The Striper Bite is ON FIRE! Big Bass, Big Smiles & Proven Tactics

Welcome back to Bay Rats & Buoys! This week on Episode 85, Captain Gaige and First Mate Kory break down one of the biggest striped bass catches of the season aboard Sand City Charter. The bass fishing in the Long Island Sound has been nothing short of incredible, and we’re sharing exactly how we found these fish, what techniques are producing, and the lures and baits that are getting crushed right now.

One of the best parts of this season has been watching anglers of all experience levels hook into trophy striped bass. Kids, families, first-time anglers, and even guests who have never held a fishing rod before are landing some truly impressive fish. There’s nothing better than seeing a young angler catch their personal best bass or watching someone experience the excitement of a screaming drag for the very first time.

In this episode, we discuss the current bite, the areas holding fish, the presentations that are working best, and why the fishing has been so consistent. From live bait to artificial lures, we’ll explain what’s producing and how you can improve your chances of connecting with a quality striped bass on your next trip.

We also share stories from recent charters, discuss some of the memorable catches that have come over the rail, and talk about why this has been one of the most fun stretches of the season so far. The smiles, excitement, and memories being created on the water are what make this fishery so special.

Whether you’re a seasoned angler chasing your next trophy bass or someone looking to get out on the water for the first time, this episode is packed with useful information, fishing reports, and plenty of laughs along the way.

If you’re enjoying Bay Rats & Buoys, be sure to subscribe, like, and share the show. Don’t forget to follow Sand City Charter for weekly fishing reports, striped bass tips, charter fishing adventures, and updates on the Striped Bass Invitational and The Fishing League.

Tight lines, and we’ll see you on the water!

https://sandcitycharter.com/podcast/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Bay Rats and Buoys. I'm your host, Captain Gage. I think this is episode 85. But again, I'm sitting on the boat. I'm live on TikTok. You know, there's a lot going on. It's absolutely gorgeous down here today. It's it's probably one of the best days. Nice little breeze out of the west, so there won't be any bugs. And uh, you guys, anybody from the area knows what I'm talking about. Those evening gnats that come out, no fun. So, we got a lot going on. We got the tournament like days away, like weeks away now, the 27th and the 28th. We are hosting our second annual striped bass invitational. Alright, these uh postcards are going out thanks to Frank and Tony, managers of the tournament. They will help get those out to the local tackle shops. And uh we're gonna put up, we're gonna make Eric, Mike, and Andrew famous uh in the area here. We're gonna put up these banners. So we got some nice banners made. Let's see if I could do this without making a big mess here. Because of the wind. But yeah, there you go. You probably can't see the whole thing. But uh there's the winners from last year. That's Eric and Mike and Andrew uh who reeled in the uh the 46-inch fish that won $2,500 cash. So there you have it. Bay Rats and Bowie's second annual striped bass invitational going down Saturday, June 27th into Sunday, June 28th. Tournament starts with a shotgun, starts Saturday, 7 30 a.m. and ends Sunday at 3 p.m. So yeah, there you go. They'll probably autograph this uh this banner. There'll be a few of them around town, you'll see them. We're putting these up in a bunch of the local marinas here. Thank you, Janine. She invited me to be a guest speaker at her fishing club here at the Harbor Boating Club. That was awesome. Great to meet those guys. And what was funny is when I said the name of my charter business, San City Charter, one of the it rang a bell with one of the guys, and he was in the the barber shop. And one of the guys, he's not my barber, but he does cut my hair every once in a while if my barber is off on a day that I need to get it done. Like I got a thing Friday night, so if I don't go get my hair cut tomorrow or today, I, you know, and my guy's not working, I gotta go to Greg or you know, I go to Ricky. And uh he said to me that the guy showed him my business card and asked if he knew who San City was, and he didn't hear the name until I was at the club. And uh Greg wants to get out there and catch some striped bass. Well, there's no better time. You see the pictures we're posting, you see the videos. I will start to do some more posting on TikTok. It's gonna be a daily thing, YouTube. We should be putting up two to three shorts a day. Um, we have a ton of content. We're gonna get it out there, we're gonna share it with you guys. And uh man, we're just excited that the summer's finally here. It's you know, we're what? What's it, the 11th? Yes, Saturday's the 13th. Tomorrow's the 12th. We got two charters. Tomorrow we'll be out all day on the bass. Pretty excited. You can see the things blowing around. You see flags blowing around behind me. The wind's out of the west today. Speaking of the west, Manny from the West, he's out there dropping live bunker into the bass right now. I'm excited to hear how he does. Um, we've been going out there using live spot. We've tried live spot, always kill it with that. We even brought out with us eels, and I gotta say, you know, Chuck had told me he was using eels and he did good. And I've never used eels here on the North Shore of Long Island. Never. That would be a nighttime thing. If I was going to use eels, I would use them at nighttime. Um, if I was out there chunking and sitting on the hook. But it's not something that I would drift or use here on the North Shore. It just wasn't uh, you know, there were other things that got a better bite. And uh we always used, I mean, bunker is their number one source. Right now, I'd say mackerel and bunker are your best bet. 100%. And then after that, you have spot, which is not something that we've had here. I didn't catch them as a kid here. Now you catch them at the dock. You put down a high-low rig, a little chicken rig with some clam on it, some porgy hooks, and you might catch nothing but spot. That happens to us all the time down here. So, if you want to get involved in the tournament, now's a great time to head over to stripedbassinvitational.com. That's June 27th and 28th. We definitely need some more sponsors for that. If you guys want to get involved, uh there is a sponsor page on that website. You could check it out over at SanCitycharter.com as well. All of the information is there. You find out everything you need to know. The form is there to fill it out. People are already starting to sign up, so it's good to see the numbers start to grow. But I know it's a tournament, and just like me when I sign up for other tournaments, everybody's looking and waiting to look and see what the weather is. I looked at the tournament registrations from last year, thanks to Teddy and George, the beautiful shirts. Um most of the signups happened once that 10-day forecast got released. And even then you got bamboozled, which is why I did a two-day uh tournament this year, because last year it said weather was going to be great, the chance of drizzle in the morning, literally, the lightest drizzle you could imagine was happening at 7.30 when we did the shotgun start. And then a squall came through out of Connecticut from the north and just horrible three-footers and crazy wind. Um, I had come back in already. I was actually going to the office here and sitting down just to get situated, to get the tournament underway, you know, and get the leaderboard ready and get the photographs, you know, get everybody in a text message to send it out. Uh this year we may do that all in a group text. I don't want to do too much of the group because um I don't want information coming in through the group. It has to wait for me to now send it out of what's official and what's uh, you know. We don't want people playing around in the group trying to make other people think that they won. So uh we're gonna keep it uh the group text of the Bay Rats and Buoys Fishing Club, which we just sent out yesterday. Uh so if you're hearing this and you haven't uh accepted the invite, uh check it out. We're in Group Me. And uh a lot of the guys already already accepted it and are in chatting away. Post a picture of the last fish that you caught I said to kind of get the thread going. And man, so let's pick on some people here. You know I don't use this platform for really, you know, nailing anybody individual. So I'm not gonna nail the person. Uh I'm sure I could dig up a GoPro that probably picked up what had happened or, you know, something. Um but Wednesday night, we're going out with Craig and his daughter Abby, and we're going striped bass fishing at 5 o'clock. He couldn't go until he got off of work. Great dude. He was here in my marina. I, you know, when he got on the boat, I recognized him because I remember seeing him with his Rottweiler here in the marina going to his boat and brings his daughter down, they get on the boat, and we head out. We get to the lighthouse, we take off, and we're in a straight line to exactly where we're going to go. You see my heading. I it's very obvious where I am heading. And I haven't veered off course, haven't done anything. And here comes one of the worst Freedom Boat Club drivers leaving Northport to go back to Connecticut. It's now 5 o'clock, so it's I figure it's like 5.15. Right cruising through the bay. We're the only two boats that you can see. And because I had Abby on the boat, I had a seven-year-old on the boat with a father. I handled this like a captain should. Had it been me and Corey, I'm telling you this would have gone differently just for the just for fun. I would have had a blast. GoPro's rolling, an absolute pull. This guy is coming at us, beelining for us, like he wants to hit us in the middle of the bay. There's nobody else out there. And you know it's the Freedom Boat Club. We know where your boats are. I work there. We all know the Mercury engine, the boat you have, and the fenders hanging out the side. It's one of the biggest jokes we have in town. We know you're a rental. We know you don't know how to drive that boat. It's as clear as day. And this guy is beelining it right from my bow. When I kid you not, we're even waving at him to go straight or go behind us. And this jerk off continues to cut us off. And he 100% a jerk off. One of the worst boaters on the planet. And if you know he left Freedom at 5 o'clock over there and went back to Connecticut, he was the only one making that trip. It was last Wednesday. And uh unbelievable. Not a surprise. By any stretch of the imagination. When you see the boats with the fenders out, assume they know nothing. Assume they just signed up for the club. And let's talk about that. Because every year we get these guys on our boat, and it is one of the best times me and Corey have all season long. We look forward to it. I mean, we look forward to a lot of trips with a lot of clients that we have. We really do. You know, and tomorrow too. You know, guys are coming out already for the second time this season. Like they didn't catch enough bass on the first trip. So they're already coming out for the second trip. And then the afternoon has the second crew coming out again for the second time. So tomorrow's double charter is actually two people that have already been out, two groups that have already been out with us. And they recently they were dropping my name to Lou, Captain Lou. And uh they signed up for the Freedom Boat Club, and they were asking me questions. And you know, I used to train the members there. I was a dock master for Northport. I trained members, I did sales, created a fishing club for Freedom Boat Club, created the we the Facebook group, did a lot of stuff, created the logo for the fishing club. Did a lot of cool stuff to bring that together because it was owned by an awesome owner, Pete and Zeller, absolutely awesome, uh, and wanted to make it great. And I gotta say, that was changed because of the members. Wasn't changed because of the owner. The owner wanted to go above and beyond what any other Freedom Boat Club owner has done for any Freedom Boat Club member, and the members were just they were just members. Nobody, they just don't care about the boat. They really didn't. I mean, to the point where they would take craps on top of the toilet. Like not even open the toilet, like take a crap on top of it. Carve bait on top of a clear glass live well, and put scratches in a brand new boat. I mean, just the things they did, you know, it's just, you know, so you I can go on for days and days and days. So I was telling this to um the guys that had just signed up, and they said to Lou that uh they knew Gage, and he was like, You don't know Gage. And he obviously they know me, they've been out with me for years. And uh one of Scott's greatest, his father's greatest moments was catching bass with him on my boat. And uh when he told me that, it made my made my summer. It's just an awesome memory that you get to create, and I did get to create that with Craig and Abby because when you see this fish, that Abby, the seven-year-old reeled in on light tackle, top water action, fish blowing up all around the boat, not easy to hook into them, but what do we get them on? Brandon, you're gonna love this. We get them on a glide bait that looks just like a bunker. Now, Corey had gotten a white one. I got the one that looked like bunker, looks a little more like a shad, actually. Um, doesn't have the bunker spot on it, I don't think. And uh crushed it. Crushed it. But you needed wind to take that thing like a sail and get it away from the boat because they are light, so you can't just throw it real far. Um, but it did go far from the boat and reeling it back in, it got crushed by look at how fat this fish is. I'll put the picture of this fish up here. And uh so Abby got her personal best. I mean, we said she who's gonna beat that. And I don't know if we're gonna have anybody younger on the boat that's gonna catch a bigger fish, so she's gonna get the San City Kid Award, where she caught the biggest striped bass on San City Charter, and she'll get an award for that. Um so I hope come the end of the season that you know she holds that title for sure. And if you're younger, then say if you're seven and younger, you might want to go for the title. But good luck. Because look at the look at the fatness of this fish, this fish was gorging. And it was an over, obviously, so it went back. You know, we release everything. We try to, you know. If there's a 31 that somebody wants to keep, or a 28, 29, 30 that you want to keep, they're gonna keep it. They're allowed to. And uh one fish per person, Coriol filet foo, you leave with a nice Ziploc bag of the freshest fish you're ever gonna eat. Awesome tasting, try best. So Craig and Abby did awesome. It was awesome uh getting to, you know, getting to talk to Craig and hang out with him out there for a few hours. That was awesome. Great dude. And uh, you know, we love we love the locals here. We really, you know, we have some of the cool locals. Speaking of locals, yesterday's phone calls was everybody was calling me from New Jersey. Like you would have thought I placed advertisements in Jersey for San City Charter. That's how good the website does. And uh I got tons of calls yesterday where I was just talking to these housewives and these people that are traveling and coming here in a few weeks and want to book a trip. And uh just had a ton of questions, which made me want to go put more answers on the website. That's all. More if they ask a question that's no answer on the website, I go fix it, you know. Less uh less questions, the more answers on the website, the better. So I appreciate all the phone calls and leads. I really do. I'm not, you know, no, I'm not complaining. It was just yesterday, it was like the day for that. It was like, holy shit. So, Scott, Matt and Jera, one of the most fun groups that we get on the boat here. Absolute, I mean, it's nonstop. Before they get on the boat, it's already starting. It's starting when they're walking down the dock. And uh what a riot. And we love going out with those guys. And I'll tell you the last trip, you know, we've had some really amazing trips with them where we catch 20 fish and they're tired of reeling them in. You've heard me talk about them. Um, they were they were tough to get on their last trip. Thank God we got them. But they were not easy to get, and um, you know, we're prepared. We actually put out a lure that we had never used that looked exactly like what the fish are feeding on. And I'll show it to you in the fishing club first. I'll let you guys see it. It's pretty expensive for one lure, and um, it's not cheap, and it's not an umbrella rig, it's not a mojo, and uh it was pretty cool. It was pretty well, me and Corey were high five and like all excited that it like it hit the one that we knew it was gonna hit. And uh it hit the mackerel. So that's what this podcast is all about, guys, and the fishing club. I will show it to you. I just don't have access to grab it right this second. Um I'm sure some of you who use DTX minnows for all kinds of tuna and all kinds of uh fish out there, but we figured we'll give it a shot for the um striped bass, and it worked. Worked well, it's great, actually. So we love changing stuff up and trying new stuff on the boat, especially if we have a good crowd on the boat, you know, like they want to hook into some fish. But we'll only troll around and look for them until we find them. Then when we find them stacked up, we want to drop live bait down. You know, that's to us that's the best. Putting down live bait and watching these reels just take off. Everybody knows what I'm talking about. You all know the feeling. But as of right now, we got a ton of footage of the rods bending with the trolling. Forget about it. We've hooked up on so many bass on every trip that uh we're shocked when the, you know, when the bite's not red hot, it's not red hot. You know, white was the white mojo's been the thing that's been getting it done. That's been getting crushed. Does chartreuse get it done? Absolutely. Do you catch them on chartreuse? Yes. Does it matter the water clarity and the clouds and the temperature, all that fun stuff? 100% it does. So you got to kind of change it up, match it up to what's going on. The Major spoons, absolutely one of my favorites. I've caught some of my biggest fish on Major Spoons. And then today I posted a video of somebody catching a 47.6, a 47.8 pound bass on the boat, and everybody's seeing the umbrella rig in the back. I mean, Corey could barely get this fish into the net. That's how big it was. It was a big this was a cow. This was a bit this was a huge fish. And the reaction to the people, it's on TikTok. It's the latest video. I put it up this morning. I mean, it only has like a thousand views, but I'm sure that thing's gonna take off on YouTube shorts and whatnot. Um, getting more into posting every day now, just fishing. All right, just keeping it fish getting hooked, rods bending, showing you the fish, showing you the release, showing you if we tag them. We're gonna teach you how to tag them in our video. Maybe tomorrow we'll make the video. Uh, me and Corey need to get out there. We've been so busy. We really have. I came from the studio today. Today I had to get the last radio show of the season done and out to the stations. Um, it's because of the Spurs going to game five, and there's gonna be a game Saturday night. Had the Knicks not lost uh a game and swept it in four, I wouldn't have had to be in the studio today. I would have been out fishing this morning. However, I was in the studio this morning and now I'm down here on the boat this afternoon sitting in this absolutely amazing heat. Don't complain that it's humid, you got air conditioning for that, but who needs air conditioning? Just get out here and enjoy it. Shut up. Quit your bitching. This ain't winter. We got plenty of time until the cold weather comes around. Get out here and sweat your ass off. World Cup starts today. That made me think of that on the Diet Coke. In fact, in another 40 minutes, I think at 2.30 is the first game. Uh anyway, yeah. How about the Knicks? That was that was a game last night that most people are going to remember where they were when that happened. That's one of those games. It is. I mean, that tipping with the amount of time left and Brunson shot, the inbound pass, just everything, the way the whole thing came together, the crowd's reaction, it was just Madison's Madison Square Garden was definitely a magical place last night, for sure. And then you see the videos of the animals in New York City, and uh there's no better word for them, the fucking animals. That's not happening here on Long Island for any sport. None. Zero. Not happening. Goose egg. Not a chance. Only for the animals in New York City when your team wins, you go do that, or your team loses, or you throw things at the opposing players. Seriously? You guys are a straight up embarrassment to fucking New York. 100%. And there's no better way to put it. There really isn't. But that was a great game. You can't deny that. I'm excited for the hockey game tonight. Great series. Uh I had a game last night. What did I have a game? I had a game Wednesday night. Right. So today's Thursday. I had a game last night. Had a nice wraparound goal. I shot my kids with the bazooka, put my stick on my shoulder, and shot my kids in the fan stands, and they fall down when I shoot them. That was my celly. And uh I heard a lot of comments for it. It was uh, you know, that that was well done. That was one of our better celllies. The kids were great. I mean, the reaction to it was phenomenal. So I'm still loving being on the ice. Thanks, Dean, for getting me back. Uh actually, it's Gonzo that gave me my skates that got me back on the ice, but uh Dean got me back on his team, the team that he plays with, and uh super excited. I'm actually gonna jump into the summer league for sure, 100%. Even if I have to go in for as a free agent if the team doesn't do the summer league from the end of June to September or end of August, whatever it is. I'm definitely in it. John! John over here on the Scout, two doors down for me here. You know, he's like, yeah, he plays. He plays pickup, they play pickup games at Iceworks. Um, so you never know. It's just, I'm telling you, the hockey community is a very small, knit community. And once you're in, I mean, my kids had an amazing time at Superior. And I brought this up to him, to John, that I said they had their uh last Friday, they had their Stanley Cone. And anybody that has gone to these clinics and played in these things, you know what that is. Um, you know, each one of my kids had a hat-trick, had a blast, they were loving it. And um when he heard the Stanley Cone, him and his wife both laughed. And uh they couldn't believe, you know, that brings back memories for people because my kids are 11 and 13, the younger ones. And so that's it, you know, this time of the year. Uh I'm sure I'm gonna get my invites to get on the golf course. I gotta get out and play a couple rounds. I probably should go to the driving range, start whacking a few balls around. Just to get uh this way they're going straight. You know, it's really not a hard sport. For those of you that suck at it. My old office, we used to train all winter long. I mean, chip offs in the office, golf nets, driving, you know, mats to hit into. I'm talking like six by eight, full size mats, hitting into huge nets. Um, so you know. We're dialed in. We're dialed in. Ton of fun. So I'm gonna get out there and do that. I told you last week I need an electronic drum set. You know, so I can play at like one o'clock in the morning and put the headphones on. I gotta start doing all the things I love to do in life. It's that time. Just got to enjoy life. I love all the stuff I do with my kids. I'll be on the ice with my kids Sunday, so I'm excited about that. You know? I'll take a day, I'll take a morning or a morning shift off with being on the water. I'll be on the water all weekend, you know. Uh Monday we got charters. Tuesday we got charters. Tu Friday, you know. Saturday I'm gonna uh you'd be the commercial tow guy late in the afternoon. Um Sunday I'm gonna get on the ice for a little bit and enjoy that. So trying to mix it up a little bit. Life's not all about catching stripe bass, although it is a blast. It's a ton of fun. Speaking of, somebody had a late start to the season this year. And Corey had a late start to hooking into fish when I went out there the first trip with him and I'm I'm flutter spooning and getting bass on flutter. Uh he was trying all kinds of different techniques. He wasn't hooking into anything. And he threw out his clobber. Now they sell him at 11 inches, and it's uh it's a huge, huge bait. They sell him at 11 and 14 inches. So eleven inches is huge. It's a big ass bait. And for a piece of plastic that you're throwing out with, you know, hooks coming off the uh off the back end, and kind of like a uh slow pitch jigging hook on the strings that two of them there dangling from it. And I probably shouldn't know what those are called, but listen. I told you, I don't know everything. I just know how to catch them. I know how to net them, I'd have to videotape them. You know, I've come a long way. So, Corey finally got into an ice fish. And uh it was good to see. He was all excited, and it was, you know, light tackle, throwing out, and uh got a nice one. We love when they're blown up on top. That to me, that's the best. And for anybody that goes out there with us, when we you you've seen some of the stuff blowing up around my boat, it's like National Geographic. The other day we were watching bass chase the bunker. You see the bunker flying through. One bunker jumped up as high as my railing on the boat. And then we continued to watch him. He jumped again, then he was skimming across the top of the water, and uh, you know that the blues are here. There's blues, there's bluefish here. So, you're gonna get into those. They're gonna push the bunker into the back harbors here. I'm already starting to see bunker in a multiple harbors here in my area. So I was gonna finish this podcast and get out there and go throw the cast net. So I got a few more cast net videos to put up showing you guys that perfect pancake that you love so much, and watching the net come up loaded with bunker. Just keep in mind when you do do that, whether you're casting for peanut bunker or bunker, you're only allowed to harvest 100 bunker per day. So that's easy to overdo for some people, and uh, it's easy with the net that I throw with the peanut bunker. Forget about it. You know, you could easily fill up the cooler right there, the big igloo that we sometimes sit on. You see it at the boat show. Um you could definitely overdo it. Keep that in mind. You got a hundred you're allowed to harvest per day. So I was gonna get out there now and go drive around and go get some live bunks, which I might still do. Let's see how I feel after this. I gotta go get some nails to put the banner up. The banner's going up here in the marina, so uh everybody coming down to the marina. The flyers are here. Frank and Tony, if you guys want to go get those out to the uh local tackle shops. I've already dropped a couple off here. And uh you'll see signs in 7-Eleven, West Marine. I'll go give these to Owen over at West Marine. We'll get them on the counter. And uh see if they're gonna get involved this year and get us the buckets. Last year they were uh supposed to get us buckets for the tournament, give out the sponsored products that we give away. Which we we definitely need some more sponsors this year, 100%. The emails are out, the calls are out, we're asking, we're asking, and uh, you know, it's easy to ghost people when you don't want to give them something. I get it, I understand. But uh, yeah, we need some more connections uh to make a few things happen. So anybody out there that's listening that can get some uh people involved, some sponsors, anybody wants to get involved, you want your local company, uh your brand to be involved. Uh it's a great time, and uh we have a great cause. We compete for conservation, and uh, you have two chances you can get into the tournament, which is Dune 27-28, two-day event, uh, or you could jump into the fishingleague.com, which has also taken off. Now people are submitting their fluke pictures that they've taken. So they got to submit the sizes, it converts automatically on the form for them, they know how many points that fish equates to. A fluke is its size times 1.3. So that's the species multiplier. And then you get to submit one of the bass that you caught now, or catch a 40-inch bass, that's gonna equate to 40 points because the open species that you submit has no species multiplier. Okay, that's species multiplier for that is 1.0. And uh this way, if you catch a 40-inch fish, you get 40 points for the month on the divisional leaderboard, not on the featured species. The featured species this month is fluke. So get out there and catch as many fluke as you like and keep submitting them, and we'll keep the three top fish that you caught for the points for you on the featured species divisional leaderboard, the monthly leaderboard. And uh you can head over to fishingleague.com and check that out. It's pretty cool what we created. Uh, it's pretty cool to see people get involved. Uh, you know, I got guys in my club that you know, their boats are still not in the water. People had broken, they had things happen. Uh I've invited multiple people out on the boat. If they can't get out on the water, come out with us. Me and Corey will take you. Uh, if you want to book a charter, head over to San CityCharter.com. TikTok, how are we doing? I I can't see the phone with the glasses on, uh, and I apologize. Speaking of glasses, I brought them down here because you know I love them. Um, they're absolutely badass. They're great to have on. And this caught a very special moment. I would not have gotten the moment if I did not have the Oakley Metas on. Alright, so I was recording one of the guys on Scott Matt and Jerry's trip. Alright, I was recording the uh the striped bass picture we were about to take. And they said to send it into Barstool Sports, and it's going. It's going. This is fucking hysterical. I'm telling him to position the fish and move it up in a way that we can see the, you know, get it in a bed, get it in the sunlight, get it up. A lot of people, they'll hold it against them, which I don't want them to do. You don't want to wipe the slime off of a fish. And now I understand. Listen, when you got a 50 or a 48-pound fish sitting on your lap, I get it. You're not arming that and holding that out here. You're holding it because you could barely pick it up. Not an easy fish to hold. Um, so John, kudos to you. You did a great job in the photo holding that huge fish that we just posted the video on TikTok. But he went to hold the fish, and I'm telling him to, you know, they're holding it over here like this with the mouth here, and I'm telling them to move it in front of him, and he goes to move it in front of him, and he adjusts and goes to get the bottom hand on the belly and turns the fish a little bit while the fish slaps him in the face. Watch the video here. Lift the fish up, move him that way. There you go. It was all caught on the Oakley Meadow. And it's hysterical. So at the end, you'll see there's actually a clip at the end that I'm high-fiving those guys, Scott and Jera, uh, and telling them that I definitely caught that with the with the uh glasses because there's a little light on on the inside. So if you glance with your eyes to the right, you could actually see a light on the inside that's on, and you know you're recording. So, I mean, it's what tortures me the most is the musical go from my Bluetooth. We're playing Pandora or XM satellite, usually Pandora because it's commercial free, um, on the boat. And we ask, you know, customers what they want to listen to. We create a station, or we already have a lot of stations already created. Um, because we make it a lot of fun on the boat. And a lot of times I'll go to put the metas on and put them on and they turn on and the Bluetooth will connect, and the music starts playing in my glasses. It drives me nuts. So now I gotta go in the ad, disconnect, and do it. I'm like, cut it out! Stop it! Drives me nuts. So those are the little things that drive me nuts. But I fix them. Then I'll tell Corey to put on his Pandora. Just put on your Pandora, play it from your channel. This way, my phone is uh not playing from the meta glasses to the radio and to the metas. Anyway, that's my biggest gripe on my boat. That's the worst thing I have happening. Other than that, you know, you lose some gear, you lose a rig. Somebody asked me today after they saw the video on TikTok about that umbrella rig. Which umbrella rig is that? Guys, I only use one umbrella rig. All right, and I've always only used Niners umbrella rig. I love them. You gotta use wireline, you gotta pull wire if you're gonna use umbrella rigs. Yeah, they took the umbrella. Look at that. What do you know, Tony Major? What do you guys know about that? Keep the boat in gear. You take that boat out of gear and put it in neutral, and if somebody's cranking and doing an up and down and trying to reel it in like they're on some sailfish or they think it's uh wicked tuna, uh, good luck. Say bye-bye to that fish. Bye-bye. Like Chef Rob would say. Bye bye. Chef Rob. I fucking love Chef Robb. He's coming up. When we tell him to come, so he needs a boat to get on for June 27th and 28th. Uh he used Daniel's boat last year. That's the picture of him on the Green Goblin uh in the video in the commercial that we just put up on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, all over the place. Um Chef Robb's on that green boat right there. Which you guys have seen. I mean you've seen him a million times. He's always, I get him on the podcast any chance I can. He's crushing it down there at Global Pizza in Godwin's Beer Hall, South Carolina. So uh he's gotta come up with the captains. He's gotta bring up Jamie. And uh they gotta come up here, and I gotta put him on some bass. We gotta have some fun for sure. Uh soon we're getting out there on the tuna. We're gearing up. We got mad connections. This year, I gotta say, like Corey's going to pick something up today. I don't even know what it is. I got a text message saying, send Corey to this address. We got something for you. I don't know what it is. I have no idea what it is. I'm not even gonna say the person's name on here yet. I will when I see it and I get it and we know what it is. But the connection is through the roof. Greg Sharp, connection through the roof. Hollywood producer, CEO of the World Series of Arm Wrestling. He brought the girls out on our boat. Me and Corey have never laughed so fucking hard on a chart. They actually put Matt and Scott and Jared a shame. Guys, they shit on you as far as the comments. Because girls get away with saying the things that the guys are thinking. The shit that was happening and saying was terrible. It really was. It was next level. And again, I got amazing video footage on these things that wait till you see what I post and show you guys. I gotta ask Craig if I could put up a short video of Abby, you know, seven-year-old. I'm gonna have to say this kid's in it on YouTube. Um, but yeah, Abby reeled in that fish. You gotta see the rod she's using, you gotta see her dad's comment when he saw the fish on the side of the boat. He was like, Are you fucking kidding me, Abby? Are you kidding me while Corey's netting this thing? And uh when she holds this thing up and uh you see how fat it is, uh, you'd be impressed that a seven-year-old landing this. And I've had some young kids land some really big fish on the boat, which is awesome. Corbin and his best friend, they had an epic time. Uh they caught a huge bass, you know, 40 inches, 40, 35 pounds, and it's monster. Um, yeah, I've had some small girls flutter spooning catching, you know, 41-inch bass. 39 inch guys, that's a big fish. For a little kid to reel in that go snapper fishing on the dock to catch porgies and snappers. And when they reel in a bass like that, it's uh kudos to them. It's uh no easy feat. And I love when they don't give up. Jaro will give up before a child on reeling in the fish. I'm shot. How much more line do you got? He's shot. You know, mojos, you use braid. Umbrella rigs and spoons, you're gonna put it out there on wire line. So you gotta be prepared for that stuff. And if you get bird nested on any of the wire line and you get it out and you let it out and you get it unkinked, you know, out and you catch the fish, throw that wire line out, go replace it. Lesson learned. I had a break on the next trip, and that was just, you know, human error. We should have replaced that 100%. Even though there are no visual kinks in it, it got bird nested. Corey got it out, caught the fish. So that's my advice to you. Wireline, if it birds nest, you have a problem, and you still land the fish. Kudos. That's what we did. But we lost the next one, so it cost us an umbrella rig and the fish. Which more what do you think hurts more? The fish or the umbrella rig. Of course! The goddamn fish. Who cares about the umbrella rig? It's replaceable. That could have been a trophy bass, and I think it was a big bass. It really was. Whenever you lose one, it's always huge, right? Isn't that amazing? You always lose the big cows. The Hauser. Captain Steve, Miss Captain Steve from out in Calverton. Hauser! You know what that if you went to nautical school with Captain Steve out in Calverton, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't, then oh well. Can't help you. So that's it. Man, get out there. The fishing's great. Guys are starting to catch fluke in our area. If you need to know where they are, call me, I'll tell you. I get intel like nobody's business on my phone starting in the morning, asking me if I'm out there. And people that are out there are on their way to the spots telling me what they're seeing, what's happening. If fish fart and birds poop in the water, I get a text message, which you know that's why you create a uh a podcast, you create a fishing club, you run tournaments, you create a league, you do that stuff, you're gonna, you know, you're gonna meet people. And uh I just love the circle that I'm in right now. I really do. I love the guys on the hockey team. I said thank you to Dean. I love the guys in the fishing club. You guys are awesome. I think we are gonna grow and become really badass. I really do. I love the core 19 people that are in there. Um trying to lock up a restaurant. Here's what I need help with. I need somebody in Huntington that can get us into a place where we can see, you know, two tables of 10. Or a table to 19, and we can order appetizers and drinks and sit down and bullshit and have some fun. Um I used to have whale's tail to use to do stuff, and uh, you know, Sasha's not in Northport anymore. So I'm looking to replace that. And Bob, you know, Glen over at American Legion, you guys have been really nice to us and awesome. I love you. Uh I do, and I appreciate you. And I see you getting construction done, the fences, it's all fenced in over there. They're doing a bulkhead over there. And um, so that's what we're working on. Tournament's coming up June 27th, 28th. You guys on TikTok, if you fish the North Shore, it doesn't matter where you fish. I got guys coming from Montauk, coming to fish the tournament, which is awesome. We love it. I'll be in Montauk for the Montauk Canyon Challenge. That's going down in July. Well, we survived the heat here. I hope uh TikTok survived. I'm not sure if it did. I can't see the screen with the polarized glasses on. I do see the red light still flashing on the uh GoPro. All right, guys, we're gonna close this one out. Wishing everybody bent rods, tight lines, and I look forward to seeing you out on the water, Captain Gage signing off over and out.

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