Jamaica II 11/5 and 11/6

[tautog]

I was on board for a double header this week.

First trip was on Election Day. Fishing was excellent for porgies. Most were large and some were jumbos over 2lbs. If you put on number 2 hooks with small pieces of bait, you were golden. First spot had a lot of porgies and some nice sea bass among the peewees. Bluefish were a PIA here. Mostly small ones but they still were very good at taking rigs. Two nice 4-5lb weakfish also came up here.

The next couple spots were a bit slow with some porgies and sea bass. Then we hit a very good porgy spot where most of the fish were around 1 1/2lbs. Some decent sea bass also came up here but not on my hook. Then we hit a last spot that was also a bit slow. I wound up with a limit of porgies and 1 keeper sea bass along with 5 or 6 blues. If you fished for porgies properly, you would have at least 30. Sea bass were very mixed in size. Some people had a decent keeper percentage and had a dozen or more. Other like me went 1 for 60. Those are the breaks.

Next trip was the 11/6 12 hour marathon. It was tough to drag myself down there as my wrists were still screaming. First spot was a good steam away. When we first stopped a few cod came up. I had a 14lber which was the biggest. Then some decent sea bass came up and then the porgies turned on. They were a bit smaller on average than yesterday but still good numbers of 14"-16" fish. We shifted around here for a while and everyone targeting porgies had 25 on up to near limit.

Then Ryan took us searching for sea bass. This next spot had lots of sea bass and some decent keeper action to boot. Nothing jumbo but a better ratio than yesterday. There were a few porgies mixed in here. I would up getting a 12-13lb blue here which was a PIA on 15lb baitcasting gear.

Last spot has some more sea bass and some chops. It was a decent pick here. I wound up with the 14lb cod, a limit of porgies, 10 keeper sea bass, the big blue and an 11" pinfish. Wes Stout had 40 porgies and his limit of sea bass. Dale Isaacs had a limit of porgies and a few sea bass along with his usual bad attitude. We had a cool little 5 or 6 yo boy out with his family who kept at the rail all day which is quite a feat on a 12 hour trip. The porgies are here so you might as well enjoy them, they are good to eat and fight really hard. People complain about bones but they are not a big deal on fish over 12".