The Compass Rose has been pulled out of the water and will be laid up for the winter at Comstock Boat Works in Brick, NJ.  She will be having some minor warranty work done over the winter and I expect to be fishing in early May.  Thanks to everyone who chartered me this year.  It was a very exciting and successful year and the boat out performed my expectations.  Next year should be even better now that I have all of the kinks worked out I am looking forward fishing with everyone again.

I returned from a fishing adventure this week in the Turks and Caicos and had a fabulous time. The TCI are located south of the Bahama Islands and about 50 miles north of the Dominican Republic. The fishing, however, wasn't so great. We did manage to land five wahoo up to 35lbs, but with the time we put in, we expected to do a lot better. The cat 4 hurricane that hit the Turks and Caicos in the fall did great damage to the fishing industry. Looking at the water from an airplane, it is a beautiful turquoise blue which extends for miles off the coast in all directions. The turquoise color is created from silt in the water which reflects the sunlight before it reaches the bottom. Although this water is beautiful to the eye, it is somewhat murky because it is still stirred up from the hurricane. It will take months for all of the silt to settle and return to a clear aqua blue, which will be followed by the fishing we expect.

The island of Pine Cay is very remote and very private. It is 900 acres of pristine land and has only 35 homes. If you are looking for nightlife and honky-tonk, then you had better stay on the main island of Provo. There are no cars (golf carts only), air-conditioning (you don't need it), or stores (you must bring everything with you). This is the way the residents want to live. The beaches are untouched and white and soft like talcum powder and the water was 80 degrees. It is a place to get away from it all and relax without any distractions. I did not see a TV the whole time but it was rumored someone had one about a mile away.

We managed to get away from the fishing one afternoon and I did some diving which was excellent. It was an amazing experience and I hope I get invited back next year.

I am heading south this week to the Turks and Caicos.  My friend has a house and a boat on the island of Pine Caye and we will be fishing a wahoo tournament with a group of guys.  The Turks and Caicos are a chain of islands south of the Bahamas.  The weather should be beautiful and hopefully the fish will be cooperate.  

Upon my return, I will be fishing the LBI cup which is a striper invitational put on by my fishing club, the Beach Haven Marlin & Tuna Club.  I am fishing on John Mulholland's boat for the tournament since my boat is in Sandy Hook.  There are some great prizes and the party is always a lot of fun.  For more information on the LBI cup call Phil Hiller 609 685 3399 or the club at 609 492 5263.

The fall bass run in Sandy Hook lived up to it's reputation yesterday as the action was unlimited for a good portion of the day.  We got a late start as we headed out from our marina in Sea Brite and didn't get set up until around 11:00am over by the Romer Shoal light.  We had some decent action be we missed most of the incoming tide and the action slowed as the flood tide reached it's height around 12:30pm.  The boating pressure was severe due to the fact it was a beautiful weekend day.  We decided to head up the beach and see what the action was like off the Highlands Bridge.  We trolled north to the Shrewsberry Rocks but only found blues in the five pound range.  Good eaters but not what we were after.  After getting snagged on the rocks and almost loosing my wire line outfit we decided to head back to the bay and catch the outgoing tide.  Things were not looking so great up to this point.

We decided to run over to the NY side of the Ambrose Channel and set up in 30 ft of water near the party boat Fisherman.  He does a nice job and usually puts his clients on the fish.  We lowered our clam bellies into the water and it wasn't long before we had our first keeper bass in the boat.  He measured 30" and weighed in at 10#.  Our second keeper came over the side shortly there after and measured 31" and weighed 12#.  The skates ans sharks moved in and the tide slowed so we were about ready to call it a day.

As we were heading in around 4:00, we spotted bird action " between the channels" and decided to go have a look.  We figured it was blues coming to the surface for their afternoon feeding so we didn't get too excited.  To our surprise, it was an all out bass blitz and we has constant action of bass in the 24"-28" for the next 1.5 hours.  We actually got tired of reeling in bass and decided to head in and start cleaning up before it got too dark.  The bass were still blitzing when we left and there were only a few other boats in on the action.  The wind had died to about 5 knots and and the bay was like glass.  The day was as good as you could hope for and is the reason why we fish the Sandy Hook region in the fall.