I fished aboard the U Lucky Dog for the tournament with Tommy, Ryan and Mike. We broke the inlet to gorgeous weather, flat calm seas and little wind. Not your ideal fluking conditions but we were determined to make the most of it and were glad the forecast was off a bit.

After a little debate to head North or South the captain pointed the boat North and hit the throttles. It was a quick ride up to the Sandy Hook Reef. Shortly after getting lines in most of the crew was complaining about the sticky bottom and wanted to move over sandy bottom. I tried explaining you had better chances of quality fish in and around structure but they were tired of getting hung up on the bottom after only our first drift. Oddly not that many rigs were lost though, most of the time they were able to get themselves free.

We fished two wrecks on the reef before moving to the edges of the mussel beds. We had constant action with shorts and just legal fluke as well as hordes of short and barely legal sea bass. We did manage a few keeper sea bass and I had one that was almost 18″.

After moving around that general area we had a few in the box but nothing to write home about…maybe a three pounder. We tried off of Red Church and the Elberon Rocks and then started heading back South. As we started making our way South the conditions deteriorated quickly and came more in line with the original forecast. At that point we decided to head for the barn. As we neared the inlet we decided to make one last drift on the Axel Carlson.

I had a few good hits right away but failed to hook up. Even dropping back to compensate for the fast drift did not help. I switched out to a two hook-slider rig to try and hook up on the short strikes…still could not catch a break. I will definitely be headed out to that last spot with more favorable conditions next week though.

All in all it was a fun day but not very productive. Everyone caught fish, not everyone caught keepers but we did have some fillets for all and we had a great time.

Left the dock at 5:20 and was up to Monmouth Beach at 6:35. First time in a long time we did not catch the train bridge on the way out!

Had two buddies from the marina aboard and I did not even get the engine off and my bait in the water before the first keeper hit the deck. A fat 19 incher. Minutes later we had more coming over the rails. We took a long first drift and the fish were in small pods in different parts of the drift so we started moving around to each spot.

There was constant, almost non-stop action as long as you worked and were not lazy about moving the boat back over the piece after a short drift. Water was 68-65 degrees. I say it back-wards because it went down as the South wind picked up. Went through about 8 lbs of spearing.

Made a couple other stops off the tennis courts for sea bass but only got one keeper and bunch of shorts. Did manage another keeper fluke there and another stop off the orange condos North of Red Church. Again short sea bass and tons of short fluke with a few more keepers mixed in.

Highlight of the day was we went up with two boats, the other guys were slow out of the gate so we had a few minutes on them. When they radioed to say they were about three miles away over the side went a bag of popcorn. Then two minutes later they were all excited on the radio asking if were in the action with the huge pod of birds working. Of course we said yes, just North of it drifting South into. Which was a line of crap since we had a North drift but the looks on their faces and words that soon followed yelled in our direction were priceless when they figured out what the bird activity was from.

Started home when some of the rollers started topping 5′. Probably was a good move as the inlet was not bad at that point but on the change of the tide it looked like it was going to get interesting. Coming into the inlet there were breakers topping the jetties and crashing almost up to the Tiki Bar.

Ended the day with 14 keepers to just under 5 lbs, only two skates, no doggies, three birds (always welcome for crab bait) and countless short fluke and sea bass. Another great day on the water with good weather, good friends and good times.

We got a late start due to partying and watching the neighbors fireworks across the creek.

Left the dock about 5:30 with the intentions of looking for some bass early and then going fluking. Coming out of the inlet that sunken fishing boat is way closer than the half mile reported. It is more like 150-200 yards off the North jetty. The aerials and booms were visible above the water and the smell of diesel was pretty strong…there was no visible sheen on the water though.

Had some great looking pods off Spring Lake…bunker spraying, jumping clean out of the water not just flipping. But did not get a single run-off.

After a the rain passed and it looked like there would be no lightning we started running North. Didn’t see much or mark much till we got just South of Shark River. Off in the distance we saw hundreds of birds working…we figured we hit the mother load. Wrong! turned out to be about 200 carcasses, some filleted some not…all stripers. Not sure if it was from a head boat in the inlet or by-catch from a netter that they took some fillets. There was also a lot of garbage and debris in the area. We kept pushing North.

Our final stop Monmouth Beach. We setup on our first fluke drift and had fish on and in the boat immediately and even double headers! There were a lot of 17.5″ fish but we managed 10 keepers all over 19″ with the largest being 23.5″ at 4 lbs 13 oz. We had pretty solid action for over three hours with about 100 fish caught between the two of us. And for once I caught the largest fish on the boat. I bet if we did not try for stripers first we would have had no problems putting together a limit catch, the early morning bite is always much better up there.

We had pretty clear/clean water up North, it was 62 when we got there and 64.x when we left. When breaking the inlet in the morning we had 61.x. Entering the inlet on the way in there was 59.7 degree water in the river. Again the bait of choice fluking was spearing…we went through over three pounds in just over three hours. Most fish hit the spearing but we also had a bunch on the bucktails with pearl Gulp! jerk shads.

Thanks for calling us down EMALS (BFH Member). We were originally working some pods off Bay Head that every few minutes were spraying out of the water. But between the dozen boats not a single fish was boated.

So we ran down to Mantoloking by EMALS. We did see a few fish caught but wanted to escape the fleet so we ran down to about Lavalette in deeper water (65′) and pretty much the same thing. Tons of bait, marked fish but none biting. After screwing around with a thresher on bass gear for about 10 minutes we started heading back North.

Around Mantoloking we saw up in front of us birds working, huge splashes, real choppy water and reddish/purplish water. Monster blues had a good sized bunker pod corralled and were working them South at pretty good clip. We stopped to screw around with them and then saw some bass mixed in up on top. We were amazed! It was around noon and we were only in 30′ water. Had a couple good run-offs with marks on the baits but did not hook up with any bass. We boated a few blues to almost 13 pounds and then again…our top bait gets slammed. Huge splash and big hole where the bait was. Line starts screaming off, this time it figures its a spinning rod. Then we saw the tail. We just thumbed the spool since we knew we had no shot at this thresher. Another beautiful day on the water.

We broke the inlet about 5 am, looked left and there was an armada between the North Jetty and the Spring Lake Hotel. Took a quick cruise past it on the outside out of curiosity…seemed to be the JCAA Fluke Tourney fleet. Did not mark any bait, not surprising with the amount of activity there. Turned South and hit the throttles.

With reports of fish in Spring Lake and the South, Southwest winds for Friday and overnight we ran down to Bay Head figuring the bait and fish moved south. We first setup in 35′ of water, marked lots of bait and a few fish. Had several small pods of bunker with bait spraying and coming clean out of the water. Had a couple baits slashed by blues and kept moving from pod to pod.

About 6:30 moved out to 50-60-’ water as the sun rose higher and the haze started burning off. Had a bigger pod with a few birds diving. Me and Tommy both snagged bunker at the same time and after about 10 seconds both rods doubled over and line started peeling off. Unfortunately the only two spinning rods I have are relatively light with 20# braid on them. After getting nearly spooled I started backing down on both fish and reeling at the same time. About 10 minutes into the battle and having little line on the spool I loosened the drag a bit. That was about when Tommy broke off…probably due to the small spool exerting more drag than the full spool was set to.

I got the fish up after another few minutes about 15′ off the transom and once she saw the boat she was off to the races again and we were forced to back down on it again. Finally after about 20 minutes she was in the net…41.5″ bass! My first live lining bunker and first of 2008.

We quickly moved back on that pod and put a baits out on the conventional gear and had run-offs right away. Both came unglued about 3 minutes in. We had one other run-off a few minutes later that never came tight.

We continued to mark bait and fish but by 7:30 it seemed the bite was over and we headed back in.

We had water from 56 to 63 degrees, we stopped over a few wrecks just to see if there was any life in 80′ and they looked pretty barren.

Despite losing a few fish it was a great day and a lot of fun on the water with light tackle. The fish weighed in at 25.1 pounds and 41.5″. Seemed pretty light for its length, there was nothing in its stomach when I cleaned it. Not completely surprising after a long fight I guess it lost its breakfast on its way to the boat.

Since I still have yet to hear from the manufacturer of the boat about any resolution to the condition of the fuel tank we took Mark’s boat out for opening day of the 2008 fluke season.

Due to all the reports we turned right out of Manasquan and ran down to the bathing beach. We had spoons in the water before 6 am and zig zagged our way to the CGS. Marked a ton of fish and bait, had a half dozen knockdowns, had three fish on for two minutes but nothing to the boat.

Around 10-10:30 we switched over to fluking. Stopped on a couple of small lumps with bait…only dogfish and skates. Moved further North to a small wreck off Lavalette and had tons of 16″-17″ fluke. Spearing was the preferred over any type of strip bait but Gulp shrimp out fished the spearing.

Water was cold…started the day with 51.2 and ended the day in 15′ of water with 55.3…most of the day was around 53 degrees.

I was amazed at the lack of boat traffic. I don’t think we saw 100 boats all day including only 1 head boat. The huge crane being towed North was something…that thing was gigantic.

I did hear from a couple of guys after we returned to the dock that the few that ran North had pretty good results on 20 and 30 pound class fish up on the mussel beds and rocks, and they reported large bunker schools up there as well.

We watched a tug towing a huge crane all day. We first saw it before 6 am a little South of Barnegat Inlet. When we were packing it in around 12:30 it was up to Lavalette. All in all it was a great day on the water…great weather, great friends but not so great fishing but we all still had a great time.

I will start off with what a day! It was beautiful out. I first ran outside just to take a peak and run the boat a bit. Started marking bait here and there, then started marking tight isolated pods of fish.

Thinking this was going to be a bass and flounder day excitement started running high. Had to take short drifts with 1 or 2 shots to hook up on each drift over the fish. First few drifts ended in frustration with the fish just mouthing the baits. Felt strange though and not like bass. On the third drift about an 8lb weak was brought along boat side. I continued working the weaks for another hour and half There ran from 8 to about 12 pounds. I lost one boat side due to it not fitting in the net, so I have no idea of the weight.

All using my homemade bucktails. When the current went slack the bite died off. At that point I decided to run back inside and get on the hook and try for some flounder.

With most reports during the week coming from the river side I setup in a hole between the main channel and the old channel. I baited two rods and put them out. Before I could get the first chum pot in the water I had a fish on, nice 15+ incher and fat. Got the first pot in and the second rod goes off. Another nice fat fish. It did not matter gulp sands live sands they both produced. Fished four about an hour and had the best fishing of the season with non-stop action till the water temps rose above 51 degrees. Not one short and all fish over 14″ with many over 15 and a couple in the 16-18″ range.

What a day on the water. Great weather, great fishing, life does not get any better.

Saturday was a slaughter! I had fish all day, now the day was only about two and half hours of fishing but it was non stop action. I made quick stops at Shark River Inlet and the mussel beds of Monmouth Beach on my way up to the Rocks but there were only very small fish in both places.

Once at the rocks there were gannets diving everywhere! It was the mother load….and mostly bass. Most fish were 25-27″, and in total I had about seventy fish with eighteen keepers. I kept three for the table and they were 10lb 9oz, 12lb 4oz and 12lb 10oz. And only five to seven bluefish, so few I did not bother to count.

I wish I could say Sunday was just as good but most likely due to the South winds and the full moon it was not. We headed to the same area and looked for marks and birds. The bait, fish and birds were scattered and it was difficult to stay on fish for any period of time. The water had also dropped three degrees since the day before. We had three bluefish and two short bass and that was it for the trip.

Later I heard that chartreuse shad rigs were producing on an East to West pull a little North of where we were. We gave it a shot but only had bluefish. There were also several boats that were attempting to pull North to South with the current and crossing everyone else that was going East to West and West to East making it very difficult to troll so we called it a day and headed towards home.

We did make a few more stops where we saw promising marks and birds, I had a couple of hookups but dropped the fish before getting them to the boat. Sunday was just not our day. And from the sound or the radio chatter and other reports I read later in the day it was an off day for most.

I arrived at the boat at 5:15 AM and it was cold…33 degrees and no wind to speak of. All of the flags within view were totally limp. The water level was very low due to the strong west winds and the gunwale was about six inches below the dock…luckily there was enough water to float out of the slip. We had to cancel a few trips last year this time due to not enough water to get out of the slip. I started the engine and started loading the day’s gear onto the boat. Soon the engine was warmed up and with the heat on the pilothouse started warming up to a nice and toasty 68 degrees.

After finishing storing gear and readying some items for the trip we were ready to shove off. Once the crew arrived we were underway.

We broke the inlet about 6:15 just before sunrise. There were birds starting to take flight in anticipation of an easy meal. The fish finder was all lit up and we started jigging up shorts and bluefish right away. As soon as the sun started to rise above the water’s edge the birds started diving and screeching. And the fleet of boats soon showed up. As it started getting more crowded we started moving south chasing the fast moving schools of migrating fish.

We continued to see fish breaking the surface all over and the spray of fleeing peanut bunker from the ravenous bluefish. Moving from pod to pod of bait we just followed the marks and jigged most of the day. Eventually we ended up off Top of the Mast where we had our best bite of the day. On one drift we produced about a dozen short bass, one nice 31″ keeper and only one bluefish. Continuing to work that area produced non-stop action of mostly short bass with a few bluefish mixed in. At one point I reeled up leaving five or ten feet of line out, leaving my jig in the water to net Anthony’s fish and a follower just slammed the jig.

By the end of the day we ended up just North of the bathing beach. We must have reached that area just as the bite died off as we had little luck in that area. It also started to cloud up a little more and the temperature was starting to drop. Which seemed to signal the end of the bite for us. We continued to work our way North and worked several schools of bait and fish but did not have the action that we had earlier in the day when it was a few degrees warmer. This seemed strange to me since the water was still 53 degrees. Usually we see this type of action when it is later in the year and the air and water temps are much cooler.

I would have included a picture of myself holding my fish here but there was an unforseen camera malfunction…or user error. We are not clear on what really happened.

It was a great day on the water with very pleasant sea conditions despite NOAA’s forecast (no surprise there) and the non-stop action only topped off the day. We ended the day with a total of two keeper bass-with 9 and 12 pound fish. We had several that were between 1/4 and 1/8 of an inch short and about two dozen or so fish that were 26 to 27.5 inches in length. Mixed in were probably near 40 to 50 bluefish.

We broke Manasquan Inlet at about 6:30 AM to birds working and fish breaking the surface. It was not long after dropping a jig to the bottom that I had my first fish on-a short striper. Then it occurred to me-just caught my first fish that has game fish status. We figured this is going to be a great day having striped bass to the boat right away. The more fish we hooked into the more blues we started to catch. Moving around with the birds and watching the sonar we were able to keep a steady pick going with bass mixed in with the blues.

Nino got his first bass of the season and almost his first keeper, there were a lot of fish 26-27″ and a bunch that were less than 1/4″ short. As always all short fish were returned to grow up and fight another day.

It was a busy day unhooking, measuring and releasing fish. Something nobody ever complains about even when it is hectic on deck with multiple fish flopping around and more waiting for the net.

When there was a lull in the action we decided to go on the troll, covering more ground and it paid off in short time. With one umbrella rig out rigged with tubes and one bunker spoon we soon had fish on. At first it was blues but then we homed in on where the bass were. Again we had many shorts but after switching to both rods running tube rigs we quickly started picking up some bigger fish.

The bluefish were just gorging themselves on sand eels that must have been carpeting the sea floor. I have never seen blues with their stomachs so extended. The bass were getting in on the feast as well as they too had full stomachs of sand eels. It is amazing how much they can fit in their stomachs…this is the contents of a smaller 4-5 pound bluefish.

At the end of the day everyone had sore arms and big smiles. We ended up keeping 9 blues but released dozens of fish. We also had about 15 stripers and kept two for the table. It was a beautiful fall day on the water with calm flat seas, good friends and plenty of fish.

I was thinking to myself as I was breaking the inlet that if I had made it this far though the season without being skunked that I may make it through the entire season. After thinking that I should have turned around and only gone for a boat ride. After about 45 or so trips I had the skunk on the boat.

I knew before leaving the dock that the water would probably still be very dirty from the blow that had just finished the night before. Most of the crew that I was trying to line up had reservations from the weather forecast and not the prospect of poor fishing conditions. As usually Buoyweather.com was right on with the forecast. They had predicted a four foot ground swell and I think most of the day inside the three mile line was more like 3 foot.

I ran down to the Seaside Piers are good clip (26 knots) and put out a chartreuse Secret Spoon due to water clarity. After 30 minutes of no action I switched to bunker blue and then white. I was surprised to get knockdowns on the white in dirty water. I also pulled a few different Stretch pugs that also did not produce.

There were a lot of big marks deep and along the bottom. I did not mark any bait to speak of, not like two weeks ago. There were also a lot of small to medium sized fish suspended in the water column between twelve and twenty five feet. I stopped a few times to jig both deep and mid water column to try and entice whatever was there to bit but with no avail.

I spoke to several guys and not much was doing outside on the troll. The guys I spoke to that stayed inside Barnegat Inlet and clammed were producing shorts and slot sized fish throughout the day when the tidal stage was right.

It was a beautiful day on the water, the boat ran great, and I did about fifty nautical miles round trip on twelve gallons of fuel and returned to port safe and sound. Can’t ask for much more out of a great fall day…well maybe full fish boxes!

This time of year usually offers the best fishing, but yet it seems to be worst right now. The water is too warm for striped bass, sea bass and blackfish to start moving into our area. With bait migrating out of the lagoons, streams, rivers and bays the weakfish are moving out. And the weather this time of usually stinks. For the past few weeks guys have been killing blue fin tuna in the mud hole but the weather just a little off shore has been a little too much for my liking. It is not that my boat can not handle it, she is amazing in sporty and snotty seas but the beating that you take in a smaller boat for only being able to keep one fish is just not worth it to me. Sure there is catch and release but still not worth the following day’s aches and pains.
 
Hopefully we will see cooler water temps soon, this 67 degree water in October may just cause us to miss the fall run of stripers if it keeps up. They will come around Eastern Long Island and stay far offshore in deeper cooler water and pass us right by on their migration to the Carolina’s.
 
We certainly do not have a shortage of forage for striped bass…there is plenty of spearing, rain fish, weakfish, croaker, kingfish and peanuts around. You can drive for miles and make bait and schools of smaller fish like kings, croakers and weaks along the bottom.
 
So far this weekend’s plan is to weakfish outside and troll for bonito if they are still around. If conditions are right and it looks bassy out then we may give that a shot but with the weather the way it is and a lack of reports it is a very frustrating and confusing time.

I had no particular plan except to spend the day on the water. I wish I could have planned on targeting stripers but when I broke the inlet and was created to 64 degree water and the sun was just coming up I figured that would be a lost cause. I marked water as warm as 67.2.

As I started running down the beach there was not a bird to be found except for migrating geese. I made a few quick stops along the way where we had fish last week but there was even a lack of bait on those structures. I continued south and started to mark bait and fish between Mantoloking and Ocean Beach.

There were a lot of boats working the area and all they were doing was working. I decided to drop down some gulp on a bottom style rig. Immediately had a double header of spike weakfish. With the small size of fish I decided to move on.

I setup again off Top of the Mast in 60′ of water and began catching 18-22″ weakfish. I setup on a bait rig and sent it down to see if there were any takers. I continued bail the weakfish and quickly had my limit. I had no takers on the live lined fish.

I stopped on a couple of inshore wrecks on the way in and had more weakfish and hoards of 11.5″ sea bass. I did have quite a few real strong hits that stripped the gulp bait right off a bait holder hook. Didn’t feel like blackfish…there was no tap, tap, wham! Just a single strong hit. Will probably make quick stops on those spots again this weekend to try and figure out what was down there.

Spoke to RTK and John on the radio (From Barnegat Fishin’ Hole)…sounded like they both had small bonito throughout the day. I trolled back to MI with only bluefish on the clark spoons. I would have though 6 kts was fast enough to avoid them, even increased to 6.8 and still picked up blues.

All in all it was a nice relaxing day on the water and fish in the box. Hopefully we will see a drop to normal temps, this 10+ degrees above normal is going to really kill the fall run. I hope the fish when they come south around LI don’t stay out far and pass us by

We decided to do a little scouting for a tournament we are in next week. Anthony and I headed out of Squan in the soup.

A blind man could have located bait. Although with very low visibility pretty much everyone was blind. Our first stop we could hear birds working and splashes but could not locate them in the fog (I had decided not go any shallower than 20-25′ when not able to see the shoreline). The bait was everywhere, I think in the 45+ nm we covered there were only about 3 nm that had no bait. It was on top with birds working it, blanketing the bottom suspended you name it we found. Unfortunately there were no bass working the schools.

We made several stops that had more promising marks on the sonar and jigged. Anthony had two hookups that soon dropped off. Once the fog started to lift a little more we gave up jigging and made the run to our intended destination. With flat seas we made good time at 28kts to our nest stop.

Once there we jigged a little with only a few hits decided to go on the troll. Trolled up the rocks, across, up to the cedars, along the west side of the reef and back down to the rocks. Had one nice knockdown and boated two bluefish with Anthony dropping one boat side. He called it a graceful release or something like that but I wasn’t buying it.

On the way in we made a quick stop on some mussel beds but there were only short sea bass and blackfish. There were a lot of boats drifting and anchored bottom fishing the mussel beds and rocky bottom areas. There were also tons of pots and traps there which was suprising. I have never seen that many there but I guess with the pressure from Reef Rescue we will win the reefs back but lose some other productive bottom in the process.

It was a nice day on the water once the fog lifted. The fog definitely made for an uneasy run out but all in all it was good to be back in my home waters.

It was a sad day on the water with our last fluke trip of the season. All we can do is hope that next year we will not be cut back too much. I would rather see a longer season with a smaller bag limit. We have much better fishing in the fall with better quality fish.

Anyway…we left the dock at 6:11 am and were at our first stop by 7 am. We initially tried to run outside to the reef but it was a little to sporty for me (I just did not feel like getting beat up). We began in the inlet area and had a constant pick of fish from 6″ to 16.5″. We moved up river a little and had the same results…more shorts.

We decided to try and run outside as the wind was laying down. It had changed over from a steep chop to more of a swell so we ran out the East side of the Axel Carlson Reef. Soon after we were catching bigger fish. The first two keepers were about three pounds. We were all by ourselves for the first forty five minutes and were then joined by several smaller boats and Capt. Ron and the Miss Norma K. Then we boated a 5 lb. 6 oz. fish soon followed by a 4 lb. 10 oz. fish. We continued to make short drifts over that productive bottom and ended the day since we had to be somewhere later in the day with six solid keepers and a couple of cocktail blues.

All in all it turned out to be a great day on the water boating the largest fluke of the season…well at least when the season is open. Earlier in the year you may remember Jimmy Bananas boated a fish almost 6 lbs. I guess now we will turn to weak fishing till they leave and wreck fishing until the stripers show.

I hopped aboard the Gambler out of Point this morning. It was a beautiful day on the water, high in the 50′s flat seas…maybe too flat. The boat started out North and around Shark River Inlet layed down the throttles. We were greeted by bird activity on Shrewsbury Rocks. It was a good sign but only 1 short and 1 30″ fish was caught by the 50 anglers. We continued to fish in and around the rocks and Ambrose Channel. We also hit the Elberon Rocks on the way back. At the end of the day there were only two keepers and about four shorts caught. There were several spineys caught and I had an eight inch squid. I debated on keeping it for the table to avoid the skunk but after a short debate re-hooked it and sent it down. I had a run-off on it but did not hook up. It was supposed to be a half day trip with the Holiday coming and Bobby did his best to put us on fish moving around a lot and trying a dozen or so spots to find fish. We ended up getting back an hour late of the half day return time. All in all it was a nice day on the water with some die hard fisherman.

I guess it is only the trip of the year since I have no intention of stopping with this mild weather. I think I am going to switch to blackfishing though since that seems to be better right now. There are also some small schools of mackerel showing up so may get that chore over with. One trip should load the bait freezer for next or should I say this season.

We had our last two trips of the season. It was a tough call but I decided to pull the boat next week. With all the warm weather and lack of threat from freezing temps it was a tough call. After getting some house work done if it is still warm I will put her back in early (end of January) if there are good reports of fish hanging around similar to earlier this year.

Saturday we fished from the bathing beach up to Lavalette. The entire ride down from Manasquan to the bathing beach there was absolutely no bird action. We marked a lot of bait and some fish. Trolled south from Lavalette to the bathing beach, picking up and running to our usual spots along the way. Our total for the day was 13 fish to just about or just over 28″. Since they were so close and our recent visit from a conservation officer we decided not keep any. Most fish were caught trolling from North to South or West to East and all fish were on blue and white shads. We tried chartreuse as well as pearl and neither got touched except by a few blues.

We headed out late due to other committments…Broke the inlet about 11:30 and arrived at the Casino Pier a bit before noon. As we were slowing down and getting ready to setup the troll we passed over a couple of enormous bait clouds, repositioned the boat and trolled over the edge of them, nothing. We continued to troll out to deeper water (50-55′) and continued to mark huge clouds of bait but no marks under or around them. We trolled south down to IBSP where there were a few birds circling and one diving here and there, same thing no good marks and no knockdowns at all. At about 4 PM we picked up and headed back North. We thought the sight of dozens of birds working just outside the inlet would save the day but once we got there there were no marks not even bait on the scope and no one out of the 10 boats or so with bent rods. We jigged for 10 minutes to be sure there was nothing there and headed in. It was a gorgeous day on the water and I felt bad for those guys out in center consoles freezing their asses off while we were inside the cabin, warm and dry.

Well we fished all over…we tried 90 feet of water 10 feet of water and had similar results…short fluke, weaks and croaker. We fished Seaside Lump, the Seaside sewer pipe, off the Casino Pier, the Ortley pipe, Mantoloking Pipe and so on. We heard reports of fluke deep so we tried that. It was a gorgeous day till about 1 PM when the south wind really started to kick in and whip up some chop. We did manage a few croaker, weaks, blues and another ling. Looks like the inshore cod and ling fishing may be really good this year, that is our second ling in the last few weeks from withing the sight of land.

We headed out and toughed the wind. We left the dock about 5:30 AM. It wasn’t really that bad, more of a pain in the ass then anything. In tight to the beach and out to about 35 feet it was flat, once you got about 3/4 of mile out it started to get a little sloppy. It did blow almost all day and the gust were something…if you did not stow everything it was only a matter of time before the gods carried it 30-50 feet away from the boat before touching down in the water. Despite the predicted bad conditions, we headed up North in calm seas and gusty winds, about a mile North of Monmouth Beach (only took 40 minutes from the Inlet). We worked our way south from there stopping at all the usual places, Red Church, The Rocks, Deal, Long Branch, The Essex & Sussex. Between the three of us we had between 60-70 fluke ranging from 14-16 3/8″ with 4 keepers to 3.lbs. Fluke seemed to be everywhere just nothing with any size to it. Closer to the beach we were able to fish with 4 or 5 oz. and as you got further out you eventually had to go up to 10 or 12 (using lb. mono or lb. powerpro). The bigger fish we caught were further off the beach. In the ocean the warmest water we saw was 56.4 degrees…brrrr! The tide line was something else, clean greenish/blue water inside and murky brownish/green outside. And the amount of garbage, leaves and other debris on from the edge out about 50 feet was incredible. We got hits and caught fish inside it but near the edge and just over the edge it was no man’s land until you got out past the debris then the fish turned on again. The ride back was a breeze (LOL) with the wind and swell following we were able to cruise at kits. and make exceptional time and fuel economy on the ride to the Inlet. All-in-all we had a great time on the water despite not having anything big enough to bring to the scales. We arrived back at the dock about 4:30 PM.

The fish that were weighed in were depressing. Some of the winners for the various ports were just over 3 pounds and to place on the board weighing a fish just over a pound was good enough.

Fished from Manasquan Inlet to several miles North of Monmouth Beach. We were greeted by about a four foot swell coming out of the south. Despite the southern swell we decided to head North and fight it on the way back. This was due in part to several head boats heading North as well as no good reports coming over the radio from the South. The swells were moving quite fast which allowed us to head North at 25 knots with ease and a somewhat smooth ride. We found tons for short stripers from about 10″ to 22″. It was business as usuall, find the working birds find the stripers under them. Although there were a few sports we marked fish and no birds but that was rare. There were large schools of herring everywhere but no larger stripers on them. Some of the herring were actually larger than some of the stripers we caught. The ride back against the swell was not too bad, we were able to maintain about 20 knots. We poked around the Inlet a little and the winds started kicking up and putting a nice chop on top of the swell, as well as reducing the swell period. Since the fish were not exactly jumping in the boat we decided to head in while the weather was still good. By the time we got to the dock the wind was howling and we were glad we headed in when we did.

It seems that by the reports coming out of Hatteras and Oregon Inlet that the larger cows are south for the winter. But to the contrary I have heard a few reports out of Long Island that there are still bass in the 30 pound range being taken off the South Shore. Since the boat is being pulled next week it will become a beach and jetty affair for me until Winter Flounder season and the launch of the boat in early spring.

Despite the snow, wind, rain, and small craft advisory we headed out and braved the elements! Had a fellow member from Barnegat Fishing Hole (www.bhweb.com) and my regular fishing buddy Ron out today. We were all set to run South towards Seaside with a stop in Bay Head where Ron had fished on Saturday but it was a little snotty and would be very difficult if not impossible to troll. We spotted the Queen Mary and the Prowler jugging near the bell buoy with a couple of smaller boats around them as well. When we got a little closer we were greeted with large groups of birds working the area. We started jigging and immediately hooked up. We had about 15 bass in less than two hours. The largest going 26.5″ at 6.75lbs. We fished not far outside the Manasquan Inlet in about 50′ of water. Followed the birds back and forth and bite stayed steady until the tide went slack. It was a little snotty out but a good day despite the conditions.

Several boats out of my marina came back to port with stripers this weekend. It seems to be an afternoon bite thus far. The bite seems to go into high gear between 13:30 and 15:30 during the past few days. It seems the bottom of the ebb tide is producing the best off Seaside between the north and south piers. There have not been any big fish yet but they are consistently 25″ to 37″ with lots of bluefish from 5 lbs. to 15 lbs. Next weekend looks great and can’t wait to get out and wobble up a few myself.

We headed out to the Sea Girt Reef late morning. It was not a bad ride out and the first 10 minutes were OK before the South wind really started to kick up. Tried jigging where we saw some birds and marks on the FF. Made a few stops on the way back in, had a couple of short blackfish and several blues. Wish I would have gotten up earlier, would have been able to fish longer and probably would have found some larger blackfish. Oh well, next weeks forecast looks great right now….lets see if it holds up.

Well I got out again on Sunday…Once again NOAA was completely off with the forecast. I wish I would have listened to myself and my interpretation of the weather from local weather stations. The inlet was flat and seas were 2′ and somewhat tightly packed. It was very fishable though and we were able to cruise at 20kts. Nothing like the 3′ to 5′ seas predicted. We went for a ride to the north and then out to about 3 miles and then decided to head south of the inlet. I marked a lot of bait/fish on the fish finder all along the Mantoloking pipe so we setup there. It was hundreds of bluefish. The general chatter on the radio was that no bass were being caught and only bluefish. No word of great catches of sea bass either, just a few keepers.

Hopefully the storms will stay away and fishing as well as conditions will improve. The water temps are starting to drop, I was reading 53 degrees on Sunday so the striper run should start any day now!