Posts Tagged ‘spearing’
River fluking is hot!
Sunday, July 11th, 2010Left 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.
First keeper fluke of 2010!
Saturday, June 5th, 2010
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.
5/1 & 2 - Lots of work, few fish…
Monday, May 3rd, 2010Headed to the rocks both Sat and Sun. Saturday got up there early but it did not matter what I did I could not keep anything on the hook. Didn’t matter if it was a spoon, plug, jig, heck even a Rapala plug with three treble hooks and I was dropping fish. Also had a knot failure near the boat, was the closest I came to boating a fish, about a 15 lb bass…if anyone catches a bass with a chartreuse Rapala in it, can I have the plug back?
Sunday I was going to stay close to home due to the forecast. Broke the inlet a little later than planned as my crew never showed. Worked some blues near the inlet for a little while and felt better that I was able to keep something hooked. Then worked spoons South off Bay Head and again was hooking up and dropping fish. Even changed out the hooks the spoons, guess I have new rod syndrome.
Got some calls on the radio and phone to head up North again. Conditions were no where near predicted with just a 2′ swell with a little chop on it. So I picked up and ran up to the rocks but got there at the end of the bite and only picked up more blues.
Both days it great seeing fish boiling on the surface taking baits. It is a shame so many have to drive right through them and break them up. Seems like the lack of courtesy and boat handling is getting worse the more that obtain their captain’s license…oh I mean boating safety certificate.
The amount of spearing around this spring is amazing. Hopefully that is going to lead to a great fluking season as it did back in 2007.
I was amazed at the difference in the ride of the boat after having more work done on the wheels again this winter. Despite the conditions on Sunday I was able to cruise with a following sea at a comfortable 26 knots with no pounding on the way in with the swell and chop on the front quarter at 22 knots passing every other boat but the Fish Monger and the 36′ Bertram across the creek from us on the way home.
River slaughter
Sunday, August 9th, 2009Since 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.
Fluking picks up
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009Went 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.
First river fluking trip of ‘09
Sunday, July 26th, 2009Decided 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.
Day off
Monday, July 20th, 2009Played 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.
Got wrecked again!
Sunday, July 12th, 2009Headed 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!
4th of July Weekend
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
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.
Bass moving on?
Saturday, June 20th, 2009Decided 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.
Long weekend roundup
Monday, June 15th, 2009OK…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.
Fluke & Sea Bass
Sunday, August 24th, 2008Left 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.
Fluke are here
Saturday, July 12th, 2008Left 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.
First fluking trip of ‘08
Saturday, July 5th, 2008We 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.
First trip in over a month
Sunday, May 25th, 2008Since 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.