Fishing Report: 11/14/2010

What we expected to be an excellent week of striper fishing was turned upside down by a low pressure system that seemed determined to hang around off the coast and make our life miserable all week. Howling winds with gusts into the low 50's led us to cancel our charters on Monday and Tuesday, and continued to make fishing challenging through much of the week.

When the winds finally dropped into the mid to upper 20's on Wednesday, Steve Sweeney was back with buddies Frankie and Dave to give bay bassing a shot. Bravely enduring the wind and cold, the guys proceeded to land a dozen bass up to 20 pounds with clam as the hot bait. These were all nice fat bay fish, with only three shorts and four fish well over 15 pounds. On Friday, Brian Murray and Dave Kruge came out to get in on the action, nailing four bass to 31" despite ugly wind against tide conditions and water temperatures that had plummeted into the 30's. Clam again produced fish in murky waters caused by the constant blow. High hopes for Saturday's trip when the winds finally settled down were dashed as the fish seemed to develop a severe case of lockjaw. Maybe it was the icy cold water, maybe it was the intense boat traffic from the huge fleet of boats that stayed in the bay, but whatever it was the fish didn't want any part of our clam baits or live spot offerings.

We'll have to see what the next week or so brings in terms of weather. Once the bay cleans up from this week's wind, live spot should again start producing consistent bass catches from around the inlet. And if we can get a couple of days or northwest winds to flatten out the ocean, jigging action along the beach should be outstanding. Keep your fingers crossed.