By John Brownlee
John Abplanalp is a diehard fly fisherman who loves chasing striped bass near his home in Connecticut. This can mean fishing the innumerable bays, rocks, and stretches of shoreline along the western shore of New York’s Long Island closer to New York City, but it often entails fishing out of Montauk. That famed fishing town at the bitter end of Long Island makes a perfect jumping off point for chasing stripers in dozens of spots along the shore of Long Island itself, but he can also jump over to Fishers Island, or Block Island, or even across to the shorelines of Connecticut or Rhode Island across Long Island Sound.
Some of these runs require crossing a considerable amount of open water, which is one reason Abplanalp opted for a 21-foot Chittum Islamorada skiff built using 100 percent carbon fiber construction. The boat weighs only 900 pounds before rigging, so while its 21-foot length will handle the chop often found in the Sound, it will float in eight inches of water when it’s time to fish. — It has a 12-degree deadrise with a 10-inch hull pad and runs just over 50 mph with a 115 hp outboard. The patented hull design incudes massive high-volume, built-in spray rails, a staggered split chine below the waterline for silent poling, and a radius transom with no sponsors. High tech all around.
“As this will most likely be the last boat I ever purchase, fishing the flats of the northeast will always be the first-and-foremost option,” Abplanalp said. “The Islamorada 21 is a perfect platform for that up here, but it also gives us, rigged as it is, the option to go chase deeper water/southside species like stripers, bluefish, tunoids, sharks, etc., and use the whole skiff. The bow rail lets you fish and fight fish from the casting deck in less-than-ideal conditions in safety and comfort. For how we fish and what the options are, it’s perfect.”
All this means that the Chittum Islamorada 21 will take you across big stretches of open, rough water in comfort like a conventional bay boat, and then pole super skinny like a technical flats boat once you get where you’re going. The stripers don’t stand a chance.
