Kayak anglers score a bevy of bass
Jermaine Owens of Southold reared back hard on his fishing rod and a 16-inch largemouth bass cartwheeled out of the water.
"I love it when they jump!" Owens called out to his buddy, Marty Bazata, another Southold resident who was fishing nearby. "That bass was all over my lure."
Owens, Bazata and I were working a phragmite edge with three-inch, watermelon and black-flake Senko plastic worms, and the action had been solid. Over two hours we connected with several bass to three pounds, a quartet of pickerel to 20 inches, a ten-inch crappie and a large yellow perch. All had responded to a technique called "wacky worming," in which a soft plastic worm is simply hooked once through the middle of the body near the collar and retrieved with slow lifts of the rod tip.
"It doesn't get any better than this," offered Bazata, as he paddled ahead to set up another cast. "I just purchased my kayak, and this is the first time I'm taking freshwater fishing seriously. It's been great so far."
The warming trend of the past two weeks has raised water temperatures in most freshwater lakes and ponds across Long Island into mid-50s and the fish seem to be responding. It also foretells the start of improving catches on the salty side.
"A lot of anglers concentrate on freshwater fishing in the spring before getting serious about chasing fluke, bass, porgies and blues," noted Owens, who works as a mate aboard the Greenport open boat, Peconic Star II. "I'm one of them. In another two weeks or so, I'll be back to work on deck. I'm anxious for it to all get started again."
Saltwater action is heating up, and there, too, kayak scores have been front and center. While a few schoolies have been caught and released in the tidal creeks of Quogue Canal, eastern Moriches Bay and on the backwater flats of Jamaica Bay, action in the shallow stretches of Oyster Bay have been the most impressive. That's where Ed Savarese, of Mineola, and his 13-year-old son, Dylan launched their kayaks last Sunday. Trolling small Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows, the pair tallied 20 stripers measuring 24 to 27 inches, plus a 29-inch keeper landed by Dylan.
Blackfishing has also improved out at Montauk and, especially, in the middle reaches of Long Island Sound. The open boats Captain James Joseph, in Huntington, and Celtic Quest, in Port Jefferson, each scored well for light crowds during the week, with both pulling bulldogs to seven pounds.
Fishing demos
Rich Johnson of The Fishing Line will be presenting fishing demonstrations at three Kmart locations this weekend starting tonight at Farmingville, tomorrow afternoon at Huntington and Sunday afternoon at Riverhead.
E-mail:
outdoortom
@optonline.net
