Left the dock early to fish the river before the boat traffic picked up. When my buddy showed up with two friends we decided to give outside a shot. Swell wasn’t too bad, confused sea on top of it made for an interesting drift that just proved way to fast in 45′ of water so we headed back in.

It was like fishing in an aquarium just before feeding time. You had a fish on within seconds of the bait hitting the bottom. The lettuce was at a minimum but the only problem was most were shorts.

Coolest part was the water was so clean that in even 12′ of water you could see the bottom, your bait swimming along then either it would disappear of you would see it take off in a different direction if the fluke grabbed the tail of the bait. Tried shooting some video of it but it didn’t come out well. It was really wild to watch 3 or 4 fluke come up off the bottom to all chase the same bait.

Ended the day when the boat traffic picked up with a couple keepers to 21″ and was back at the dock and cleaned up by 10 am.

My buddy Mark and I decided to stay inside since all the reports we heard during the week were much better from Manasquan and Shark Rivers than from reefs.  I checked the current tables and the current looked OK despite it being the ebb and me personally preferring the flood to fish the Squan.

We shoved off at ten to five to get setup at sunrise and beat the boat traffic.  Got through the canal and despite no moon and very little wind the current was racing and not as anticipated.  We gave it a shot near Clark’s, in the Old Channel between Clark’s and Garden State, Hoffman’s, the doggy beach and the inlet itself.  No matter where we went it was a challenge to slow the boat down to be able to get a proper presentation.  Not to mention the salad was the worst I have ever seen.  OK…insert vegetarian jokes here!

On the plus side so far there were only three boats that had past us so far.  With the poor conditions inside we decided to at least try outside and worst case go wreck fishing.  Got out front to birds working, not sure what was chasing the bait up but we immediately got into a garbage fish blitz!  It was skate after sea robin after miniature dogfish…with short fluke mixed in when you could get your bait to the bottom.  We did manage sea robins to just under 2 lbs but didn’t weigh any in for the tournament.  Did manage to pull one keeper off the Manasquan Wreck before the current went slack and the drift died.

Moved off to the Sea Girt Reef hoping for better drift conditions and there was a little more breeze and a drift.  Again had non-stop action with birds, skates and short fluke.  We also had some short and keeper sea bass mixed in and picked up another keeper off the reef before the drift died there.

Headed in a bout noon.  By then there were finally people on the beaches and some boats out.  We were both surprised at the amount of boat traffic.  It didn’t really pickup till between 10 and 11 and even when we headed in the canal was busy but it sure didn’t seem like a holiday weekend.  Not that I am complaining but it sure didn’t seem like that many were out, certainly not like AAA said there would be a huge increase in vacationers driving to closer destinations to home.

Anyway all in all a great day on the water till we hit the railroad bridge on the way in and we realized how hot it really was out.  Ended the day with a nice 3lb sea bass, two fluke 19 and 20 inches, about 50 shorts (many 17-17.75″), one with almost a completely brown belly (will post a pic of it shortly) and probably a hundred sea robins, skates and dogfish combined.  Although there were only a handful of doggies.  And it was really nice to fish all day with the light outfits and 3/4 to 1.5 ounce bucktails even out on the reef.

Broke the inlet shortly after 5 and starting working bunker, wouldn’t call it pods…they stretched pretty much from the inlet all the way south to Ortley/Lavalette. Some of them were thicker than others but unfortunately they were all happy bunker and swimming for their lives. Talked to Tuna Kahuna, Bri-Time, Loanfish and a couple others and everyone seemed to be doing the same…stocking up on crab bait.

Once I got a 10 gallon bucket of bunker I headed off to the Axel Carlson for sea bass and fluke. My first drift I put a nice 24″, 4 lb 12 oz fish in the box. As I was motoring back to the beginning of the drift a buddy a few slips down from me is anchoring up right on my MOB mark from where that fish was caught. I circled him a couple times, busted his stones and moved off to another piece. Only had short sea bass, cod and fluke after that.

Decided to look at a couple other wrecks but there wasn’t much life on the sonar so I didn’t bother stopping. Despite the wind against the tide in the river I decided to give it a shot. The kelp was pretty bad but if you kept your rig clean there were tons of fish there. Weeded through the shorts and put a 19 incher in the box before a boat anchored up right in the path of all who were drifting. Called it a day and headed in.

Had 52 degree water when I broke the inlet along the beach that warmed to 54/55 when I left bassing for bottom fishing. On the reef the surface was a bit warmer and was up to 60.3 at one point. After my buddy got back from wreck fishing they had a cooler full of sea bass and cod, 8 keeper cod I think he said with at least that many more shorts. They also had released a dozen or so keeper blackfish and countless short sea bass but no fluke for them while on the hook.

The Admiral let me have the day off today.  First I was headed to a few bait and tackle shops in hopes of adding to the list of participating weigh stations for the BFH Year Long Tournament.  I was able to add Fisherman’s Supply, Co. to the list for the Manasquan Inlet members.

Then we headed out with Tommy about 11 this morning for a couple hours.  We had about a dozen fish and kept our two man limit.  Water temps were 48.x to 51.2.  Biggest was a little over 14″ @ 1.63 lb.  We were back at the dock and cleaned up by 1:30 pm.  Only burned .7 gallons…priceless!

I bugged out of work early and headed down to the marina. Tommy and I left the dock at 1 pm and were on a rock pile by 2:15 pm.

We moved around to a couple different rock piles before we found one holding some keeper sea bass. Most were returned as they were right on the line of being legal at 12.5″ but we did manage three that were over 14″.  I also had one fluke at 19″ that was measured and returned to fight another day.

The water has cooled a bit to 69.8 degrees but was very clean, including the water in the inlet and the Squan River. Bait of choice was bits of squid.

We were back at the dock and had the boat cleaned by 6 pm.

I went down to the boat Saturday morning to ride out the storm and rearrange the tackle lockers Saturday and hopefully install rod holders and maybe the outriggers on Sunday.  Tropical Storm Danny was a big disappointment.  There was no wind to speak of and not much more than your average downpour as far as rain.

Got the lockers straightened out and hopefully in a more user friendly arrangement.  Billy came back in with a limit of fluke from a rough inlet.  He lost a couple of big fish in the 6 to 8 pound range trying to net them.  I then had a hard decision to make, go fishing or work on the boat.

I did what any self respecting fisherman would do…I went fishing.  I made a quick stop in the river before heading to the inlet.  Got a couple hits in the river but quickly moved on.  The inlet produced all the shorts you wanted, had a few hits on a jig that felt like weakfish but never came tight, which made think more that they were weaks being finicky and just mouthing the bait.

Was back at the dock by 1 pm, got cleaned up and just hung out with friends and enjoyed the beautiful day.  Hopefully I will get to the installations this weekend since fluke will be closed and wreck fishing may be as well.  I will post info on the pending closure of scup and sea bass as soon as I find anything out.  I should have an idea Tuesday night.

Since I was doing a solo trip I decided to stay inside instead of running off to some lumps for bonito after hearing from a buddy that it was a little sloppy out.

Had lines in at 6 and the slaughter continued until I ran out of bait. Fished from the mouth of the canal on the North side to the sea wall. Didn’t really matter where you were but what bait you were using. Out of all the boats I saw out there I think I only saw about two dozen fish caught. I fished fresh peanuts netted the night before and that morning. Took a whole 2.5 gallon bucket full to the top and used it all!  Lost count on how many shorts I caught after thirty something but would venture a guess of well over a hundred due to the amount of bait and leader material I went through.

Did manage two nice keepers both 21″. Water wasn’t too dirty from the rain and the rain was either light or stopped but came and went throughout the morning. I tried various gulp baits, spearing, squid…all they wanted was peanuts. They hit both the trailing hook and the bucktail and I had several double headers and several times when the drift was light where the fish had both hooks in its mouth.

They are feeding heavily and voraciously most likely fattening up to start moving on. Plus if this tropical depression off the Cape Verde Islands forms and comes up the coast you can bet that will chase them out in a hurry. I would definitely concentrate outside though, the last few trips we made outside produced some really nice fish…get them while they are still here.

Went out Sunday with Mark, Wayne and Mike.  Had a blast, first time I have ever been out with Mike…he his hilarious.  Always a good time at the marina with Mike around and now he is certainly welcome as a crew member anytime.

Decided to stick close to home in case the storms rolled through early so we headed to the Axel Carlson.  Tried a few wrecks I haven’t fished in a while and had a slow pick at short fluke and sea bass until a couple of dive boats showed up, at which point I decided to move to other structure.

On our first drift on some rubble I boated my personal best summer flounder, it measured out at 24″ and 5 lbs 6 3/4 ounces.

We continued to take the same drift and put a few more fish in the boat, fish were either shorts or over 20″.  We also continued to pick away at short and keeper sea bass.

Conditions were great, flat seas, light breeze and warm water for a change.  Temps ranged from 71.4 to 74.3.  Throughout the day we had bunker flipping and occasionally being harassed by something.  A couple times there were slicks around the flipping bunker so we suspect that blues are starting to make a showing.  We mainly fished water 80′ in depth and I used a 2 ounce bucktail all day while others used 3 or 4 ounce ball jigs and bucktails.  All the bigger fish hit bucktails or ball jigs and spearing seemed to be the preferred bait.  Didn’t get even a tap on peanut bunker or squid heads.  Also tried the Hogy Squid and caught a few skates but nothing else.  This was in one of our first spots so I will definitely try it again for fluking with the 7″ bait.  I think it will be a good addition to our lure selection for other species as well including, striped bass, offshore wreck fishing, tile fish, tuna and maybe even as a trolling lure.

Headed in around 11 and got the boat and gear cleaned with time for a beer before the storms stated rolling through.  Got some pretty high winds up to 46 knots and near horizontal rain for a while.  And some pretty big lightening strikes as well.

Decided to make a quick trip to the river and then work on the boat. The storm at 4:30 delayed my departure by about an hour. Figures…there were weakies crashing peanuts in the creek during the lightening show. Finally left the dock at 6 and had the river to myself. Tried gulp, spearing, and finally peanuts. Had a fish on as soon as the peanuts would hit the bottom. Problem was no matter where I tried they were shorts…from about 8″ up to 17.5. Moved toward the Inlet and had a steady pick of almost keeper fish and some of the smallest sea bass I have ever caught or seen.  Soon after stemming the tide a bit to slow my drift down I started overheating. Threw the hook, hooked up the raw water wash down to flush the motor while waiting for it to cool a bit, cleaned the strainer (not much in it) and then headed back to the dock.

Pulled the water pump apart…had some grooving in the housing so I am ordering a new one today. Runs fine at higher RPM but at idle I guess the slight grooving causes it not to pump enough water. Not sure how long they usually last but she has almost 700 hours so it is probably time. Also checked the heat exchanger and that is clean as a whistle.

Drift was a little fast for my liking, water temps were 72.4 to 74.5 depending on location, peanuts were the best producer and the water wasn’t nearly as dirty as I thought it would be after the rain on an ebbing tide. There were also tons of small spearing all over. While throwing a small diving plug they would spray when the plug hit the water and while coming to the surface near the boat.

Played hooky today and went fishing before the week of rain got here.  Took the Admiral to Atlantic City on Saturday and she was kind enough to give me Today off to go fishing with the boys.

Turned out Mark had to work so it was just me and Tommy.  Left the dock at 5:30 and was fishing by 6:40 off Monmouth Beach. Flat calm conditions with very little drift. Water was in the 69-70 degree range.

Right away we had a few short fluke, skates, robins and spider crabs.  With mostly garbage fish we made a move and shortly put a 23″, 3.75 pound fish in the box. Repeated the drift several times and nothing but short sea bass.

 Made another move and we started bailing sea bass shorts and keepers.  After trying a few more spots we put another fluke in the box, it was about 20″. 

On the ride in we tried to locate a wreck I have fished on other boats in the past with great success but failed to find it.  I have a book that has notes on where it is by landmarks…have to spend some time this season and find it.  it was always a good producer on the way in.

We ended the day with 16 sea bass to 17″, 1.97 pounds and two fluke. Water was very dirty, 69.x degrees and fish hit peanuts, spearing, whole squid and squid heads. Back at the dock by 12:30 and back up North by 5 pm to take the Admiral to the spa.

Headed out a little later (6:30) than normal knowing we probably were staying close to home and not doing much fluking. I wanted to run back up to Monmouth Beach to fluke but had a feeling the ride back when the SE kicked up would not be fun. Ran out to the Axel Carlson in a ground swell with very little drift. Was able to keep the jigs vertical with 1 to 1.5 ounces in 72′ of water and immediately put some nice sea bass in the box. We continued with a steady pick of sea bass and ling with some shorts mixed in unlike prior weeks.

Moved in on the beach after the bite died and played catch and release with short fluke on the Mantoloking pipe. When the wind started picking up around 11 we headed in, and glad we didn’t make the run North as we would have had to run into the ground swell with 2′ of chop on top and a head wind. We both had things we wanted to do anyway so it was good short trip with fish in the box.

Didn’t really pay attention to water temps but with ling hanging around still the bottom is still pretty chilly. The sea bass ranged from 14″ to almost 21″…almost my largest to date. They were hitting spearing and peanut bunker, the didn’t seem to like quid strips at all but also hit on squid heads, bucktails and gulp shrimp, with the best producing bait being spearing.

Too bad the garbagefish.com tourney wasn’t this week…we had a few small robins and two small skates but had a huge male smooth doggie, his tail hung off the motor box which is 44″ wide…so he was probably just over 4′! He was released and the numbers of the wreck he was patrolling were written down in hopes he will be there next week!

Saturday we went fluking up off Monmouth Beach. Ran up at 28 knots and was fishing by 7. Tons of fish up there, many 17 to just over 18″ fish. We didn’t keep anything under 18.5 so there was no question if stopped on the way in. Heard a number of boats were boarded. Fish were taking spearing, squid heads and peanut bunker. With peanuts getting the most attention and stronger strikes. I had a couple of double headers of both fluke and sea bass. Also had tons of sea bass with many shorts. Probably had 60 plus fluke and about the same sea bass keeping 12 fluke and 11 sea bass for the table. We also had birds workign around us most of the day, not sure what was under them didn’t really cast to them at all nor did we mark anything really when we drifted through them.

Sunday I mainly mated for a buddy who had to take a friend and his two kids fishing. This trip we headed out to some numbers I did well the week before with sea bass. Shortly after arriving in 75′ of water we had the first fish in the boat. I was hooking fish and handing the rods off to the kids. Once both were bringing in fish I decided to catch my own…big mistake. The rods I was handing off all had keeper fluke and big sea bass (16-20″ fish) but all I would come up with were skates, sea ravens and sculpins. Only fished about two hours but we put a couple nice fluke (19-21″) in the box as well as another 11 sea bass but none of the keepers were under 16″. Had a dozen or so short fluke and probably two or three dozen short sea bass to keep the kids on constant action. We also added a few ling to the box for a little variety. The ling weren’t as thick so bottom temps must be coming up a little. Again bait of choice was squid, killies, spearing and peanuts.

The peanuts were not big, only about 1.5″ to 2″ but very thick in the marina this weekend. After a fall, winter and spring of not throwing the net I was pretty rusty and only yielded a dozen or so a throw I was still able to put a good amount together for this weekends trips. Definitely need to get a smaller net to through in the launch ramp where they appear most of the time. The 8 footer is just too big for the small space.

Water temps were down a little but sinkers and fish were coming up warmer. Surface temps ranged from 66 to 69 degrees both days deepening on location and time of day. There was a small pod of dolphin just outside the inlet making the inlet a little more interesting with it being a holiday weekend, with all the armatures out with them site seeing at the same time.

Highlight of the weekend was Saturday night just after the fireworks displays up and down the creek there was a supposed jumper off the Beaverdam Bridge. The emergency vehicles and state police cleared out pretty quick though, not sure what the outcome was but they were cruising up and down around the bridge and walking all the docks in the marina.

I also heard rumors from sources I wouldn’t waste gas on but heard from a few people that a couple guys got YFT in the eastern parts of the mud hole yesterday. I do know there was another thresher pulled off the Sea Girt Reef over the weekend and heard a bunch of BFT caught south in the Fingers and also up toward the Mako Hotel.

Headed out Saturday morning late (7 am) in order to avoid Saturday’s checkout for the tourneys  to get some fresh bait. We headed out to the Manasquan Ridge and the Southeast Lump. All sorts of live out there, we had porpoise, turtles, sunfish, bunker and sand eels but no bluefish. Just an occasional cocktail blue. After a few hours of getting frustrated we moved in on the Axel Carlson for sea bass and ling. It was non stop action with almost no short sea bass and the keepers were all over 17″ and the ling varied in size from 1.5 to 4 pounds.

Sunday morning we checked out and headed offshore with the front of the pack. Made it to our spot in just under 2.5 hours. Upon arrival the water was blue, clear and 68.5 degrees. Had good life on the wrecks but nothing came to investigate the slick.

Had a really slow drift despite the wind and swell. We went to make a move to get setup back at the beginning of the slick and halfway we had a free jumping mako about 200-225 pounds. Stopped immediatle and got baits out right away but was unable to raise the fish.

Ran in to the fingers to give that a shot for an hour or two and had nothing there. The drift was even slower, at first we just doing circles and couldn’t get the lines away from the boat.  We did see tuna busting a couple times while running and lot of really big debris out there so if you are running off keep a close watch. Lots of pilings just at or below the surface.

Decided with the weather being a crap shoot to leave the dock late and sleep in. Shoved off at 5:30 with the sun rising, light to no wind and few clouds. Broke the inlet and was greeted with flipping bunker.

Pod hopped for a couple hours moving North as we moved on. Bunker was from MI pretty much all the way up to Red Church. Unfortunately they were small pods, scattered easily and had nothing on them. Most pods would sound as the line hit the water over them or the snag hit water.

Switched over to fluking and picked away at them and sea bass. frustrated with fish that were right on the 18″ line or just under we moved further North to where we had fish last week.

Right away we found a pod of fish making short 50-75 yard drifts over them. But again the fish were just borderline keepers. We kept a few that were just over and a couple of sea bass.

Also had a few small robins, a sculpin and a skate. Larger robins were kept for crab bait. Almost forgot…I guess we had some sort of inshore Garbage Fish Slam…sea robin, sculpin, skate, star fish and Jersey snow crab (spider crab). At least we had variety. We tried but could not find a doggie to complete the Grand Slam!

Water was flat for the most part, one in a while there would be a big roller. Had a couple sprinkles start about 11-11:30 as we were heading in. water temps ranged from 60.2 to 65.5 depending on time and location. Bait…pretty much anything worked…spearing, squid strip, sun dial strip, squid heads (my favorite) gulp jerk shads and shrimp.

Got back to the dock, gear off and the skies opened up…perfect timing…let nature do the washing!

Are the striped ones moving on or did the coming storms put them off the feed?  Hopefully they were just taking some time off of feeding and stick around a few more weeks.  Unfortunately next week we will be busy with the shark tournaments and Fourth of July weekend we usually take our first offshore trip.  If they stick around hopefully they wait till mid July to move on so we can get one more shot at them.

OK…I get down to the marina, unload the truck…forgot my tackle bag. No biggie we go and buy new hooks, leader, swivels, snags, etc for fluking, sea bass and striper fishing for the weekend and pickup bait and Entenmann’s for breakfast. No we are not Norweigan…the bait is for fishing and the Entenmann’s is breakfast!

Go to fuel the boat up…lose forward on the way to the service slip. Figure let’s get her fueled up since I need it and then look at the shift issue. Go to move her back and not only don’t have forward but get stuck in reverse. Luckily the service slip is only three slips away and we float her back to her slip. It’s already dark out so we figure we will just take a buddy’s boat and look at in on Saturday, plus we figured there would be fog anyway so we would probably end up taking his since I don’t have radar.

So now we are down one boat the first day of the weekend.

Saturday…get off to a great start. In the first 20 minutes and less than a mile from the inlet we get on spraying bunker, put a 38 pound fish in the boat and have two other run offs. Then Wayne on his flounder rod gets spooled by a big fish.

The not being far from the inlet it was not long before the fleet of fluke tourney boats runs through the school of fish, puts them down and they scatter. We tried for another half hour and on a few more pods but then gave up and switched to sea bass. Had tons of shorts and decided to go fluking. Ended up putting 5 nice fluke in the boat with two 16″ sea bass and then while moving we smelled diesel.

Shut her down and look for the leak. Tanks look good, lines, everything. Can’t figure out where it is coming from. Start running again and same thing, now we get it down to the starboard motor so we come in on one and after close inspection find a broken return line right in front of the turbo! Good thing we didn’t keep running…could of been a serious problem if the fuel found its way closer to the turbo.

So now we are down two boats in two days. 

We had planned on fishing a different boat on Sunday so at least we know we are still fishing tomorrow. Sunday rolls around leave the dock EARLY to get in on the great bite we had early the day before and wanted to be out even earlier to hopefully get a longer shot at them.

First drift we make bait, hookup and drop two fish. Go to move off the beach and again the starboard motor won’t fire. Get off the beach on one motor and start jogging while we try and diagnose the problem. Ignition circuits keep tripping and paralleling batteries doesn’t do much either.

Check the current charts and it is slack at the inlet and slowing in the canal so we decide to run in on one while the getting is good. It is always a good day when you come in on your own power and safe…even it is on one motor.

Get back to the dock and it turns out to be the starboard battery. Voltage was fine with no load but under load went into a dead short and even smoked a bit.

So now we are down three boats in three days.  

I make arrangements to be hauled Monday morning and check with the Admiral that it is OK to stay over one more day…good thing I always pack extra clothes.

So in the mean time I run over to Harbor Freight to get a jack and jack stands to rotate my tires. Cashier is ringing me up and the register dies. So now my buddies conclude the hex is caused by me!

Monday…get hauled out and the problem with the shifting is a loose cable clamp, check the cable, no nicks or wear in it, reset the clamp and all is well…or so we think. Decide while it is out to check the drive fluid.  Nice shade of light gray. Dipstick was only hand tight and the o-ring on the drain plug was rolled. Only person to blame for that is me since I changed the gear oil.

Run to the gas station get a can of diesel and flush it three times. Fuel was clear after the second, did the third to be safe and also flushed a half gallon through from the top. Filled her back up and went for a test ride and all is good.

Now we just have to wait and see. Everyone was telling me they have seen worse but with my luck I will need a new drive by season’s end.

Hope everyone had a better weekend than us.

We figured with the last few weeks being an early bite as well as the full moon being yesterday we should make an effort to get out early…well we shoved off at 4:05 and were out the inlet by 4:40.

Ran a little North found nothing and then decided to be a creature of habit and run to where we had fish three weeks in a row. We found bunker but no bass. Water early was about the same as last week-57.8 degrees. Bunker were flipping with an occasional spray and some coming clean out of the water. It looked like a good unhappy pod. We worked it for a little over an hour, chased down some other pods that were more scattered and returned back to the more active one.

We did not hookup on livies or cut bunker nor did we see anyone else except Capt. Murph hooked up for a few minutes on a mystery fish. Eventually we gave up on bass and switched over to wreck fishing.

With the cold temps we decided to not even bother fluking and went right to some rock piles for sea bass. With the direction and slow speed of the drift it made for nice long, slow drifts over the piles.

We immediately were picking up sea bass and ling. As the day went on the ling got thicker and you had to weed through them to get to the sea bass, a welcome nuisance compared to doggies.

We ended the day with a little over a dozen nice sea bass and kept six ling. Surprisingly at the dock the ling were in high demand.

Good talking to all the Barnegat Fishin’ Hole members and trying to find fish and work together covering a lot of ground.

With the presence of large schools of ling, the temp the sinkers coming up and gulp baits being almost brittle speaks volumes about the water temps on the bottom. I did however hear of a few good catches of fluke to the North with several fish in the 4-6 pound range. We will probably be headed left out of the inlet next week with bass, sea bass and fluke being the target.

Left the dock about 7 am with high hopes of heading outside and looking for some bass and weakfish. When we got to the inlet the fish gods had other plans for us. After watching the Paramount disappear behind a swell only showing the bridge of the boat when in the ditch we decided to wait out the change of the tide. There were some pretty tall breakers across the inlet mouth with the SE breeze and outgoing current. The dredge was also finally gone from the river.

I setup on the mussel beds in hopes for a stray flounder. Didn’t have live worms so we set out Gulp! sand worms.  He had a couple of hits and bite offs and figured it was blues. The inlet had seemed to have calmed so we picked up and headed out. It waited for us to just about clear the inlet and then a big breaking wave appeared out of no where. She took it better than I did. Still have a bump on my head from hitting the pilothouse roof but we didn’t take any water over the bow or the pilothouse.

Once outside there were big rollers of varying sizes. They would be 3-4′ for a while then a set of three or four over 5′. There was a ton of bait around but nothing wanted to chew. We tried spoons, plugs, mojo’s, bucktails and umbrellas. There were definitely some small schools of bass and also some larger schools of what looked like weakfish along the bottom. Those who get out today may fare better with calmer conditions.

After about an hour or so of no action and marking tons of bait and fish we decided to head back in for the change of the tide further up the Manasquan River to see if there was any action inside. Finally the right decision. We had light tackle, non-stop action with blues for the next 2-3 hours. Fish varied in size but most were 2-4 pounds. I had two that went 6.7 and 7.75. Yo-Zuri crystal minnows and small swimming plugs produced the best.

We also decided since we wouldn’t be flounder fishing anymore to hang the chum pots over to draw more fish to the boat and clean them out…it was a blast having the blues coming right up to the transom and exploding on plugs right at the boat. I was going to get the fly rod out but then realized I left my box of leaders and tippets at home. Probably would have had my first fish on fly…oh well, next time.

The rain came and went throughout the day until we got back through the canal, then the sun sort of came out…figures. Water temps ranged from 51.3 to 59.8.

I got my b-day present installed on Friday afternoon and had some fun testing it out. Got the Faria Fuel Manager from Lacey Marine. I don’t really know what the fuel burn was before having the wheels done but at a 26kt cruise (3,800 rpm) now I burn about 12gph, at 22kts (3,600 rpm) at 10gph. The factory sea trial has a fuel burn of 9.5 gph at 3,500 rpm at a speed of 25.7 kts and at 4,000 rpm, 31.6 kts at 12.9 gph. So with bottom paint, 3/4 fuel, two people, 1,000 pounds of gear, 10 gallons of water, beer, ice and about 25 lbs of fish I think I am doing pretty good.

Set out late due to the pea soup fog with Tommy and Wayne on the morning trip.  Made a quick stop where we had fish the week before, but after twenty minutes without a touched bait we headed right to the river.

Setup on a spot that has produced in years past with the water temps at what they were, 51.3.  We had fish in the boat before all the chum pots and rods were set.  We thought it was going to be a banner day.  Well, it was if you were fishing for Jersey Snow Crab, aka the spider crab.  There were also tons of giant green crabs around as well.

In the morning for the incoming we had four fish one being short before we had to head in to drop Wayne off and Tommy had to let the dogs out.  Once Tommy returned we headed back out for the afternoon tide.

We figured lets take a peak outside first but the ESE blow had things stirred up pretty good and we decided not to venture out past the jetties, head back and look for more flounder.

I put the boat right back on the spot we were in this morning.  Again we had fish right away, and again the Jersey Snow Crabs made a fierce showing.  We finished the day with another three fish for the box with the biggest going just over two pounds. 

Bait of choice once again was live sand worms, Gulp! chum and clam chum.  I feel it has made a huge difference in our flounder season this year.  We have had buddies pull up in our slick and not catch fish, other boats along side us to either side or off the bow and not catch fish.  The Gulp! raised fish are always covered in little bits and have it in their stomachs as well.  It has definitely earned its place in my tackle locker this spring.

We fished Friday and Saturday this weekend.  Friday was not so hot but we did boat two fish.  Actually they two fish were boated pretty much right after we got setup at our first spot.

Saturday was another story.  We went back to where we had fish on Friday and did not have a single fish for over two hours.  Then we got one and then no more bites there.  Deciding to make a move and try another spot for or last 30-45 minutes of fishing time was a good move.   We had fish right away and steady action for the next 40 minutes.  We ended up boating 13 fish total to 2 lbs.

Water temps ranged from 47.6 to 51.3 degrees, the water was pretty clean and clear and winds varied throughout the day.  A few of the fish that were not that fat did have roe in them.

I also heard reports of limit catches to the South off of The Water’s Edge on Friday and pretty good catches on Saturday as well.  It looks like the bite is finally turning on, hopefully it will continue for another couple of weeks.

It was to be our first trip of 2009 and we were very anxious to get lines in and bends in the rods.  I rigged up four rods, iced down the boat, loaded the second anchor and rode, chum pots, picked up bait, lunch and beverages.  I also picked up a bucket of Gulp! chum to give a try.

Tommy and I headed South to the Mantoloking Bridge.  While heading out there was a whining noise, we checked and thought at first it was just the new belt settling in.  While trying to get set on anchor in our first spot the motor started sputtering and the whining got louder.

We performed some more troubleshooting and determined the noise to be coming from the fuel pump, most likely the low pressure pump.  We decided that with a fuel delivery problem and breezy conditions it was best that we scrapped the trip and limp back to the marina.  We were able to get back safe under our own power.

I did speak to a few guys that fished catches ranged from not even a bit to about five fish per person.

After clearing the cockpit we dropped the fuel filter and water separator and there were no signs of any water in the fuel.  Put new filters on to be on the safe side and fired her up again.  The filters filled with fuel so it is not a line or tank issue.

Next I called Volvo to find out parts availability and cost.  I also inquired to see if it would be covered under extended warranty, supposedly it will be.  Which is a huge relief since on my motor it is one part for the filter mount, high and low pressure pumps and not individually serviceable with a cost of $659.

Now I am waiting for a call back from my local Volvo dealer to schedule the repair, hopefully they will be able to get to it this week or next.

This is just the kind of thing I try to avoid by going in the water the end of February or the beginning of March.  Now due to the soda blasters damage and my going in the water just days before our first trip I am now down taking away from fishing time.  Going in early gives two to four weeks to run her weekly and work out any kinks if any and get her running at peak performance for the season ahead.  In a perfect world our boats would go to bed working 100% and wake up after their winter’s naps running 100%.  But after sitting idle for several months there is always something that is not happy about being idle and being exercised during its hibernation.  In the end I am sure we will have a great season, we are just off to a slow start once again.

Left the dock at 5:30…got to the inlet and thought we were making a big mistake when the Henriques and Viking in front of us went down into the trough and all we saw was their hard tops and antennas on their fly bridges! Hit the bottom of the first trough and took water of next wave over the pilothouse…still not through the inlet it was too late turn around so we proceeded out to the bell buoy to see what it was like. Once out away from the inlet it was not too bad…4-5′ rollers with little or no chop on them. I guess we just happened to leave at the wrong time of the ebbing tide as guys who left later said the inlet was not that bad.

Once we picked up everything off the floor we proceeded to the Axel Carlson. Hit several wrecks until we found the ones with fish willing to feed. Marked bait and fish on almost everyone we stopped at.

We had a constant pick of fluke (both shorts and keepers) as well as many keeper sea bass. Actually most sea bass were keepers.

The lack of drift I don’t think was the problem with fluking…the ground swell and wicked bottom current in the morning had the fish off. The little bit of wind there was there was opposite the current but once they were going th same direction the fluking bite picked up.

Once the South wind really kicked in we headed into the Mantoloking pipe to give that a shot before heading in. More of the same…plenty of sea bass on it and some fluke as well.

All fish were on spearing. I tried various gulp baits throughout the day and did not get a touch on any of them. Tried deadsticked and jigged…spearing did not matter jigged or deadsticked the fish just hammered it everytime.

All in all it was a great day on the water ending the day with seven keeper fluke to 23″ and a dozen sea bass to 3 lbs! The highlight of the day was my personal best sea bass at 21.5″ and 3 lbs.

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.

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.

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.