MVP 2015 Fishing Reports

[Joey Dah Fish]

Great report Alex

[hartattack]

Congrats Henry on your PB and its release. Would've been somethng if you hooked it on the trout-rod jigging stick Great write-up (as always) Alex - your pursuit of the elusive 20-lb'er will soon pay off

[jigemup]

Did catch one about 8# on the second day of the trip on the "trout"jigging stick. I must admit that the 16+ would have been a real challenge getting the first few feet of braid back. Would love to get the chance to do it.

[MVP]

Tim, Joe and all the guys from High-Mar. Can not thank you guys enough for putting together such a well run event.

Very grateful to be able to participate and contribute to such a worthy cause
Team Eastwick made the board again for the 3rd straight year
1st place 2013
3rd place 2014
5th place 2015

We squeaked in this year with 40 lb total. I had the first bass of the day at 24 lbs. Nice way to break the ice and get us started. Raul then followed up with a 13 lb. bass. Keeper put not what we were looking for. With are two bass in the first hour we know we had a shot if we could upgrade that second fish. Sounded good in theory but blues had another plan in store for us. As all we could get to bite were the blues. Did not matter what we tried. Fished 2 lines on bottom and 2 on top. Live bunker, Whole chunks, heads butterflied. Did not matter as blues destroyed all our offerings. At around 1130 am we decided to swing for the fences and head to the rocks in search of one decent bass. Fished a few spots with our bunker but had no LOVE. Only 2 others boats in area who were trolling but only had bluefish to show for their efforts. Broke out my custom Australian spoon rods for about half hour hoping they would work their magic on custom made Legacy spoons but bass were not present as water was 52.5 degrees

Knowing we needed one more decent size bass we headed back to our morning spot that produced are two keeper bass. As the tide picked up Raul got his second bass of the day that weighed in at 16 pounds. Not the 20+ we were hoping for but it was an upgrade from the earlier 13 pounder.
After being inundated with blues again we pulled the plug at 310 and worked our way back for 4 pm weigh in hoping that with all the bluefish action that are 2 bass would hold up. Final weigh in takes place and team Eastwick makes the board for the 3rd year in a row.

Can not thank the guys from Hi - Mar and Barh's Landing and sponsors enough for hosting us as they put on very nice spread:
Clam Chowder, Fried Stripe bass chunks, cheesesteaks, onion rings, rice with shrimp and scallops, sautéed mushrooms and onions and peppers. NICE

Congrats to all the winners and everyone who participated
Looking forward to next year already as our 5th place prize is free entry into next years tournament

[MVP]

5/21/15 RI Blackfish/Fluke Combo Trip Report

Received call from Capt. I fish with in the fall for blackfish out of Newport, RI.
He asked me if I was interested in doing a combo trip of Blackfish, fluke and possibly squid. His biggest blackfish of the year are normally caught in May. He knows how to get my attention. Sounded like an interesting trip and with chance for one last chance at catching blackfish so I sent out text to see if I can get a crew together to fish 5/21. Put a great crew together (Capt. Lou, Kurtis, Bob Bates, Mark (AWAD) and myself. Timing a trip like this is difficult as it is towards the end of the blackfish bite which has been very good the last 2 weeks and the beginning of fluke season for them. Squid fishing has been lights out in Hyannis, MA so they usually come in after the Hyannis run. We were coming off the moon on 5/18 so I thought my timing was going to give us a shot to get all 3 species in.

Met everyone at the boat at 5:45 and were off to the grounds at 6 am in cold windy conditions. The nice thing about fishing Newport is that the scenery is amazing and you are normally fishing great bottom in minutes as the run to the fishing grounds is short. Game plan was to limit out on the blackfish in the morning and then focus on the fluke afterwards. Come in have dinner and then head out for squid in the evening. Sounded like a great plan but conditions and migration of fish and squid had different idea. Squid were not in good numbers so Capt. decided to scratch the squid rather than taking us for a boat ride in the evening. SW winds that day may have bought in colder water and must have effected the blackfish bite as we tried early and later in the day and only managed 4 keepers for the 5 of us. Fluking was a little better but still below par as the bite is just starting.

I was disappointment with the results as I have been fishing RI for blackfish for 20 years and have only had 2 slow days in all that time. Not a bad ratio of good to great trips vs slow days but still disappointed as I wanted my guys on my trip to experience the great tog/fluke fishing I am use to. Felt like I let them down even though I know it is out of my control. Capt. moved around from blackfishing to fluking back to blackfishing and finishing with fluke as bite is truly effected by the tide. It was not for lack of effort as Capt. worked to get us on the bite. Total count for the trip was 4 keeper blackfish and 10 keeper fluke for the 5 of us. Can not thank the guys enough as they are seasoned charter fisherman and no you have to have a few slow trips to appreciate the really good ones. Even though Capt. Lou loves to bust my chops all the time my MVP Award went to him for catching the 3 biggest fluke of the trip including pool winner that went around 7 lbs. Will most likely head up to fluke fish in late July targeting bigger fluke in deeper water and then blackfish in late Oct.