NEW YORK

Point Lookout

Some decent cod fishing was cranked-in the past couple of days on the party boat Captain Al, Capt. Tom Weiss said. The fishing for cod, on trips each winter aboard, was launched daily on Friday, after a few trips tried the fishing last week on the boat. All customers decked a handful of cod apiece the past couple of days. The fish schooled close to shore, in 55 to 70 feet, where they usually show up first in winter. As the water cools, the cod gradually school deeper, usually. During the past couple of years, they suddenly schooled deeper, after a major storm each year. The boat tried fishing deeper currently, but cod were yet to bite there. Cod hooked on the past couple of trips ranged from throwbacks to 10 pounds. They were mostly clammed, but a few were jigged. Lots of herring schooled the 42- to 43-degree water. Is that a good temperature for cod? Tom was asked. If the cod were caught, that seemed a good temperature! he said. When cod are in, the boat goes after them. Otherwise trips wreck-fish for catches like ling. Cod are showing up right on schedule, usually appearing locally in late December. The fishing can peak in the next weeks, and the Captain Al is this site's closest boat to New Jersey that’s fishing for cod daily. The trips are running 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. However, no trips will fish on Christmas and New Year’s. See More Info. Call: 516-623-2248.

MARYLAND

Striped bass fishing on the ocean became best south of Ocean City, Maryland, according to online reports. The angling seemed dead off Ocean City Inlet on Saturday and Sunday, but a few of the fish were boated off the inlet on Friday. Stripers were reported caught farther north, off Delaware, during the middle of last week. But most of the bass recently seemed to reach farther south, off Virginia, where fishing for them is closed on the ocean until January 1. One charter captain from Cape May, New Jersey, said in a phone call that he spoke with an angler who boated for stripers off Maryland on the ocean last week. The angler said he caught the tail end of the run, and the angler did catch stripers, but most of the migration had swum to Virginia, he told the captain. Stripers from the entire Northeast Coast migrate south in autumn to spend winter off Virginia. If the winter becomes cold enough, the fish migrate as far south as North Carolina, before returning to the northeast in spring. Virginia offered world-class striper fishing in winter on the ocean as recently as several years ago. Those fish are the largest, oldest stripers, mature fish, unlike juveniles that are yet to migrate. But the bass off Virginia mostly schooled beyond 3 miles from the coast, where fishing for them is closed, during the past two or three winters.

VIRGINIA

Virginia Beach

Weekly party boat trips with Rudee Inlet Charters are sailing for sea bass and blueline tilefish offshore, before sea bass season is closed starting on January 1, and the angling on Saturday’s trip was phenomenal, Capt. Skip Feller said. Both fish were boated in 50 fathoms or 300 feet, and the sea bass were targeted first, a little closer to shore, at wrecks, but still in 250 to 300 feet. Then the bluelines were fished for at slab rock, but sea bass were mixed in with them. Some of the sea bass were hefty, and four or five weighed 6 pounds. Once sea bass season is closed, the trips, like annually, will sail for bluelines, and sometimes will push deeper, for catches that can include black belly rosefish, wreckfish, barrelfish, golden tilefish and groupers. The trips push deeper if enough bluelines are caught first, and seas aren’t too rough. The unique trips fish at Norfolk Canyon, sailing from 3 a.m. to 8 p.m. every Saturday, throughout winter. Sometimes, when weather is going to be rough on a Saturday, anglers will be offered to sail on another day, like a Sunday, if forecasts look better. In other news, Virginia’s striped bass season will be opened in the ocean starting January 1, and is currently open in Chesapeake Bay. A few stripers were currently boated, but somewhat far up the bay. Call: 757-422-5700 or 757-425-3400. Visit Website.

NORTH CAROLINA

Hatteras

Rumors said bluefin tuna were caught, but that turned out to be just rumors, a report said on the website from The Roost Bait & Tackle at Teach’s Lair Marina. Bluefins show up in the local ocean in winter, but the season was early for that. King mackerel were boated on the ocean. Surf fishing was slow, and a few keeper speckled sea trout were reported beached, but none was seen at the shop. One of the crew from the shop landed throwbacks. Puppy drum can bite in winter from the sound to the surf to the ocean, but none did yet. The ocean is warm for the pups to move in, so anglers still hope they come. Visit Website.

FLORIDA

Islamorada

Fishing’s been good, said Capt. Bruce Andersen from Captain Easy Charters. Weather’s been “pretty dang good,” he said, too, and most days reached 80 degrees, and nights were in the 60s. Sailfishing was good just offshore of the reef, 3 or 4 miles from port, on slow-trolled, live baits, mostly ballyhoos. A trip Tuesday tackled a 50-pound wahoo, a bunch of king mackerel and some mahi mahi and mutton snappers. November through March is usually the best for wahoo fishing, and angling for them will become hot and cold, or come and go, he said, during that period. The ‘hoos aren’t unusual to catch, and some trips might boat five or so. But hooking them is always a treat, he said. All of these fish are found in winter just offshore of the reef, where the water plunges deeper than 100 feet. All the catches, except the muttons, a bottom-fish, are usually taken on trolled live bait like ballys or cigar minnows. The 50-pound ‘hoo on Tuesday punched a trolled, live cigar. Mutton snappers are hooked on live bait that the anglers free-spool down to wrecks. But sometimes muttons are caught on trolled live bait when a rod is fished deep during sailfishing. This is the peak time of year for sailfishing, usually from late December to early February. Call: 305-451-9578 or 305-360-2120. Visit Website.

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