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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well let’s start with the good for a change. We in NJ are status quo for striped bass for 2008! The current 2007 regulations will remain in effect. We are well above the mortality rates, the spawning stocks were low but the young of the year looked really good especially in 2003 and not too shabby for 2006 so we are in good shape. Actually we are well above the point of action for the spawning stock, 30.9 million pounds is the point of action and we are at 55 million!

The bad news is NJ did not come into compliance with the tautog regulations and we now face drastic cutbacks. And rumor are flying around of one fish per person per season. We will just have to wait and see how the ASMFC rears its ugly head next.

Arrrgggg…..being tied up and soon to be on the hard is killing me. With the fall run just getting into high gear and some of the best weather in the last two months I am out of commission. Hopefully someone in the marina is sailing on Sunday and I can jump aboard and get at least one more striper trip under my belt. I would like to get into some bigger fish before they are gone. This fall all we have seen basically is schoolies.

At the very least I should be running down to Indian River soon for a blackfish slaughter on the Bandit. They do well every year down there and the average fish for them is a trophy in Central NJ.

We broke the inlet about 6:30 and looked around. With no bird activity and no marks near the inlet we started to run South towards Seaside and IBSP. I had great reports from during the week from that area and with a spotty forecast we figured we would take the shorter run to the South over the longer run to the North.

We had constant bird activity all day but they were very temperamental. If anyone motored remotely close to them they would scatter. The smarter guys realized with the quick drift that you could stop 150-200 yards away and be on top of them in no time. We picked up a couple of shorts on the first couple of passes.

Once we learned that Eric had again brought a banana aboard and it was promptly offered to the fish gods we had a double hookup as soon as the offending fruit sank beyond view. It was pretty steady short action from there.

The birds broke up and there was scattered activity but did not seem worth chasing. At this point we decided to go on the troll. The wind had also shifted direction and was picking up a bit. We had fish on before we could get the second line in. A double header of shorts on a tube rig. We finally got both lines out and were heading inshore for a wind break and North towards home and the intermittent overheating issue decided to rear its ugly head.

After reeling in the lines, taking a beating in steep 4′ seas drifting while looking into the issue she had cooled enough to test. Started her up pointed towards land and attempted to get up on top of the seas. Once up on plane the temp dropped to normal. We all decided to just pack it in and head for the barn.

Despite the mechanical troubles it was an enjoyable day on the water. We were greeted to flat calm seas early in the morning and once back above IBSP it was mainly just chop. My cousin had two personal bests with the short stripers-his largest bass to date and also the most caught in one trip. In the future we will be sure to frisk Eric to make sure he is not attempting to smuggle an offensive fruit on board.

I know the Cape May guys have twenty to forty pound bass stacked up down there. I have also heard reports that the CT and RI guys have big fish to the North. I wonder if we will see some bigger fish soon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I joined Anthony for a morning of clamming along the sod banks of Barnegat Inlet. We knew it would be a challenging day due to weather and it was nothing short of our expectations. We got setup along the channel edge on a nice ledge quickly and started the slick. Shortly after a boat about 200′ off our stern quarter was hooked up and boated what looked to be a 33 to 36″ striper. We figured this is great there are fish here and continued chumming and cleaning lines. The salad was relentless. We were able to keep two to three lines in at one time while continually clearing the others. By about 9:30 the wind was really starting to kick up. All we had to show was a few bumps and a short run off.
 
We decided to take a short run over to Meyer’s Hole to see if there was a chance at a weakfish bit but the chop and wind over there would have made for a very short uncomfortable drift.
 
At this point we decided to head back to the dock. Once we turned west into Oyster Creek Channel about 20 minutes later we would not believe how much the wind kicked up the swell and chop. It was a long slow ride back to Toms River…at times at only 5 knots. Thank goodness we had the enclosure up otherwise it could have been like driving through a car wash in a convertible with the top down. I have no idea how guys go out day after day in weather like this in open boats.
 
All in all it was a nice day on the water with good friends despite the weather and lack of fish. With our first dedicated bass trip ending with the skunk I am sure it will only get better from here. I did speak to a number of guys as well as tackle shop owners and it seemed that most of the action this weekend with keeper fish was along the beach. This makes sense and is consistent after a Nor’easter tears through and the surf is up as it provides a natural clam slick along the beach where there are clam beds.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After not receiving them last year due to backorder delays and a two week wait this year I finally got a pair of Capt. Jimmy Geaorge’s Secret Spoons! I can not wait to try them out this weekend, hopefully we don’t have weather like last weekend.

A friend of mine and very reliable source just had 3 bass on Saturday night in Raritan Bay. The largest was over 40 lbs! on 12 lb. test! They also had bass at 17 and 15 lbs. as well as 5 blues.

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

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

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

Unfortunately I did not get out this weekend even though it was one of the nicest weekends all season. Due to a lack of crew I was forced to stay tied up and listen to all the fun on the radio. Several boats returned to the marina with multiple fish in their boxes. Double and triple headers were the norm instead of rare. Most of the fish ranged from 24-28 inches. No one came back with anything larger than 28″. Almost everyone reported catches of from thirty to over one hunderd fish caught for the day. There were also a few tog caught for those who anchored up in the afternoon. The white chins were all only just legal fish, nothing of notable size. I have also received word of some inshore cod and ling catches….come on cod make an inshore comeback! It would be nice to be able to catch ling in the surf again in December through March. I think the last time I had ling in the surf was over 10 years ago.

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

Tried for stripers and could not find any. I had gone out on a friends boat out of my marina and they only wanted to eel for stripers and did not want to run too far. There were reports of a few fish caught. We then switched over to wreck fishing and had short blackfish. All in all not a bad day and NOAA had the forecast all screwed up again…the seas were not 6′ as predicted and were very fishable.