Ambrosia Mae edge trip report

[Bob Bradley]

Departed Westerly Yacht Club 0600 on Monday bound for Montauk and the edge beyond. Crew included myself and friends Craig, Walt, and Mike.

Left in a downpour with winds blowing about 20kts, wondering if we were nuts even going. I headed for the Watch Hill Passage, as I didn't want to squeeze thru any of the others in the limited visibility we were experiencing.

After turning south at Watch Hill, with my radar of limited use due to the rain, I made a Securite call on 16 to see if there was any large traffic heading in or out of the Race that I needed to be concerned with. I was a bit surprised when an inbound sub quickly responded. They gave me their position, between Montauk and Block, and I gave them mine, as well as my course and speed, and suggested that they just duck under me if I got in their way, eliciting bit of a chuckle out of them. About 20 minutes later, they called me again to confirm my postion, course, and speed, and they told me to maintain and that they would pass about a mile or so behind me. It's nice to know folks are paying attention out there, as my radar would never pick up a sub on the surface.

We stopped at Montauk Marine Basin for bait and ice. I thought that they seemed a bit pricy, so afterwards I studied the bill more closely and learned that they are charging $46 per flat for butters, $40 for sardines, and the real stinger was when I realized that I had just paid a total of $54 for 2, count em, 2 rigged squid sword baits. Yikes! Moral of the story is to buy locally, but timing prevented me from doing so.

Anyway, we had a nice roller coaster ride on 8' swells, but it was a following sea, and not at all unpleasant, despite their height. The only time it got a bit snotty was around 1700 when the north wind picked up to around 15 or so and started blowing 3 footers off the tops of the swells.

Our plan was to run to Fishtails canyon, and then troll east in the direction of West Atlantis, looking for the warm water I could see from a half-shot of temperature charts from Saturday. Temp approaching the tails was about 66 until we were 8 or 9 miles from the edge, where it jumped a little to 68 - not exactly the break I was hoping for. We had lines in around 1330 about 8 miles north of the tails, and chatted a bit with friends on the Good To Go, who was trolling in the same direction about 5 miles south of us, and had just hooked up a couple albies.

We had our first knockdown around 1500, when we went 2 for 3 on albies along the west wall of the tails. I'm pleased to report that all 3, plus one more we lost later, were all on the homegrown spreader bars that my buddy Al and I had made up over the winter.

Not one to leave fish to find fish, I decided to stay and fish the area, and we managed to pick up a few nice mahi off the balls before dusk. I use a fuel bladder, which sits up on my bow, to supplement my tanks, and since I had to transfer fuel and it was a little rough, I elected to tie off to a ball for the chunk. We started chunking, and put the baits out - 2 sword drops at 200' and 300', along with 3 tuna baits - around 1900 and settled in for the night. My new transom lights worked well, attracting some squid, but they were very skittish and hard to net. I did manage to catch 2, one of which we live lined, keeping the second in reserve.

Well, the chunk provided us absolutely zippo for our efforts. The only action all night was a quick pickup that charged the boat and dropped the bait - probably a mahi. We started trolling at first light, heading out into the middle of the tails hoping for an eyeball, but no love there either, so we started pot hopping in an easterly, the dirction where I hoped to find a break. We found ourselves stuck in the 68.2 degree water till 1000, when we turned and started trolling north along a line of high fliers we encountered. Thankfully, the mahi were cooperative, and we managed to catch a dozen or so to 10#, which helped salvage the trip.

Around 1100, we pulled the lines, still in the 68 water, and started motoring north. We didn't get 3 miles when the water turned pure blue and the temp jumped to 72 degrees, with weedlines everywhere. Ughh! Talk about a day late. We redeployed the outriggers and put the spread back in. Still, no more tuna, and only a couple more mahi, despite seeing some fairly large active schools of them working in the weeds. If it had been earlier, I probably would have pulled out the spinning and fly gear and targeted them, but by now it was noon and we had to head for the barn.

All in all, I'm glad we went, and we do have a couple bags of fish to show for it. Final count was 2 albies and about a dozen mahi.

I wish the mahi action was close enough to shore to do a dedicated trip and target them with light spinning and fly tackle. It's tough to justify $2000 in fuel just to do that, however.

[34Hatt]

Bob

Thanks for the nice detailed report. I see it still sucks out there for fish.
I cant believe that the night bite is still off this time of year.
I see it is laying down this weekend but Ill be upstate cruising the Hudson river on a freinds boat. Maybe next week If I hear a better report other wise I stick to bass fishing.

Did the marine basin at least wear a mask
Those bait price's wooo. What was there fuel price?

Take care Dan

[Bob Bradley]

The posted fuel price is $4.09, but I've heard that they then tack on a "service charge" which makes it substantially higher. Ask before you pump.