Great day for fishing since there was a lot of overcast and the temps were very comfortable. I still have a burn from fishing on the 13th.
Kids are on vacation in RI, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to mix things up for myself. No matter what the charter operations say, those blues can be very tough to pull up from 150 feet especially if they are good size...so, if I can't take my daughter, I'm not going to bring my son. Decided, alone was best and this was the time to do it.
Boarded boat at 8am out of Niantic. Got a nice spot in the stern next to a really nice silly older gent.. One of the mates was chatting up a storm before we started to fish and he seemed very cool, we discussed topics like how he prepped bluefish with salt water and vinegar over night and claimed it tastes fantastic when he fries it up...and we talked about the drama with my small outboard problems and how I have yet to hear back from the company that sold it to me. He was very positive and reassured me they would get back to me, it just takes a while and I may have to send letters every month until it gets to the right person. We laughed about The Shawshank Redemption because I said "I may have to send a letter every week." I thanked him and tipped him. There were only three mates for about 25 people and we were all on the port side of the boat. I tipped the other two shortly after because I know its a tough job and pays very little. And I was hoping not to be ignored if I had a nice fish on too of course.
We steamed out into Niantic bay and kept going all the way out to the Plum gut area. Tons of boats out there. We were using Diamond jigs, but the boat has them specially modified to be more "round" so they don't hang up in the rocks as much. If you lose them, its 7 bucks a pop. First few drifts were poor. No one was picking up anything. We continued to try for a while. Captain decided to finally move towards great gull island and finally our luck was getting better. We were told drop the jigs to the bottom and instead of jigging, to reel the jig up 10 spins and then drop it to the bottom again. This was to keep from hanging up on the rocks and simulates the baits action. I was getting slammed and continued to lose my fish a depths around 60 feet. We were going as deep as 160 feet. Other people around me were doing better. All blues though, no bass. I got my first one in the boat. So I was happy I didn't get skunked. It was on the smaller side. We continued drifts in that area and I started really slamming and got a couple more in the boat. The damn most frustrating thing is, they will not use the net because of the teeth on the Blues. So for every fish that surfaced and a shout for help by shouting "Fish on!" The mates eventually got down to my area and they would pull the hook and the fish would be gone.
The tide started to change and the fishing slowed......all along that day the jigs went straight down to the bottom. Unfortunately now they were going to the bow and everyone was getting tangled. It was obviously frustrating for the mates, one of them specifically doing most of the work. (The one I initially had a conversation with.) I considered not fishing at all until this passed. A bit later with the tide being funky, bottom was getting a little tougher to find and I let my line scope out too far and got hung up in the rocks.... Previously that day, I gave the line some slack and got out. This time I gave it some slack and the spool instantly sprung into a birds nest. The mate I seemed to hit it off with so well happened to be right there and was pretty pissed. I felt bad and I knew he was under stress. He should have had me just get another setup but insisted on fixing it himself during the the drift which I missed out on. He handed me to set up and seemed refreshed, said don't be shy, get another one. Cool...so we are getting down to the end. The tide is perfect and the Captain announces this will be the last drift. I thought "Wouldn't this be great if I could get the pool winner. Sure as s*** I dropped the jig four times and slammo, I knew right away I had a very large fish. If I could land it, I was going to win. I had to use the railing and rock the reel...I managed to get him about 4 feet below the surface and kept shouting "fish on" "Fish on" My mate was busy and I was tryin to be patient.....finally he jumped over near me and grabbed the line and pulled the hook and the fish was gone. It was not a gentle pull, it was an angry yank. I did not say a word. He yelled "You said fish UP!" "I said very calmly, "I've never heard that term, and I never said that, ever." Then he yelled that I could not keep the fish at the surface because the fishes lip opens up and that is how they get off. I explained how I deliberately kept him below the water just where I could see color specifically for that reason. Next he yelled you have to say "BIG FISH!" to which I replied, "Man, I do not have E.S.P. I listened to everything the guys told us to do before leaving the dock and no one said anything about yelling "BIG FISH!"
Okay so losing that fish broke my heart for about 30 minutes because that was the POOL winner by a long shot and would have made for some nice photos. The mate I think felt bad he lost my fish and maybe customers typically go off on them. But me, nope. I was very cool and calm about it. So we are steaming back to Niantic and they are filleting the fish...and I'm not bothered as much about the fish as I am about this bizarre conduct. It was pretty disrespectful and I didn't do anything to deserve that. I thought the best thing to do, was to be patient, wait last in line as that mate was doing the filleting, and when it was my turn, I was going to have a chat. I was talking to one of the other female mates. Real sweet girl and funny and she collected the fillet tips and placed them in her bra raising her eye brows. So I look to the mate and ask him calmly, 'I just want to ask you a couple questions." He says "sure." I said "Did I treat you with respect at the beginning of the trip?" ""Yes, he said." I said "Was I polite by tipping you before we left?" "Yes." I said, "Now when we lost the pool winning fish, did I disrespect you at all?" He went off again and shouted, "I will find out what the pool amount is and pay you myself!" He turned around and continued to fillet. I walked away and chilled. It wasn't about the money, it was about his lack of respect and he just did it all over again... We got to port, I said to him, are we going to resolve this with an apology or am I going to have to speak with the captain. He said "Go to the captain, he already knows and you can write all the letters you want!!!!!!" "Every week!" I was still calm. I was just like damn man, just apologize. That is all I wanted. So now people see this and I go talk to the captain who looks extremely young and uncomfortable. I was expecting the one I had seen on all the youtube videos...And after explaining my entire day of what I've written here he shrugged his shoulders and apologized. He said he was just the captain for the day and was in no position to do anything for me. I asked him if someone could have the owner contact me. He said the office was closed and to email them.
Half way home, I was so disturbed by the whole thing I pulled over into a parking lot and called the company. The lady didn't want to give my info to the owner..she said she was the assistant and wanted to hear what happened. Well, I explained it all to her as politely as possible. She said she was surprised of course because this individual does not have a history of this behavior. Hmmm...well to be honest, most people don't want to make the time to b**** and moan because you have to re live the situation over and over...and its pretty uncomfortable to complain. Personally, I hate it, but I do it, because when people do others wrong, they should be called out on it. So I go home and send a message to their Facebook page. Nice young lady gets back to me and eventually calls me. She explains family business, we have night trips, owners sleeping during day, people hard to reach. She did ask me to explain the situation again for her which I did again, calmly and politely. I was not going to get nasty and fight for my money back, but she did offer me another trip at a date of my choosing. So that's fine. I'm not going to slam their business because of this one individual. And he probably is a good guy who needs to learn to control his stress levels. All I wanted was an apology. The goal was not to have to b**** to the company and make him look bad. But, I was left with no choice when he went off the last time.
So fishing was good. I'm going to ask if I can bring my own net for the next trip no matter which charter I go with. That was something I learned yesterday. I have a lot of bluefish I soaked in salt water and vinegar for six hours last night and then scraped most of the really red meat out, then transferred to whole milk in a zip lock bag on ice. I walked away with 3 decent sized blues and a smaller one . The older fella took a couple pics of me with the smallest fish, but was challenged by the cell phone camera.
All and all was fun to switch things up and everyone else on the crew was fantastic. If anyone has suggestions on preparations and recipes for blue fish please post
Here is the pic where the older fella's timing was a bit off.
em.
Last edited by snapper on Tue Jul 23, 2013 11:56 am; edited 3 times in total
Kids are on vacation in RI, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to mix things up for myself. No matter what the charter operations say, those blues can be very tough to pull up from 150 feet especially if they are good size...so, if I can't take my daughter, I'm not going to bring my son. Decided, alone was best and this was the time to do it.
Boarded boat at 8am out of Niantic. Got a nice spot in the stern next to a really nice silly older gent.. One of the mates was chatting up a storm before we started to fish and he seemed very cool, we discussed topics like how he prepped bluefish with salt water and vinegar over night and claimed it tastes fantastic when he fries it up...and we talked about the drama with my small outboard problems and how I have yet to hear back from the company that sold it to me. He was very positive and reassured me they would get back to me, it just takes a while and I may have to send letters every month until it gets to the right person. We laughed about The Shawshank Redemption because I said "I may have to send a letter every week." I thanked him and tipped him. There were only three mates for about 25 people and we were all on the port side of the boat. I tipped the other two shortly after because I know its a tough job and pays very little. And I was hoping not to be ignored if I had a nice fish on too of course.
We steamed out into Niantic bay and kept going all the way out to the Plum gut area. Tons of boats out there. We were using Diamond jigs, but the boat has them specially modified to be more "round" so they don't hang up in the rocks as much. If you lose them, its 7 bucks a pop. First few drifts were poor. No one was picking up anything. We continued to try for a while. Captain decided to finally move towards great gull island and finally our luck was getting better. We were told drop the jigs to the bottom and instead of jigging, to reel the jig up 10 spins and then drop it to the bottom again. This was to keep from hanging up on the rocks and simulates the baits action. I was getting slammed and continued to lose my fish a depths around 60 feet. We were going as deep as 160 feet. Other people around me were doing better. All blues though, no bass. I got my first one in the boat. So I was happy I didn't get skunked. It was on the smaller side. We continued drifts in that area and I started really slamming and got a couple more in the boat. The damn most frustrating thing is, they will not use the net because of the teeth on the Blues. So for every fish that surfaced and a shout for help by shouting "Fish on!" The mates eventually got down to my area and they would pull the hook and the fish would be gone.
The tide started to change and the fishing slowed......all along that day the jigs went straight down to the bottom. Unfortunately now they were going to the bow and everyone was getting tangled. It was obviously frustrating for the mates, one of them specifically doing most of the work. (The one I initially had a conversation with.) I considered not fishing at all until this passed. A bit later with the tide being funky, bottom was getting a little tougher to find and I let my line scope out too far and got hung up in the rocks.... Previously that day, I gave the line some slack and got out. This time I gave it some slack and the spool instantly sprung into a birds nest. The mate I seemed to hit it off with so well happened to be right there and was pretty pissed. I felt bad and I knew he was under stress. He should have had me just get another setup but insisted on fixing it himself during the the drift which I missed out on. He handed me to set up and seemed refreshed, said don't be shy, get another one. Cool...so we are getting down to the end. The tide is perfect and the Captain announces this will be the last drift. I thought "Wouldn't this be great if I could get the pool winner. Sure as s*** I dropped the jig four times and slammo, I knew right away I had a very large fish. If I could land it, I was going to win. I had to use the railing and rock the reel...I managed to get him about 4 feet below the surface and kept shouting "fish on" "Fish on" My mate was busy and I was tryin to be patient.....finally he jumped over near me and grabbed the line and pulled the hook and the fish was gone. It was not a gentle pull, it was an angry yank. I did not say a word. He yelled "You said fish UP!" "I said very calmly, "I've never heard that term, and I never said that, ever." Then he yelled that I could not keep the fish at the surface because the fishes lip opens up and that is how they get off. I explained how I deliberately kept him below the water just where I could see color specifically for that reason. Next he yelled you have to say "BIG FISH!" to which I replied, "Man, I do not have E.S.P. I listened to everything the guys told us to do before leaving the dock and no one said anything about yelling "BIG FISH!"
Okay so losing that fish broke my heart for about 30 minutes because that was the POOL winner by a long shot and would have made for some nice photos. The mate I think felt bad he lost my fish and maybe customers typically go off on them. But me, nope. I was very cool and calm about it. So we are steaming back to Niantic and they are filleting the fish...and I'm not bothered as much about the fish as I am about this bizarre conduct. It was pretty disrespectful and I didn't do anything to deserve that. I thought the best thing to do, was to be patient, wait last in line as that mate was doing the filleting, and when it was my turn, I was going to have a chat. I was talking to one of the other female mates. Real sweet girl and funny and she collected the fillet tips and placed them in her bra raising her eye brows. So I look to the mate and ask him calmly, 'I just want to ask you a couple questions." He says "sure." I said "Did I treat you with respect at the beginning of the trip?" ""Yes, he said." I said "Was I polite by tipping you before we left?" "Yes." I said, "Now when we lost the pool winning fish, did I disrespect you at all?" He went off again and shouted, "I will find out what the pool amount is and pay you myself!" He turned around and continued to fillet. I walked away and chilled. It wasn't about the money, it was about his lack of respect and he just did it all over again... We got to port, I said to him, are we going to resolve this with an apology or am I going to have to speak with the captain. He said "Go to the captain, he already knows and you can write all the letters you want!!!!!!" "Every week!" I was still calm. I was just like damn man, just apologize. That is all I wanted. So now people see this and I go talk to the captain who looks extremely young and uncomfortable. I was expecting the one I had seen on all the youtube videos...And after explaining my entire day of what I've written here he shrugged his shoulders and apologized. He said he was just the captain for the day and was in no position to do anything for me. I asked him if someone could have the owner contact me. He said the office was closed and to email them.
Half way home, I was so disturbed by the whole thing I pulled over into a parking lot and called the company. The lady didn't want to give my info to the owner..she said she was the assistant and wanted to hear what happened. Well, I explained it all to her as politely as possible. She said she was surprised of course because this individual does not have a history of this behavior. Hmmm...well to be honest, most people don't want to make the time to b**** and moan because you have to re live the situation over and over...and its pretty uncomfortable to complain. Personally, I hate it, but I do it, because when people do others wrong, they should be called out on it. So I go home and send a message to their Facebook page. Nice young lady gets back to me and eventually calls me. She explains family business, we have night trips, owners sleeping during day, people hard to reach. She did ask me to explain the situation again for her which I did again, calmly and politely. I was not going to get nasty and fight for my money back, but she did offer me another trip at a date of my choosing. So that's fine. I'm not going to slam their business because of this one individual. And he probably is a good guy who needs to learn to control his stress levels. All I wanted was an apology. The goal was not to have to b**** to the company and make him look bad. But, I was left with no choice when he went off the last time.
So fishing was good. I'm going to ask if I can bring my own net for the next trip no matter which charter I go with. That was something I learned yesterday. I have a lot of bluefish I soaked in salt water and vinegar for six hours last night and then scraped most of the really red meat out, then transferred to whole milk in a zip lock bag on ice. I walked away with 3 decent sized blues and a smaller one . The older fella took a couple pics of me with the smallest fish, but was challenged by the cell phone camera.
All and all was fun to switch things up and everyone else on the crew was fantastic. If anyone has suggestions on preparations and recipes for blue fish please post
Here is the pic where the older fella's timing was a bit off.
em.
Last edited by snapper on Tue Jul 23, 2013 11:56 am; edited 3 times in total
I don't know Snap...seems trouble follows you.
Don't bother bringing a net on a head boat or a charter, you will bring attention to yourself as being a green horn.
Every party boat I have been on has always gaffed bluefish if they were worthy, other than that they would grab the line and swing em.
If they popped off you just quickly send the jig back down and hook another. Wash rinse repeat.
Stripers they net, they have nets trust me
Don't bother bringing a net on a head boat or a charter, you will bring attention to yourself as being a green horn.
Every party boat I have been on has always gaffed bluefish if they were worthy, other than that they would grab the line and swing em.
If they popped off you just quickly send the jig back down and hook another. Wash rinse repeat.
Stripers they net, they have nets trust me
I don't know Snap...seems trouble follows you.
Don't bother bringing a net on a head boat or a charter, you will bring attention to yourself as being a green horn.
Every party boat I have been on has always gaffed bluefish if they were worthy, other than that they would grab the line and swing em.
If they popped off you just quickly send the jig back down and hook another. Wash rinse repeat.
Stripers they net, they have nets trust me
Well. Thanks for the feedback. I will follow the advice. ..either that or give up fishing all together.
i hear horror stories about salt water fishing trips, and that and getting sea sick has always left me fresh water. The fish are not near as big, but i still have fun. If you want a freshwater guide, i know one. He will take good care of you!!!!
Thanks John, very cool of ya to offer. I think I just need a little break is all. I do love the ocean sites and sounds...and I love the fish of course. Thanks Again....
Finally finished cooking the bulk of the fish last night.
Initially when I got home on the first day, I immediately removed the red dark pieces of meat because of the off flavor and wanted some extra chum...Cut off about 5 lbs.
Next placed the fish fillets in a salt water and vinegar solution. I just went by taste...when the water tasted like the ocean, I stopped adding salt...when I could taste a good amount of vinegar I was done...Let the meat stay in the solution about four hours...This did made the meat stiff...did a little more cutting and scraping. Then transferred to zip lock bags with milk overnight.
Made a fresh bottle of "Good Seasons" Dipped and soaked each fillet and placed into a zip lock bag....then transferred to large stainless pot. I sandwiched the zip locked fillets between a layer of ice -- top and bottom to keep them as cold as possible without freezing.
Few nights ago, took out some fillets...in a separate pan I created a "sauce made from olive oil, butter, some capers, fresh garlic and Worcestershire Sauce.
Heated in skillet until everything looked melted including thin slices of garlic.
In a shallow baking dish, placed down foil....spread sauce on bottom and added fillets..spread sauce over top and added some crushed Ritz crackers.
Placed broiler on High and placed fillets in for 7 minutes.
Fantastic fresh fish with a nice buttery flavor and light taste of Ritz. Didn't even need to chew. No off flavors and went great with some River rice and a bottle of Chardonnay.
Initially when I got home on the first day, I immediately removed the red dark pieces of meat because of the off flavor and wanted some extra chum...Cut off about 5 lbs.
Next placed the fish fillets in a salt water and vinegar solution. I just went by taste...when the water tasted like the ocean, I stopped adding salt...when I could taste a good amount of vinegar I was done...Let the meat stay in the solution about four hours...This did made the meat stiff...did a little more cutting and scraping. Then transferred to zip lock bags with milk overnight.
Made a fresh bottle of "Good Seasons" Dipped and soaked each fillet and placed into a zip lock bag....then transferred to large stainless pot. I sandwiched the zip locked fillets between a layer of ice -- top and bottom to keep them as cold as possible without freezing.
Few nights ago, took out some fillets...in a separate pan I created a "sauce made from olive oil, butter, some capers, fresh garlic and Worcestershire Sauce.
Heated in skillet until everything looked melted including thin slices of garlic.
In a shallow baking dish, placed down foil....spread sauce on bottom and added fillets..spread sauce over top and added some crushed Ritz crackers.
Placed broiler on High and placed fillets in for 7 minutes.
Fantastic fresh fish with a nice buttery flavor and light taste of Ritz. Didn't even need to chew. No off flavors and went great with some River rice and a bottle of Chardonnay.