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.

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.

Fished aboard a buddies boat in my marina on a 32′ Albie for the tournament. We first setup in an area of some smaller wrecks between the Triples and the Toms. We had a nice 68-70 degree temp break early in the day and 70-72 in the afternoon. We were a little concerned about the warmer than anticipated water there but it produced all day.

Our first run-off was within 30 minutes of setting up. The 50W started screaming, way too fast to be a mako…then just as I picked up the rod it stopped. Reeled in to check the bait and not a mark on it. Five minutes later again…screaming drag. Few minutes later we released a small bluefin.

About 9:45 we had the first mako in the slick, and two more after that but none of them took baits, just swam around and looked…both were probably in the 150-180 pound range. After they disappeared we had another run-off, Mike set the hook, took two cranks and the hook pulled.

Then we get another taker, Tommy grabs the rod, sets the hook and this time is stays hooked. After a brief 20 minute battle we had 140-160 pound mako boat-side and decided to release her.

Ten minutes after that we are blessed with another run-off…Mark grabs the rod, hits the fish for the first hook set and the rod doubles over…he screams big fish and sets two more times. At first the fish just sat there for a second. Mark took a few cranks in and then she came alive peeling about 50 yards on the first run…then turned and charged the boat. A few minutes later she was about 30′ behind the boat, we got our first look at the fish…and it was big…about 250-280 pounds. She took one look at us and the boat and went straight down. Fifteen minutes later the line parted. Then she came back and gave us the finger buy jumping twice…once off the stern tapping the tip of the port rigger on the way up and then a second time off the starboard side just missing the side of the boat on the way down. I was standing on the bridge and when it did a somersault-tail over head the head was about two feet higher than eye level. Man what a sight…It was so close I could have reached out and grabbed the wire with the hook still it its mouth.

At this point we figured it just wasn’t our day. We made up new rigs with longer leaders…our first mistake. We did have a few more fish come up on the slick throughout the rest of the day and a few more run-offs but no more hookups.

All the run-offs and hookups were on the deep bait, nothing on the top or mid water baits all day long.

It was a great day on the water, we all had a lot of fun. It was my first sharking trip and the first time for both me and Tommy to see a mako jump in real life. At the end of the day we had 9 makos in the slick, 6 run-offs, released a small bluefin, released a small mako and lost a big mako. We also learned some for next time…we will never go shorter than 14′ leaders again!

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.

What a crock…now that they jack the minimum size up, they legalize the use of fluke belly, back or ribbons for bait. Follow the link below to read the full article from the APP.

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.