Past Reports

November 23, 2008

The forecast strong winds and gale warnings kept us pretty much tied to the dock early in the week, but when we finally made it back out again the outstanding fall striper fishing was still going strong. Friday morning I had Jimmy Pipala, Scott Fritz and Pete Haupt aboard trying to squeeze a little fishing in before the latest front roared in, and the fish welcomed them with open fins. In a little more than four hours, never more than a quarter mile from the inlet, the guys landed almost 60 stripers before we lost the tide and the wind started kicking up. Today I had George Selph and Bob Keller back, battling bone chilling cold and ice all morning. While the fishing wasn't quite as intense as Friday, we still ended up landing over 30 bass by mixing it up with live spot and diamond jigs close to the inlet. This is fall fishing at its finest! Two trips, almost 100 bass, and stripers on the Thanksgiving menu! Bundle up and enjoy the fun.

We'll be continuing our charter schedule for one more week and wrap things up after Thanksgiving weekend, so this is probably our next to last report for the season. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone, and please be safe.

November 15, 2008

Well the striper fishing continued to be excellent this week, and with the vast amount of bait we're seeing along the beachfront it's likely to continue right through the end of the year. The fish are everywhere right now. We've been getting consistent bass action on live spot around the inlet, then moving north along Island Beach State Park to jig mixed bass and blues. The bass are mostly in the 26-27" range but there are enough keepers mixed in to keep everyone on their toes, and the bluefish are huge with many of them topping the 15 pound mark. Today the strong winds, rain and fog kept us in the back bay and the bass were there and cooperating as well.

Tuesday morning I had Rick Csillan, Mike Coleman, Byron and Joe aboard with the guys boating 15 bass plus a load of jumbo bluefish. Most of the bass were taken on live spot from the inlet, while the blues couldn't seem to resist our diamond jigs. Wednesday saw Bill Morris back with buddies Dave and Ryan, and the guys boated another 13 or 14 stripers plus a bunch of jumbo blues, mostly out front. Then today, in some rather sporty conditions that kept us from even approaching the inlet, Pete Burns and crew (Jack, Steve, Jeff) braved the 25-30 kt winds, rain and fog to boat a lucky 13 stripers out back on clam baits including a couple of back bay beauties (see picture). Ya gotta love this time of year.

November 9, 2008

After a slow start early in the week, the fishing has picked up again right where it left off last weekend. Today I had George Selph and Bob Keller back looking to put a couple of striped bass in the boat and they certainly did. We had consistent action all morning long on stripers and jumbo bluefish that seemed determined to inhale our diamond jigs. The fish were stacked up about two miles off the beach feeding on schools of anchovies that perfectly matched our A-47's. Final count was twenty six stripers with five keepers, including two that bested the 20 pound mark. Add to that fifty to sixty bluefish that pushed the scale to almost 15 pounds and there were tired arms and big smiles back at the dock (see picture). A great day on the water, and there's still a long ways to go in this fall's run.

November 2, 2008

As we expected, last week's storms really got the striped bass bite started. While we did get blown out twice early this week, we still made it out three times and the results got better each trip.

Sunday I had George Selph and Bob Keller aboard on the day immediately after the big blow started settling down, and the guys put 8 bass in the boat despite some extremely dirty water and sloppy conditions around the inlet. Friday Mike Cizek came out with buddies Tommy and Tim to try their hands at drifting live spot, and proceeded to put 17 bass in the boat in a couple of hours. Then Saturday I had Pete and Bob Burns and Glenn Adams welcoming new brother-in-law Bob into the clan with "Bob's Spa Day" aboard the boat, celebrating the upcoming nuptials. After landing 8 bass on live spot in the inlet, we headed up the beach to find plenty of bass and jumbo bluefish eager to hit on diamond jigs. Final tally before heading back in was around two dozen bass and a half dozen blues. Perfect weather, lots of laughs and cooperative fish... doesn't get much better than that.

October 25, 2008

I'm a little early with my report this week as I'll be out fishing again tomorrow and plan to be exhausted from netting fish by nightfall. (It helps to be an optimist in this business.)

It's been another windy week with too much time tied up at the dock, but there is some good news. The striper bite has finally turned on! Plenty of bass are showing along the beachfront and around the inlet, and we're seeing the first real signs of life in the back bay areas. Out front, bass are responding to all the standard fall tactics. I'm a big fan of jigging for them, but the trollers are picking up fish as well. Drifting live spot around the channels and inlet area is almost guaranteed to produce. On yesterdays trip for example, Brian Kraus and a couple of buddies landed a dozen bass in just a couple of hours... and probably dropped an equal number as they were getting used to the techniques we use to liveline these baits. Every drift produced fish, often with two on at a time. Nothing huge, but nice healthy fish all in the 26-30" range. We'll also get started soaking clams in back this week, since the water temperatures are now perfect and I'd expect that the daytime bite will really take off. Choices, choices, everyday choices! Let's just hope the weather cooperates for the next month or so.

Still a couple of prime mid-week dates available in November. Time to go fishing.

October 19, 2008

With the gale force winds we've had over the last couple of days, pretty much all we can do is sit at the dock thinking about what fishing should be like when it finally settles down. As I write this, it's blowing steady 30+ knots from the northeast with gusts into the low 40's... enough to rearrange the furniture and keep the boat straining against the docklines. But weather should be exactly what we need to ignite the fall striped bass bite which has been hit or miss over the past couple of weeks.

Early in the week we found immense schools of rainfish being absolutely ravaged by mixed schools of bass and bluefish along the beachfront. Diamond jigs would be hit almost as soon as you lifted them off the bottom, mostly by bluefish but every third or fourth fish would turn out to be a bass. The blues were all in the 8-14# range and the bass a nice mix of keepers and near keepers. Fall fishing at its finest! Late in the week that bite seemed to drop off a bit as schools of larger bunker made an appearance. We attempted to fish them on Friday, but these winds started to crank up and forced us back inside. Live spot are producing a few fish in the inlet areas, and this blow should get them started gobbling up our clams in back.

I've still got one open date in October (10/28) and a couple of weekdays in November available if anyone's interested in getting out this fall.

October 5, 2008

We haven't had too much to report lately because quite frankly not too much has been going on. September and early October have historically been focused on fluke fishing, but the early seasonal closures of recent years have pretty much taken that away from us. Now September is one of our slowest months and this year between taking the family on vacation down to Pawley's Island (SC) and the windiest September I can recall, we haven't done much fishing at all. But I've now got the boat switched over to autumn mode, and that means it's time to start striper fishing.

Bass fishing so far seems to be hit or miss, but that's not too surprising. Most years it really gets started towards the middle of the month, and it looks like this year will be no different. There are some bass around, but we really needs a few good cold nights to get the water chilled down and get the bay side bite started. The ocean side is loaded with bait schools, including a massive amount of sand eels which should give us great jigging right past Thanksgiving this year if they stick around.

We tried a little bass fishing on yesterday's trip and came up short. Sadly, the live spot we were fishing were tasty morsels for the mass of large fluke that seem to be lying along the bottom of the inlet right now. It's painful to have to throw back some of the best fish of the year despite them being at the highest level of abundance in my lifetime. On a more positive note was the amberjack Bob Keller landed in the inlet. While not particularly large for an AJ, we don't see a lot of them up here and it shows the diversity of the fishery we have right here in old Barnegat Bay.

September 21, 2008

Summer's over and we're back from a couple weeks of vacation, so it's time to start thinking about fishing again. I took the boat out for a couple hours this morning to recharge the batteries (both the boat's and mine), and found the weakfish were still around and cooperating. They seem to be keying on peanut bunker right now, so live bait and larger plastics are working pretty well. Unfortunately, they are moving towards the inlet so it looks like we've only got another week or so of catching them in the bay before the action moves outside.

These last few cooler nights have sent the bay water temps down into the low to mid 60s, which is probably what started the weakies heading for the ocean. I'm hopeful that this will mean an earlier than usual start to our fall striper run in the bay. A pretty decent body of fish hung around the area all summer long, and I'm thinking the combination of cooler water and an immense amount of bait inside might get them started a couple of weeks earlier than normal this year. I'll probably start looking for them out back in another week or so if the evening temperatures stay on the cool side.

I've still got a few prime weekdays open this fall, so if you're thinking of getting some bass this fall now's the time to get the trip booked.

August 24, 2008

Another beautiful week of fishing on the bay. The hot weakfish bite we've had for the past few weeks has continued unabated, although it did seem to slow a little bit towards the end of the week. It's all relative, of course, with slow meaning "only" landing 30-40 weakies on the trip. The fish are still tending towards the small side, but always make for a lot of fun on ultra-light tackle.

Monday's trip saw Hassan El-Wahhibi bring buddies James and Joe out for the morning, landing 100+ weakfish including 13 fat keepers before we headed in at noon. Wednesday I had Vince Barba bring Laurie, 8 year old Julia, and her dad Bob out to give Julia her first taste of saltwater fishing. With Julia leading the way, the crew landed 30-40 weakfish in just a short couple of hours fishing. I gotta tell you that it's great fun to see the look on an 8 year olds face as they struggle to reel in one of these bay sparklers. Chip Harter and Paul Buchanan were back on Friday for a "slow" pick on weakies before we switched over to catching and releasing a bunch of the undersized fluke that still seem to be all over the bay. Saturday's trip had George Selph and Bob Keller testing the ocean side for fluke, but heading south to hit both the Garden State South and GS North reefs produced only a bunch of fat sub-legal 17" fluke and several sea bass for the morning.

Beautiful weather, lots of action, and some tasty dinners in the box... does it get any better?

August 17, 2008

Did you hear that loud boom last week? That was the sound of weakfishing exploding in the bay. We had five trips this week, and landed almost 500 weakfish along with assorted other fish including fluke, small blues and stripers, and kingfish. The weakfish aren't large, but once the action starts it's non-stop and a lot of fun on the scaled down tackle we use. As usual, we've been chumming them up with grass shrimp and fishing almost exclusively artificials in the slick.

Monday started the week off with the "Jim's Charters" (Jim Stockdale, son Jimmy and brother-in-law Jim) landing 75-80 weakies plus a bunch of small blues. Wednesday we hosted the management team from Infragistics in East Windsor in a team building "fishing tournament" on the bay. Special thanks go to Captains Alex (Debbie M), Steve (Reel Fantasea) and Bill (Mole) for helping our clients, many of whom had never before fished, to land almost 400 fish in a short four hours on the bay. The overall tournament winner was Dave Keuning, in from Japan for meetings, landing a pretty 22" weakfish aboard Rambunctious.

Thursday saw vacationing Bill Burd down from upstate New York with daughter Margot and buddy Jim Brown from Philadelphia catching well over a hundred weakfish before we switched over to fluke and added a 22" back bay flattie to the box. Friday brought Jack Hough back again this week, this time with son Rich and granddaughters Chelsea and Nicole. After a bit of a slow start, the fish really turned on and started coming over the side two and three at a time with an uncountable number of fish being landed in the last couple hours of the trip. To wrap up the week, Brooklyn's Paul Gleser brought out three coworkers, none of whom had ever touched a fishing rod, out to give it a try and the group proceeded to land 80-85 weakies before calling it a day.

What a week, and what a blast! This kind of action should stick with us well into September, and I've still got some dates open the last week in August and first week of September. If you've ever been thinking of trying out this unique fishery, it doesn't get any better than now.

August 10, 2008

The big news around here is that the summer influx of weakfish we've been waiting for seems to have finally gotten started this past week. On Thursday's trip, we set up chumming with grass shrimp on the turn of the tide, and as we usually do began tossing plastics into the slick. After boxing a couple of nice 21-22" weakies towards the southern end of the bay, I headed north to see if we could find more consistent action and started marking immense schools of fish spread over a two mile area. Once we got anchored up, Jack Hough, son Jeff and grandkids Matt and Katie combined for over a hundred fish in a couple of intense hours of fishing before we left the fish biting. Most of the fish were small, but the fishing couldn't be beat for light tackle action.

Now that the weakies have put in their annual appearance, we'll be pretty much focusing on them for the next few weeks. I've still got a couple days open the week bbefore Labor Day if anyone wants to get in on this exciting fishery.

August 3, 2008

Not too much new to report this week as not much has really changed on the bay fishing front. We had four trips this week, spending part of the time each day chumming grass shrimp for weakies before switching over to fluking in the back. Fluke fishing is still good to excellent throughout the bay, with consistent action whenever there's enough breeze to create the slightest drift. The 18" size limit this year has limited the kept fish to a couple per day, but there's plenty of quality fish coming over the side to make it great fun on light tackle.

Summer weakfishing so far is best described as inconsistent, with good catches some days and none to be found on others. Fortunately some nice sized kingfish and small blues have also been showing up in our chum slick with pretty good regularity to keep things interesting. I'm hoping that we're just experiencing a somewhat delayed arrival of the big schools of weakies due to the cold ocean waters we've had all year. If that's the case things should start looking up pretty soon now that we're finally seeing some warmer ocean waters in our area.

July 27, 2008

I made it out four times this past week and to put it mildly, fluke fishing in the bay remains on fire. It's mostly on sub-legal sized fish (I hate to call them "shorts" because they're really not), but there are some decent keepable fish mixed in and enough action to make anyone happy. We also had our first good showing of weakfish this week, hopefully a sign of things to come for the rest of the summer.

A cancellation on Monday allowed me a little time to get out by myself for a couple of hours, and produced 35 fluke from 14" to 20" in a little over two hours. Wednesday I had Trenton's Mark Catalina with his sons Anthony and Chris and granddad Richard aboard, and the team landed another 35-40 fluke with a couple of fat keepers for the table. On Friday I had Beach Haven Park's Rodger Bogardus bring his son Dave and family friend Michael Borkowski out for a mixed weakfish/fluke trip. While the weakies didn't cooperate, the fluke provided steady action until the breeze died out late morning and sent us back to chasing weakies. The catch was topped by Dave Bogardus' 27" fluke that so far is the largest on the boat this summer. We did mark a lot of weakfish on the sonar, but I guess they just weren't in the biting mood.

Yesterday I had George Selph and Bob Keller back aboard, fishing in the Lacey Elks Tournament. We spent most of the day hunting the elusive weakfish, and were finally rewarded late morning with the guys landing weakfish after weakfish on grass shrimp and small plastics. We left the fish biting to spend our final hour or so on fluke, but the final tally for the day was close to 50 weakies, 3 or 4 fluke (including a 20" flattie that took the tournament calcutta), several small bluefish and a couple of nice kingfish. A real mixed bag of tasty fish that shows off Barnegat Bay at its best.

July 20, 2008

The summer weakfish run that we've enjoyed so much for the past few years should get started this week, and things are looking good for them to put in a good showing on time again this year. I heard of a couple of decent catches this past week, and it usually builds up over the last part of July into August. I'll be doing mixed weakfish/fluke trips in the bay this week and probably concentrating mostly on the weakies by the end of the month.

Fluking in the bay remains excellent, at times the best I've ever seen. To give an example of how good it has been, I had the boat out Wednesday morning intending only to straighten some lines and charge the batteries. But the weather was beautiful so I decided to spend a couple hours drifting the west side of the bay. Using only artificial Gulp! baits (since that's all I had with me) I landed somewhere between 35 and 40 fluke in a little over three hours. Only one 20" fish made it into the box, but most of the fish were decent sized and I'll take that kind of action any day I can get it.

Saturday I had George Selph and Bob Keller back aboard for an ocean fluke trip. After finding nothing other than some mysterious red algae coating our lines at the Tire Reef, we headed off to deeper water and found several fluke to 24" before the wind and building seas forced us back inside. The ocean water is finally warming up, so fluking should be pretty decent now for the rest of the summer.

July 13, 2008

Just a brief report today as we were only out twice this week. On Tuesday's trip we stayed in the bay and continued playing mostly catch and release with fluke from 15" to 17.5" in addition to landing several large kingfish on Gulp! baits and teasers. The fluke were all nice fat quality fish that would be perfect for the table if we were allowed to keep them. There are still some legal sized fish in the bay, but the super abundance of sub-legal fish has us picking through 18-20 shorts for every fish that goes into the box. Many of those bigger fish should be staging up for their move back into the ocean any day now as the bay continues to heat up. It's frustrating to land a couple dozen quality fluke, an excellent day of bay fluking by anyone's standards, but have nothing in the box to show for it back at the dock thanks to misguided "conservationists".

Saturday I took Jake Pleter and his son Zach to the Garden State North reef site looking for some better fluke outside, but found the ocean water still a little cold. The guys did put together a nice box full of sea bass, including a couple of real knuckleheads that went close to five pounds apiece. Tons of bunker are still out there, and schools of dolphin and a whale put on an ongoing show for us all morning. We also made a quick stop at the Tire Reef on the way back in, landing several 17"+ fluke and a big ling before calling it a morning. If we've still got ling on the reef, that bottom water is still cold but it's a good sign that the fluke are finally starting to get active outside.

We'll probably continue chasing fluke for about two more weeks, then switch over to bay weakfishing for the rest of the summer. We'll also continue doing inshore fluking as the ocean water warms up and hitting the Ridge for bonito by the end of this month. I've still got a couple open weekdays in July and August, so give me a call if you're looking to get out this summer.

July 6, 2008

Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July. We were only out a couple times this past week, so there's not a lot new to report. Fluke fishing inside the bay remains frustrating. The good news is that there are plenty of fluke around, both in the channels and in the open bay, and they're more than willing to hit a wide variety of baits although Gulp! seems to be at the top of their hit list. We've been having pretty consistent success over the past few weeks bucktailing them with our custom teaser rigs, and they're great fun to catch on the ultra light tackle we've been using. The frustrating part is that most of these fish seem to be in the 15" to 17.9" range and have to go back due to our current 18" size limit. More fish than ever seen before, and we can't keep a few... I don't get it.

We made a run down to the Garden State North reef site yesterday to see if we could locate a few larger fluke, but found the ocean water still a little too cold from the constant south winds we've had for the last couple of months. Fortunately the reef is loaded with tasty sea bass, some of pretty decent proportions, to provide rod bending action around most of the rock piles. They're also some of the best eating the shore has to offer, so we're always happy to have a few of them in the box when we get back to the dock.

We're going to continue chasing fluke for the next couple of weeks until the weakfish begin to show up for their summer stay in the bay. We're also keeping our eyes on Barnegat Ridge to see if we get a repeat this year of the hot bonito bite we experienced last summer in July and August. I've still got a couple of dates left, so give me a shout if you're looking to get out this summer.

June 29, 2008

It's beginning to look like it's over for the local striped bass fishing for now, with the fish moving a little further north each day. This past week all the action seemed to be taking place from Lavalette north to Manesquan, not really surprising since it is almost July. The ocean water is still pretty cool and there's still an immense amount of bunker around, so I guess we could see the fish move south again but it seems unlikely. There are still some good sized thresher sharks harassing the bunker schools in our area. On Tuesday's trip we witnessed a couple slashing through the bunker off Seaside, leaving thousands of stunned bunker in their trail. That display lasted for almost a half hour, with bait flying through the air constantly along about a mile of beachfront. Really impressive what they can do with one swipe of a tail.

We switched over to bay fluking in the second half of the week, with plenty of activity in the back. We've been using Gulp! baits on our custom teaser rigs to land 20 to 40 fish per trip, but this year's increased size limit of 18" has us releasing 15-18 fish for every one that goes in the box. A good percentage of those "shorts" would have been kept as recently as last year, and the vast majority can still be kept by the commercial guys. Hopefully the scientists will soon figure out that there are plenty of fluke out there and begin easing some of the restrictions. Fortunately there are plenty of fish around to provide consistent action and a few in the box.

We'll be sticking with fluke in the bay and on inshore bumps for the next few weeks, at least until the summer weakfish bite gets going. We still have weekday openings for fluke in July, but August weakfishing dates are starting to fill up. We'll be chumming them up with grass shrimp again this year, so now's the time to book your dates for this fun filled and exciting fishery.

June 22, 2008

Those huge schools of bunker continue to travel back and forth through our area, with the northern area off IBSP and the Seasides being loaded one day and LBI being the place to be the next. There are some quality bass being caught, but as I noted last week you've gotta be in the right place at the right time to score. It's not uncommon to see a hundred or more boats working some of these schools on weekends, with only a handful actually landing fish. With the southerly winds blowing again, hopefully the water will stay cool enough to keep this going for another week or two before the bass inevitably head north for the summer.

We made it out three times this past week. Wednesday's planned trip was rescheduled so I made a solo run north to see if I could put a few filets in our freezer. I was happy I did, and scored this beautiful 41.4 pound bass in front of IBSP on an absolutely perfect morning to be on the water. Unfortunately, the fish didn't cooperate on yesterday's trip when the vast schools of bunker (and fleet of boats) left us shaking our heads all morning.

Friday we ran our first fluke trip of the season, with Al Abrevaya bringing his 12 year old son AJ along with AJ's buddies Eric, Thomas and Brooks out for a morning on the bay. Everyone had a good time and plenty of fluke came over the side on Gulp! baits and our custom teasers, but it was all catch and release with our new 18" size limit. A number of those fish were over last years 17" minimum, a real shame they had to go back solely due to a screwed up regulatory system. If you want to understand what's going on with fluke, and why we're in such a state, visit the Save the Summer Flounder Fishery Fund website for more information.

June 15, 2008

We still have huge schools of adult bunker up and down the beach, but I think we're all learning that it's a two edged sword. On the positive side, there are some enormous bass to be had by those in the right place at the right time, and as long as the bunker hang around the opportunity should be there to get in on it. In fact, all the fish on these schools seem to be 20+ pounds with 40+ not uncommon. The other side seems to be that finding the right bunker school is not that easy with so many to choose from, and that the bass have so much to eat they're only feeding for relatively short intervals each day. So you gotta be in the right place at the right time, but if you are the rewards are great.

We've been mixing our trips up a bit this week, fishing clams in the bay for short periods when the tide is right, switching over to chasing the bunker schools for bass, then finishing up with big bluefish livelining in the inlet. There are still some nice bass in the bay, but the slime weed is the worst I've ever seen and clams can only be effectively fished for short periods of clean water. But by spending about an hour on each of four trips this week, we did manage five keepers from 31" to 36" before getting driven out by the weed. Steve Rosenthal's 36" bass taken on Thursday was our biggest bay bass of the week, taken on a clam behind the inlet.

Biggest fish of the week honors goes to Cincinnati's Meredith Brown, whose 35# bass was taken on a live bunker off LBI. She and husband Erik boxed a couple of "smaller" bass (high teens, mid-20's) before switching over to livelining 12-14# bluefish in the inlet, then topping the box with a bunch of small blues from the back bay. This was Meredith's first striped bass adventure, certainly a memorable one indeed.

June 8, 2008

The main story right now seems to be bluefish, with the larger variety hitting baits intended for stripers around the inlet and the smaller variety spread all over the west side of the bay. Enormous schools of bunker are stretched both north and south of the inlet for miles, almost too much bunker to locate the bass that are almost surely in the vicinity. I got out by myself last Tuesday, and nailed a nice 30 pound bass on a live bunker within the first half hour. But then it was nothing but bunker the rest of the morning until I stopped to play with some big blues in the inlet on the way home.

Friday I had Viv and Dave Olsen from North Carolina aboard trolling up a load of tasty cocktail blues in the back bay. Saturday I had regulars George Selph and Bob Keller out targeting bass from the bunker schools in a dense fog but only ending up with a livewell full of bunker before heading back in the inlet. Then today the Pete Burns party managed a nice 31" bass on clam in the back before the slime grass made fishing the channels untenable, so we shifted our attention to blues and landed a dozen or so up to 8 pounds before heading in to escape the heat.

The water is finally starting to warm up a bit, so hopefully this coming week will see the bass bite really turn on. We'll probably be giving the bass and blues a couple more weeks before switching over to fluke and weakfish for the summer.

June 1, 2008

Not too much new to report this week. By now you all may have heard about last Monday, Memorial Day, which saw an amazing number of large bass being taken all day long by both surf and boat anglers. For those that were out there when it happened, it will be a day to remember for a long time. Bunker schools all the way from the inlet north past Seaside, and bass busting on them most of the day. Those of us that sat out the holiday weekend are still kicking ourselves.

I had John Oliver and his son John out on the bay last Wednesday in some seriously windy conditions, but the crew still put together a decent catch of mid-sized blues and a handsome 20" fluke. On Thursday we found dense schools of adult bunker stretching from Barnegat Light all the way past Ship Bottom, with mostly alligator sized bluefish quickly gobbling down our livelined baits. A quick stop at the jetty on the way back in also showed the presence of these huge blues, with two landed and three cutoffs in less than ten minutes. To give you some idea of how large these blues are, we had one last week that stretched the tape to an incredible 41". Yesterday's trip was rescheduled based on yet another questionable NOAA forecast.

If I may, I'd like to take a minute to express some personal frustration with the "scientists" at NOAA who apparently feel it's acceptable to drastically change forecasts after we've all gone to bed, and who manage to keep their jobs despite an abysmal level of forecast accuracy. Since most of my clients travel some distance to get here, we generally try to make the go/nogo decision the night before each trip. So far this season, early as it still is, we've canceled four trips that would have been fine and gone twice when we probably should have canceled. I understand that weather forecasting is not a precise science, but these are the same people (the NMFS is part of NOAA) who use their "science" to defend their plans to shut down our fluke fishery in 2009. If they can't get the weather right twelve hours in advance, how and why do we trust their "science" to manage our fisheries? Sorry for the rant, now I'll go peacefully.

May 25, 2008

Hope everyone's enjoying this beautiful Memorial Day weekend. We certainly couldn't have asked for better weather.

We had four trips this week, two back in the bay and two out front. The bay fishery was still mainly small bluefish, although with fluke season opening this weekend we now have some additional options. The occasional striper is being caught on clams, but with water temperatures remaining stuck in the low to mid 50's all week it's starting to look like this coming week will make or break our spring bass season in the bay. Let's hope a few days of warm weather will be enough to get things moving.

We've had large schools of bunker moving along our beaches most of the week, with several very large bass taken by those who happened to be in the right place at the right time. The bite seemed to slow down late in the week, with yesterday's trip finding only some alligator sized bluefish off Island Beach State Park. There's still plenty of bait around, so no doubt the bass will be feeding again shortly.

May 18, 2008

The weather really dealt us a blow this week. The unexpected Nor'easter that hit us Monday made a mess of the bay, and the water was still pretty dirty today almost a week later. I guess that's what a day of 60 mph winds will do. Fortunately, most of the damage was minimal and we were back on the water by Thursday.

Bass fishing remains slow, with water temperatures that are staying five or six degrees below normal for this time of year. Every time it starts creeping up, another storm seems to develop to send it back down again. There are fish around, as evidenced by the 40 inch, 28 pound cow that Vince Barba scored on Thursday's trip. I know I've said this before, but all we need is a little stability in the weather and we should see them hitting in earnest. Bluefish seemed to be making a bit of a comeback this weekend, and should continue now right into summer. We've also been picking up a few nice tog while bass fishing, but they've had to go back due to the early closed season this year.

May 11, 2008

Not too much to report this week as the weather kept us pretty much tied to the dock most of the week. We did get in our trip on Saturday, and found things still pretty churned up after two solid days of hard 30-40 mph winds. Bluefish are still around although scattered, and we did have a couple of solid bass hookups on clams so that's a good sign of things to come when the weather finally cooperates. We're seeing big swings in water temperature with each tide right now, similar to what we saw last year around this time. The fish are there, so as soon as we get some stability in the weather the fishing should return to normal. The next couple of days look to be pretty ugly weather-wise, but the second half of the week should bring us some pretty good fishing.

May 4, 2008

Barnegat Bay bluefishing continues to be moving along at a torrid pace, although the fish this week were a little smaller than the jumbos we've had the last couple of weeks. Three to five pounds seem to be the norm right now, but still a lot of fun on ultra-light tackle. I made it out four times this week, and each day we found the fish ravaging schools of spearing on the west side of the bay. These fish are moving around and it takes some looking to find them, but once you do the action is non-stop.

The other good news is that bass fishing is finally showing signs of coming to life. It's still a bit slower than it should be, but the past two trips have produced bass on clams from some of the normal back bay areas. Best fish of the week honors go to George Selph, who landed the fat 38" bass in the picture from Oyster Creek Channel. George also landed our first keeper bass in 2007, so there seems to be a pattern forming. Now that the bass have started biting, it should get better with each passing day, so it's time to get out there.

April 27, 2008

We had four trips this past week, and it sure looks like the spring fishing season in the bay is officially underway. Early in the week, bluefish started their annual invasion and if the first fish are any sign of what's to come, this may be even better than the great run we had last year. While there are a few of the typical 3-5 pound fish mixed in, the vast majority of these fish range from 7 to 10 pounds or more. Just unbelievable sport on light tackle! We've been using nothing heavier than 10# tackle, and everyone's been having a blast. Here's a picture of 8 year old Michael Masterson, who joined his dad Larry in landing a boatload of these critters. Think Michael is happy?

Striped bass have been a little tougher to find so far, but that should pick up any day now. We generally start picking up a few keeper sized fish during the last week of April, then it builds steadily from there once the water temps start stabilizing a bit. It's anybody's guess as to precisely when bass fishing will be getting hot, but if I were making a bet I'd say within the next ten days.

Weekend dates are getting pretty full through bass season, but I've still got a few prime mid-week dates available if you're looking to get out this spring.

April 4, 2008

Time to start fishing! We've been busy for the past few weeks getting everything ready for another great year, and it looks like we're all set to go. Fresh wax and bottom paint on the boat, reels all greased and tuned, new line loaded on the reels, and the boat is back in the water sitting at the dock and raring to go... I think we're ready.

We'll be doing mostly winter flounder trips for the next couple of weeks, but it wouldn't surprise me to see the bay come alive with all the usual spring suspects a bit earlier than normal this year. We've had an exceptionally mild winter, and while the bay water is still pretty cold it will warm up quickly once the sun starts heating up the shallows. When the water starts warming, the stripers, weakfish and blues aren't long in showing up.

There are a lot of folks predicting that 2008 is going to be a memorable year for stripers. The mild winter encouraged a lot of bait (and bass) to stick around all winter, and they'll soon be met by the northern migration of all those huge fish we've been reading about down in the Chesapeake. Weather permitting, May and June should be spectacular if it all comes together for us. I've still got a number of weekdays open in May and June, but weekends are getting pretty full so call me soon if that's what you need and we'll get it set up.

I think it's time to go fishing. Talk to you all soon.

January 23, 2008

We'll be resuming our weekly fishing reports once the season gets started, probably in early April. In the meantime, if you'd like to read about how we did last year, check out Fishing Reports from the 2007 season.

Fishing Reports from the 2007 season

Current Report

November 30, 2008