Well I have had my fun with Bunker and to be honest, I am sick of snagging the fucking things,looking at them, baby sitting the things, and just in general time for a change! Overall I had 8 bass that went over 30lbs and one 41 pound bass on the Bunker, countless 20lb size rats...So I cant comlain...Its nights for me now with Live eels!
I had some fun also in the bay w/ bunker, and caught many 20lbs, but moved my boat down to my charlestown location last month and finally last week it was very good. 20's, 1 @ 35 and real 42 lb w/ a digital scale. I also have completely switched to eels at night or very early in the morning.
I agree with Bill. Both he and I had a remarkably similar season in the bay. I had only one 41 pound bass and eleven fish in the thirties, with dozens of twenties and teen size fish. I did see two fish that were well over 50 that clients brought to the boat, but I can't catch them for them, I can only put them in a good area to have that opportunity. That's one of the down falls of my job. It can be very aggrevating at times to say the least. You do everything right, take the time, the effort and the knowledge to make it happen, and then it vanishes before your eyes. we've now switched to fluking and sea bass which is very, very good inside the bay right now. Nice change of pace. Next week we'll switch to sharks which are now pretty close to the mainland. Right now I'm more concerned with next season and what that will be like. I hope I don't have to take up carp fishing for lack of stripers. An up date on the book. The first edit is done. Last week Billy and I fished with my editor, Jay Nichols to finsih some last minute pictures. As usual, Billy saved the day by getting a thrity pound fish very early in the morning so we got to take the photo's we needed and ended it all by 8 am. The editor told me that there will be 16 pages of color photos in the book as well, which is a nice touch for a how to book. Very different. The cover you see on this site will also be the cover to the new book graced by the Eelman's face and big fish of last season. The printing text will likely be in yellow or orange to make the title jump out. It;s going into production in September, so we are ahead of the time table and it should be ready for the holidays as well as the show season.
Thanks Brian. My friend and I took him fri night. Nice fish. I put him on it, he actually landed the fish w/ directoin. It was his first striper ever. Can you imagine your first fish over 40#. My biggest that i took this season was the 35# two days before the 40.
I had a good week down there. I was w/ 4 kids on vaca w/ my buddy and all of us caught bass and fluke.
Lucky.. Nice way to start a fishing career. I bet he'll never forget it. You gave a friend a memory for life!
A good friend of mine was born and raised in Greece and moved over here a couple of years ago. His dad is an avid fisherman who spends hours every day in the Mediteranean. Apparently they catch a lot of 12-18" fish there and very little larger than that(not sure what species,though). His dad came to visit a couple of years ago and we took him out fishing. I'd been telling him (with my friend as an interpreter) about the size of the fish we were likely to catch(there were tons of 15-30lb fish around at the time). He didn't have to say a word, you could see the excitement in his face, though he was still a little skeptical.
First spot, first drift, first cast with an eel, I hand him the rod. It's not in his hands 2 seconds when it doubles over and line goes tearing off. 5 minutes later, he hauls a 38 lb'er aboard. (apparently he'd never caught anything over 2 or 3 lbs.) I wish I knew what he was saying afterwards, or maybe I don't(as it was better to imagine). I've never seen an adult so overjoyed in my life. The enjoyment of watching him catch it and his reaction about trumped any big fish I'd ever caught. I see his dad every year or so and our conversation always starts with a glass of homemade Ouzo and the fish story. Great fun.
Jim, we know you've caught numerous big fish, and your clients have also caught tons. Is it still fun for you to see them excited, enjoying their time out there? I would think that it would be one of the things you enjoy most about being on the water every day.
I agree brian. I fish so often and still love putting people on fish just as much, if not more, then catching them myself. It was soo awesome to see the fish peel off line and my friends face when i realized how big it was and told him you have a nice fish......really nice. he just thought they all peeled off that much line. What made it even better was we were both using spinner rods w/ 25# test, so he did a great job not horsing him in. - He will remember it for lifetime. These are reasons we all do what we do.
Brian L: Yes, I still get a charge out of seeing someone catch a big fish. I think its actually more rewarding than catching it myself to see someone so happy. This is especially true with kids. Yesterday I had a nine year old get a seven pound fluke on his first drop. He was so excited he was beside himself. Last year I had a 12 year old get a 39 pound striper. The thing was almost as big as he was. I probably wouldn't do what I do if I didn't get satisfaction out of it. However, having said that, it is also frustrating when you repeatedly loose big fish, especially when the fishing is slow, and you know that THAT PARTICULAR FISH of size doesn't just grow on trees. So there is a down side to it. Nothing is perfect and I guess that fishing is one of the least perfect sports there are. Everything has ups and downs to it no matter what you do. Fortunately, there are more ups than downs. Some people beleive that I have the perfect job, the reality is it's still a job. It has aggrevation just like any other job. But I do love it, or I wouldn't do it. I think the problem both Billy and I had this year was that we were spoiled last year. Too many big fish, and they came too easily. We sort of expected the same thing this season and when it didn't happen, frustration crept in. I will say that both he and I worked HARD for every fish we got this spring. We did a lot of different things and fished a lot of areas we've never fished in the past. It wasn't by any means a sure thing this season, like last year. Last year was as close to perfect as you could probably get. Even though I've done this since I've been old enough to walk, that kind of fishing has a way of spoiling you, even though I probably knew better deep down. The highs and lows are what makes fishing what it is. If you caught them all the time it would likely get sickening pretty quick.
The tough days make the good ones all that much better..
At the end of the day, you get to spend several days a week on the water. Maybe not exactly the way you'd like to sometimes(can't always choose the perfect client), but still.. It's a nice way to make a living.
Hope the rest of your season is a good one. Can't wait for the book!
