[dropcap]R[/dropcap]eel Addictive Charters is back up and running in Long Island. The aftermath of Hurricane Joaquin has made it hard for many locals to settle back in to normality. Despite this struggle though, Long Islanders are making a valiant recovery. The storm has chased many reef fish out of the area. Spearfishing offshore on patch reefs has not been as productive as previous months, but fish stocks should replenish over the next few weeks. The deep sea fishing is prime for wahoo during January. Long Island has great numbers of large wahoo migrating through, with average sizes being in the 40-pound range. We often target them by high-speed trolling, as this technique proves most successful in terms of getting fish in the boat. Sharks are always a problem, so the advantage of using 11/0 and 12/0 size hooks on these high speed rigs, means that you can really put the brakes on them with 25-pounds of drag. We like to troll along at 13 knots with an assortment of lures such as Islander flash lures rigged with double skirts or ballyhoo âcowbellâ lures with double skirt. We find these lures with either nylon hair or Mylar flash to hold up against multiple bites.
January also seems to be the prime month for swordfish migration past Long Island and we have been successful in the past with daytime sword fishing. Previous to the hurricane, we had a fish aggregation device (FAD) moored out off of Clarence Town for pelagic species. This was a hotspot for wahoo, mahi and tuna. We got adventurous enough to try our hand at spearing some of these pelagics with Hawaiian sling and pole spear. We counted upwards of 20 wahoo around this FAD and were successful in spearing possibly the first wahoo ever taken with Hawaiian sling. Although the sharks took their tax of most of him, it was an exhilarating accomplishment that will be remembered.
Reel Addictive Charters offers a wide variety of adventures from deep sea fishing to spearfishing as well as customized activities according to the clients preference.