Bass? Huh, now THAT’s a bass!
Back at the end of June I was invited to New York to take part in the inaugural Yanks v/s Brits Shark Fishing Tournament. Along with Tight Lines producer we went, we saw, and we came second. Next year, we’ll be back!

The event was based at Montauk Yacht Club on the extreme eastern end of Long Island, where rich people live. (Elton John, Billy Joel, Robert Redford I believe are a few).

Andy took a camera with him and we made a couple of films for Tight Lines that were NOT short of action. In two days we had 12 sharks on our boat – I fished alongside all-time American angling great Milt Rosco - all blues, averaging about 150lb. We also had an ocean sunfish (mola mola) pay us a visit. It stayed behind the boat, drifting with us and slurping in the occasional jellyfish, for 40 minutes. This, on its own, justified the air fare!

I also had the ultimate ‘line bite’. We fished four rods, two each for Milt and I, staggered from the boat. The furthest bait was about 50m back, then one at about 35m, another at 20m, all fished under balloon or polystyrene chunk floats. The baits, bluefish fillets, were set at between 8 and 12m deep. The fourth rod was freelined directly beneath the chum bucket, a big perforated pail, filled with ground ‘bunker’, a plankton-eating herring that grows to about 30cm long.

This bait often attracts the larger fish, so when the reel gave that Jaws-style single click, up I jumped. The line started to peel off, but very slowly, then stopped. I thought the fish had dropped the bait, and with the water quite clear I looked over the side of the boat, a 42ft custom, built offshore special, to see what I could. As I did this MASSIVE shark, and I mean MASSIVE, drifted under the hull, accompanied by a small flotilla of remora. It was 25ft if it was an inch, and I had visions of barrels, bigger boats and all sorts.

The captain, Jack Passie, then told me it was a basking shark. I wound my bait in for a check anyway, only to have it followed by a good sized blue shark. I dropped the bait back, and had one ‘on the dry fly’ as I described it at the time.

Milt Rosko

Myself with Jack Passie the skipper.

Anyhow, I digress. After the tournament had finished I had a free day and having caught a striped bass of around 20lb whilst fishing for bluefish as bait, I thought I’d try my hand at some ‘official’ stripers. Captain Jack’s boat ‘Windy’ was chartered, at a cost of $450 (£285) for half a day, to do the deed.

I was joined by Christine Slater, of Tailor Made Holidays and Mark Williamson from Manchester, a good offshore angler I met on the Mauritian marlin World Cup. Mark has fished even more exotic places than me…by a lot…and caught bigger and better fish too. But never a striper.

I was told it would be hard work, and that we’d be trolling. Now excuse me, but ‘hard work’ and ‘trolling’, unless you are a boat, should never be allowed in the same sentence. What do I know?

We sailed from Montauk Star Island Yacht Club, a fabulous marina, with top flight tackle shop, restaurant and wonderful facilities. Windy is likewise a first class boat, built like the ideal woman; broad in the beam, good looks and 100% reliable.

The trip to the striped bass hotspots, mostly in the tidal rips around Montauk Point takes about 20 minutes or so and whilst we travelled Jack showed us his striped bass photo album. The biggest he’s had on his boat weighed 57lb and they are almost identical to our own bass…apart from the darker lines of scales that earn them the striped tag. A 57lb bass? Yessiree!

Mate Mike Awlmer prepared the gear, and despite the very wide stern, told us we’d be fishing two rods, taking turns. The bag limit is 3 fish per rod, but we told him if we could take maybe two for a promised barbecue back at the Yacht Club that evening, he could have the rest. Instantly he said he’d be putting the rest back. One thing the American charter skipper knows, it’s how he earns his money. I have an IGFA sticker on my rod tube that says: “A fish is way too good to only catch once”. The catch limits everywhere I’ve fished in the USA are enforced and more to the point the commercial catches are checked too. And commercial bass fishing means rod and line! NO nets!

We slowed just past the point on a tide race Jack called Pollack Rip. They used to catch pollack there, hundreds in a day, averaging 25lb and running to 40lb. Wiped out almost by the ‘draggers’, their word for trawlers. He also told me of cod catches (the best fish on his boat weighed 58lb 7oz…gutted!) that would blow your mind. Also gone to the draggers. Now the nets are gone there are good catches made, but nothing to compare with Jack’s 20-y-o pictures.

The rods were pretty standard 6’6” downtiders, with Penn 113HSP reels, loaded with wire line, or at least the first 100yds was wire. This was backed up by 30lb mono and a leader of 15ft of 80lb mono tied to the business end.

They call the lures ‘parachutes’ and they entail a jig head, 2oz or so, to which the leader is tied, with a 6/0 hook off the back. This is baited with a strip of red-dyed pork rind, which is split at the tail. The ‘parachute’ part is strands of nylon, crimped behind the jig head, with 60% behind the head and 30% in front.

The wire is marked at 50ft intervals and with a trolling speed of 3knots, the estimate is to let out 100ft of line for 10ft of depth. We let out the entire wire on our trip. Now the hard work.

The wire is let out, then the rod is turned so the tip points at the wake of the boat, the reel faces the engine, with the drag set of course, and the rod is held with the right hand on the extreme end of the butt, the left hand on top of the handle. Now the best way I can describe the action used to add life to the lure, and make the parachute open and close, is to copy the way the Hawaiians at the beginning of Hawaii 5/0 paddle their canoe. Left hand back, right hand forward and keep going. At one stage Mike the Mate was beating a rhythm on the gunwale. It is VERY hard work, especially when something hits the lure like a truck and keeps going! The rod has to be turned to the fighting position, butt in the ‘sissy pad’ and pump the fish in. The boat is NOT slowed down unless the fish takes 40 yards or more of line and if it does, another rod rigged with mono and a diamond jig is cast out the back. Hits on that are more like two trucks!

Eventually, after much grunting, heaving and cussing, a huge gob appears about 50 yards back. If you can keep it up there, now is the time to wind like hell. If you stop and he gets his nut down again, it’s MORE work.

This is truly wonderful action. The fish are beautiful, like new-minted very large pewter models and the two we kept tasted superb.

We had over 20 ‘keeper’ sized bass in our four hours, and a ‘keeper’ is 28 inches! We also returned a few smaller fish and had a dozen or so bluefish up to 12lb, some of which were retained for the following day’s shark charter that Capt. Jack had booked.

I am so happy to know that I’ll be back there next year. New York is reasonably cheap to fly to, there are all types of accommodation, not just the plush surroundings we were allocated and although the fishing isn’t cheap, especially when a tip of 15% is expected for the Mate, it is wonderful.

Keith

If you'd like to ask Keith a question about this trip you can Email him here - keitharthur@anglinglines.com