Bryan (Sinapti) and I went out after the storm for what we thought would be a crap shoot given the change in weather. usually this results in putting the fish off the feed. We left Shelter Island at 6 am and the seas were a little bumpy. But as the day progressed it became down right nice to our surprise. We fpoud some paddys early about 25 miles out at the 302 bank with nothing holding. We headed south and found the same, paddys and no fish. Then we took a different angle and a stach of paddys close to where we began. The first held a dodo that we couldn't get to go. Then we came upon a paddy and about 10 yt and what seemed like dodos rushed the boat. We had discussed a plan based on past experinces to get the fish to take a fly. We drifted by the paddy and threw chunked sardines, a few takers. We drifted again with a little more action. Then on the third drift the Yt began hitting every chunk and looking for more. We had not even thrown a fly at this point waiting for the fish to get lit before we cast. Bryan was up and cast a Gummy minnow and a nce YT takes it on the first cast as it was mixed in with the other chunks. The fish starts to wrap us around the kelp but we moved the boat and got a good angle. Bryan is a pro at playing big fish and he worked the YT down and dirty with his 10 wt Loomis and Billy Pate Bonefish reel. Soon we had the fish to gaff and in the boat. We made more drifts but the fish turned off or wised to the game. We moved on and found a paddy with DoDo, big DoDo and we, actually I mostly, proceeded to farm 4 DoDo's before we had to head home. It was amazing how quickly the fish got off the feed and in some cases even turned their noses at the chunked and live that we threw. All in all a great day. Bryan is fun to fish with. He comes prepared and brings game. There was little tide and given the weather change it could have been off the hook. I think we may have found a real reliable method for getting paddy fish on the fly. We saw jumping marlin, grey whales, moalas and very few other boats. I'll do more research this weekend. I'll post the pictures soon. My computer crashed and I'm having to download all my programs in the new laptop. Yuk. can't wait till the weekend. The swell has finally layed down, this week has big tides and the fish are here. Game time baby.
Randy
