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Captain Joe "Bud" Russo was fishing in Jamaica Bay. He was using 12 pound test line and was using bunker for bait when he caught this beautiful 10.64 pound weakfish. Captain Russo has been a bayman since the early 70's. He has lived all his life in Howard Beach, and has a 25' Express Fisherman. His specialty is taking out fly fisherman and light line anglers. Fishing for weaks and stripers in the spring and summer. Then fishing for tautog and seabass in the fall. |
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Jamaica Bay is a large body of water and salt marsh area covering 26 miles on the south shore of Long Island. John F. Kennedy Airport borders the bay on it's eastern end, and the bay it's self separates the peninsula of the Rockaways from the main part of Long Island. The western end of the bay is open to the Atlantic Ocean at the Rockaway Inlet. The Gateway National Park covers a large area of the bay, and offers recreational opportunities including fishing, hiking, boating, bird watching, basketball, softball, football, soccer, horseback riding, and jogging. The bird watching is fantastic here, and one may see over 200 species of birds throughout the year. Thousands of ducks and geese stop over here during the fall migration. This is a very important stop along the Atlantic Flyway. Jamaica Bay ranges in depth from 3 to 12 feet, but has been dredged for navigation and can be up to 50 feet deep in spots, but on average depth is less than 10 feet deep. Due to the shallow nature of the bay it warms very quickly in the spring and is a magnet to all species of fish and birds alike. Some of the fish you may encounter on a trip to the bay include Fluke, Stripers, Weakfish, Bluefish, Bonito, Spanish Mackerel, Tautog, Seabass, False Albacore and Skipjack Tuna. The current state record weakfish was caught by Dennis Rooney, of Seaford, NY on October 11, 1984. This incredible fish weighed 19.2 pounds. Weakfish are starting to make a come back and are being caught more often by recreational fisherman. |
| Fresh bunker makes a great bait, because he also caught this 32 pound striper as well. There were lots of blue fish mixed in with the weakfish and stripers so it was necessary to use a small wire leader. That 12 pound test line is no match for the teeth of a blue fish and tying on hooks is not as much fun as catching fish. |
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The Striped Bass is the largest member of the sea bass family. Striped Bass can live up to 40 years and can reach weights greater than 100 pounds. The Striped Bass is anadromous and may ascend streams and travel as much as 100 miles inland to spawn. The native range is along the Atlantic coast east of the Appalachian Mountains from New Brunswick south to Florida. The Striped Bass is a very important sport and commercial fish throughout its range. Striped Bass feed most actively at dusk to dawn, although some feeding occurs throughout the day. During the summer they tend to become more nocturnal feeding mostly at night. Striped Bass eat a variety of foods, including fish such as alewives, flounder, sea herring, menhaden, silver hake, smelt, sea robins, porgies, and eels. They will also feed on lobsters, crabs, soft clams, small mussels, sea worms, and squid. They have a voracious appetite and will eat almost anything that moves. Stripers are particularly active with tidal and current flows and in the wash of breaking waves along the shore. As the surf pounds the shoreline small fish, crabs, and clams become easy prey as they are tossed about in turbulence of the breaking surf. |
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