[RobO]

I have only been out fishing for Fluke twice, and with the fluke bite picking up, I wanted to try it again. I also wanted to get my new Avet SXJ and Shimano Trevala S wet.

So a buddy of mine and me convinced our wives that we wanted to go out fluking on Father’s Day. After seeing a few good comments about the Middlebank boat out of Bridgeport I decided to give them a try.

So at 5:00am I picked up my pal in Manchester and we headed out to Bridgeport. It was a nice quite drive early on a Sunday morning with hardy any cars on the road. It took us a little more than an hour to get there.

We parked and headed for the Middlebank. For those of you who have never been on this boat, let me tell you it is super clean. I was really impressed with the boat and their gear. They use fairly new ugly sticks rods and what looked like a Penn conventional reel. None of the gear was old or rusty like I have seen on some other party boats and even some charter boats. The crew uses a 3 way set up, without the three way swivel, and a 4 ounce bank sinker on maybe 40lb test mono with a new Gama like hook that was super sharp.

The Mate (Mike with arms full of tattoos) was so down to earth, laid back, and friendly. He made sure we had everything we needed before the trip got started and he even hooked up my back up rod with all the gear needed, no charge. The mates worked well as a team and always made sure people had fresh bait and were right there as soon as you yelled fish on. Needless to say I am definitely going back and fishing on the Middlebank.

The boat was packed and almost completely filled with people and it was nice to see a lot of father-sons and father-daughter teams. Hope my daughter will want to fish with me on Fathers day in the upcoming years.

Well the trip started out and on the first drift I immediately hook up with a keeper. I was trying buck tailing for the first time and it paid off as I got the first keeper on the boat.. My buddy also hooked up but with a shortie immediately. The fishing was fantastic for me for the first 2 hours but then we were in slack tide and there just was no drift. The fishing basically shut down for the next 2 hours.

As we got towards the end of the trip I was excited because I had the biggest fish and the pool was worth $180. The fishing had basically shut off and no one was catching anything but the occasional sea robin. Well wouldn’t you know it that with 15 minutes left in the trip a woman catches a door mat. It was a 5 lber. It was the big fish and of course it was bigger than mine. She and her friend were stoked. In a funny way I was glad to see either a woman or a child beat me for the biggest fish.


Oh yeah almost forgot. The guy next to me was having a hard day of fishing. He keep getting snagged since he would just let it sit there and never lift his rod and had to have his rig retied numerous times. I tried to show him what to do, but “no speak English”… Well right about when the slack tide came in he starts eating and the next think I know is he is eating a banana. He gets three quarters of the way through it and the young mate walks over and grabs the banana and throws it overboard, and tells the guy to spit out what he had in his mouth (the young mate was a tool, ALL the others were awesome). Well guess what…. When the guy started eating the banana, well that is when the fishing for me shut down and never returned.

I ended the day with 3 keepers, 5 shorties, and 6 sea robins. Not a bad day on a party boat. I had a great time and like I said the Middlebank is awesome and hope to fish it again real soon.




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[Blackrockian]

We were out there behind Penfield lighthouse and saw you guys pass through and head towards shore....figured they musta been jiggin.

[catch&release]

Nice, i'm going on The MiddleBank Weds. Hope to have good luck as well
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Bad fish! Not like going down to the pond and chasing bluegills and tommycod. This shark, swallow ya whole. Little shakin', little tenderizin', down you go.

[Crest Daddy]

The rules for that boat clearly state "NO BANANAS !"
Bananas are BAD LUCK !!!
I would have done the same thing.
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Trust me. Use waxworms !

[Amotha]

don't waste you money fluking in the sound...RI or LI is where its at...and slack is when you should be throwing that bucktail

[anointed130]

I have seen that numerous times about no bananas,I always thought because people slip on them or something, is it really because of bad luck? I love the middlebank and have also been several times, probably one of the boats out there. The mates are cool also.
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"Come after Me, and i will make you to become fishers of men"

Can i be a fisher of fish too?

~Tony~

[bassinthesalt]

[Sea Duck]

[dogfishhead]

Yeah! No BANANAS! I went on a charter trip like 5-6 years ago and my friend brought a bunch of bananas and the mate convinced him to throw them overboard. Well that day ended up being one of the top 3 days striper fishing that i've ever had.

Oh yeah... Nice fluke!!
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Got em!!

[Pauleye]

What model Trevala S rod did you get for fluke?

[RobO]

Paul,

I bought this rod as my all purpose boat rod. It is a jigging rod.
It will handle anything from a porgy to a small tuna. Lots of guys using them for fluke and blues/striper. Since I do not own a boat I wanted a rod/reel that could handle anything I threw at it and not have to have different rods for different situations. I did not want to have to bring a light rod to catch porgy, then switch to a different rod to go fluking and then a different rod to jig or live line.

I plan to use this rod when I go fluking, diamond jigging or buck-tailing off the party boats.

The only other rod I would bring (if invited onto a smaller boat) would be a spinning rod /reel in order to cast top water plugs. I have a Ugly Stik Tiger Lite Med heavy for that job.

The Trevala S is super light and very thin.


Description:
Shimano Trevala S Jigging Spinning Rods

Trevala S utilizes a new proprietary construction type called C4S. C4s results in incredible hoop strength and incredibly sensitive rods. Because of this construction we can use tiny rod diameters. These new smaller diameters lessen the overall weight which allows you to focus on fighting the fish and not your tackle. There is a Trevala S for fishing every new size of Shallow butterfly jig spinning and casting configurations are available. These very specific actions make success an even greater probability when spot fishing sunken stone outcroppings and wrecks. You will be amazed what these little rods are able to conquer.


TVSS63MHSHM-1830

Length 6' 3''
1peice
50 - 80lbs - Power pro rated
168grams - Jig Weight
MH - power
Med-Fast - action
Price: USD $169.99
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I'd rather be fishing, than sitting here in front of this computer,,,

[Pauleye]

Thanks. I was curious because I bought this rod for fluke this year on a recommendation from someone. Really light and comfortable to use all day. Thanks for your response!