JNRBRONC
Well-Known Member
I left last Wednesday, May 7, 2025, for NY and it took two days to drive there with road construction and it being 1,000 miles. The drive back Monday, May 12, I got lucky with traffic and was able to drive 16 hours straight home.
This is my second trip, I posted on this forum the 28 lb fish I caught last year. My NY friend wanted to get me a 40" plus fish last year and it didn't happen, that's fishing.
When I rolled into the marina last Thursday afternoon, my friend was coming to the dock with a couple of friends, rained out/white caps on the river. They caught a couple fish but it wasn't a great day. It rained all night Thursday into Friday, but I didn't drive 20 hours to let the weather stop us. We headed out as the sun came up Friday, fished 3.5 hours in sideways rain, small white caps, no fish. It was his first time he got skunked in two years. We bought a 10 pound bag of chicken wings, called one of his friends to come over for a wing fry Friday afternoon, so it wasn't a total wash out.
NY has been getting hammered by rains. They had 7" inches the week before I showed up to watch it continue to rain. All the streams in the area were running very high, lots of flotsam and jetsam on the Hudson. With no bites Friday, I was starting to think we were not going to have much luck fishing, but from my experience, that's fishing. Go in with high hopes and crossed fingers but realize you can't make them bite.
Saturday morning, we were back at it as the sun rose. Things started a little slow, but at 8:30 am, we had a fish hit one of the down riggers. From fishing last year, I thought it was a good one. It had good fight and it made multiple runs before we were able to net it and get it in the boat. Scale said 45 pounds, tape said 47". That put it in a rare class of fish, not many boated of that size is what I was told. Plans to go back next spring, always the chance of bringing in that 50 pounder.
They buy huge Rapala lures that are something like 9” long and then ship them to a guy in Dubuque (small world) who custom paints them. The reels are spooled with mono, not sure the poundage. The lures are trolled about 25-50 feet behind downriggers with the cannonball/torpedo at a depth of 14-17 feet, depending on where the fish are suspended. Fish on the bottom aren’t likely to strike.
I caught 5 fish Saturday and 4 Sunday, all above the "keeper" slot (23-28”) so it was all catch and release, which I'm totally cool with.
I’m wearing my lucky fishing hat, which I bought to go on a successful King Salmon charter in Portland a few years back. It only gets worn when I go fishing. The grin is 90% excitation, 10% gritting my teeth struggling to hold that fish up.
It was a great fishing trip with tons of memories and stories to tell, but I’ll keep this short. Y’all here for the pics.
This is my second trip, I posted on this forum the 28 lb fish I caught last year. My NY friend wanted to get me a 40" plus fish last year and it didn't happen, that's fishing.
When I rolled into the marina last Thursday afternoon, my friend was coming to the dock with a couple of friends, rained out/white caps on the river. They caught a couple fish but it wasn't a great day. It rained all night Thursday into Friday, but I didn't drive 20 hours to let the weather stop us. We headed out as the sun came up Friday, fished 3.5 hours in sideways rain, small white caps, no fish. It was his first time he got skunked in two years. We bought a 10 pound bag of chicken wings, called one of his friends to come over for a wing fry Friday afternoon, so it wasn't a total wash out.
NY has been getting hammered by rains. They had 7" inches the week before I showed up to watch it continue to rain. All the streams in the area were running very high, lots of flotsam and jetsam on the Hudson. With no bites Friday, I was starting to think we were not going to have much luck fishing, but from my experience, that's fishing. Go in with high hopes and crossed fingers but realize you can't make them bite.
Saturday morning, we were back at it as the sun rose. Things started a little slow, but at 8:30 am, we had a fish hit one of the down riggers. From fishing last year, I thought it was a good one. It had good fight and it made multiple runs before we were able to net it and get it in the boat. Scale said 45 pounds, tape said 47". That put it in a rare class of fish, not many boated of that size is what I was told. Plans to go back next spring, always the chance of bringing in that 50 pounder.
They buy huge Rapala lures that are something like 9” long and then ship them to a guy in Dubuque (small world) who custom paints them. The reels are spooled with mono, not sure the poundage. The lures are trolled about 25-50 feet behind downriggers with the cannonball/torpedo at a depth of 14-17 feet, depending on where the fish are suspended. Fish on the bottom aren’t likely to strike.
I caught 5 fish Saturday and 4 Sunday, all above the "keeper" slot (23-28”) so it was all catch and release, which I'm totally cool with.
I’m wearing my lucky fishing hat, which I bought to go on a successful King Salmon charter in Portland a few years back. It only gets worn when I go fishing. The grin is 90% excitation, 10% gritting my teeth struggling to hold that fish up.
It was a great fishing trip with tons of memories and stories to tell, but I’ll keep this short. Y’all here for the pics.
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