Decent Light Tackle Bass

[Leprechaun]

Been a G-R-E-A-T bass season so far. Plenty of fish, including days of 40 fish for two of us and 60 fish for 3 guys (Remember THAT day Billy/NoTacks?)

Anyway, here's a nice fat 39"/19lb light-tackle bassie from last Saturday's catch - caught 10 minutes from my dock, up on the flats off Wantagh on clam bellies. Used a Calcutta 400/20lb DNA line/custom Calstar GF700XLH rod - one of my favorite chummin' setups.

Leprechaun

[Hutch]

You're killing me Pete! Killing me!!! (see my last post to BZ!)

Nice fish, fun on that light stuff. I keep hoping as I cast into the rocks with my light spinning setup (that Loomis LR842S that you liked so much - love that rod) that I'll hook into something north of 15 or 20 lbs. Grabbed a 15 lb blue last year with it and had the time of my life.

Great to hear you're having such a great season. Keep it up!

[Luckydog]

Lep,
Great lookin' fish!! How deep a water do you catch 'em in only 10 minutes from your dock?

And is that you or a guest in that photo?

Did you add or alter anything on your 26' in the offseason? Also, if you could post up how you have your electronics mounted... I'm finding that is my biggest challenge right now... placing electronics so they don't get wet... :)

LD

[Anonymous]

Lep,
Are you near Squaw Island??

[Damon]

Que paso Pedro!!!!

It's about time we get to see you with a beautiful Bass (Striper?). Are those things good eating? Definitely looks like a lot of meat on those.

[Leprechaun]

LD - the water that fish came out of was only 8' deep - I most enjoy fishing these beautiful fish in shallow water. In fact to get to the spot this one came out of you have to almost run the boat aground getting over some nasty sandbars. The past three times in a row I went up this particular creek I DID put her hard aground. I friggin' hate that. The sandbars are treacherous in these parts and shift around regularly, making my careful chartplotter track-laying totally useless. This is why I love my keel. Run her smack up on a bar and put her in reverse and she'll pick up her ass and back right off, no harm done. Gotta love it.

Its about over now in this type spot as the early Summer sun has heated the Bay to the point that the bass have moved off into deeper water outside in the ocean. Still very fishable, but not as much fun, IMO.

And yeah, that's me in the pic.

I didn't add anything new to the boat over the Winter, just refurbed some electrical motors and redid my behind-the-dash electrical connections. Sounds minor, but I really busted my a$$ on that job.

I'll try to get some pix up of the electronics in action real soon.

Guest - no not near Squaw Island. Though I do fish there alot, this fish came from the area west of the Wantagh bridges, not east.

D - Good to eat you ask? They are G-R-E-A-T to eat!!! I like them filleted, cubed and fried with a Panko Flake crust. Or marinated with teriyaki sauce and grilled on the "George Foreman". Or even covered with a breadcrub, olive oil and lemon topping and then broiled in the oven. Comes like lobster that way, big flakes and taste something like baked stuffed clams.

UMM, UMM. good.

rgds, Leprechaun

[Anonymous]

Lep,
I'm the "guest" who asked if you were near Squaw. I used to work on the Capt Lou (back when it was the III and IV) and we used to sneak in there for some incredible flounder action in the spring - too bad there don't seem to be any of those tasty bad boys left around. The shallow water bass fishing is some of my favorite fishing. I'm west of you out of a canal just west of Baldwin Harbor. I have a few spots in back where even on weekends I can avoid (for the most part) the boat traffic and idiots. I don't have nearly as nice a rig as you do but hope to have a predator of my own some day - I grew up running a single engine inboard will a full keel and protected running gear and feel that set up can't be beat. Right now I fish out of a 16' amesbury skiff - www.stur-deeboat.com and have no problem getting into skinny water to belly for bass. My favorite new toy is the Tekota 500 matched with believe it or not one of the new shimano composite rods. The weekend of the airshow (2 weeks ago??) you passed me in Jones - I was on the east side of the inlet anchored about 30 yds outside of the channel catching more skates than bass - but hey it was better than mowin' the lawn. I'll be out tomorrow early but well away from the inlet - I don't want any part of that place when they sound the horn to start the FHA tournament.

[Leprechaun]

flattie - if you like that Tekota you should read the two reviews I wrote on the subject at www.noreast.com - you would enjoy them both.

Go over there and register - its the best site on Earth for fishing in our area.

No big surprise if I tell you that I co-moderate the "Ask the Pros" board and the "Fishing Rods" board.

Here's the Tekota posts, but there's TONS over there that is just really good stuff:

This thread is SEVEN pages long!:

http://www.noreast.com/discussion/ViewTopic.cfm?page=1&startrow=61&topic_ID=17051

This one is also good - two pages deep:

http://www.noreast.com/discussion/ViewTopic.cfm?page=1&startrow=1&topic_ID=19951

If you use the search engine over on Noreast.com on about any feeshin' subject you will get more good info than you could ever read in one evening.

I also worked on a Freeport boat during my college days - the Bluefin II and III back around '78 or so.

The day of the airshow was the day that Billy/NoTacks, Kodfish Kenny and I bombed the bass outside off Brooklyn. Had better than 60 fish that day.

And I completely forgot about that dopey shark tournament is today. I have to go thru there at around 0600 this morning - I hope the maniacs are all thru and long gone by then.

Next time you see me pass, don't forget to wave!

rgds, Leprechaun

[Anonymous]

Good luck today - I was bassing by the loop bridge at the end of Long Creek this morning (5:30)(fog was a little thick and I was concerned about the cowboys in the 50' hats and vikings runnin' me down in the inlet) when the shark fleet was going out. I ended up in Sea Dog catching endless short fluke to get away from the boat traffic. Along the bank by one of the drains the bass were blitzing on some type of rain bait. I had a couple of follows/swirls on a small popper but no takers. These fish were in less than 2' of water and it was incredible to see largish (15plus) bass clear the water a few times. The shimano tekota is an amazing reel. I've been hooked on their products since I bought the trn100g when it first came out 15plus years ago. When my wife got me the tekota for my birthday I was set on matching it with a nice 6' seeker or star rod. I went into bay park fishing and they had the new shimano teramar series http://fish.shimano.com/publish/content/us/en/fishing/products/rods/salwater_rods/TeramarInshoreSeries/TeramarWestCoast.html which just felt "so right" as far as balance and action. I have not been dissapointed by this set up yet. Largest so far is a 20lb bass on this outfit.

[Leprechaun]

Yes, I like those new Teramar rods a great deal.

Here's a write I did on them a few months ago:

http://www.noreast.com/discussion/ViewTopic.cfm?page=1&startrow=1&topic_ID=24429

Gotta get up pretty early in the morning to beat me to a fishin' spot or a new series of rods.

:lol:

I like all the Shimano rods, I think they give very good value for the relatively modest money they charge.

I especially like the Calcutta rods - if you follow my posts at Noreast, you know that I consider the CL730MJA to be the ultimate factory-wrapped party-boat tog rod and the ultra-ultimate small-boat diamond jigging rod.

Nothing I know of factory OR custom can do either of those jobs better than that stick.

By the way - bombed the fluke in 43' of water off the Pink Hotel this morning - at least 60 fish for 2 of us.

rgds, Leprechaun

[Anonymous]

Nice job on the fluke. I'm limited to inside for the most part with my ride so I've kinda' resigned myself to culling through tons of shorts to find 3 keepers these days. Tomorrow I'll be out with my son and my dad to try by the golf course in Reynolds before the boat traffic gets too heavy - then maybe head into the back back back bays to a few spots that generally hold fewer fish but usually better quality. I'm familiar with the noreast site - hadn't seen you post there in a while or I just haven't been paying attention. I'm tempted real real tempted to go take a look at the chris craft cutlass listed on the noreast board so I can get outside but the situation at work isn't the most stable right now. That cutlass has some beautiful lines - more boats should be built like that. My dad just spent the week in Maine visiting Terry Jason, Duffy, Young, Holland and every other boat builder you can think of up there - don't know why he does it - to me its like torture seeing all those beautiful lobster boats. I was surprised to learn that the Young Bros. boats are laid up in 2 halves and then joined along the keel - just like the shammies!!

[Leprechaun]

That T. Jason builds a super nice 28' boat. Its a REALLY small operation though - so extreme patience is needed while waiting for the boat's completion. Tom Mikowski, one of the staff writers for the Fisherman magazine took delivery of his unfinished boat last Summer and finished it out himself - came really really nice.

Another beaut is the A.J. 28 out of Winter Harbor, Maine. Really nice lines. Still another is the Calvin Beal 28 - maybe the prettiest lines of all the smaller downeasters.

Look below for a shot of one of the prettiest of all the 30'-class lobster boats - The Calvin Beal designed South Shore 30, currently molded by Webbers Cove Boatyard. Look at the way that boat cleaves the water and still maintains a near flat running angle. Just gorgeous. Not to mention the HUGE cockpit - perfect for my crew. They bring every possesion they own when they get on my boat.

Young Bros. is one of a few downeaster builders that put their boats together that way. Has to be done right though. That's what put the Bruno & Stillman operation out of business. One of their 42's broke in half lobstering on Georges Banks and the families sued the company out of existance. Those boats (Same molds) are still made as the Harris 36 and Nauset 35. The devil is in the details if you want to build a boat this way.

If you are into classic boats then that CC Cutlass is nice - but remember, they ride like poop and no keel to protect your prop. You would be far better served in that size range with a Shammie 22 W/A.

Best, Leprechaun

[Damon]

I like them filleted, cubed and fried with a Panko Flake crust.

Lep,

Can you please give me (or link me to) more detials on the above? Using the Panko route, I currently beer batter strips of fish, roll them in Panko, and deep fry them.

We're into a wide open Albacore bite right now and I'm experimenting with different ideas preparing them for consumption into multiple bellies (heck, you can't hardly go wrong with these things). I tried a new recipe (link below) yesterday which turned out pretty good. This would work with most fish:

http://www.sandiegofishing.com/buddydb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19327&highlight=bacon+and+albacore

Thanks.

[Leprechaun]

Interesting way you West Coasties have of merging fish, cooking and gross bowel movements near-seemlessly into one thread.

On this board I'da locked that thread after the first post, but then we would have missed the good cooking pics. Gotta take the bad with the good I guess.

Do you happen to know what that sauce is that's between the fish and the bacon? I'm guessin' Teriyaki, but would like to know for sure.

The Panko flakes is no biggie. We cut the fillets into approx 5" x 3" pieces, dip into beaten egg and then roll them in Panko till they are well covered.

Fry in light oil to a crispie light brown.

I like to drizzle fresh lemon on the fish in my dish and make up a mix of 3/4 tarter sauce and 1/4 ground horseradish and schmear that on the fish.

My kid just puts lemon and a few shots of "Texas Pete's Hot Sauce" on his fried fish and that works great too.

rgds, Lep

[Damon]

LMAO!

You're right, it was gross! I really didn't realize what I wrote until I re-read it just now. Kind'a scary.....

I will try your approach using the Panko. It seems very easy and a great way to cook the fish in a shorter period of time.

If you scroll down to the 10th post in the link above, you'll see his (Sea Hag's) recipe. He marinated the pieces in Soy Vay, Veri Veri Teriyaki. The link is:

http://www.soyvay.com



Here's what the stuff looks like:

http://members.cox.net/dstannard1/veri.jpg


They sell it at Trader Joe's (click on the link below to find TJ's nearest to you there in NY):

http://www.traderjoes.com/locations/search/NEW+YORK.asp

One other note: Do not marinate for longer than 15 or 20 minutes.

[Leprechaun]

That's cool - Hebrew Teriyaki.

We have a Trader Joe's about 10 minutes from the house - I'll check it out.

thanks, Leprechaun

[Anonymous]

Lep. The CC Cutlass doesn't have a keel? I've not seen one out of the water. Have you had a chance to get up close and personal with any of the Columbia Northsiders. I've seen a few in the papers lately at what seem to be reasonable prices. I'd heard from someone that the Columbias use pine in the construction of their bulkheads/stringers etc and tend to have rot problems?? Thanks flattie

[Leprechaun]

All true.

And those Columbia boats also use a Spruce beam for a keel - then glassed over. Not what I want or need.

I went out there to see how they construct their boats and thought the boats themselves were decent, but I wasn't impressed with a few aspects of the 25-ft boat that was being built there -

1/ the gunnels were VERY low - so low that I would consider a stern rail around the cockpit if I had kids going aboard regularly.

2/ the sides of the boat looked more wavey than the water they're intended for - very poor hull mold finish work I guess.

3/ Old man Scopanich has been bad mouthing Shamrocks to other people for years - says that they split in half and sink and only his method is the "Safe" one for keeled boat construction.

4/ So I went out there and talked about moving up to his 28 footer. Once I told him I had a Shamrock 26 to trade he almost peed himself trying to get me to sign papers. Claimed that he had a long waiting list for used Shammie 26's.

5/ So which is it? Are they shit or are they super valuable? Apparently it depends on which side of the deal Scopanich is on.

Needless to say I walked right on by such a BS artist, regardless of his alledgedly great boat building skills.

rgds, Leprechaun

[Holty]

I almost pulled the trigger on a 28 Columbia that was for sale in Oceanside about 3 or 4 years ago. An oldtimer owned it since new and it was time for him to let it go. The hull was sound but the interior needed a lot of help and the old diesel had a lot of hours on her. Plus there was too much wood on her for my likeing. You local boys must remember the 28 Columbia that was advertised in Newsday and the Fisherman a few years back. The add was run for weeks and weeks. " Nick Karras' old boat"....." the wife will love it"... etc. etc. Well I looked into that baby also. It too needed help ( a lot of help). Still I was intrigued with her so I took the wife over to see it. It was berthed on Captree Island. The owner said I could come by to check it out anytime so we cut out of work early one afternoon and we headed down there. When the wife saw it her eyes lit up. " Nice looking", she said. I sensed the boat was lower in the water than the first time I had seen her. We went on board and opened the cabin door to find water way up over the floorboards :? . I lifted the engine box and the water was sloshing around the belly of the engine. My wife laughed at me and just said " don't think so! ". Then our Mack became available and we haven't regretted it for one second. She is a great boat. There is a 25 Coloumbia that sails out of Huntington harbor. I don't know much about them but it is a nice looking rig.

regards Holty

[Thru Tackin']

Lep:
I will be trying out your Panko fried striper recipe this weekend and perhaps the bacon teriyaki on the grill recipe from the link.

I'll let you know how many long necks it is worthy of.

Ralph

[Leprechaun]

Ralph - did you ever try the Panko flakes?

Lep