an inline egg sinker with a bead at the swivel side.

For snagging bunker for bait. I use a Medium Heavy spinning rod with a Quantum Boca 40PT series reel. Also a 60lb fluorocarbon leader is tied on uni to uni. You may use a wire leader after that before the weighted treble hook. Just in case a bluefish inhales the bait you just snagged. Added protection against blues biting through your fluoro leader.

Fishing for me was uneventful after fishing the area being blown around for 3 hours. A few of us made the decision to get off the water. What a great decision it was. Not even 20 mins later the wind was intensified to easily sustained at 30 mph. Back at camp/tournament headquarters portable toilets were being blown over. Tents and shelters were knocked down and tables and chairs from the event tent were thrown over.

The weather ended the day and eventually cleared up around 11:30 PM after down pouring for about 2 hours.

Saturday:

Up at 4:00 am and getting ready for 5 AM tournament start. Trucked the BIg Rig Down to the launch. After Broke my cart I then broke my pliers. Realized i did not have enough rod leashes with tme so i ended up making 2 more. On the water about 3/4 mile from the launch first hook up trolling a Spro BBZ1 Thought it was a Striper at first turned out to be a 32″ bluefish. Thats a nice fish. Measured him for the tournament and released him alive. Caught 4 more around the same size one  20 inches. No bass. Was looking for schools of bunker but dud not see any. The amount of freshwater probably pushed the bait down.

Went back to the launch to get my net for fluke fishing. fluke fished for about 30 min wind against tide. Couldn’t even buy a hit.

After coming back to the launch a second time I noticed 2 police cutters and a helicopter. Looked like they were searching for something. Turned out they were just training. It was pretty cool watching them maneuver and pickup the divers.

After that i went back out for picking up winds against the tide. It got rough out there so i headed in.

A few hours later gave it another shot for Fluke this time paddling the Cuda 14. It was still rough out there and wind against the tide. Gave it about an hour and gave up with no Fluke being caught.

Sunday:

Sunday was a hard day to find fish. I was looking for fluke most of the day. Was able to hook up a few decent sized bluefish. Fluke were not easily found again. Off the water around 12 pm and loaded up just in time for the awards and lunch. Jackson Kayak donated a Big Rig for raffle which was really cool!  There were four other boats for the raffle too. The winners received a nice plaque with the chart of j-bay and the 4 targeted fish painted on it.

To the right were the results of the tournament. Brian Pickard was in our group and won 3rd place Grand Slam! Grand slam is 3 largest combined fish consisting of a Striped Bass plus Fluke Bluefish or Weakfish.

If you have never fished Jamaica Bay its a great place to fish. It is very kayak friendly and holds many migratory fish. I look forward to seeing everyone there next year!!

For the past 2 years Jersey Cape Kayak Fishing (JCKF) a New Jersey based kayak fishing club has organized a Jamboree for kayak anglers to get together have fun while camping and fishing the Susquehanna River Delta at the Chesapeake Bay in Havre de Grace Maryland. The Jamboree’s format is not that of a tournament but much like the boondoggle except an entry fee which supports a roast pig dinner with sides an event shirt and all funds left over benefits Heroes on the Water Chapters of Maryland, Central Pennsylvania, Western Pennsylvania and New Jersey. As always there is a few calcutta’s which are voluntary. The class is Striped Bass, Large Mouth Bass, Catfish, and Slam. Longest catch photo release wins entire pot per category.

This year Jim Dolan president of the Heroes on the Water organization joined us. It was an honor to have him spend the weekend with us and also have a few veterans from previous HOW outings join in too.

Fishing was uneventful for most during the event. The photo of Gary ‘Fishenfool’ on the left describes it well! The lack of fish or fish that were feeding was blamed on the amount of water flowing through the Conowingo Dam and as a result the 48 degree water temps on the flats.  It was expected after a cold winter. A few catfish Large Mouth Bass & Small Mouths were reported. Only four total Striped Bass were reported to be caught and released. Although the Calcutta weigh in board stated one cow was 46 inches.  The raffle was immense this year with many sponsors donating product and swag to benefit HOW.

For me it was just relaxing to get out on the water with a fishing rod for the first time this season. Wake up call was at 4 am. Ended up being the first one out of camp as the gate wasn’t even open yet.  On my way to the park where the decision was made to be the launch I made a stop at Royal farms for coffee and ice. Arrived at the ramp around 4:50 and there were a lot of bass boats showing up. Parked close to the boat ramp and begun to gear up the Big Rig. Being this was the first time taking it fishing I had to figure out where all of my gear was to be stored and also attach a few Ram Mounts here and there. It took me about 45 minutes to figure everything out and finally drop into the water. Must say everything went smoothly. Although missing the sun rise was a bummer.

The Torqeedo on the Big Rig performed well for trolling. I did paddle for about an hour though to get used to the size of the Big Rig. It seems the Torqeedo will run all day at slow trolling speeds. I fished from 7 AM til 12 PM and only used 40% of the battery! I need to figure out how to export the GPS tracks on my Lowrance chart plotter. Trolled 2 rods with Xraps Yo Zoris Bombers Ratl Traps you name it. Should have dragged that tube and worm behind me. Two feet of water 10 feet of water marked massive carp in the channels and also saw them jumping.

It was great to see those that fish these events and meet new people as always! Looking forward to the upcoming mid-Atlantic saltwater season. The Striped Bass should be off the shore and in the back bays of New Jersey soon.

Thanks to JCKF for all of the hard work to put this event on in elite style!

Another great annual event is over. What a great time! A total of 98 were registered anglers. Arrived on Friday afternoon after picking up a Big Tuna Demo from Jersey Paddler. I ended up going straight to TKFS to see who was fishing and how they were making out also to possibly fish. It seems as i arrived there and said hello to everyone at the store they guys were coming in. The typical crew of Capt. Jim Gary Brian and Chris. They were all togging at the bridge there. They amazingly all limited out within 2 hours. As they came in the winds were blowing a steady 20 with gusts to 30. So I decided to join the crew for fresh fried tog.
Tautog is incredibly tasty fish. One of my favorites in fact. Hung out with the guys for a little while them met up for the captains meeting. Collected my captains bag. A lot of cool swag again this year! These guys know how to put together a bag o swag! Had the opening toast then got ready to go fishing for the 9 PM start.

Wawa Turkey Dinner Bowls are back!!!!! Grabbed me one of those for dinner! Arrived at the drop in location and ate my dinner. By the time i was all loaded and dry geared up the 5 guys i was going fishing with ere nowhere to be found and I was unable to get radio contact for some reason. There was no game plan I was aware of so i trolled out the inlet with no hits. Finally got a text and paddled to the location of the other guys.  They were already into the bass. I guess it was pretty much too late by the time i arrived i saw some of the guys boat small bass but i had none all night. Decided to bail at 2:00 am.

The plan was to sleep for 2 hours if possible then return to the same fishing spot for sunrise. Eh yeah that didn’t happen. After awaking around 6:30 and getting to the drop in around 7:30 it was togging day!. Cape May has an incredible togging fishery. Togging from a kayak is ideal as typically you are going to be fishing around structure such as bridges rock piles wrecks and jetty’s.

Picked me up 2 dozen green crabs from the bait shop. Each crab = 2 baits. Using meat shears you will simply cut the crab in half front to back and also cut the claws and legs off.  My rig was a high low tog rig with the sinker at the top. You can also use a single hook rig which most use in the area. Tog are tough fish to catch because as you hook them they swim quickly into the structure below. Snagging your rig up and fraying the leader. You have to hook the fish and begin reeling asap to keep the fish out of the structure. I pretty much stuck with baiting with 1 hook as 2 dozen green crabs can be all used up within a couple of hours. The fishing was great. Easily landed well over 15 fish. None over the legal limit to keep though.

Before the day was over I decided to join the guys along the rock wall out the inlet. The wind was fierce blowing at a steady 20 gusting id say to 30 mph.

Tried to fish the area but with the incoming tide ripping and that stiff wind it was just close to impossible. Snagged my rig up cut it and left to go back to the campground and setup the HOW video on the projector for the dinner.

The dinner was excellent as it has been in the past. I wish we played the video before the awards and after dinner so everyone would have been able to hear the audio.

We ran off the raffle and that was the night. The wind continued to blow all night. Next morning packed up and that’s another jamboree in the books.