tough day but nice albie

[Chrisper4694]

we haven't been out in a while, 3 weeks or so, so we weren't expecting much. when we got around the hook there was surface action and birds everywhere but not much being caught. turned out it was all albie action and they were picky as hell! Luckily John ended up hooking one in the afternoon after hours of us trying different lures on them. The one we caught was spitting up bait fish (bay anchovies we think) smaller than the first digit on your pinky finger! next weekend i'm bringing tiny flies i'm going to make to match the size!! that was the only one we caught. bottom fishing produced only bregal and some puffers, short fluke and some assorted trash haha. thankfully we got a false albacore on the boat that was a first time and a fun fight for john, but it was a loooooooooong day!

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z379/chrisper4694/IMG_0819.jpg (http://s1186.photobucket.com/user/chrisper4694/media/IMG_0819.jpg.html)

[Hunter 2]

Ava 17 diamond jigs and small deadly dicks work well for albies. They move fast and tough to keep up with. Set up in front of the direction the schools going. Rockaway jetty by Breezy Point is a good spot to find them too.

[Chrisper4694]

They were literally everywhere at one point in he afternoon. I think our metals were a size or two big for what they were eating. I usually don't see that level of pickiness from saltwater fish, just fresh.

[AndyS]

Cool pic. Try freshwater Swedish Pimples ;)

[Chrisper4694]

i hear ya andy...i'm def bringing my trout box next time along with my ice fishing jig box!

[dakota560]

Chris try small Kastmasters or even small white buck tails 1/8th or 1/4 ounce size. You need light flouro leader and a very fast retrieve. If you don't have a high speed retrieve, try trolling small metals or buck tails way behind the boat to get the speed you need. Nothing is too fast for albies, the faster the better.

[Chrisper4694]

we tried some of that stuff. and i tried fast retrieve because i remembered seeing that somewhere...funny thing is the one we caught was on a slow jerky pause retrieve so then we started doing that but didn't catch anymore that way either haha. probably in general one of the most frustrating fishing experiences i've encountered!