5.25.19 Scarce Bunker Schools

I headed out of the slip at 5:15 and went about an hour west in search of bunker schools getting attacked by big bass.  I found sporadic spread out bunker schools that were generally unbothered. The bunker schools were very spread out and the ones I found had very spread out individual bunker in it, which made snagging them nearly an impossible task.I only snagged one after hours of trying, only to have it fall off the hook. 

When I was on a few bunker schools, I did noticed that there were some pretty good looking large marks under and around the bunker schools.  I knew if I dropped down a live one there was a pretty good chance it would get inhaled.  It was very frustrating to not be able to snag the bunker.  I guess that is why trolling can be very productive this time of year.  Trolling is just not my favorite way to catch big bass.

I am hearing of big bass being caught in the islands and on the bunker schools on chunks, trolling, and live ones. 

5.19.19 Schoolies on Rips

Spent the morning out with friend, Captain Mike Platt from light bite charters , fishing for schoolies.  We checked mid sound and found some bunker schools milling around, unmolested. Then we hit up boulder fields and rip lines along the shoreline and were rewarded with a few schoolies, 1 on top water, which is great for this time of year with water temps in the high 50s.  Hope things start to heat up, both literally (water temp) and figuratively with the larger fish hopefully moving in from our south.  There are reports of bigger fish being caught near the islands on chunks and trolling, however I believe the largest biomass of large striped bass is about 10-20 miles west.

5.17.19 Bass-Grass-Mudflats-Muskrats

Finally dropped the boat in the water yesterday.  All went well for the most part.  Still need to tweak the engine a bit to get it running perfectly, but I was able to get it up to 46mph, which is a new record for my boat.  That was with a full tank of gas and 2 guys, an my dog on the boat.

I drove all over the sound and to Long Island just to burn off some old gas.  I saw bunker schools mid sound, as well as a chain gang of boats trolling the reefs.

Later on, I jumped on my buddy James's--> norwalkislandsfishing.com boat after I can back to the dock and we fished till dark.  We hit up many of the usually haunts in the rips with high hopes and got 1-2 small cookie cutter sized bass.  It wasn't until we explored a mudflat that we really saw the most action.  There were schoolies pushing bait against the grass, and egrets there to pick out the bait.

We had a consistant bite going on poppers and popper flies.  It was a great time.  We ended up with probably 10-15 fish in total all around the 20-23" size.  Some were a little chunkier than others.