Mad Gaffer black fishing report sat.dec.12

[Capt Ray Mad Gaffer]

It was not a great day but Abigail improvements over yesterday’s We had a few nice fish, and quite a few fishi on the boat .Check all open boat page here for schedule And check us out On Facebook, and Instagram for pictures on schedule, phone for information and reservations stay healthy stay safe thanks Ray

[Capt Ray Mad Gaffer]

Little something extra, we caught Black Fish Pretty much everywhere we fished, not a great deal in any one place, but a couple on every drop, if you drop the boat back you would catch a couple more. I noticed when you first stop you really don’t read very much, and all of a sudden bait readings would come under the boat, and then bigger readings with them. And having looked at these fish scopes , And fishfinders for now over 50 years the readings that came under the boat are off the bottom, and one might think they were either striped bass, or dogfish. But no striped bass were caught where we were , and no dogfish to speak of either . But when this happened, and it happens every time we stopped we would catch a couple of Blackfish . I told a few people to reel two or 3 feet off the bottom and let it down slowly , and immediately we caught Black Fish. Not many at any one time, and they were not all keepers but the readings you’re seeing are in my estimation blackfish chasing sand eels . Proof positive is when you cut the blackfish open most of them are loaded with sand eels. There have been numbers of blackfish taken, while jigging striped bass nowhere near any structure. My humble opinion is that these Blackfish have become scattered and seem to be almost anywhere you find the sand eels . They are not all stacked up i
Up in their usual habitat foraging for crabs, small lobsters, mussels and barnacles that are usually found where they live , but they have been eating something different and chasing it Which sort of dilutes the fish population on any spot ,proof positive is that you can go anywhere and catch a couple. Today we caught Blackfish where we don’t usually catch them, you would catch one or two then ,and drop the boat back 50 feet and catch another one or two in other words you can’t build them , they are not eating what you’re giving them. Hopefully this water will cool down and then the sand eels will move out , and The Blackfish will return to their usual habitat and feeding habits. This particular phenomenon this year has been going on since we got this great influx of sand eels . When the season was only open for one fish we were catching blackfish and throwing many keepers back, then when we got the sand eels We also got the dog fish and some of the best striped bass fishing That we’ve had many many years, which is still good, and that’s when the blackfish seem to have scatter , and the fishing got difficult. This is only an observation but I’ve been running fishing boats for more than 50 years ,and I have seen stranger things happen than this, it’s just my opinion thanks be safe Ray