NY Fly Fishing News:

September 2008

Just shaking off the much needed sleep after a Tuna marathon yesterday. After hearing how hot the Tuna bite was from my other guide friends while I was in Africa, I was dying to get out.

A scheduled trip with Bill Dawson, the Sage flyrod rep, his co worker Scott Doty and Robert from Ramsey Outdoors finally got me out there. After what was a tremendous Yelowfin season early on, the canyons have died out a bit, notwithstanding that, to pass up a bite like this one you'd have to be crazy. Over 12 Bluefins hooked up, 7 or 8 brought to the boat, and two hooked up on fly, one being the fish of a lifetime for Bill Dawson. He landed this Bluefin in under 45 minutes on a 16 weight Sage rod, on a tippet that would have tested out on IGFA standards as 26.

Fish after fish were hooked up on jigs, and Bill refused to get away from the rod. Finally he hooks a big fish and it dumped the Pacific spool, just then a school of Rays go by and cut the backing in half.  This happened to us two other times yesterday on 65 pound braid so the backing had no chance. About a half an hour later the bait rod went off and dumped half a spool of 60 pound Sufix off of the Finor Santiago reel, it was no doubt a big fish, maybe biggest of the day, but then Bill's burning drag sound grabbed my attention, and we knew that at some point we would have to cut off the fish on the 50, which we did after about a half an hour of under, over, back, go around the left, etc.

Capt. Lou Grasioso who helped me out for the day, was pricelss when he said "sorry Rob" and cut the mono line.  15 minutes later Bill Dawson landed what weighed out after bleeding and a couple of hours was a 98.5 pound fish on a certified scale, truly a fish of a lifetime. If I could only do this everyday... Thanks to Capt. Lou for all his help, and an amazing crew that day.  We'll try again tomorrow...

Capt Frank Crescitelli

June 2008

Hey - Sorry for the late fishing reports this season, but I've been running on little sleep, and logging big miles on the boat everyday! The FCA Manhattan Cup was a huge success, EVEN THOUGH THIS YEAR IT ALMOST KILLED ME!  Whenever it is over, I feel like I just married off one of my daughters, tons of stress leading into it, but then you feel good about it...maybe!

On a serious note, the Striped Bass migration is in full swing, and the fishing has been good overall.  Although some day's the fishing has been challenging, we are doing better than I have ever done when I have chartered anywhere else in the country so things must be good.  I have to put in perspective the fact that over the last few years we have had stellar fishing and that when it is “only” good, that is still GREAT by many people’s standards.  When you can catch double digit Bluefish every day and have shots at Bass up to 40 pounds that is pretty good!

Over the weekend we had great top water fishing using our new "prototype" lures (more to come on that later) and finished 7th in the FLW tournament, and had a great time.  Using Tony Maja's easy outrodders and Bunker Spoons, we never did find the "right one" but it was fun learning how to Wire Line Troll for the big ones.  There are still BIG fish in the Hudson doing the love dance and they will be passing us soon, so there is a lot of great fishing to come.

Call now and get your chance to battle a Hog before it is over.  If you think you are tough enough to battle with an 18 pound Bluefish on light tackle, then come on down, they’re waiting.

Peace, Capt. Frank

January 2008

Hello and Happy New Year!

First off I wanted to thank all of you for the busiest and most successful season since we started Fin Chaser Charters way back in 1998. This year is our tenth anniversary and we have lots of great things in store for 2008.

	Capt. Frank & Wade Boggs, Hall Of Fame Baseball Player

We ended this year catching loads of Striped Bass and chased some monster Giant Bluefin Tuna that were just off the beach in 35 feet of water, what a way to end a great season! I hope this message finds you well and in good spirits. As for myself I have a very bad case of Cabin Fever, and it's only January, help please!

Seriously all is well and I am just dropping you a note to say hello and let you know what's going on for the winter months with the Fin Chaser crew and myself. Usually we have a booth at the Somerset Flyfishing Show, which was this past weekend, January 25-27th but for the first time in ten years we decided not to do this show. Between scheduling and the fact that we do a much more popular show with broader appeal called the Saltwater Fishing Expo in the same location March 16-18 this show seemed redundant. The same promoter has another show in Suffern called the World Fishing & Outdoor Expedition and I will be doing a seminar there on March 1 @ 4:00 PM, so check out the website for both of these shows at http://www.sportshows.com/ for complete details.

Lot's of other great things are in store for Fin Chaser in 2008, like two new boats and a full tournament schedule for both inshore and offshore. We will be available for charter in some of these tournaments as well. A complete schedule and more info will follow on those opportunities in the next email.

If you think I have photos of you from this past years fishing, please email me back and I will get them to you. Thanks again for making this the greatest job in the world.

Your Captain, Frank

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