A Whole New World

Last week I headed to "a whole new world" to do something things that really haven't been on a kayak yet in a place unfamiliar to me. That world was Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn, NY and my goal was to trolling bunker spoons from a kayak and catch striped bass. Many said can't be done, but I think I proved them wrong and many fellow yakkers are now adding a bunker spoon to their arsenal.

THE TRIP:
Chris "foot" Fuller and I loaded up the trailer and gear around 9am and after a few mishaps (including the trailer falling off the truck on the GSP, swapping trailers, forgetting my mirage drive and cart, the list goes on), we arrived at Floyd Bennett Field around 1pm. The trip should have taken around 2 hours but turned into 4 hours. We laughed, cried, and learned a few new tricks along the way. Bob "scrapes" Stempek and Dennis "Homer" Reinknecht were already setup at  the campsite, right on the famous tarmac where Amelia Earhart and Howard Hughes made their famous takeoffs from. JBay is a huge wildlife refuge that is part of Gateway National Recreation Area and I would recommend taking a visit there to fish, bird watch, or just to check out the plane museum in the park. We unpacked, rigged up, and headed for the water wasting no
time.

Our camp all set up

Headed to the launch

I've never been to Jamaica Bay or JBay as many call it. It was a brand new area to me, but I went in with confidence and used the same tactics as back in Jersey. We trolled around some channel edges near the launch and fished a bridge close by with little to show. As we got closer to dinner time I finally put the first bass in the kayak near the bridge.

We trolled a little more trying to find some good cuts. Most of the areas we were fishing were around 5-7' or water and the fluke were arresive hitting our plugs. I managed to tag and release two flatties before we found deeper water. 

I was in only a few feet of water when Scrapes yells "there is deeper water over here". I peddled over and let some line out when I saw the drop and BAM, fish on and put a fat 30"er in the yak that hit a Rapala Xrap in the glass ghost color.

Scrapes and I worked the spot and called the rest of the guys in. We picked away at more fish into the dark on the plugs. Right was we were headed in I had another hit and thankfully it was a solid bluefish that gave the trifecta I was looking for. 

Homer on the troll

Scrapes hooked up

Foot with a nice fattie

Over the next day and a half we fished several more spots and did well at all of them. We all caught fish and slimed up our boats and had a great time doing it with some good people. In total we fished over 20+ hours and traveled over 30+ miles each. We had a  great time and eat and drank well each night. All fish were released to swim off and hopefully make more stripers.

As for my goal of trolling bunker spoons on a kayak, that will require it's own post, but I'll leave a pic...

Can't beat good fishing with some good friends!

Thanks Bob, Dennis, & Chris