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.

Flew solo on Saturday up to Asbury to check out the bunker bite.  Got there at 5:45 and missed it!  Couldn’t believe two buddies with four man limits were headed home already after getting their limit and releasing dozens of fish.  I knew with the new moon it would be an early bite but that was ridiculous.  After getting bunch of bunker in the boat and only having two run offs and no real action I pushed North to get on the troll.  I trolled stretch 30 plugs after a buddy called me over to a bite they had on shad rigs.  Started trolling 100′ to the East of them and the plug wasn’t in the water 5 minutes and had a 42″ bass in the boat.  Put the plug back in and was putting water and ice in the fish box and rod goes off again, a 35″ fish.  Same thing for the next few passes on a South to North troll, each pass another fish.  Ended up releasing a 44″ and 33″ fish.

Sunday we decided to go back to the scene of the crime from the day before.  Debated on running South but turned left out of the inlet.  Again arriving up at Asbury about 5:30 there was no bunker to be found from there up to the Cedars.  Got up on the troll and then got a call from BillyT to come back South a little and use white #4 Maja’s.  Put a 16 pounder in the boat right away but then it was quiet.  Trolled all over Monmouth Beach, Long Branch, Asbury, the Rocks, the Cedars and ended up getting an 8lb blue.  Heard from Bri-Time that the bite was off Ortley when we were in the canal but at that point decided to just keep heading for the barn.

Despite the ASA and Bahrs tournaments on Saturday the Northern waters were not that crowded.  Sure wish i was in the ASA tourney since the 42″ and 44″ fish would have been good for second place.  Also on Saturday I was quite shocked at a very large and prestigious charter boat that came right through the fleet of boats live lining picking up five lines from three boats, three lines had fish on.  They came so close to the boats fishing zig zagging through the fleet I could have underhanded a bunker to someone in the cockpit.  I guess when you get that big you only care about yourself and $$$.

All in all it was a great two days on the water.  It is funny how I usually do so much better solo than when I have four guys on the boat. 

Headed 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.

First bass of 2010 hit the deck today! We were going to only run a few miles but when we heard and saw the fleet racing to the Sea Girt Reef area we decided to just make the run North and fish somewhat by ourselves. There were reports of big fish outside the 3 mile line and many paid the price for going after them. Sever boats were stooped, boarded and fined including a party boat.

Anyway back to the good stuff. Got up off Monmouth Beach quickly, started putting the spoons out and 200 yards behind us the birds came out of no where. Picked up and ran to them and it was fish on as soon as the jigs and plastics hit the water. As soon as it started it ended as the fleet started racing in. Then they popped up again a little way off. We then pod hopped for a little while with fish on each drift. Silver was the hot color today for jigs.

After a few drifts we switched over to bait and continued to boat fish on each drift. We had 5 in the box to 16 plus pounds by 9:30-10 and went up on the troll to cover ground. We had a few knockdowns but nothing came tight.

I hope this is a sign of good things to come in 2010 with a great bite weeks earlier than normal.

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.

With a great weekend last week and all the positive reports coming in during the week from those that got out I got a weekend pass from the Admiral and was planning on fishing both Saturday and Sunday weather permitting.

Got down to the marina by 8 pm and unloaded and began rigging up for Saturday.  Made plans with the crew to leave a little earlier, hoping to shove off a little before or no later than 5 am.

5:10 Saturday morning just as I am about to call Wayne he rolls into the marina.  He jumps aboard and off we go.

Broke the inlet and pretty much steamed right to the spot off Mantoloking I had fish the week before.  We had great marks, plenty of bait and conditions looked really good.

We moved from pod to pod looking for bass, each pod looked agitated and unhappy but each time we failed to hookup.  Finally about 10:30 Wayne gets a pickup, hooks up and we boat a nice 25.5 pound fish.  We continued to work the area but were only able to boat the one fish.

Back at the dock we get cleaned up and the drinks start flowing.  Then we all go out for dinner and made plans for Sunday.  We would be sailing with Wayne, Danny and his son Michael, again supposedly at or before 5 am.

Sunday morning I was ready to go and had the engine warming up at 4:44…no one was up or ready yet.  After knocking on boats and receiving a call from Wayne I figured we would be leaving even later today.  Ended up shoving off about 5:35.

Broke the inlet and immediately headed back down to Mantoloking.  After making bait and screwing around with a few bunker pods BriTime from Barnegat Fishin’ Hole called me down to off Lavalette.  I asked where he was, his reply was you will see when you get here.

Upon arriving at Lavalette it looked like the Tice’s Shoal fleet got lost and ended up on the East side of the barrier island.  From the scene today you would never imagine that there was a financial crisis going on.  There had to be 300-400 boats converged on this area that was holding bass.

Shortly after arriving we had our first shot at a bass that appeared to be in the 25-30 pound class.  It was on the lightest rod we were snagging with and quickly spooled and eventually broke off Michael.  I tried to explain to him to loosen the drag as pressure increases when the spool diameter gets smaller but kids never want to listen, they think they know everything.

Soon after that I dropped a fish, there was a reel malfunction.  Well, actually someone, I think myself, put the lever to strike and not bait.  The fish ran about three feet before dropping the bait due to too much tension on the line.

Then about 20 minutes later we dropped our last hookup as well.  Had we left on time we might  have had a larger window of opportunity before the boat traffic and full bellies from the bass gorging on bunker quieted the bite down.

We trolled for about an hour after leaving the fleet with great marks but not one knockdown.  After that we pod hopped finding some active pods again but no run offs or hookups.

Running back to the inlet we noticed a large fleet and several head boats just North of the inlet so we decided to investigate.  It looked like some of the fish coming up on the head boats were whiting with some cocktail blues mixed in.

I quickly handed out small jigs and we proceeded to get in on the light tackle blues action for a few minutes.  This proved to save the day and keep the skunk off the boat.

While it wasn’t the mad dog bite of last week it was a fun weekend with fish in the boat, smiling faces and way too much beer and alcohol consumed once again.  The weather was great and we had calm seas both days.  Hopefully the bass stick around a few weeks longer.  Water temps rose a little from Saturday to Sunday but not by much.

Woke up at 5 as planned with a nasty hangover, looked around…no fog but also no crew. They were all still passed out. Popped a couple Advil and reset the alarm for 6. Got up feeling much better, put coffee on and still no crew up. Decided to hit the river solo so I called the Admiral and gave her my float plan since I was going solo.

Got to the inlet and saw birds South of the jetty and flat seas, called the Admiral back with a change of plans. From 7:45 to 9:00 it was non-stop live bait bass action.

Had the first fish on shortly after snagging a bunker about 200 yards South of the South jetty in 18′ of water. The fish immediately ran under the boat. Fought it for about 10 minutes under the boat, got it to the boat once but as I reached for the net she made another run under the boat. When she came up you could have shoved a basketball into her mouth. After another few minutes of tug of war under the boat I was now in 12′ of water and decided I had to try and move the boat…unfortunately that caused more rubbing and chafing on the bottom and the 65# braid had finally had enough…but I and the boat did not end up on the beach.

I moved the boat a little South to get back on the bunker, re-tied a snag and got the rods setup with livies on top and heads on the bottom. Shortly after I boated the first fish, a nice fat 27.1 pounder.

The bunker and fish kept moving South. I kept on them and broke off two other fish, had six or 8 good run offs that never came tight and two that ran and ran while I was fighting another fish but by the time I was ready for the second rod they got off.

I ended the day with three in the box using my bonus tag, fish were 27.1, 29.2 and 33.5 pounds. I also released one fish about 20 pounds. The biggest fish came on a bunker head on the bottom. Also, finally got a chance to break in my new Lami/Avet combo. Water was 53-54 degrees, much warmer from the 41-44 we saw on Saturday. The bite started just south of MI and I ended up right at the Mantoloking pipe. Had bunker and fish from 10′ to 30′ of water.

I did setup once with no bunker busting on top but good readings on and near the bottom and had run offs and one fish, the 20 pounder I released.

The fish had remnants of small bait, peanuts and eels in their stomachs, one had nothing at all…probably spit it all up during the fight.

Spoke to several Barnegat Fishin’ Hole members, Bri Time, Capt. Murph, EMALS, and others some of which came up to get in on the action. At first the boat traffic was putting them down but later on it didn’t seem to bother them. I am really glad I ran out despite a lack of crew, was back at the dock about 9:45.

Stayed at the dock most of the day with the fog and got a few things done on the boat. When it finally lifted in the afternoon we figured what the heck lets give it a shot. Got to the inlet and there was maybe 100′ visibility outside so we headed back up the river. Poked around, threw metal and popers…nothing.

Headed up river to get out of the wind and anchored up and started chumming 10 lbs. of spearing from last year. Figured we could bring them to us. We did get a few fish to come up our slick…no blues, bass or weakfish…a couple of fat fluke.

They are hear and despite the cold water pretty aggressive. Guess I know where I am starting next week at first light before the boat traffic pics up.

I unfortunately did not get a chance to sail this past weekend.  Though it seems as if striped bass have really started to make a showing.  With Sunday being Mother’s Day and only having Saturday to fish, and then the AC breaking I had do deal with home repair issues.

I received many reports of bass and some good sized fluke with some bluefish mixed in were caught both inside and outside over the weekend and early this week.  Fish have been caught on various jigs, bunker, herring, spoons and umbrella rigs.  One common theme seems to be that you needed to search them out.  There might not have been tell tale signs of birds diving and fish busting but if you searched out structure, bait and kept an eye on the sonar you found the fish.

Hopefully I will get out this weekend, it all depends on if I can get my current work project done early…if I really move my butt, which I am planning on doing I may be able to fish both Saturday and Sunday.

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.

NJ DEP has published the 2009 Fish Consumption Advisory. Pretty much the same as last year, biggest changes are for some of the species from Raritan Bay and its estuaries.  What I am curious about is what the recommended intake on sea bass, blackfish, porgies, tunas, shark and mahi would be.  Some are mentioned briefly in the Federal Advice for Fish Consumption, but other than that they are not mentioned.  Since these are the species most desired by family and friends and the species we target more often than others it would be nice to know the state and federal governments would like to control our eating habits.

Next to us in the JCAA booth at the Saltwater Fishing Expo we had Joe Calcavecchia of Saltwater Custom Flies.  He had a pattern that caught my eye right away.  It was a mummichog, or more commonly known in NJ as a killie.  Joe Calcavecchia wished he had known earlier that we called them killies here in NJ, he would have changed his display to read killie imitation.

It is his signature fly and a very good imitation of one of our staple baits here.  I picked up a few from Joe and can’t wait to try them out.  I will also attempt to recreate them but on a smaller scale.  The ones I picked up are in the four to five inch range which should prove deadly on stripers, weakfish and blues.  When I try and recreate them I will do so in a three inch model.  I think the smaller incarnation would be very effective on summer flounder and sea bass, and probably deadly on mahi mahi in any size.

With the lackluster fall striper run we decided to mainly target tog our last two trips. Saturday we set out a little later than normal, probably around 7 am. We were returning North to Elberon Rocks but never made it there. Instead of NW winds we were greeted by stiff N to NNE winds and steep four to five foot waves. At that point we decided to surf back home and poke around the inlet for some bass. We had almost no marks on the fish finder the entire time. We then ran out to the Axcel Carlson to scout out a few spots for Sunday and stay closer to home.

We checked a few wrecks and three out of the five looked very promising with many marks swimming around them. Upon returning on Sunday, our top three picks had dive boats on them and the sun was not even up yet. Then after dealing with a ground tackle issue on another spot we were inundated with dogfish and bergals. With the wind and seas pickup up we called it quits and began reflecting back on a season that had many firsts and personal bests for us.

I had only a few hours to go fishing since I had to be home and ready to leave for a family party at 13:15 but we gave it a shot with a forecast for a bluebird day. After breaking the inlet just before 6:00 I was hoping to get a call that the party was canceled, it was one of the nicest days of the year on the water.

Knowing we had only a few hours and we would be fishing all day, weather permitting, on Sunday we did sort of an exploratory trip. We knew many boats, including charters and head boats limited out several days in a row to the North so we made a left turn after looking North, South and East out of the inlet through the glasses.

On the way up there were no birds working but rather just sitting and waiting and we only marked a couple of small bait balls with no fish around them.

When we arrived at the the rocks there were only about four boats there, and two minutes after getting there we were greeted with birds working and huge splashes about 75 yards away. It seemed to good too be true, and it was. It only lasted for about three minutes and we barely had time to get over to it before it broke up. Later I found out it was not bass but the giants had returned inshore on their migration south and we missed our first shot at a giant in December.

We jigged and trolled the area for two hours with only a small bluefish to show for our efforts. Being pressed for time we started South and stopped and jigged on some marks along the way a few times. We did manage to find a good school of adult bunker but there were no takers in or around it.

I look forward to reading the day’s reports later to hear if anyone did hook up with the giants and to see where the reports of keeper bass will come in from so we can make a last minute decision on what to target and where to go on Sunday.

With little reports from the North we again decided to head South. Broke the Inlet just before sunrise and turned right. Did not mark any bait or fish till we got down to the Piers. Jigged a little and then got up on the troll. Put out black tubes, blue/white shads and a chartreuse/white mojo. The tubes got hit almost immediately. Once that short was released and rig back in the water we pulled the shads and put out white tubes instead. Then we had both rods go off…again more shorts. After both rigs were back in we changed out the mojo for a Santini tube. We had a couple more shorts before making the run down to the old CG station to join Bri Time and Striker Joe.

I always have a hard time leaving fish to find fish but our biggest in the area was 26″ and it sounded much more promising further South. We could not believe how many boats were there as we were approching…there had to be two hundred boats easy, up North there were only a couple dozen.

We slowly cruised around looking for good marks to jig but after about 5 minutes of nothing concentrated enough we started trolling. Again before the rigs bounced off the bottom we had fish on. Although short they were a little bit bigger and were just short. We had steady action with one, two and even all three rods going off at one point.

Then we had a knockdown that started pulling some drag, we figured we finally had a solid keeper. After about 10 minutes it surfaces about 50 feet behind the boat…looked way too long and skinny to be a bass. It turned out to be a tail hooked 3′ spiney dogfish. Got that puppy released and reset the spread, joked with Bri time about it and a few minutes later another knockdown peeling drag. We joked kiddingly in the cockpit about it happening again and sure enough, an even bigger tail hooked spiney.

We moved slightly deeper and a little South and started picking at shorts again but never found a keeper bass.

Beautiful day on the water, wish we could have stayed out longer but we had two crew members that had to be in by 3 so we headed in about 1 and decided to head back out light, just me and Tommy to see if there would be an afternoon bite. Ducked in BI, there were a bunch of guys fishing the inlet but did not see any bent rods on the way. I almost followed a boat through the cut but decided not to since I had no idea who it was and if they really knew where they were going.

After dropping two off, and talking for a few minutes at the marina we headed back out MI. Went about a quarter mile out and looked around. We thought we saw the blitz of the season just North of the inlet. Upon arriving to the several hundred birds working a very small area we realized it was a small netter. We were not really sure what they were doing but they were throwing something over the side and pulling lines in. The boat was in only 15-20′ of water off Manasquan. A few minutes after us coming within 50′ to see what was up they left. We circled the are to see if anything was picking up the scraps from below but there were no promising marks.

We cruised around the inlet, south to Bay Head, in along the beach, out to 65′. There was very little bait around and no solid marks to jig on either. We came across a small pod of flipping bunker, snagged a couple and sent them down but found no takers.

Once the sun got down behind the buildings we headed for the inlet, again with no keepers in the box. On the way in we looked at the weather and discussed plans for Sunday. We had figured we would be able to get a few hours in the early morning before the blow came through. Hosed the deck down and left the majority of the mess for after Sunday’s trip and went to dinner. Checked the forecast again and decided to leave early-5:30 and get a few hours in…wrong!

At 1:45 am we were woken up by the chop slapping the hull, it had blown up way ahead of schedule and we had gusts from the East to 18 mph and about a foot of chop coming up the creek. We decided to check the weather and beach cams at first light and make a final call then but it was even worse by then. Had breakfast and then proceeded to clean the boat and gear in horizontal rain. Once we were done the rain let up…figures.

Hopefully next weekend we will be able to get back-to-back trips in if the weather cooperates. We are trying to get in as many trips before the boat comes out but someone upstairs seems to have other plans all the time.

We did finally get to try out the Tournament Grade Tackle Rod Riggers. We did have to grind out the notches a little for the heavy duty bar pins to fit since they are a 1/2 inch tall and don’t seem to fit most accessories. Even though the fish were not big enough to pin a rod in a traditional rod rigger or holder it was much easier to get the rods in and out of the rod riggers. It was also much easier to let out or bring in some line without having to lean out over the gunwale to reach the reel. They lay the rods down a little more than most others too, the rods were just about parallel to the water, plus if you have a rod to pull umbrellas that doesn’t have a gimbaled butt they hold them perfectly in the correct position unlike the more traditional rod riggers. Making turns is a bit easier as well, the cradles keep the rods from wanting to creep out of the rod holder. Everyone on board was very impressed by the quality and finish on them and we are anxious to try them offshore next season. Forgot to take come pics of them in action, will try and remember to do so next weekend.

Left the dock at 5:30 and a brisk 23 degree air temp and 33.5 degree water in the creek. No ice in the water. There was a dredge I guess in the inlet similar to the one down in Barnegat with only one light on it and it stretched from first ICW marker to the sea wall. I can’t imagine how they get away with blocking most of the channel with something like that, with no lights on it and not get fined.

Anyway, broke the inlet and had some birds and marks just outside…stopped and jigged but nothing. Started heading North since the plan was to hit Shrewsbury Rocks for bass then the Elberon Rocks for blackfish on the way back.

Made a couple stops off Spring Lake, Belmar, Asbury and Monmouth Beach jigging and trolling hear and there. We had a steady pick of just short, really fat fish the whole time. No blues brought to the boat although we suspect one jigged up fish that was lost just as we started to see color may have been due to its erratic fight.

Then while up off Monmouth Beach jigging I hooking into something really heavy and pretty much dead weight. I thought we might have a nice monkfish but it turned out to be a tail hooked spiny, one of the biggest I have ever seen.

On our way back South to Elberon Rocks just about at slack water we came across a bunch of birds working close to the beach and decided to jig a little more before the tide change and get setup on the hook. It was all blues about 3 pounds. it was fun for a while with poppers and jigs but then that wore off.

Made our way through the fleet onto some structure that looked good and got setup. Unfortunately I didn’t end up right over the structure but with a short toss of the baits we were into steady action and since it is not high profile structure decided to stay put. We had great action as long as you pitched to the right place and put 6 keepers all around 3 pounds and one 3.5 lbs in the box.

At about 11 the wind started kicking up and we had some pretty good white caps and taller chop so we decided to started heading back down to MI. After running about 5 minutes along the beach it flattened out again and the wind dropped out we decided to look for birds and readings and fish a little more but we found nothing. Just after noon we decided to head in early and call it a day.

Water temps outside ranged from 47.2 to 50.8 and inside from 33.5 to 35.7. Trolling we had most fish on blue/white shads with some on wine colored tubes (Thanks Brian and Ken for the color tip, finally found some this week). White tubes, black/white shads and black tubes produced nothing. Jigs we used dorado color MegaBait jigs, black/silver and blue/silver did not produce. All our short bass were spitting up peanuts and rain bait…did not see one sand eel spit up. Same with the bluefish. The blackfish were very aggressive and there was no missing a subtle bite as there were none. I even caught two fish dead sticking while making a sandwich…something I have never been able to do before. We were a little apprehensive about the day after the first stop and the rods and reels being iced up from frozen spray the first few stops but then we just brought the rods in the cabin between stops and all was good.

It was a great day with some fish in the box and a warm dry ride home. We ended up running 51.1 nm putting 7.3 hours on the motor and burning about 28 gallons of fuel for 1.82 nmpg and an average burn of 4.8 gph. I definitely see a big difference with plus (89 octane) fuel and my nmpg and gph numbers. At the end of the day getting in the slip was another story with the blowout tides though…we had to stop short and tilt the outdrive all the way up and float her in.

Left the dock at 6:30…didn’t realize I goofed on departure time till I got to the dock. Forgot to adjust my routine to standard time from daylight savings time.

Broke the inlet and the sun was already up and there were birds working at the mouth. With good marks on the sonar I jigged for a few minutes with not a touch, I also did not see any of the other five boats hook up so I did not stay there long.

Ran South and kept pod hopping and jigging. Had a steady pick of a range of blues and bass with about a 50/50 ratio, at this point it was still all shorts. I would move on when the fleet would join me.

Started working off the piers in 35-38′ of water and had steady top water action with mostly short bass and an occasional bluefish for about an hour before the fleet showed up and put the fish down. Had a blast with small poppers and was about to get the fly swatter out but that was when the bite died due to boat traffic.

After speaking with Bri Time, and others from BFH I headed South along IBSP again pod hopping till I got to the pavilion. Still with about a 50/50 ration to shorts to blues. Then I jigged up and lost two fish that were about 30-32″ trying to get them in the net. This was the first time I was using the larger net solo so it took a few tries to get the coordination down of the large hoop and long handle. Next fish was a 28.5″ that I swung thinking it was short but found its way into the box.

Shortly after bite started to really slow I went up on the troll. I pulled a black tube rig and chartreuse and white homemade mojo with a 6″ Gulp chartreuse power grub. Within 10 minutes both rods went off. The mojo seemed to have a larger fish but I decided to tend to the wire line first. Bad move…the umbrella rig yielded a short and after boating that fish, grabbing the other rod, taking two cranks it was gone. Most likely a bass as the grub had no teeth marks or missing parts.

Released the short and reset the spread and had pretty steady action zig zagging up and down between a 1/2 mile North and South of the pavilion in 35-45′ of water.

Had to leave to go to the eye doctor and left the fish biting though it was slowing down as it approached slack current. Did not mark much on the ride North back to MI and only say one pod of birds working. Did pass a fin, stopped to see what it was since it was small…was a baby mola mola, only about two feet across. It was a little timid at first but then swam right up to the boat. Tried to take a picture but it did not turn out good. It was the smallest one I have ever seen.

It was a beautiful day on the water with very light winds, flat seas and non-stop action. It was good talking to all the BFH members. Thanks for twisting my arm and calling me down Brian. Was considering going wreck fishing and not having to make the long run home. It was a little frustrating though, I dropped a lot of fish for some reason. I changed out hooks and tried singles, doubles and trebles…it did not seem to matter if jigging or trolling. I would take a half dozen cranks sometimes more and fish was gone. At first I checked the barbs on my hooks thinking some of my buddies may have played a trick on me but they were not flattened. I did lose about about a half dozen jigs to bluefish competition bite offs but that is to be expected.

I tried several jigs, Sea Striker JigFish (Mega Bait style jig), AVA’s, Kroc’s, SPRO prime swimming (don’t think they are made anymore, great sand eel imitation though) and bucktails. Had blues on everything, bass all came on the JigFish jigs in blue/silver, blue/yellow/silver or black/silver. Blue/Silver and blue/yellow/silver seemed to have the higher catch rates though.

Anyway finally tally for the day for the fish that made to the boat was around 30-40 bluefish and 27 bass with one keeper in the box and two lost boat side. Total for dropped fish was around three dozen. My back, shoulders and arms are sore today s I type this out but its all good!

This weekend is the First Annual Sun Harbor Bay Club Fall Striped Bass Tournament. I know there is growing concern over the weather for Saturday, hopefully the fish and weather gods will cooperate and clear out all the weather by the Captain’s Meeting. Last year there were a few tournaments that were threatened right up until the day of the tournament with bad weather…and we were fortunate that it cleared each time.

We have some great door prizes and give-aways in the Captain’s Bags this year from Mann’s Bait Company, Shimano, Tournament Grade Tackle, Lunker City and more. There will be food and refreshments at the weigh-in and it is sure to be a good time. Currently there are about 18 boats registered and we anticipate more the night of the Captain’s Meeting.

So come on down and register Friday night at the Captain’s Meeting if you have not already registered. It will be held at Sun Harbor Bay Club, 451 E. Bay Avenue Barnegat, NJ…see you there!

Entry Form

Apparently I missed a great day today. Got a call late Friday night and had to tend to family health issues. Mom is recovering well after emergency kidney stone removal surgery today.

After tending to mom before surgery Saturday I ran down to the boat to fuel it up for next week and drop off the gear to some of my regular crew so they could put it to good use in my absence today…they are sure glad I did.

Not sure what time they broke MI, I know it was early, probably in the neighborhood of 6:30. Not even 5 miles from the inlet they were into bass and blues right away. They had double and triple headers on umbrella rigs with tubes and shads with both rods going off at the same time several times…and then the one rod really starts screaming. Several minutes later they boat double header keepers on the black tube umbrella rig-a 30 incher and 31.6 pounder!

The slaughter continued with them boating, catching and releasing shorts and keepers till they were tired with a few fish lost as well. Not sure what time they headed in but it sounded like they were running when I spoke to them around 10:30 and Tommy said they went in early leaving the fish biting. Grand total was in the neighborhood of 75 blues and 50-60 bass. He said most boats were just running right over fish and the areas they were catching all morning in route to other destinations.

We had non-stop action all day…while it was not some of the species or sizes of them we wanted it, it was an awesome day on the water.

Left the dock at 6:25, broke the inlet, looked North East and South…saw some birds to the South and started jigging around them…nothing. Continued South away from the fleet near the inlet and kept working the birds and bait pods…had a couple of bumps on plastics, bucktails and various irons but no fish.

Headed down to Seaside when we got a call on the phone from a friend of one of the crew that was catching bass. Put out a dark red tube rig, pearl and black back shad umbrella rig and a chartreuse mojo. The tube rig got a couple knockdowns but nothing came tight. Shad rigs and mojo’s started hooking up almost immediately.

Had a steady pick of medium and large blues with short bass mixed in about every two blues then a bass. We kept working that area and bait pods and switched out the tubes for pearl and blue back shads and that became the hot color so we switched both umbrella rigs to pearl/blue and put out the white/black mojo’s since I did not make up any blue/white yet (shame on me for thinking they would not go after a blueback herring pattern yet). We kept at it with several fish on each pass until about noon when we picked up and ran up to a wreck in 65′ of water.

Put the anchors out and two of the crew had sea bass in the boat before we came tight. Once we came tight over the wreck it was drop and reel action the whole time. We shifted a couple of times over it to try and find some bigger fish. We had a constant pick of sea bass and monster porgies (near 2 lbs). Then the wind died out and when the current went slack it was hard to stay over the wreck.

We picked up the anchors and drifted a few near by rock piles and put a few more fish in the box before heading in around 2:30 pm.

My best guess on the final tally was around 30 blues (kept 10), 5 short bass, 100 plus sea bass (kept 20) and 60 porgies (kept 15). What a great November day on the water, calm seas, fair winds, warm sunny day and fish in the box. It was great talking to all the members of Barnegat Fishin’ Hole on the radio…shee’s a keeper, just a fluke, Davo, heard EMALS but I don’t think he could hear me, speedbump, sorry if I missed anyone (talked to dozens of guys on the radio yesterday), and even Jim made it out yesterday-I bet the neighbors are glad to see the lawn ornament gone!

We headed out a little late due to my getting out of work late. It would have been nice if the crew readied the boat but they started cooler diving early. We broke the inlet about 3:30 PM, just as it seemed the action was breaking up down off Seaside.

We had some small areas of bird activity but nothing to write home about. Had a couple of knock downs on red and black tubes. Snagged bottom letting one rig out in an area I had no idea had any structure…marked that spot as it seemed to be holding some small fish…will have to stop on it in the future when we have bait aboard.

Switched over to jigging and had a few blues in the 8 lb range and some short fluke also on both bucktails and iron. They must be really hungry, some of them were barely twice as long as the jigs.

It wasn’t the numbers and species we were looking for but we had a good time, burned very little fuel and got to test my new LED lighting on the way in.

We bagged our offshore trip due to lack of reports from the canyons. Then we bagged our mid-shore trip again due to lack of reports and only a crew of three. It may have been a bad call with some reports trickling in from both the edge and the mid-shore waters.

Left the dock at 6 am and were shocked with the amount of boat traffic. More than any day we were out in the summer including the holiday weekends. The Point Canal looked like a Christmas tree when we looked back behind us with all the red, green and white lights.

Broke the inlet and were greeted with birds working from Bay Head South as far as you could see with the binoculars. We went from pod to pod of bait all the way down to Lavalette. Plenty of bait (peanuts and spearing) but only managed snappers and sea robins. The amount of sea robins was amazing, I think we caught more in two hours yesterday on both bait and jigs than we did all summer fluking.

After giving up on stripers we decided to hit some wrecks and rock piles on the Axel Carlson. With very little drift (.2-.4 knots) and no stellar pickings at any one location we drifted about eight different pieces. I had hoped to tie up and get some togging in but each wreck we tried was inundated with bergals to about 1.5 lbs. Some of the biggest I have seen inshore in a while.

We did manage probably over 100 sea bass and porgies though on clam, fiddler crab and gulp baits. Keeper ration was poor with many of the sea bass just under, right on or just over 12″…but with the small fillet size of a just legal fish we only keep fish over 14″.We ended the day with a nice cooler of sea bass to 18″ and porgies to 13″ keeping only about a dozen fish for the table between the two of us and were back at the dock around noon.

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.