7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

Left the marina around 7:30 to be greeted with calm water and a nice sunny day. The water was a murky brown and was 2 degrees colder than last week. Watched the DEC board 2 boats and check fish size :D. Bucktailed 2 rods for the first hour with only a couple of taps. Surprisingly killer fluke belly did better which was weird as the water was brownish.

Decided to go against the golden rule and set up one rod for old school bait dragging. Put it out and 2 minutes later out of the corner of my eye I see the tip bouncing. I slowly picked up the rod and waited a few seconds before I set the hook. Nice 3 1/2 pound fish. Repeated it and ended up with another keeper. Bucktailing did get some smaller fish but ended the day w/ 3 keepers.

Jerry cleaned the fish as I cleaned the boat :mad: Stopped to pick up some lobsters and shrimp and made fluke stuffed lobsters as well as fluke w/ white wine, tomatoes, garlic and parsley.

Any reason that bait dragging outperformed? Would love to hear reasons for this.:confused:

Hope to get out again tomorrow.

Keefe

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

Last Sat my brother put out a dead stick and got immediate attention. That pole kept him busy a good portion of the day. Why couldn't tell ya, the only keeper we had though was on the bucktail so IDK.

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

Last Saturday back in Raritan Bay the only keepers we got were on the Bucktails with Gulp and the teaser needed to be tipped with spearing to get any action.

Bait dragging seemed to only produce a few shorts and lots of doggies.

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

Keefe,

I think you bring up a very good point. Last Sat I was out with a charter of sharpies and most of the guys were bucktailing. While I was cutting bait, I had my rod in the holder rigged with one of your 6oz nuclear chicken bucktails and a pink shine grub teaser and within 2 minutes, the rod doubled over with a keeper fluke (on the grub). I reset, went back to cutting squid and a few minutes later it went down again and I pulled up yet another keeper, this time on the bucktail. I decided that was the way I was going to fish the rest of the day and wound up being high hook with a few more shorts and another keeper. Even a few of the other guys decided to change over to deadsticking and they saw more action than the others that continued to hold the rod and jig.

I believe with the cooler water temps, the fish are a little more lethargic this year and are looking for slower action on the jig or bait for that matter. The movement of the boat rocking back and forth causing the bucktail to slowly tap the bottom is what they were looking for, not the contant motion of jigging up and down all the time. I've found that most people including myself have a tendancy of overworking the bucktail when the rod is in their hand not giving it enough time just to lay on the bottom. I could be wrong and this may change as the temps warm up, but that's just my 2 cents.

~Capt. Kevin

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

Excellent point Capt. when bucktailing I try to let it lay for a second or two, or maybe jus have a slow "swimming "like motion just to mix it up and see how they react.

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

Every day is a different day...just gotta follow what the guy with the high hook is doing. Thank god u weren't togging...u would have had guys mugging you for the rest of the day!

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

maybe the fluke have adapted to gulp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

I think this makes a lot of sense.... I was working the jig like I usually do, steady small pulses, keep it moving and all I got were short strikes... Brother Joe on the other hand was practiclly dead sticking his jig and hooking up.

One of these days the the tide will be just right, fish will be hungry, I'll be in the right place at the right time and using the righ stuff. Then the alarm will go off and ruin my dream ;)

That's fishing and you know what, it's the challenge and the "what could be" that keeps us all coming back as well as spending a day on the water with our buds.... As frustrating as it is sometimes, it still beats sitting in front this darn computer.

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

I found something that has worked a couple times for me this year when the drift was fast. I bounce the bucktails three times. Once with the rod to 30 degrees, second to 60 degrees and a third time to 90 degrees. Then I lower the rod keeping the line tight until I'm back to horizontal. They would hit the teaser during that one to two seconds it wasn't moving. This has only worked on three out of ten trips this year, but I give it a try every time out.

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

I hate you Kevin

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

You always have to have a deadstick 30 yards back to pick up the fluke that dropped back getting dizzy watching all that jig shaking.

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

:)Thanks for the kind words, Scott. BTW I had to fill your spot for the Elks tourney this Sat. Rosanne is coming in your place cause I need someone that can put fish in the boat :D

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

Words of Wisdom!

Fished SH today and it was all dead stick action! Only took me 2 hours to realize this until I have up jigging when my forearms became sore. :rolleyes:

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

Understandable Kev :)

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

I've found a decent amount of success doing the same thing when fishing from shore. I watch a lot of guys bouncing Bucktails or jigs the entire time its in the water and not catch much of anything. I'll be twenty feet away just giving it an occasional twitch but letting the current do most of the work and do much better. I think capt is right the cooler water temps may have them more sluggish than normal this time of year. I've also found that bait has outperformed jigs and Bucktails all summer for me, at least where im fishing.

Re: 7/21 Fluke Report - Dragging Bait = Keepers
 

Thank you guys, can't wait to try the suggestions.