Wild Night on the Blackhawk II

Went out on the Blackhawk last night looking forward to a good night of striper fishing. The last few days have seen lots of big fish landed, and the full moon was promising. Captain Dubrule was fired up and the night looked promising. Forecast were for a few widely scattered storms and light winds with a big ebb tide for most of the trip. We left at 10:00 pm. So much for the CT forecast. The first hour was slow as the slack tide finally started to turn, but we could also see the weather coming in and the temperature was plummeting. Lightning was flashing to the west, south over Montauk, and north over CT. By midnight, the tide was running out fast, but the storm was bearing down. A few fish were being landed. By 1:30, the wind was howling, rain was horizontal and lightning was striking all over. The rips in the race were becoming almost unfishable. We ran around trying to get on a bite. A few good fish were landed, including 2 in the 40lb. range, but I think a total of about 10 ended up in the boat, on a night most of us thought we would limit out. We heard reports of gusts 50-60 mph in Niantic. We kept at it until nearly 4:00am, and tried just about everything. I felt sorry for the few who did not bring foul weather gear. Despite the skunking I received (and loss of 4 rigs), it was pretty cool being out in the storm. Safety was never an issue and it was a hell of a show. This being my first trip on the Blackhawk, I was impressed with Captain Dubrule's enthusiasm and desire to interact with the customers. Most party boat skippers spend the trips isolated in the wheelhouse leaving all of the interaction to the mates. The trip was fun, and I will definitely give them a few more tries this season. As the saying goes, there's a reason it's called fishing and not catching. Sorry, no video (would have been way cool, but it was too dark and wet).