12/30/2006 - Blackfishing the North Star

12/30/2006 - Blackfishing the North Star



Well, today my dad and I headed out blackfishing before the 8 limit season ended on the 31st.

We fished the North Star out of Ocean City.


I guess we'll start in the beginning.  I tend to arrive early because, well I want to secure a spot and be sure I get one.  Well this morning, we were running a little later than I'd like, but it wasn't a problem since we were like the first ones there at 6:30AM, boat departs at 8:00AM.  The boat was dark, no lights on...it honestly didn't even look like they were going to sail that day.  2 hours before the boat leaves and it's still dark?  Man I was confused...fortunately the captain was there sitting in his truck.  We talked briefly, I said I was suprised no one was there yet...he said guys don't come until after 7:00AM.  Little different than in Point, Brielle, and Belmar...where guys are known to be there like 3 hours early to MAKE SURE they get THEIR spot...haha.


Anyway, we load up, secure our spots, met a nice guy Ken and his buddy Anthony.  They seemed knowledgeable, turns out Ken is a pretty good blackfisherman and wound up with 6 fish fishing just green crabs on a tough, tough day.  He was 2nd in the pool to a regular (picture below) who brought his own white legged crabs and was beating on the fish compared to the rest of us using green crabs.  This regular won the pool with a nice fish around 8lbs or so and had high hook on the boat with 7 keepers.


My dad and I each had 2 keepers a piece, really was some tough fishing but I learned a few lessons today. 


First, fishing 2/0 Gami Octoupuses is too small.  Bumping up to 4/0s helped out with the hook sets and also allowed us to "wire" more body in the crabs. 


The second lesson was leader lengths.  We were both fishing short leaders, virtually a high rig above the weight.  We lengthened that and on the next drop my dad had a keeper, I missed a nice one, etc...but it was literally out 2nd to last spot before heading in...learned a little too late. 


Third lesson was fishing double vs single hooks.  I tend to fish single hooks, but I think the double hook setup will aid in hookups, both when fishing single crabs (hook on each side of the body) and fishing double crabs for those times you get picked clean quick...you have double the bait down there to get that fish on the second try.  The downside is if you are fishing real sticky bottom, double hooks will certainly get snagged a hell of a lot more. 


The fourth lesson was, bring a small bucket for crabs...don't ever rely on the boat to provide anything to hold you bait.  I'm used to boats providing prepared bait and something to hold them in, but it really, really sucks when they don't.  The North Star neither provided prepared bait (i.e. cut crabs), nor a bucket to keep them in.  Not a big deal, we made due. 



OK, so let's go over the good and bad of the trip...


The good is, FINALLY, a boat that sets double anchors!!!  The captain and mate were quick with the anchors, worked well together.  The captain did struggle to get us on structure at a few spots, but overall did a good job.  The only other peeve with the captain is he moved a little quick some of the time.  We'd drop double hooks and move in like 5 minutes...even when some guys were catching.  But, on the other hand, maybe he had a reason or expected to see more action and didn't want us wasting our time picking at fish if we could be bailing them over the rail elsewhere.


Well, the bad is a bit longer. 


First off, the bait was generally horrible...an honest HALF of the crabs were dead and rotting in the bins with the lives ones.  The mate put one 50 gallon holed out drum filled with mixed live and dead crabs IN THE CABIN!  It stunk to high hell and was really just straight up disgusting to smell that crap IN THE CABIN!  The other crab drum, also mixed with live and dead/rotting crabs, was set up in the bow and when the boat moved, the wind blew that nasty, rotting smell right down the aisles of the boat.  You simply couldn't escape it, you just had to bear it out.  I have to say, I've ridden a lot of boats, head boats and charters, and there is only ONE boat I've been on that was that dirty.  My captains would have kicked my [no swearing please] off the boat if I left a boat looking and smelling like that...it would never, ever happen.   It doesn't take much rotted crab or fish to make an entire boat smell like complete ass...well imagine what 50 gallon drums of rotting crab smells like, now put yourself in an inescapible room with that.  Fun eh?


Second minor gripe with the bait was you were expected to pick your own, cut your own, and have a container of your own.  So what happens to the guys that come for a weekend of fishing to give it a try...they have nothing, don't know what they need, etc...well this boat didn't have much to provide any level of customer service.  I realize blackfishing is generally old, salty veterans...so this is just an observation.  I was 90% prepared, and we made due just fine.


The mate was...well, let's say, not entirely focused on customer service...so much so that I cut his tip IN HALF because of his unnecessary commentary and attitude.  He just seemed like he didn't want to be there, and it just trascended through his personality.


Examples....


1) My dad hooks into his first keeper, sees he has a marginal hookset on it (foul hooked actually) when it reaches the surface and calls for the net.  We call for net, the mate comes over, and I say briefly we only called for net because of the hookset, we realize it's swingable, but didn't want to loose it considering we haven't caught many keepers yet.  He nets it, gets it over the rail and then says "Geez, people calling net for 2 lb fish".  How uncool is that?  That is your job, isn't it?  Seemed like a total dick comment to me, I dismissed it and said, well maybe he was just busting balls, trying to poke fun and have a good time.


2) The mate walks around before even filleting fish to collect tips in a hat.  I don't know, perhaps this is standard down south, but I've never seen mates on the boats I've fished or worked go around with a hat or jar asking for tips.  Seemed strange, especially collecting before filleting.  I guess this was an angle shoot to double dip tips?  No idea...but it stuck out in my mind.


3) I asked the mate to fillet my fish, and said I'd tip him afterwards.  He filleted the fish, kind of hacked one, but one comment he made literally cut his tip in half.  While filleting the first fish, he asked "Hey, did you bleed these fish?"  I responded, "Man, I totally forgot.  I know you are supposed to and I didn't even think about it, totally slipped my mind".  Now what would be the appopriate response?  How about "Ah man, that's too bad, the fillets would have tasted much better getting that blood out of there right away.  They'll be just fine, but remember it next time, it'll be worth it!"  Well, instead, how about a smart witted, "Wow, that sucks for you!"...Ummm OK then...thanks asshat!


So needless to say, the mate's friendliness, helpfulness, and overall sense of customer service was very subpar.  As a mate, we lived off tips...if you want to make good tips, you better work on how you interface with your customers....otherwise it will really, REALLY suck for YOU.  He's lucky he got anything...the only justification in my perspective was that he cleaned the fish and he had to set the anchors quite a bit...that was the extent of his usefulness.


As a comparative point, take the Captain Robbins mate.  Super friendly, nice guy, funny, chats it up with you to get a quick laugh when things are slow, brings fresh cut crabs around to you to keep you fishing...IMO, he's the kind of mate you want on a boat if you are the captain/owner.


Anyway...let's move on.  So what else...the net was interesting.  I was kind of surprised to see a uber small net that could barely reach the water being used.  Maybe they lost their main one, who knows...but if that mate needed to reach a fish...he was going to have a heck of a time.  Bring the fish to the net, of course, but seriously, this net barely reached the water...the mate was leaning over the rail to get fish.  Seemed pretty odd...but it worked.



That's really about it...overall, the day was slow, but we did catch some fish and the weather was absolutely beautiful!  I certainly think this boat can catch some serious fish, but the way the boat and bait were kept was less than desireable, and I think the mate needs to be a bit friendlier if he'd like to see some better tips.  I'd ride with them again, certainly worth another shot, but I am going to employ my new learned lessons and also try to get some more bait variety to up the fish count...those white legged crabs were definitely the ticket...but this dude brought them all the way down from Brooklyn!  WTF^2.



OK, so lets move on to some pictures...


Some shots of the North Star before we departed...













Toying with dad before heading out...




Shot on the way out...




Dad and I...




Some clouds were rolling in but the weather cleared...








OK onto some fish...one of the 7 keepers the regular got with the white legged crabs...




Shot of dad with two of the fish we got...




Shot of me with two of the fish we got...




Wow, thing of beauty while bottom fishing...double anchors set!




Mate, bringing them in...




Couple sunset shots...

12/17/2006 - Blackfishing on the Captain Robbins

12/17/2006 - Blackfishing on the Captain Robbins


Well, it's time for another story.  This one is a tale of blackfishing...well at least I think that's what we were going for.  Doug, Doug's father, my father, and I headed down to Sea Isle City to fish aboard the Captain Robbins.  Word on the street is that the Captain Robbins is probably the 2nd best boat down in South NJ next to the North Star, which is the boat on which the current world record blackfish was caught.

Anyway, my dad and I got down there nice and early to secure spots on the boat.  Doug and his father ran into some major issues on their ride down, getting a flat tire and having to change it and hustle down on the 2.5 hour trip to make the boat in time.  Fortunately they did get there in time!  Well, I guess that depends on your perspective, because the fishing pretty much sucked.

Let's run through the trip's PROs and CONs...

First, the boat is pretty old and slow.  She's an old wooden vessel, and she rolls BIG TIME in moderately ligth seas.  3-6 footers feel like you are rolling in 10-12s...not very fun.  Second, we left late...slated for an 8:00AM departure, we didn't sail til about 8:45AM.  I think they were low on bait and waiting for a delivery of green crabs because the mate snagged a cooler from a private boat dropoff and then the engines started right up and we left.  On the plus side, the captain did stay out late and hit a few spots after our slated return time.  I think we hit the dock a little after 5:00PM.

Probably the biggest issue I had on the entire trip was the fact that the captain only set out ONE anchor.  I've worked on the boats, I've been out bottom fishing many, many times...and I've rarely seen a captain sit on ONE anchor...especially for blackfishing.  It's an absolute must to set two hooks out, ideally 45 degrees out from the bow on the respective left and right.  Find the wreck with your GPS/LORAN and depth finder, hover the wreck for a minute to make sure you are on it...ideally towards the front of the wreck (assuming it is a big enough to slip back on later), shoot out to one side, drop the first hook, barrel back in reverse to the wreck, hover it again momentarily, then shoot out to the opposite side at 45 and drop the other hook and trim back the first anchor line until you are positioned on the wreck...and then tie them off.

The goal here is to set out two anchors in opposite directions so the boat lays back on the wind and current and sits on the anchors...positioned directly over the wreck/structure you are fishing.  Setting out two anchors opposite of each other 45 degrees in front of the bow prevents any LEFT/RIGHT swing over the wreck.  The right anchor prevents you from swinging to the left and the left anchor prevents you from swinging to the right...ideally keeping you directly above the wreck.  This is a MUST because if you set ONE anchor, then you have no counter balance to keep the boat from swinging around in the current like a barn door.  Then you are on the wreck for a few seconds, and off it, then on it, and then off it.  The problem here is wrecks/structure are what they call "sticky" and since you are fishing on the bottom, when that boat swings, it drags your rig across the structure and you get snagged/hung-up and lose your rig. 

Well being ABOVE the wreck/structure is a major requirement of actually catching the fish that are there, but we were swinging so bad that 90% of the time we were OFF the structure and on SOFT bottom.  This is horrible, you will NOT catch ANY fish if you are not on the structure.  If you are on the sand, you are wasting your time, period.  So to counter our barn door swing, the captain was running the motor and trying to power drift us into the wreck...again not good.  The sound of the motors (in my opinion) shuts down the fish, especially the big boys.  Secondly, to catch the bigger fish...the primary goal is to keep your bait STATIONARY on the bottom...no moving, sinker on the bottom at all times with your line tight enough to feel the hits.  If you are bouncing that sinker around like gymnast, you just aren't going to catch many fish, nevermind the big ones.  So swinging around like we were, 90% of the time OFF the structure, the other 10% of the time it was like rolling craps trying to get your bait to sit still long enough to get a hit before you drifted off the spot and off the fish again. 

The other benefit to the two anchor system is if you position on the top of the wreck to start and it is a big wreck...you can pick the front half of the fish off, and then loosen up both anchors equally and fall back on the wreck incrementally and continue to catch fish throughout the entire wreck.  The key is staying OVER the wreck/structure, I really felt like we were doing a combination of fluke drifts and tuna power trolling for most of the day.  Tangles were a nitemare, a lot of customers on board and all that swinging and power drifting runs the lines together and over each other and it's a real pain in the ass.

Ultimately, it was a total nitemare of a trip.  I spoke with many of the regulars on the boat and they said this was the worst trip they've ever had all year.  They also said the 2nd anchor was a new addition this year, yet the captain doesn't use it much.  For the life of me, I can't imagine how they even fish structure with one anchor.  I've seen captains hover a wreck and do some quick anchorless drop downs to see if there were fish on the spot, and if there were then drop 2 hooks.  I've also seen the very infrequent single anchoring technique on very, very small wrecks/structures where you may only fish it for 10 minutes or so before you pick it out and have to move on.  Even then, the conditions have to be right to sit on one anchor and still catch a reasonable number of fish.  Oddly, the regulars and even general reviews say this boat is a prime blackfishing boat.  Well, I don't think any of us were impressed by any stretch.

The one great thing was at the end of the day as I was packing up, the owner of the boat drove up and asked me how things went.  I gave him the thumbs down (before I even knew who he was), and then once he told me who he was I took the opportunity to tell him how the trip was in detail, both from a customer perspective and from a former-mate perspective.  He agreed with 100% of what I said, and even completed alot of my "points" on how things are generally done from my experience.  He clearly knew what needed to be done and he was baffled at why the captain, who he said is one of the absolute best in the state, didn't set out two hooks.  He said the boat needed them after only running on one anchor for many years, and they should have been used today.  He said he'd talk to the captain and find out what happened.  He was also somewhat apologetic, but reported that other blackfish boats didn't do well today either.

I'd have to say with the number of regulars on the boat, the boat must be catching fish and some good ones at that, otherwise they wouldn't have the loyalty of regulars.  So perhaps we just hit them on a bad day, but to be honest, I can't handle the frustration of sitting on one anchor and struggling to find bottom all day.  I want to sit directly over the structure and learn the topography of it, find those nice holes, those dropoffs, etc...so I can sneak down to the fish and STAY THERE.

I think next time down we'll try the North Star, and hopefully they run the boat a little different.  Eventually I might try the Captain Robbins again, but the first impression was not a good one, that's for sure.

All in all, it was still a great time fishing with Doug, his father, and mine.  Nothing like being out on the ocean, and the conditions were super mild and nice for this time of year.  Can't wait to get out again!

OK enough of the story...let's see some pictures!

Shot of the Captain Robbins, she's old and slow but she gets you there!



Some of the slips and houses down there by the dock...





The boys, getting ready for some toggin'!
Note how Doug's head almost hits the overhang...Hi, he's like 6'8"...I feel like a midget next to him.




Doug, giving an instructional on how to change a tire on your way to a blackfishing trip...




Doug and his dad, tired...wondering where the hell the fish are and more importantly what planet the captain is from...




Sun dipping down from the bow...




Another shot of the sky, little brighter




The boys, general sentiments on the way home!




The above picture could also have to do with the fact that I had the ONLY keeper in our group and therefore won our private pool!  As an FYI, I'll be signing autographs this weekend...get there early because there WILL BE crowds of people waiting in line...trust me!  I have to admit Doug outfished me in numbers, but I got the one that counts...NICE!




Shot of my dad and I with the fish...he's clearly jealous!





Another sunset shot...




My dad, claiming deafness when I attempt to collect my pool bounty for the biggest keeper!
He slept outside last night BTW...




Dad and I, on the way back in...




Doug and his father, on the way back in...



That's all folks, despite the poor fishing, we had a great time.  Hope to do it again real soon!
Until next time...

12/11/2006 - Dad's Muzzleloader 11 Pointer and Mount Complete! (Pics)

12/11/2006 - Dad's Muzzleloader 11 Pointer and Mount Complete!

Here's the story I wrote up when Dad shot this buck back on 12/11/2006:

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Unbelievable season for Dad...he does it AGAIN. This time he scores on an unbelievable 11 pointer from the same stand location he shot his doe earlier this year with the muzzleloader and the same one I shot my 8 pointer last year! I am still in awe with this deer, great buck for these woods.

I can't tell you how much it means to me for my Dad to get this deer, this is what it's all about. I said in the beginning of the year, all I wanted to see was my Dad get a shot at a nice rack this year and man did he come through! As lackluster of a season as this has been, seemingly an eternity of frustration trying to figure these bucks out and waiting days, weeks, months for just ONE glimpse, nevermind a shot...and then it all comes together in mere seconds, the moment of truth where the emotional rollercoaster of hunting takes you for that ride you've waited all season for...one where you decide where it takes you...to the top of the mountain or deep into the valley below. Fortunately for both of us, our shots were true as I took my biggest buck to date in Ohio with the bow, and today my Dad takes his biggest buck ever. I can't even describe the feelings, the excitement, the pride, the accomplishment...and as miserable as I've thought this season has been at times, I have to say today has made it my best season ever!

I have to thank my buddy Steve for helping me set up the ladder stand for my Dad and also my buddy Don for helping drag this buck out today since I was caught in work in Philly and couldn't get there quick enough! I'm very fortunate to have some great friends, so thank you!

The story starts just yesterday when I had rebaited this stand location and checked the trailcam to see what kind of activity was in the area during shotgun week. The entire season, this spot has had some regular doe activity, but absolutely NO racks...some small bucks but nothing to get excited about. Then, as it turns out, this same buck was on the trailcam on Monday evening (6-day firearm opener) but never reappeared. So Sunday, we rebaited heavier than normal and I had hoped it would bring a number of does in, even at night...such that they would create enough commotion to bring a curious buck in to check them out, and possible bed down with the does that night in the area and follow them in that next afternoon as they came to feed. Well I can't say for certain that is what happened that night, but I can say that this bad boy followed a doe right in around 2:20PM that afternoon offering Dad a beautiful 30 yard broadside shot. He put the crosshairs on and squeezed off the shot, the buck dropped in his tracks and the rest is history! Man what a feeling!

Here's a couple BEFORE pics of the buck from the trailcam. Sorry about the quality, this was a hacked IR conversion with an existing cam casing, so there is some flash bleed on the top right...obviously the pics aren't the best, but you can see it is the same buck. Note the split G2 on his right beam.






And here's an AFTER shot with Dad and the buck!



Man, what an awesome day...my first day back at work...and I race home to soak in the great day my Dad had afield!

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

And on Friday, my dad picked up the mount from Carl at All-Game Taxidermy.
Carl did an excellent job, as always!
I snapped a few pics today before heading home from PA.

Here's a few of the shots...


Dad with his buck...



Right profile from below...



Left profile from below...



Head-on from below...



Head-on from above...



And a few close-ups of Carl's work! ;)

Right profile...



Right eye...



Left eye...



Right ear and eye...



Left ear and eye...



Head on, downward angle...



Nose and lip detail...