July 30 Fluke Fishing Report

We started early and headed out for what seemed to be rough conditions with the wind and bay both running hard. We started in the lee of Staten Island and where surprised with a comfortable drift.

Jimmy and Jimmy Jr started with bait, the rest of us went with bucktails and a bait trailer. Some weigh was necessary, but once that was a adjusted we were holding bottom. First drift were a couple of shorts, but that was not bad.  

We did the drift again and Jr. landed a nice 22" fluke! It was a good weight (confirmed later on with my handy digital scale) and a great sizes. After a couple more shorts we played hide and seek for the rest of the day and had many shorts, a couple of dogs, and a few sea robins.

We finished the day with a couple of nice fluke for dinner and a great day on the water.

Porgies Fishing Report - July 22

Saturday morning was nice weather to cross the bay to Coney Island and Breezy Point.  We where  hoping for fluke but were pretty sure the fishing would serve up plenty of Porgies.  

We started at Coney Island for fluke, and figured that if we are the only ones there we will probably strike it rich or strike out. Well after three strikes we were off to Breezy Point. We started to drift with clams and where into porgies from the get-go. We kept drifting and fishing and caught porgies, dog fish, sea robins, and short fluke.  

The poles where bent all day and some nice size Porgies went in the box. We tried later in the day for fluke, on the other end of the Bay but just caught a a couple of shorts. 

Wish to Fish 2017

We're excited to announce that the Double Down II will be participating in Wish to Fish 2017. This is an incredible program that gives kids ages 3 - 18 a chance for day on the water. This is the second year in a row that Captain Dan and the Double Down II will be taking part, and the first for Captain Pete. 

We plan on two outings this year, the first of which is in June and the second is to be arranged. 

You can learn more about this program here, as well as email them to learn more or donate. 

June 17, 2017 Fishing Report - Chumming for Blues

We took a party of 5 out off the south shore of Staten Island looking for bluefish. We left the the dock at 6am. 

Dropped hook at 6:30am, started to chum, and first fish was on board by 6:45am. Good fishing throughout the morning. We got medium to large bluefish, up to 12.5 pounds. Good water, not too rough or too still. Pretty nice day to be out on the water with good visibility and limited wind.

Near-constant action through the day. Pulled our anchor as the last fish came aboard.

Didn't forget to bring along the best EDC pen possible for writing down all those fish reports and accurately recording lengths, times, returns, of the day's fish.

Super successful day. Smiles all around. Every left with a bag full of filets and enough to freeze.  

June 14, 2017 Fishing Report - Sea Bass fishing

Went out specifically for sea bass today, in the Mud Buoy area. Arrived around 7:30am, dropped anchor in 1.5 - 2 foot seas. Water depth was about 35 feet. 

Started to drop broken clamshells and clam bits for chum. Sea bass arrived hot and heavy in about 10 minutes. 

Caught bass all day, mostly shorts, but enough keepers to make everyone happy. 

Pete was high hook, with JR right behind. Good time was has by all. Planned another trip when the season reopens.

We can't wait for blackfish season to start!

June 8, 2017 Open boat fluke fishing report

Today was another successful open boat Thursday. That's $125/person with no minimum party size and a maximum of six people.

We started our first drift at 6:45am east of Union Beach and connected with all shorts. We moved around the general area until we found where the keepers were hiding. It seems that killies and squid combination resulted in better catches than everything else we tried that day. 

After fishing some more we ended the day off of Keyport with a number of keepers. 

Fishing tip, here was our approximate location, but don't take it too seriously...

 

May 3, 2017 - Striped bass fishing off of Staten Island

Started trolling south of buoy 19, and got our first striper before even getting to 19. We reran the same route and kept going towards the Old Orchard before hooking up with our first bluefish of the day. 

We continued trolling both mojos and bunker spoons but we didn't land any more stripers, just constant bluefish for the rest of the day. 

We eventually pulled in the mojos to stop them from getting destroyed. We then tried different spots, closer to Keansburg, but only caught blues. We kept a few -- got some nice filets -- and returned to Brown's Point Marina to clean the boat. We docked around 2pm.

April 28, 2017 NJ Striped Bass Fishing with Clams

Left the Browns Point early and traveled around until we saw signs of life. Found some great marks along the Reach Channel and decided to anchor up in the flats. 

Went to clam chum and fresh clam bait, but not nothing until the tide changed. As the tide changed the fish turned on and stayed around for the next two hours. 

We got a nice pick of stripers in the teens, with a few twenty-pounders. We kept two for dinner, the rest were tagged and returned. It was really cool tagging and releasing the fish, hopefully we will get some feedback on the tags at a later date.