5-13

5-16

Ed -5-15

Report Week of 5/10-5/16

Last week finally started to show some bigger bass to the west from Greenwich to Hemstead in mid sound. Wednesday (5-13) night had pretty strong winds from the south for a lot of rock and rolling, but 5 different drops all produced fish in that they were on the bite everywhere. Most where cookie cutters from 15lb to 20lb bass. The 5^th drop final provided slightly bigger fish with the largest (short but fat) going 27.4lb.

Fridays trip (5-15)was flat calm but a lot slower then Wednesday, with several keepers but no fish over 15lbs. Last minute Saturday,( 5-16) I was asked to guide a short trip West and in just 90 minutes of fishing, young Jack was able to land his first bass ever of 22lbs. (My guess by the way he paid attention and asked questions there will be more to come.). Almost forgot, blue also made a showing on 5-13 and 5-15.

Local light tackle plugging is excellent for schoolies. On Monday night (5-11) I had a one man evening trip in local waters with Ed Sambucco. Ed finished the night with 3 nice keepers. One which he kept for the dinner table and the others were released for another day.

Weekly Report 5-17 to 5-23

The bigger fish have arrived. My guess a few 40's will be starting to fall in the very near future. I predict by the end of this week, someone is going to have a 50. Oh, how I hope its someone on my boat. Bluefish are going crazy. If you want action with blues for the most part it's a slam-dunk.

	The evening trip of May 20^th with Mark and company was top notch. There were 16 bass caught, the largest a few ounces under 30lbs to the west of Norwalk We are fishing more east every day, but the Hempstead area is still the hot ticket. Four bass were kept, (2 over 40 inches and 2 around 38 inches) for the two anglers. Make no doubt about it the evening bite (dusk on) is far better then the daytime bite. In addition, there are fewer bluefish after sunset.
	The evening of 5-22. I left the fleet. There just were to many boats buzzing around Hempstead on a calm flat night. I went east and found my own school. The fishing was great. 8 or 9 keepers, all the fish over 20lb but 1. 2 over 27lb and one over 30. Another great night. These are the two largest. Thanks David
	5-24, I guided a trip with three young anglers and their dad. Oh how I wish they were with me on 5-22. Two fish, and a few missed hits. The boat I guided on, had a broken fish finder, so to a certain degree I was fishing blind. Still no execuse. The crew was great. No skinny water plugging this week, everyone wants the cows

Reports June 8th back to June 1

Bass Fishing has turned on locally with the big girls just outside the islands and fish up tohigh teens starting to move onto the flats on the night time tides. Plugging has been great with a large abundance of sand eels and silver sides. Great top water action.

	June 8th -Fished with Matt, from the Sunny South, and Kevin on Monday. A sunset charter that had two hours of skinny water / near shore plugging and 2 hours of shallow water chunking. The plugging around the Norwalk islands is best in years. Blues and bass are usually found somewhere eating sand eels and silvers. Monday was no exception. The first hour no tied movement, however, 1^st spot, Kevin's first Bass, on a surface plug, 2nd spot blues on surface plugs. Moved to an area I knew the fish stage at the start of the tide, we found bass and blues mixed and ended our plugging with 8 bass and a half dozen blues and a great sunset. The fish were 4lb to 6lbs or so, but great fun on 10lb test. . Great 1st half. The spook type lures were better than the popper types. ( Never got to a pencil) 2^nd half of the trip, I anchored off a shallow bar and not a pick up. After 45 minutes we moved to a channel edge, fishing the shallow flats (about 4 feet). We missed 3 or so run offs but landed two bass about 10lb and one long skinny blue fish. I love skinny water chunking, flat calm, even though outside is was blowing about 10mph from the south east or so, and watching bass or blues swirling at times on the bait. ( Light outfits for this type of chunking with little or no weight if you try this type of fishing. Oh and motors up.) Matt, you were a real gentleman, giving Kevin first crack on the run offs.
	June 4^th. Had a regular on board, Ed. He selected at the last minute to go on the chunk instead of plugging. We landed two nice bass up to 18lb and a few blues. Nice Night. Thanks, Ed for fishing the Rod and Reel again.
	May 31^st I had Paul from Ct fishing with me. He started the trip off with one request, to catch a bass of a life timeWell the fishing goods were looking down on me and Paul landed this largest Bass ever of 27lb. A short time later the rod drops and Paul sets the hook into another fish of a lifetime. ( I have this one all on video as soon as I figure out how to post a video). With a few runs, including one near the motor, we net a 37.4lb bass. Paul rounded the morning trip off with a few more bass, the largest being 25lb. Thanks Paul for Fishing with RodandReel.
	May 30^th - Fished with Chris, his Dad and Father in law. First Drop in the mornings was just a 16lb bass, but soon the tide changed we found fish. 8 or so bass from mid teens to 22lbs. Great Morning, Thanks Chris for fishing RodandReel.

Reports as of June 23rd. There are still plenty of bunker in Norwalk. There are large stripers both outside and inside. Pleanty of fish in the skinny. Finally starting to shape up locally.

	June 23rd - I went out with Sam, a regular, on Tuesday evening, I fished skinny and calm water with light tackle in hopes of giving Sam one real trophy on light tackle. What a blast. 7 or 8 Bass, 1 over 15lb and 3 over 20lbs with the largest 24lbs. All in about the last 2&1/2 hours of the flood. It was so nice to get the fish in the skinny, calm waters with no weights and light outfits. When a fish takes off, nowhere to go but out. Actually most of the time they run in towards the rocks or grass and its thumbs to the spool. (Blister city on the big ones) The other bass were about 30 inches, 5 to 6lbs or so. Also had 3 or 4 nice blues about 6 pounds. Two of the bigger bass are still out there and two are headed to a barbecue this week. The inside of the Norwalk Islands are filled with sandbars, rips and structure. However, it's not for the inexperienced captains after dark so be careful if you venture over.
	June20th -Fished a day break charter with new friends Sam and Scott. For chunking, the bass are starting to transition to resident fish and structure as well as still migratory under the bunker schools. We fished near shore structure in the AM and missed several run offs landing 1 bass of about 10lbs (Short but Fat. When I cleaned it, it had 5 manta shrimp in its stomach). We moved to deeper structure and landed two Bass that were skinner with the largest 34 inches as well as missing a few
	June 16th - Bob fishing aboard the Rod and Reel landed a fish just a shade under 15lb along with a few smaller bass, all on chunks.
	June 12th - I had a real pilgrim aboard for Friday Night, Harry from Plymouth, England. It was my first sunset to sunrise trip for 2009. We started off plugging up about ½ dozen schoolie bass and some blues before making bait for the rest of the night. We then set out to deep water and Harry landed a nice Striped Bass of 18 lbs as well as missing a few. We moved into shallow water for the bite on the higher tide and landed a few smaller bass and then made it outside for the sunrise bite, which started off great, double hook up and multiple runoffs. The fish were in the teens. Then ½ hour after the sun was up over the horizon, the bite shut down and in we came. Thanks Harry for fishing Rod and Reel Charters.

Reports July 13th back to June 24th. Fish have finally moved into the summer mode. The water is cooler this year so there are plenty of bass on the inside up to mid teens. For some reason I have not seen a lot of blue fish yet. Plugging is excellent one day, fair the next and then excellent again. As of last night there were still plenty of nice bass in deep water.

	7-13-Went out with John and Nelson. The mission was simple show them as many ways to catch bass in local water as possible. We started off plugging and landed a small bass. Five cast later John hits a nice 15lb bass on 10lb test. The fish gave a great account of himself and we stuck him in the cooler. Lost a few other. The poppers did not do much so we sailed to deep water for the twilight bite and landed two more nice bass around 12lb. Great evening.
	7-12 Went plugging by myself and a buddy to try to figure things out. Swithed from the typle spooks, bucktail and shad to hard skinny shallow swimmers. Seems to be the secret, landed about 10 bass in about 90 minutes. No keepers, but fish at most points around Norwalk.
	Went out 7/8 with a regular, Ed. Fished the same pattern as the evening before but less time in each spot. I knew the fish were there the night before but just turned off, my guess was right. Anyway three nice bass aboard the Rod and Reel, the largest 16 lbs and two around ten pounds. No storms and the bite was less picky. We missed about 10 fish or so. The big fish was from very skinny water. The other two were from 50 ft. Oh and no Storms.
	Went out 7/7 and action was on the slow side. We missed about 8 pickey fish, plus a host of problems including a backlash reel on a strong runner, no real hook set etc. In addition just got in before a storm hit. At least for me, Thunderstorms or near misses seem to shut the bite down. There are days like this sometimes.
	Sunday July 4^th, the morning plugging was slow to say the worst; we then set up on the chunk for a very short while and missed four fish. A skunk, and no one hates a skunk more then me. Sunday Evening July 4^th , I got rid of the skunk and took David, Scott, their Dad and two friends and we had good action in very shallow water, (6 feet) with a 4 bass up to on the chunk in about 90 minutes. (No Camera)
	July 3rd, the wind was down, but we were literally surrounded by Thunderstorms, South, North and North East. However Kevin and company wanted to go. The weather shut the plugging down entirely. We shifted to tube and worm and landed about ½ dozen small bass on the tube and plugging from the bow while trolling (works great). Then once the storms left the chunk turned on, with several small fish and one fish just over 13lb and one about the same size lost at the boat. We were fishing about 4 feet of water.
	July 1st day trip with Greg and Dan, we went plugging. Strong NE winds made it tough casting. However we landed 5 or 6 bass on bucktails and then wormed for a very short period for a nice size schoolie and then chunked another fish just keeper size in short order. (Part of the mission in this twilight special was to demo as many ways as possible.)
	June 29th -Fished a sunset charter with Scott (11), Haded (12), David (10) and Paul (20+). We chunked near shore on a rock pile. We just settled in and Scott hits a big bass and bedlam breaks loss. Put a young fisherman on the rod with a big bass and its smiles on everyone's face ear to ear. ( Oh and did I mention the noise level) As the big fish is nearly pulling the rod out of his hands, everyone is yelling, the other two rods take off. One ran towards shore and we lost her and the other the hooked pulled. After all that, Scott is still on a stand off with this bass. Finally, he lands the fish, all 42 inches and 32lbs of fish. (About 40% of his body weight and what seems like a 10-minute battle). Next up was David and the fun starts all over with a 21lb bass, followed by Haded with an 18lb bass and then Paul with a 24lb Bass. We lost more then we kept, and with curfew we left them biting. There are going to be plenty of barbecues this weekend with grilled bass, I suspect.
	June 27thGreat evening of plugging with abut 1/2dozen bass and then another 8 nice bass on the chunk in deep water up to 24lbs. Great night.

From Mid July on, the season was pretty good. I did not keep the reports updated but now as the season has drawn to a close and the new season is just around the corner, I will try to capture the remainder of the year.

July showed the larger bass starting to move east and for the most part we were left with teen fish and schoolies. Worm and tubes around the islands produced a lot of nice school size fish up to low teens. The evening plugging trips had some great successes most evenings (there were a couple of slow days also when the weather was against us). Chunking in deep water for blues was pretty good most days. It was just a matter of moving around and finding the fish. Bass were mixed in, but as the end of July drew nearer, it was more blues then bass. The evening bites in shallow on chunks at night were good for Bass up to low teens and bluefish around 10 lbs or so. Porgy fishing was great.

August, the bigger bass were gone and it was basically jigging blues or chunking blues. There was a keeper bass or two mixed in most days with the bluefish. I had one day, hitting it just right, I started off with blues and ended with 4 bass up to 20lbs on jigs. Fluke fishing was ok, but most of the time I was fishing Bluefish and Bass. Plugging the shore lines in the evening usually produced a good number of schoolie bass with the occasional keeper and some blues mixed in. (How I love those surface plugs). Tube and Worms was always a good fall back on the slow days. For some reason, I only had one trip where a person wanted to drift worms back in the rips. We had close to 20 bass by 11PM, with three keepers. The chunks to the side produced a few blue fish and one of the keeper bass. (This is a great way for evening bass on light tackle that I need to push more in 2010.) The bluefish on surface plugs did not set up in the usual spots in 2009, but I found plenty of top water action within the Islands. Just prior to the WICC Bluefish contest, I had blues up to 13lb. However I did not fish the WICC contest due to something more import. The highlight in August was fishing with the Wounded Warrior Program during the WICC, which we were not part of. Having one person that only had use of one arm and one good leg, and a second marine, I headed out in search of small bass that I thought would be the perfect size for the veterans on board. Most boats were hugging inside that day due to strong NE winds and basically having a very slow go at small blues. I found a lee and started with the tube and worm and besides some nice schoolie bass we landed several big blues fishing skinny water with tubes.

September the jigging for gator blues was excellent. The bluefish on surface plugs in shallow was pretty good for the morning and evening trips and there were still some nice bass on the jigs. October was still great with lots of Blues on jigs. For the most part the jigging trips were lock and load once you found the fish. Black fishing was excellent in October and November. I was using jig heads in shallow water with Black fish up to 9lbs. Later in the season the deep water wrecks were holding some nice fish. The bass jigging never materialized in 2010 like in prior years. I had a couple of good days, there were more keepers then in past years, but the quantity was just not there.

Overall the fishing was pretty good. I had a few slow days, here and there, but that is fishing. But every day on the water was a great one.

For those of you who fished with me in 2009, I hope to see you again in 2010. For those of you that are just checking the Rod and Reel out for the first time, I think you will find the boat is well suited for all fishing situations, no matter if it is fishing the flats for tailing blue fish or skinny water bass or fishing mid sound and various humps for Bass, Blues and other species If you have children, don't hesitate to give me a try in that I customize the trips to the angler.

Hope to see you in 2010

Rod and Reel Charters

Weekly Report 5-17 to 5-23