The Striped Bass Season that Never Happened.

As we close in on the end of the striped bass season here in New York State this week we'll look back on the fall as "the striped bass season that never happened."

Everyone we talked to from Montauk Point to the Jersey Shore said it was the worst fall for inshore fishing in recent memory. The fish just never showed up for most anglers during what should have been the "fall run."

Our striped bass "hot spot" was the East River right behind Gracie Mansion here in NYC. Using mostly blood worms purchased at Jack's Bait and Tackle on City Island we managed to catch dozens of smaller fish throughout the fall.

Pleased to see the stocks of smaller fish in the East River, but profoundly sad that very few big fish were on the bite close to shore. But as fishermen, hope springs eternal and there's always next season!

Mahi Mayhem at Fishtails

It was Mahi Mayhem or "The Running of the Bulls" last weekend at the Hudson Canyon about 95 miles south of Long Island. We boarded the boat bright and early at 3:00 AM and made our way out to sea.

We did hook up with a number a nice Yellowfin Tuna, but the thrill of the day was hooking up with this monster bull Dolphin known better by its Hawaiian name of Mahi Mahi. We typically catch much smaller "chickens" around the numerous lobster pots that ring the Hudson Canyon. But this this bull hit a one ounce buck tail with a squid trip about 10:00 AM.

It's the only time our skipper has had to "back down" on a Mahi, a maneuver usually saved for big tuna. This fish was hooked up on an ultra-light spin casting rig with only 14 pound test line. It was a big jumper, ran around and under the boat, and took over 20 minutes to finally land using a gaff. The moral of the story is be sure to keep your reel drag set loose enough to allow the fish to take plenty of line!

This fish was 48" long and tipped the scales at 24 pounds, certainly a day to remember.

Small Mouth Bass in Illinois

Big Apple Angler went on the road last weekend and ended up in a very scenic corner of Northwestern Illinois, near the historic town of Galena. Galena is an old mining town that saw its first boom in the early 19th century. Today it is a popular resort area. Near by is the Eagle Ridge Resort with a beautiful 225 -acre man made body of water called Lake Galena.

At one end of the lake is a spill-out, and after some heavy rains last week we found a nice pool of water in the stream below the Lake Galena dam. A helpful local bait store suggested night crawlers as the bait-of-choice.

And once again we pulled in this beautiful small mouth bass on the first cast of the day. We heard that pound for pound the small mouth bass fish is the scrappiest fish in Illinois, and this happy angler would agree with that statement!

Finding Bass on Staten Island

Large Mouth Bass typically don't come to mind when you mention Staten Island, but that is exactly where we found them last weekend, at Silver Lake Park on the east side of the Island.

Sliver Lake reservoir was created back in 1917 when water was brought there from the Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County, NY about 120 miles away to fill it. It is the largest body of fresh water on that island.

Based on the water temperature going into the 60s we figured the bass might be in their post-spawn period, and be very finicky about feeding as a result. Unfortunately, we found we were right after we tried nearly every lure in the tackle box, with no success.

Some local fishermen recommend we try some live leeches - and after sharing some with us we had great luck spot-fishing the bass and working the leeches right in front of them. They couldn't resist, and we landed three large bass in short order.

You can find this wonderful live bait online at speedyworm.com - which claims they are easy to store for up to 2-3 weeks in pre-moistened bedding stored in your refrigerator door. Just be careful what you grab if you have them on hand, and you go for a midnight snack while not-quite-awake.

Back on the Bass

After what seemed to be an endless winter here in New York and a cold wet spring we finally got a break-out day this past weekend with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 60s.

After a fruitless day spend looking for Striped Bass off the south shore of Long Island we turned our attention to a small pond in Bridgehampton on the south fork. With the water temperature going above 60 degrees and the large mouth bass in a pre-spawn mode, we thought the bass would be patrolling their nesting areas.

We tried using a Mepps bass-killer, with a sliver spinner and black feather trailer. The reason these Large Mouth bass were so actively hitting this lure was because of their territorial instinct to ward off any potential predators from their nesting sites.

It was a beautiful "first-cast, big-strike" early morning and you can see the result of this effort!