As I had mentioned in some of our earlier reports, we were fortunate to be located near a natural highway that was used by a significant portion of the river's striped bass population on their spring and fall migrations. In this section, we'll be sharing a few adventures that occurred on the other end of the pipeline; that is, where the spring migration enters long Island Sound and the point where the fall migrants stage before returning to the river in the late fall.
My introduction to fishing in the western sound and more specifically, Bayville, Long Island, came about through a contact at work that had kept telling me about the terrific bluefishing that could be had in and around the harbors of Oyster Bay and Cold Spring. What he neglected to tell me, however, was that like many north shore communities, public access was severely limited and was for the most part, reserved for residents only. Those folks really knew how to raise the drawbridge after they were inside the castle.
The siege was on! After investing in a few day trips with the family to acquaint myself with the area and enjoying the beach where public access was permitted, I was able to breach security and line up two areas where my son and I could launch a small boat. In one location, the gate, which was to be chained at night, was actually unlocked with the chain positioned in such a way as to appear to be locked. The reason! To permit early bird fishermen access with the understanding that the chain would be replaced as it was found. No problemo! And since we parked at the end of the parking area, we were never hassled about New Jersey plates. Our rig was a twelve-foot Sears Gamefisher with an electric trolling motor...a real joy to carry/drag from the parking area across the beach to our launch site. No paved ramps here – just a beautiful sandy beach and fishing that was fantastic! The trip from New Jersey was one hour door to door! That is if you did it at 3 a.m. – which was our normal departure time from home. A four a.m. arrival and we were in the water and under way by 4:30. The approach was fairly straightforward, we would motor to a spot just off a private beach club that had a nice jetty and throw poppers at first light.
Interestingly, we never raised any decent bass, only the occasional schoolie but the blues made up for it! Oftentimes we would see bluefish slowly swimming with their dorsal fin showing, these fish would not take a lure and some of the locals said it was a pre-spawn activity. Nevertheless, there were plenty of their buddies who wanted breakfast! The area really looked like it would hold some good-sized stripers and folks we had spoken to suggested that mackerel chunks at night might produce. This of course required an even earlier departure, It's a wonder my son still talks to me, but I'm working on his son with better success!
In any event our first trip took place about 1 a.m. after a week of planning and anticipation. It was a beautiful calm night, the water was like glass and we drifted a few yards of the tip of the jetty with hopes set high for a night filled with big bass. Our first run off was a good fish but the bait was dropped after a short tussle. We re-rigged with fresh mackerel chunks and after a few minutes had a serious runoff. This was a gorilla and my son who was on the rod was really pumped! After what seemed like ten minutes, which included some surface thrashing in the darkness beyond our sight, Tom was able to bring the fish along side our twelve-footer. That was when all hell broke loose! That fish was the biggest shark we had ever seen up close and personal and at two thirty in the morning! I never knew my little boy knew all those words! After a bit of scrambling I was able to cut the line. We just sat there for a moment then laughed like hell! We didn't do any more chunking that night and for a good while after until we got a slightly bigger boat, but that's another story!
