NEW YORK

Point Lookout

Fishing for cod, on daily trips for them on the party boat Captain Al, was good on some days, picky on others, Capt. Tom Weiss said. The trips have been sailing almost 1 ½ weeks, and wind around Christmas seemed to affect the angling, and all ocean fishing, in past days. Even the blackfish boats seemed to find tougher fishing. Cod fishing aboard was last good on Friday, and the fish were found in 75 to 80 feet, relatively shallow. Cod locally usually school closer to shore like that early in winter, gradually moving deeper, as the ocean becomes colder. A storm could suddenly make them swim deeper, and that happened the last two years. During past days, the boat sailed for cod at all depths, from 50 feet to 130. Cod were spread out, not concentrated in any one depth. One, two or three seemed to be hooked at the different places fished, and the boat would move on to the next spot. Mostly throwback cod bit on yesterday’s trip, and some ling were mixed in. Water temperature remained the same as Tom reported in last week’s report, when the angling was good: 43 degrees. In past days, bait was marked in the shallows that looked like piles of herring. But no bait was read beyond water 70 feet deep. The Captain Al is this site’s closest boat to New Jersey that sails for cod daily. When cod are in, the boat fishes for them. Otherwise, the trips fish wrecks for ling and whatever bites.  The trips are running 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. However, no trip will fish on New Year’s Day. See More Info. Call: 516-623-2248.

VIRGINIA

Virginia Beach

A three-fish total weight of 125.8 pounds won the annual Rockfish Shootout held Sunday and Monday from Virginia Beach, the tournament’s Facebook page said. The winning team won $125,896 for that, and the entry fee, according to the tournament’s website, was $500 per team. The tournament used to be held later in winter, because fishing for the rockfish or striped bass opens on the ocean, within 3 miles from the coast, starting January 1 from Virginia. But striper fishing was slow in the ocean off Virginia in recent winters, so the tournament was now held while striper fishing was open on Chesapeake Bay. Striper season is closed on the bay beginning January 1.  Boaters who competed from Virginia Beach Fishing Center on Monday and Tuesday returned with stripers from the bay, mostly from the eastern shore, a report on the marina’s website said. The fish included a 49-pounder and a 40-pounder. In recent winters, stripers seemed to school beyond 3 miles from shore off Virginia, where angling for them is closed year-round, along the entire East Coast. Stripers winter off Virginia, after migrating from the Northeast in fall. Those fish are almost the entire population of the East Coast’s mature stripers, old enough to migrate. Younger stripers, yet to migrate, winter in waters where they were born, like New Jersey’s Delaware and Hudson rivers, and many smaller rivers, and sometimes bays, in Northeast states, before they become old enough to migrate south for the cold season.

NORTH CAROLINA

Oregon Inlet

Plenty of yellowfin tuna and some blackfin tuna were docked during the weekend and on previous days recently at Oregon Inlet Fishing Center, a report on the marina’s website said. Anglers booked charters for bluefin tuna that should arrive this winter. Visit Website.

FLORIDA

Islamorada

Fishing was pretty good, said Capt. Bruce Andersen from Captain Easy Charters, and charters were super-busy, because of Christmas. A fair number of sailfish were around, and angling for them wasn’t on fire, but a sailfish, sometimes two, were landed every time a trip tried for them. Most were hooked on slow-trolled, live ballyhoos. Lots of king mackerel and mutton snappers bit. The kings were usually taken on live bait trolled faster than for the sails, and the muttons were either trolled, when a rod was fished deep during sailfishing, or were cranked from wrecks along bottom, on live bait that anglers dropped down to them. Each of these fish bit just offshore of the reef, 3 or 4 miles from port, in 100 to 150 feet of water. But one trip this past week ran into blackfin tuna to 50 pounds in 250 feet. The tuna fed on a ball of sardines 10 feet wide. Often, the blackfins then can be fought on live bait pitched to the fish. The tuna were reluctant to hit like that on this trip, so the fish were nailed while live bait was trolled around them. Weather was beautiful, not too windy, and unusually warm, this past week.  The air was 80 degrees when Bruce gave this report in the dark at 6 p.m. yesterday in a phone call. Call: 305-451-9578 or 305-360-2120. Visit Website.

Annual traveling charters to the Florida Keys began with Capt. Joe Hughes from Jersey Cape Guide Service from Sea Isle City, N.J., he said. Jim Leonard and son fished aboard Monday, boating snappers and jacks near port on the bay, then targeting sharks along the flats of the bay. No sharks were hooked, not because of lack of effort, Joe said. Lots of the sharks swam, but failed to be hooked. The snappers and jacks were hit on shrimp, both on jigs and plain hooks. For the sharks, shrimp on jigheads were cast. During the weekend, fishing with Joe landed bonnethead and lemon sharks, groupers and mutton snappers from the bay. A trip today was supposed to fish the Everglades for snook, redfish and speckled sea trout, and Joe expected to fish the reef on the ocean side this week, including maybe for sailfish. He also fishes for tarpon on the bay in evenings on the trips, and might do that this evening. The trips fish from Christmas to Easter, mostly on weekends. Visit Website. Call: 609-827-3442.

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