I have been debating this week if I should move the boat south to take advantage of the sea trout fishery in the southern part of the bay. With some nasty weather forecast for this weekend it may be a good idea. I won’t be going offshore, and I won’t be able to get out to reef and tie up for some sea bass either due to weather. So I guess I will run her south and fish down in Barnegat for a few weeks.

We did not make it out for winter flounder opening day but we did make it out for day two. This will be the first time in many years that I have not gone out on opening day. I did not hear any great reports from yesterday and figured I would start out in the bay. We tried all our usual spots and could not put a bite together. After talking to a buddy on the radio we decided to head for the river. We setup in the river and had the same results…no bite. After that we decided to make a bold move and try the inlet figuring that if the fish are there and we are not in the right spot maybe they are on their way out and closer to the inlet. Not even a nibble in the inlet, plus the wind was against the tide making anchoring a chore. We then decided to head back up river and give that one more shot but when setting up on anchor lost forward gear. After several minutes of trying to get back into forward I was getting ready to call Sea\\Tow but just as I was about to hail them got the boat into gear and decided to head back to the barn. That ended up being a good call because after getting back to the slip I was not able to get back into forward after backing in, actually had to stop the reverse motion manually because I had no forward to pop into to slow the boat. Shortly after cleaning up it started to rain anyway so heading in was probably the right thing to do anyway. Hopefully the Volvo dealer was right when they said it is not a big job to fix and with some luck they will be able to work on it this week and have me ready for next weekend.

The blackfish are still inshore. I headed over to the canal and there was no action so I figured I would try the jetties at Manasquan Inlet. Had several shorts and keepers in a couple of hours. Kept one at 18.5″ and 3lb. 7oz.

I’m glad I went by my own thoughts on the weather and not the weather man’s…3PM and only a drizzle, the whole time I was down south there was barely a breeze and no rain. The fog was something to be reckoned with. A few times you could not see across the inlet.

Only three more days till the bag limit goes up!

I hit the canal again this afternoon and had more fish. I fished with my cousin and between the two of us we again had probably over 25-30 fish not including the pesky cunners. It was once again a clam preference, with them also going for clam and mussel Gulp! baits. I would try fresh mussels next time as they seem to hit the Gulp! mussel bait pretty hard. And once again the action did not heat up or even start for that matter until the current started moving pretty good. Tonight’s keeper was 15.5″ at 2lb 5oz. If I don’t get out striper fishing on Sunday you bet you will find me along the banks of the canal. And yes another limit catch! That makes it two in a row.

I could not get a crew together with a last minute notice to take advantage of a small striper blitz I was told about. So I decided to give some of the inshore blackfishing grounds a shot. I picked up some clams and green grabs to have a variety of baits and headed over to the Point Pleasant Canal. I got there about 3 PM and at first the action was non-existent with the crabs. I switched over to clam and had some short blackfish and bergals. The bergals became a pain but the blackfish did not seem interested in green crabs so I had to deal with it. Once the current picked up to near max velocity for the incoming the blackfish turned on. I had over 30 fish most being shorts and kept one 15″ fish. All in all it was a great first blackfish trip of the fall and a limit catch!

I originally was setting out in search of some weaks. After cruising the bay, the Mantoloking Bridge and the Matedeconk I decided to head towards the inlet and maybe outside for some croaker/weakfish action along the beach. Got near the end of the inlet and the 33 foot express in front of me disappeared in the trough so I decided to stay inside. First drift produced a keeper. Next few drifts produce shorts and then another keeper. All fish were caught on homemade chartreuse bucktails with white Gulp! shrimp. Watched a few other boats try the same drift as me to not catch or even get a tap. The action was fairly consistent over the same piece. All in all not a bad way to end the fluke season.

Fished the Manasquan River and Inlet today from 3 to 6 PM for a Manasquan Fishing Club Intra-Club River Tournament. Had 10 shorts to 16 1/4″ and no keepers. Also had a couple of birds and lost a fish at the side of the boat…did not get a chance to see what it was other than long and slender and definitely was not flat. Must have either been a weakie or a blue…did not fight much so don’t think it was a bluefish. Water was cold near the inlet only 52-54 degrees, found 70 ish water further up river but no fish. The wind and tide kind of fought each other most of the time except in one part of the river when they combined for 1.9 knot drift.

The first place fish was 18.5″, second was 18″ and third was 17.5″.

Well despite bad reports from Saturday and the predicted cold water temps we gave it a shot anyway. We saw surface temps from 62.6 all the way down to 54.3. The winds were not bad except for making it on the chilly side. It was nice when moving to a new spot to be able to go into the heated pilothouse to warm up. Especially for those who didn’t look at the weather forecast and wore shorts. The upper part of the bay from Mantoloking Bridge and the Manasquan River was flat. I heard further south it was slightly choppy and reports from others in the marina were that the ocean wasn’t that bad…2-3 foot chop, a little sloppy but fishable. We had committed to fluking and did not bring the wire line outfits so fluking it was. We tried the upper part of the bay where we did have a few hits (very subtle though…could have had the fluke sluggish from water temps), the Manasquan River around Treasure Island, Clarks, the old channel by Clarks, Crab Creek, and the doggie beach. It was tough with the wind against the tide in most locations as well as the schmeg and grass being pretty thick in most places. We did catch a few green crabs, blue claws and a clam. So I guess you could say we had a crustacean slam! It was a great day on the water nonetheless with my friend Ron, his wife and my mom.

A friend of mine and very reliable source just had 3 bass on Saturday night in Raritan Bay. The largest was over 40 lbs! on 12 lb. test! They also had bass at 17 and 15 lbs. as well as 5 blues.

Our suspicions were correct…the flounder have migrated out to the continental shelf following the heavy rains we had last week. Reports up until the blow prior to the rains were good but only a really slow pick of a handful of fish or no fish at all after the rain.

It was a beautiful day on the water. The winds were no where near the 15-20 knots as predicted or the gusts. We got setup at the first spot about 9:30 and had nothing. The water was gin clear and you could see bottom and watch crabs walking by in 10′ of water. At 11:30 we moved out to the inlet when we received a phone call from the the Norma K II which just caught 4 keeper flounder and a few fluke. We setup in the inlet and immediately caught a 20″ sea robin and numerous spider crabs. We also had one suspect bluefish due to the typical bite off when using very small, short shank hooks. When the K II headed in we moved to slightly behind where they were which did not produce any fish either. The current was ripping all day. The 4 fish that were caught on the K II were caught at slack tide as were the fluke. All in all it was a great day on the water and I am glad I did not let the forecast dictate my decision to leave the dock.

We did also take a quick cruise across the bay to blow out the cobwebs…we got up to 34.6 knots (With 3/4 fuel, 25 gallons water, and full load of gear and 2 passengers) before the channel turned and scrubbed some speed. I have to find a big enough, straight stretch of water to see what my WOT speed fully loaded really is. In any case 34 knots is plenty fast for me and most days you can’t do that outside anyway without getting really beat up.

I got back in the water late Friday afternoon. We planned on getting to the dock with plenty of time in case there was still mechanical problems with the steering affording us time to get over the party boat so we did not miss a day of fishing. We got all the gear loaded, started her up and at the dock everything seemed fine. It turned out to be a fine day. Mostly sunny and warm. Could have been a shorts and T-shirt day had I brought shorts. We were joined by my cousin Dave who caught the biggest flattie of the day. It was 1 lb. 15 oz. and 16.5″ long. It was great to see him again. We had fallen out of touch for a few years after being very close growing up spending summers at the shore in and around LBI. My mother was high hook with 4 fish, I had 3 and Dave had 2 for a total of 9 fish for the day. We had as many shorts and a couple lost at net unfortunately.

The water was not clear but despite the rain and the wind the past few days it was not bad. There were really no weeds and grass to speak of in the bay and the water temp got as high as 56.7, which was at 5:30 when we started to head back in. All in all it was a great day on the water and a successful first fishing trip on the boat this season, hopefully followed by many, many more.