I love fishing live baits for striped bass but at different times of the season a mix of cut and soft baits will be used for them as well. Live baits are also effective for me during the summer months when fluke and summer-run weakfish are the targets.

The hooks in the following video have worked well for me over the years and I hope those of you reading this find something of use for your saltwater fishing as well.

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
Connect With Me On Facebook

My goal was to broadcast live from the boat but quickly found the resources required just were not feasible on a boat in the marine environment. I’d need a laptop ($$$) with web-cam attached to go along with a wireless air-card (more $$$) to provide adequate bandwidth for the streaming video. I just could not justify the costs of the hardware and monthly service charge for the air-card.

Fast forward to today. The smart-phones of today with their 4g wireless Internet have upped their game and brought this idea back to the surface for me. Add to the fact that U-Stream has introduced an app (there’s an APP for that!!!) that enables their streaming service on the I-Phone and Droid devices. COOL!!! U-Stream also made it VERY easy to incorporate my video Channel on the Maybe Tonight Charters Facebook page as well as right here on my website.

So, I am VERY psyched to announce that I am going to give this live feed thing the old college try. Some initial tests I’ve done were pretty surprising at the quality of the video when sent from my phone. Hey, it’s surely not a Blu-Ray display but for what it is, it’s pretty neat!!!

LIVE From the AC Boat Show

With that said, I have plans to visit the Atlantic City Boat Show on Saturday Feb 4th and am going to have a go with the first LIVE event that morning while strolling the floor of the show. It remains to be seen what sort of cell service I will have while in the Convention Center but with any service at all I will be coming to you LIVE from the show.

If you’d like to catch the BETA trial run you can find the stream on the Maybe Tonight Charters Facebook page or right here on my website. The Facebook option offers the ability for commenting so if you’d like to see a particular boat at the show I’ll be watching the comments and will take a stroll past as many of the requests as I can before the battery in the phone dies!!!

I am very much looking forward to seeing how this all works. With any luck at all the next step will be LIVE from the Great South Bay !!!

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
Connect With Me On Facebook

Time for New Fishing Line

Winter is moving along here on Long Island and with it so are my off-season tackle maintenance tasks. After the clean up chores on the rods and reels it’s time to get new fishing line back on the reels. Spooling all these reels is a chore and anything I can do to save some time is well worth it.

The following video represents the method I’ve used for tying my line to the spool of my spinning reels since I was a kid chasing sunnies down at the local ponds. I have tried many other methods I’ve seen over the  years but always come back to this one. For connecting my monofilament and braided fishing line to my spinning reels this works best for me. I hope it helps someone out there.
Maybe Tonight Charters YouTube Channel

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
Connect With Me On Facebook

It's SHOW TIME!!!!

Happy New Year to EVERYONE!! After a pretty nice December where we had some historically warm weather, the New Year is off to a bad start here on Long Island. It is currently 15 degrees outside with a wind chill factor down around 5!! I’ve had enough of Winter already and we’ve only just started.

One upside to the Winter season are all of the Fishing and Boating shows that visit the Long Island area. I’m sure there are others that I have missed on the following calendar but these are the ones that I have always enjoyed attending and usually get to most of them every year. The next best thing to getting on the boat and fishing is checking out the new products from the boating and fishing industry at these shows. Have fun!!!

As in the past I would suggest you visit the websites included for each event below for further details.

January 4-8: New York National Boat Show at Jacob Javits Convention Center Manhattan New York www.nyboatshow.com

January 6-8: Long Island Recreational Fishing Expo at the North Amityville Firehouse, 601 North Broadway (Route 110) in Amityville

February 1-5 Atlantic City Boat Show at Atlantic City Convention Center, Atlantic City New Jersey www.acboatshow.com

February 3-5: Long Island Recreational Fishing Expo at the Marriott Islandia. More details at www.lifishingexpo.com

February 3-5: Long Island Boat Show, Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale NY

February 5: Rte 110 Fishing Flea Market, Camelot Hall 585 Broadhollow Road, Melville NY 9am-3pm

February 17-19: NY Sportfishing Federation Forum & Auction at the Freeport Recreation Center Freeport, NY – www.nysf.org

Feb 25-26: Suffolk County Boat & Sportfishing Show,  Suffolk Community College Sports & Exhibition Center. Brentwood, NY

Feb. 26: East Meadow Fishing Flea Market,  TEMPLE EMANU-EL, 123 MERRICK AVE, East Meadow NY. 9AM-4PM

March 1-4 World Fishing and Outdoor Exposition at Rockland Community College Suffern NY http://sportshows.com/suffern/

March 16-18 Somerset Saltwater Fishing Expo at the Garden State Exhibit Center Somerset, NJ http://sportshows.com/somerset/

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
Connect With Me On Facebook

Power Pro Red Braided Fishing Line

There is no disputing the popularity of the braided super-lines in today’s fishing world. Their thin diameter to line test ratio is un-matched. The downside is the visibility factor of the braid if tied directly to our presentations. It is for this reason that a shot of leader material is added to the braid which is then tied to the rig to reduce the visibility of the running line to our targeted species.

To be sure there are almost as many methods of making this braid to leader connection as there are reels being spooled with the braid. The following video demonstrates a knot that most will recognize as being similar to the popular Albright Knot but with a slight modification.

Maybe Tonight Charters YouTube Channel

I hope this helps someone looking for an easy to tie and quite strong knot for their braid to leader connections.

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
Connect With Me On Facebook

Here’s the particulars for this year’s Show directly from their website. See ya there!!!!!!!

New York Boat Show

Visitor Show Information
NEW DATES! January 4–8, 2012
Wednesday, January 4 12:00pm to 9:00pm
Thursday, January 5 12:00pm to 9:00pm
Friday, January 6 12:00pm to 9:00pm
Saturday, January 7 10:00am to 9:00pm
Sunday, January 8 10:00am to 6:00pm

Admission Prices
Adults (16 and older): $14.00
15 and younger: FREE when accompanied by an adult.

Location
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
655 West 34th Street, New York, NY 10001.
Main Entrance: Eleventh Avenue at 35th Street.
Telephone: 212- 216-2000.

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
Connect With Me On Facebook

Striped Bass fishing in the Spring and Fall was VERY good. The Spring bluefish action was very nice as well but the larger fish were not around in the numbers we are used to until almost summer-time.Speaking of summer, fluke fishing in the area was EXCELLENT both in the bay and the ocean waters. The Fall brought us some nice striper action both day and night. Mild temperatures had the fish in the area right up to the closing bell on December 15th. Let’s take a closer look at how the season went aboard my boat.

The 2011 season started for the Maybe Tonight at the end of April when the boat was launched during a miserable, rainy, windy day for the ride to her slip in Seaborn Marina in Bay Shore NY. Little did we know at the time that the wind that day was going to be a harbinger of the winds we would endure for the majority of the season.

Long Island Fishing Season Beginning

The end of April into May saw the flounder fishing actually providing some results for folks giving them an honest shot. While far from red-hot, the action was solid enough where you could actually feel as though you were going to catch a couple. Added to this was the surprise return of the blowfish to the Great South Bay waters. For many folks the blowfish outnumbered the flounders and this was a very welcome addition to the Spring fishery in the area.

21 lb Fire Island Striped Bass

By mid-May the bunker were settling into their normal locations in the Great South Bay and the striper fishermen were all over them with cast-nets flying to fill their live-wells with this prime striped bass bait. The stripers did not disappoint either as they put on quite a show in the Fire Island waters right into late July. Anglers drifting their live baits in the inlet or outside in the ocean around the large bunker schools were rewarded with numerous LARGE stripers with the action lasting for weeks.

As we moved into summer, there were still bunker schools in the ocean but now the bluefish had found them and were tearing them up making it very hard to find any stripers who remained in the area. Not a problem though as I love catching this saltwater alligators too!!!

Fluke fishing was also in full swing as summer moved in, the bottom of the Great South Bay seemed to be paved with the flatties. The downside here in the bay was that the vast majority of the fish were below the New York legal size limit.

Summer also brought with it the beach season and my wife and I took full advantage by making several trips to our favorite anchorages at Talisman Beach and the cove of the Sore Thumb. Sand, sun and surf were the rule of the day on these trips. Love it!!!

Before the traffic at Sore Thumb in Fire Island Inlet

As we moved to the end of summer, the snapper bluefish were in solid numbers and these prime baits were put into use searching out some of the hard to find weakfish in the bay. While these fish are not around in good numbers in recent years, late summer generally gives us a shot at a few and I was happy to find them in early September on a few late afternoon trips.

Livewell full of Peanut Bunker

Moving into October things began to pickup nicely as the weather began to cool. The bunker put in appearances in the Fire Island Inlet and Great South Bay again and the large bluefish were right on their tails. Good stripers were in the mix as well but the bluefish were tough to get through. By mid-month the bunker had moved back outside again and daytime action on the bass slowed. At the same time the night bite on live eels really started to shine and the boat had a great finish to October right through the middle of November fishing night tides with the eels.

The gang with some of the catch

The end of November had the large baits show up again inside, with bunker, shad and herring all appearing in decent numbers and the stripers blasting them in short order. While making bait was tough some days, you were almost guaranteed a fish per bait on the days you found the livies!!!

Live Bait Fire Island Striper

The fantastic jigging action we had in the ocean the past couple of years just never materialized this year along Fire Island area. Several exploratory trips made in the ocean along the beaches produced very little, with most days not even showing any marks on the finder. The schools of sandeels that had driven the action the last few years just did not show in any numbers this season. Even days where you did mark the baitfish, the gamefish were just not on them.

Here’s a video I threw together with some highlights of the 2011 season. I am already chomping at the bit to get on the water for 2012!!

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
Connect With Me On Facebook

Plan B was to be my final trip for the 2011 season. The alarm went off at 6:30am and again I decided against it. I figured if the action was going to be as slow as Saturday then it could surely wait till a more decent hour. I ended up arriving at the boat at 10am and headed off across the Great South Bay.

The goal was to hopefully jig up some of the herring reported in the area and feed them to the stripers left in the area. Had the last of the incoming current in the inlet and I began the process of trying to round up some live baits. Did not take long before I felt a rap on the Sabiki rig but it was not herring.  Turns out the hickory shad were on the piece.  Quickly filled 5 in the livewell and headed off to put them into action.

Live Bait Fire Island Striper

On the very first drift I dropped a bait right on a fish that was 34inches on the tape. Went untouched until the current slacked when I had another fish that was slightly better, this one going 36inches. As the outgoing started the fish finished off the baits I had in the well and I went back to grab another 3. I ended up the day with 6 fish, all in the same 33-36 inch class. I packed it for the day around 2pm. Pretty decent action for the 3 plus hours I fished.

Chunky Fire Island Striped Bass on Live Bait

Suffice to say that the action was good enough today that I decided this trip was NOT the last and will be giving it one more shot tomorrow. THAT will be the last trip for sure

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
Connect With Me On Facebook

I found my buddy Dennis willing to give it a go and we sailed off into the choppy bay right at sunset. We arrived for the start of the ebb current and made a bunch of drifts and moves around the inlet area with nothing to show for it.

I decided to try and find some lee behind the beach and it did not take long for Dennis to find the first fish of the night. This one turned out to be a short striper. I had a quick pickup on my eel but did not get hooked up.

I made another move back further into the bay and once again, it did not take long for Dennis to find another fish. First drop and BANG!! Shortly after a decent 17lb striper was on the deck. Still nothing for me and sadly that was how it would end up.

Great South Bay Striper on Live Eels

We called it a night as the current began to slow. Not a bad way to kill a few hours. I’m hoping for the weatherman to throw us a break and turn the FAN off. We’ll see what happens.

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
Connect With Me On Facebook

On my second drop of the day I had a fish pickup the bait and take off running but no hookup. It may have been a very small fish that could not get the bunker down as the bait was scraped up from the fish wrestling with it.

As the tide slacked in the back bay I headed down toward the Fire Island Inlet to catch the start of the outgoing water. Several drifts inside the inlet on some favorite pieces were fruitless and I made a move just outside.

Turned out to be  a good move as I managed two stripers in the 16lb class. One of them was deeply hooked and ended up coming home with me while the other was quickly released boat-side.

Late Season Fire Island Striper

I cannot help but feel that our striper fishing in the Fire Island area is winding down earlier this year than normal. The fishing in the bay area has REALLY slowed. There has been no evidence of the migrating fish along the beaches that normally provide us with the final year-end blast.

The boat will be in till at least the weekend after Thanksgiving and I will make the determination then on whether or not it’s worth staying in another week.

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
Connect With Me On Facebook