Past Reports

November 22, 2009

Last week we were wondering what impact that major nor'easter we had was going to have on our fall bass run. Well the answer is in, and it's great news... the run is even stronger than it was before the blow. If only the weather gods would now cooperate and just let us enjoy it.

Early in the week, immediately after the storm, we stayed pretty much in the back bay as even the inlet was an ugly place to be fishing. What we found was that the storm brought a fresh batch of fish into the bay and restarted the bay fishery that had seemed to be starting to wane. Monday I had Steve Rosenthal up from the DC area banging five bass, with three of keeper size up to 35" mostly drifting live spots in back after a wolfpack of spiny dogfish made clam fishing almost impossible. Wednesday brought out Steve Sweeney from Medford Lakes along with buddies Big Frank and Little Frank. After testing clam baits and again finding the doggies were still abundantly aggravating, we switched to drifting spots to nail five more bass, this time with four keepers topped by Big Frank's 23 pounder. These were all fresh in from the ocean, with beautiful colors and loaded with sandeels.

Late in the week we shifted gears to run along the beach looking for fish that would respond to jigs, and were majorly rewarded both days. Friday I had Scott Fritz out with brother-in-law Ike and buddy Pete Haupt, and the guys used A47's to jig up 50-60 bass in boxing their limits from the beachfront along Island Beach State Park. Saturday's trip was even better, with regulars George Selph and Bob Keller culling their limits from among roughly 70 landed bass. Add in the occasional jumbo blue, and you've got jigging action at its finest.

It looks like we're may have some weather problems the next day or so, but I expect fishing to continue like this for a while yet. I'll be wrapping up my charter schedule for 2009 after weekend, but I plan to be out there fishing as long as the weather holds.

November 15, 2009

As you might imagine, there's not too much to report this week as the storm that battered our area kept us pinned to the dock from Wednesday right into Saturday morning. Friday was probably the worst of it, with sustained winds over 40 and regular gusting close to 60 mph. Fortunately, aside from some road flooding, damage was minimal and things are getting back to normal.

We did make it out on Tuesday just before the blow. Bill Staples and Rich Smith were in from King of Prussia, PA and got into some mixed bluefish/striper action off of Long Beach Island on A47 jigs. Surprisingly we had very little action north of the inlet early in the day, but the long run south to Harvey Cedars paid dividends for us. The bass clearly knew the storm was on its way, as all the fish I cleaned were absolutely stuffed with peanut bunker and sand eels, and they were still feeding. I guess they knew what was about to hit.

The storm hit us just as the traditional fall jig fishing was really getting under way, and it will probably be a couple more days before we know what impact it may have had. What we really need now are a few days of light northwest breezes to flatten things out and draw the bait back close to the beach. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be in the forecast for this week so we'll probably be fishing in the bay until the ocean settles down a bit.

November 8, 2009

What a great week for fishing. The weather finally cooperated and we had some excellent fall action on all of our trips this week. We started the week out fishing on Election Day with Rick, Joyce and Gavin Fisher from Newtown, PA nailing bass on both live spot and clams all morning long from Oyster Creek Channel, keeping four fish up to 18 pounds for the table. Wednesday brought Butch Mellott down from Hopewell to get in on the action, with Oyster Creek again delivering a limit of fish to 34" mostly on clams.

Things changed a bit on Thursday when action in the channel seemed to dry up for Bensalem's Vince Barba, so I headed outside for the first time this fall and found non-stop jigging action on mixed bass and jumbo blues a couple of miles from the inlet. Making this even more fun was the fact that we were using tackle much more suitable to fishing in the bay, and trying to guess from the length of the line peeling runs what kind of fish was at the other end.

NOAA's bogus "gale warning" forecast for Friday caused us to cancel that trip, but we were back out there again yesterday with regulars George Selph and Bob Keller for the Barnegat Fishin' Hole's fall bass tournament. Hoping to find some bigger fish for the tournament, I broke out the wire line and switched to trolling Tony Maja bunker spoons north of the inlet. Unfortunately the bass and blues we put in the box didn't win the tournament but there was action all the way from the inlet up to the Seasides. We even heard reports of big schools of 75-100 pound bluefin beating up on sand eels within a couple hundred yards of the beach! You've gotta love fishing in the fall, and there's still a few more weeks of this to go before we pack it in for the year.

November 1, 2009

The weather continued to make things difficult for us this week, but when we did make it out the fish were there and ready to eat. Early in the week drifting live spot seemed to be the ticket for putting fish in the boat, but by the end of the week fresh clam was clearly the bait of choice. While the weather has been a bigger factor this fall than usual, the back bay fishing seems to be much better than the past couple of years and most of the fish have been over 30", really quality fish. Yesterday was a good example of what's been happening. Regulars George Selph and Bob Keller were back out with me, putting five bass in the boat in the first hour and a half before the strong winds and boat traffic made fishing near impossible and we headed in early. Four of the fish were 32" and above. Sooner or later I'm sure we'll have to start joining the fleet outside the inlet, but right now the bay fishery is going strong and we're going to try to stay with it as long as we can.

Several folks have asked me when I was going to finally start putting some of this year's pictures up on the website, so I took advantage of a couple of weather days this week to go through them and get the process started. It's always fun to relive some of the catches we've had, and look forward to those yet to come. Check them out at www.barnegatbayfishing.com/gallery to see some of this year's highlights.

Time is running short on this year's fall striper season, but I still have three weekdays open before Thanksgiving if anyone wants to get out for one last fling before wrapping things up for 2009.

October 24, 2009

Just as we expected, last weekend's back to back nor'easters was exactly what we need to get our fall striped bass fishing underway. We're still a little sensitive to swings in water temperature, but the fish are here and when condition are right they're on the feed!

The best day of the week was Monday, immediately after the big blow. Despite the dirty water from the storms, unfishable inlet and icy morning conditions, Cam Rispoli and John Ferrara proceeded to land 21 bass topped by John's 33.4 pounder from the back channels. Almost all of those fish were of legal size, with most of them (including John's jumbo gal) being safely released to fight another day. Tuesday's trip saw John Wendolowski, Walt and Stan Tatko, and Kevin Broderick landing a dozen more bass (including six keepers), this time mostly on live baits drifted in the inlet. Wednesday, George Selph and Bob Keller took the opportunity to get out in the middle of the week and bang seven more bass from the inlet. Things finally slowed down on Friday, when Steve Mastej snuck out of work with Luis and Oscar only to find some pretty ugly conditions that became completely unfishable by mid-morning. Even so, a couple of bass still put in appearances around the inlet.

There seems to be plenty of fish, including some real quality ones, around right now and things should only get better from here on out. It's definitely time to go fishing!

October 18, 2009

Please, will somebody turn off the wind machine? Seems like it's been blowing non-stop for the past ten days.

Not really much to report this time, since the weather caused us to cancel all four striper trips we had booked last week. It's still blowing pretty hard right now, but things should finally start settling down late tonight or tomorrow and the rest of the week is looking promising. The water level in back is about as high as I've seen it in the last ten years or so, and I actually need a ladder right now to climb up (!!!) into the boat.

It's going to take a couple of days for things to settle down, but the good news is that this is exactly the kind of weather we needed to trigger the fall striped bass run. The water temps are just about perfect, there's tons of bait around.... let the fishing begin!

October 11, 2009

It's been another week where the winds have kept us pretty much close to the dock, but the water temperatures have finally started to come down and serious fall striper fishing should be getting underway any day now. My bait pens are fully stocked with live spot, fresh line is on the reels, and jigs are sharpened.... time to go fishing!

We did get a break in the winds on Tuesday, and I had Pennsylvanian Greg McGuigan with buddies John and Bob taking a break from the office to get in a little quality time on the water. While the stripers didn't make their expected appearance around the jetties at first light, we did find a couple of immense schools of small weakfish working over sandeels within a mile of the inlet. Small diamond jigs with teasers produced steady action all morning, with the final tally being someplace in the vicinity of 150-160 weakfish landed, including 15 for the box, plus several mixed size bluefish and croakers. I even got a bit of a surprise when I took out one of my back bay ultralights and tied on a small jig to get in on the fun... then had a seven pound albie run me around the boat a few times on the 6# outfit I was using. I love the fall!

With all the bait that seems to be around, this looks like it's going to be a fall to remember for striped bass fishing when the weather cooperates. I still have several prime mid week dates open between now and Thanksgiving for anyone else looking to get in on the action.

October 4, 2009

The wind kept us pretty much tied to the dock for most of this week, but we did make it out on Thursday for some incredible non-stop action on small blues and weakfish in front of Island Beach State Park. Most of the fish were small, with blues ranging from snappers to 3-4 pounds and the weakfish mostly in the 10-14" range, perfect for breaking out the ultra lights. Small jigs rigged with teasers were good for double headers on almost every drop, and several other fish would come up following the hooked ones. What a blast!

There's just an amazing amount of bait along the beach right now and more pouring out of the bay with each tide, so the table is set for the start of what should be a great fall run. We'll be getting started with our fall striper fishing this week, mixing up drifting live spot with soaking clam baits around the inlet. Time to go fishing!

September 27, 2009

Somewhat quiet week in these parts, with most of the fishing activity seemingly on hold until we start serious striper fishing again in October. Right now the most productive bay fishery seems to be for blowfish and snappers, but bluefish of serious proportions are also putting in sporadic appearances on the ocean side. We should also be seeing some false albacore and spanish macks around now, but unfortunately the weather the past few days has kept us tied to the dock so we haven't been able to check it out.

We did make it out once this week, with Dornsife, PA's Ned Kauffman and buddies Jake and Pete getting into some jumbo blues that raided the inlet on Monday morning (picture attached) until boat traffic killed the bite. The blues ranged in size from just under 12 to over 14 pounds, and were quite a challenge on the extremely light tackle we were using. Some of these fish took upwards of 15 minutes to bring in and the anglers were doing circles around the boat just tryinig to keep up with the fish. What a blast!

September 20, 2009

What a week of fishing! I'd have to say I've never had a week like that! Sailfish to 120 pounds, a 300 pound plus blue marlin and more mahi than we could count. Add in a couple of striped bass and it was a great week.

No, I haven't been smoking the wacky stuff. We're actually just back from a way too short mini vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico where we sampled some of their unbelievable fishing aboard boats from the Pisces Fleet. Now I understand why Cabo is viewed as one of the four or five top fishing destinations in the world. Big billfish just a short ride from the marina, and so many mahi we had to move away from them to get a shot at bigger game. And the resorts and food aren't too shabby either. Definitely a place I'll be going back to some day.

OK, so back to reality. Yesterday's trip really brought home how the misguided management of our fisheries will eventually put us all out of business. With fluke season closed and the cyclic weakfish not putting in a strong showing this year, I spent most of the morning working the inlet jetties in a tough northeast wind where regular Bob Keller managed a couple of short stripers before we switched over to catch-and-release fluke fishing. That's right, catch-and-release fluking. And with likely severe cutbacks in weakfish and sea bass coming next year, we may just have to close up shop from Labor Day to Columbus Day despite the obvious abundance of fluke. If only I could afford six weeks in Cabo.

Oh well, striped bass fishing should get started pretty soon. The cooler evenings lately have started the water temperatures coming down, so I'm hoping we get an earlier than usual start this fall. Still a few mid week dates in prime time available for anyone interested.

September 6, 2009

Hope everyone's having a great holiday weekend to wrap up the summer season.

The fantastic fluke fishing we've been having for the past few weeks continued to hold up right through the premature season end on Friday. In three trips this week we boated well over 150 fluke, mostly below the 18" minimum but with a healthy number of fat keepers mixed in every day. Four solid weeks of super bay fluking, and the best months are yet to come. Too bad we can't fish. Obviously there are more fluke around than the "scientists" are willing to admit, but admitting that their models are flawed would call their value into question. So here we are, more fluke than ever and nobody can fish for them. Stupid.

The weakfish put in an appearance again this week on the west side of the bay, generally at first light and again around dusk. The fish were scattered around and mixed in with bluefish, but responded well to BKD's in almost any color fished slowly below the blues. I didn't get the opportunity to try this week, but would bet a properly set up slick of grass shrimp would pull the schools together for some hot light tackle fun.

We're starting to get our fall striper dates filled in, but there are still some pretty good late October and November dates open for anyone interested.

August 30, 2009

Another excellent week of fishing this past week. Even dealing with the effects of tropical storms Bill and Danny, we still managed to make it out three times, and knock on wood the bay fluke fishing has kept going at an unbelievable pace. We also saw our first real signs of our summer weakfish, so there may be hope on the horizon.

Tuesday we had Cam Rispoli bringing his 10 year old son Vincent out for a day on the water, and Vincent proceeded to school us in the fine art of catching. Action started with bluefish within ten minutes of leaving the dock and continued with a couple of dozen fluke from Oyster Creek before we headed back into the bay for more blues and Vincent's first weakfish. Most of the fluke were short, but Vincent's pool winner of 23" topped the catch. Here's a picture of Vincent and his proud dad with part of their catch.

Wednesday saw Yardley's Rich Smith with his son Lyle and old friend Bill continuing the inlet area flukathon. Despite a somewhat slow start due to some ugly (and unforecast) wind messing up the drift, once the tide swung around mid-morning the guys proceeded to boat 3-4 dozen fluke in the last couple of hours. Gulp baits and our custom teasers kept the action going again.

Today I had George Selph and Bob Keller back, mixing it up with small blues and some nice fat weakfish at first light before switching over to fluke once the tide started running out. The weakfish were a little larger than we normally see this time of year (picture), and were responding to albino BKD's worked slowly below the bluefish busting on the surface. I didn't keep a good count of how many fluke were landed, but I would estimate around 60 with three keepers so the ratio of shorts to keeps is starting to grow a bit.

One more week of fluke season, so let's hope this holds up a few more days.

August 22, 2009

We're a little early with our report this week since we're taking the weekend off, but what a great week of fishing it was. As much as I love fishing for weakfish in the summer, it's beginning to look like we're not going to have much of a run this year. So this week was entirely devoted to fluke fishing in the bay, and to say that it was red hot would be a huge understatement. It was spectacular!

I started the week with Audrey and John Wendolowski, Walt Tatko and Kevin Broderick landing 43 fluke plus a half dozen bluefish from the inlet on the outgoing tide. Tuesday, George Barbezat brought nephew Jason and buddy Richie out and the action got even hotter in Oyster Creek, with the guys landing almost 60 fluke plus 15-20 bluefish despite a weird cross channel drift.

OK I say, it's late August and we're fishing in the bay, how much better can it get than over 100 fluke in two days? Turns out it got even better on Thursday, when Jack Hough brought his son Jeff and grandkids Matt and Katie out for what was expected to be their annual weakfish expedition. Instead, Team Hough landed an estimated 140 fluke in five hours with a dozen fat keepers for the table. Add in a couple dozen blues and endless sea robins and it was non-stop mayhem on the boat all morning long.

Friday was the "slow" day of the week, as Chip Harter and Paul Buchanan were out in the unpredicted 20-25 mph winds that had us screaming down Oyster Creek Channel at over 3 knots for most of the morning. Still, the guys managed to put a couple dozen fluke on the boat with three making it home to the dinner table in very tough fishing conditions.

What a week. While shorts are still outnumbering keepers by at least ten to one, with this many fish being caught everyone is going home tired and with plenty for the table. We only have a couple more weeks of fluke season this year, so let's hope this holds up.

August 16, 2009

Well it was a fun week we just had, dodging the rain and lightning but catching plenty of fish. I had four trips this week, and while we still haven't seen the arrival of the weakfish that normally give us such great fishing in August and September, the fluke fishing in the bay has been solid and Barnegat Ridge has continued to be hot for trolling.

Bay fluking has started moving more and more towards the inlet areas, as fish start moving out of the bays into the surrounding ocean waters. We averaged 20-25 fluke per trip this week, mostly 16-17" fish that had to go back but at least a few keepers each day. George Smajda, wife Karen and sister-in-law Sheila got in on the light tackle action on Friday morning, landing 25-30 fluke plus a dozen or so bluefish using Gulp shrimp and our custom teasers. With all the blues that are around right now, I'm going to have to spend a day just tying teasers to get caught up! George Selph and Bob Keller were back out with me to fish the Lacey Elks Tournament, and what started as a slow morning of ocean fluking finished up with an hour of non-stop action in the inlet before we had to head to the scales with four fat keepers.

George Selph also took advantage of a mid-week day out of the office on Wednesday to get in a trip to Barnegat Ridge where we trolled up a mixed bag of bonito, spanish mackerel and what I believe were chub mackerel. The highlight of the trip occurred when an 18 pound plus bull dolphin (mahi mahi) came into our spread put on an exciting display of acrobatics before finally coming boatside. Here's a picture of George with his catch. We do get a few mahi on the Ridge every year, but they're normally the smaller so-called "chicken dolphin". Rarely do we get one this large in this close. Definitely a nice fish!

We're starting to get our fall striper trips filled up, but there are still dates remaining if you're looking to get out this fall.

August 9, 2009

Weakfishing in the bay remains slow, even for those of us still working the grass shrimp slicks, and it's beginning to look like this year is going down as the worst one in a long time. We're going to continue fishing for them on each trip for another week or so, but plan to switch over to fluke if they don't make an appearance after an hour or so.

That strategy worked out well on Friday's trip when Steve Mastej brought out his son Oakley and his dad Fred out hoping to get in on some fast weakfish action. When the weakies failed to show by mid morning, we switched over to fluke and the guys absolutely bailed fish at the end of the incoming tide, landing between thirty and forty fluke in two hours. Gulp swimming minnows and our custom teasers were again the hot baits. Most of the fish were in the 16-17" range, but we still ended up with plenty of fish in the box by the time we headed back to the dock.

Early in the week we made a run out to Barnegat Ridge, and found mixed schools of bonito and spanish mackerel feasting on the small sandeels that are on the Ridge right now. These fish aren't huge, but they're still pretty sporty on light tackle and make excellent table fare. A quick stop to drift one of the wrecks on the way back in added some tasty sea bass to the box before the winds picked up and sent us heading back to the dock.

August 2, 2009

We stayed in the bay this week, and split our time between fishing for weakfish and hunting for some keeper sized fluke. The good news is that the bay continues to give up some decent fluke catches when the winds calm down enough to give us a decent drift. We were battered again most of the week with hard south and southwest winds, but caught fish every time things quieted down for a bit. The number of shorts (if you want to call a 17" fluke "short") is still high compared to the number of keepers, but they're there if you work for them. Gulp shrimps seemed to be the ticket this week, outfishing natural baits by a wide margin.

Weakfish action isn't where it should be by now. Normally by the time late July rolls around we're seeing predictably hot action with spike weakies every day, with catches averaging from 70 to 100 weakfish per day even in off years. I spent at least a few hours on each of three trips this week chumming with grass shrimp, and totaled less than a dozen weakies for that effort. The weakfish we caught were nice sized, with most of them being in the 18-19" class, but the numbers haven't been there so far. I'm hoping that what we saw this week was just the first wave trickling in with the main schools yet to arrive... fingers crossed.

July 26, 2009

We only made it out twice this week with somewhat mixed results. Tuesday's trip saw plenty of action fluke fishing in the back bay, although the vast majority of the fish were under 18" and went back. Still, a couple of big keepers in the box yielded both smiles and some fat filets for the table. Saturday I took my party outside to get away from the weekend boat traffic, but that proved to be the wrong move as the ocean only gave up a couple of shorts despite hitting six different pieces of structure ranging from 30' all the way out to 80'. Not too sure what to make of that, since the surface water temps were almost perfect and we weren't hooking any coldwater fish either. Just an odd day, I guess.

We're still awaiting the arrival of the main body of weakfish that comes into the bay every summer, and it's starting to look like they're determined to keep us on edge. There are a few weakfish being caught, but nothing like the 50-100 fish days we're accustomed to around this time of year. I'm planning to start weakfishing in earnest this week, probably splitting the day between a couple of hours chumming with live grass shrimp at the outset, then switching over to fluke if the weakies don't cooperate. We'll be full time weakfishing once they finally arrive so hopefully I'll have more to report next week.

July 19, 2009

It was another week of fluke fishing for us, as we anxiously await the arrival of our summer weakfish. The past few days we've been marking what appear to be weakfish in some of our normal locations, so it looks like we'll probably get started with the grass shrimp sometime this week. Grass shrimping for weakfish... ya gotta love this kind of fishing and it's time to bring it on!

Fluke fishing was again mixed this week. On Tuesday's trip we decided to get out of the bay and worked a couple of the wrecks along Island Beach for several dozen fluke, all but a pair of which turned out to be shorts. Mixed in with all the sub-legal fluke were 8 or 9 ling, a clear sign that the water is still cold in the deeper areas we fished. Someone please make this south wind go away for a week, PLEASE!

The past two days we were back in the bay. On Friday, I had Joe Rossi and Greg Lamendola out fluking in the shallows, and putting together a nice box of keepers to 24" from the Double Creek area. Here's a picture of Joe and Greg showing off part of their catch. Naturally I headed back to the same area Saturday morning with Bill Murphy and sons Bill and Kevin, and found the same kind of action with 10-12 fish in the first hour or so until the boat traffic and winds seemed to turn things completely off. There are definitely plenty of quality fish still to be caught, but right now timing is everything. The early bird catches the fluke.

Until next week.

July 12, 2009

Not too much new to report this week. We were out fluke fishing in the bay three days this week, and while we caught fish every day the number of keepers seems to be declining fast. That's not unusual for this time of year, particularly the last couple of years with the 18" size limit we're living with. As the bay waters get warmer, the cooler waters of the ocean get more appealing to the larger fish and out they go. What is surprising is that the fluke fishing outside the inlet hasn't really gotten going yet. If we can get a few days where the wind doesn't crank from the south, that should finally turn on.

While things seem pretty quiet right now, there's actually a lot going on and more about to get started. There are still plenty of fluke to catch in the bay, with keepers mixed in for those that are willing to sort through a bunch of shorts to find them. Bluefish in the 1-3# class are prone to pop up any time the boat traffic slows down, so first light is generally a pretty good bet. I haven't seen any signs of our summer influx of weakfish as yet, but that should get started over the next two weeks and we'll begin targeting them with grass shrimp and artificials. And for the past couple of years bonito have shown up out at Barnegat Ridge in late July to provide some excellent sport and some great eating.

We still have a few mid week dates available in late July, and are starting to book up our August weakfishing trips. If you're interested in getting out this summer, give me a call and we'll get things set up.

June 28, 2009

Just a real quick report this week as things really haven't changed too much since last week. Striper fishing for the big migrating bass seems to be about over for now, as all the action has moved to the north and it's unlikely they'll move back south again until the fall. The fish we caught this week were smaller, probably some of the resident fish that will stick around right through the summer. I guess we can hope that another large body of migrating fish will still show up, but with the ocean getting warmer they're likely to pass by out in the deeper (and cooler) water. But you never know... there's still an amazing amount of bunker around.

Fluke fishing this week was hot one day, cold the next. Most days saw at least double digit catches, mostly below the 18" minimum size but there were some nice fat keepers up to 24" mixed in. Bluefishing in the bay is now in summer mode, with most of the fish being in the 1 to 3 pound class. No sign of weakfish as yet, but they should be making their annual summer appearance in the next few weeks. As usual, once they arrive we'll be using grass shrimp to chum up those tasty sparklers so now's the time to get those August weakfish trips booked. Once they arrive, the calendar fills quickly.

June 21, 2009

Things were a bit slow around here this week. Maybe it's all the rain we've had, maybe it's the runoff from roads carrying undesirable stuff into the bay, maybe it was caused by UFO's, but even the crabbing was off this week. Back bay striper fishing usually starts to decline around now, but our Monday and Tuesday trips netted only a couple of shorts which may be a sign that we're already done for this spring. Along the beach, the bunkers schools were a little hard to find on Friday after the mid-week storms of last week, but by Saturday morning they were starting to get reorganized and we should still be bass fishing outside for another week or two. One of the bunker schools we found yesterday out in deeper water stretched several miles in length, so it's just a matter of time until the jumbo bass and blues find them again. It's supposed to blow again for the next couple of days, but we may see some spectacular bass fishing out there later in the week if things settle down and the stripers' dinner bell rings.

The good news is that the bay seems to be loaded right now with 1-3 pound bluefish to provide some fast light tackle fun, and there plenty of fluke in both the main channels and along some of the deeper water edges. A lot of the fluke this week were shorts (if you call 17" short for a fluke), but there are some nice fat keepers mixed in. And each year around Father's Day we generally start to see some of our summer finned visitors arrive, so there should soon be reports of weakfish and kingfish showing up with some regularity.

June 14, 2009

Just a brief note this week since I don't have too much to report. The weather, primarily a dense fog that enveloped the bay almost every morning this week, kept us pretty much tied to the dock most of the time. We did make it out in a dense fog on Tuesday, only to find ourselves in the middle of a pretty serious lightning display by mid-morning that sent us scurrying into Barnegat Light to wait it out. With more t-storms on the horizon, we finally took advantage of a break in the lightning and headed in early with our first fishless box of the season.

With striped bass fishing inevitably winding down over the next few weeks, I took advantage of a cancellation on Friday to do a little scouting around for fluke by myself once the fog burned off. There seems to be plenty of fluke in the bay right now as I was able to land 18 on bucktails in a little over two hours, including three that taped out at 20" plus. We're still picking through four or five shorts for every keeper we get, but that's a lot better than last year's ten-to-one ratio and there seems to be a goodly number of fish available. Keep your fingers crossed.

I'll probably continue bass fishing through most of this week, then start switching over to fluke.

June 7, 2009

Once again, the weather posed some challenges for us this past week but we still made it out a couple of times for some pretty good fishing. In some initially "sporty" conditions on Monday, Vince Barba was back looking to get in on some of the bass action around the bunkers schools cruising up and down in front of Island Beach State Park. We certainly found plenty of bunker tight to the beach, but with no bass found we headed to deeper water for some trolling. There we were almost immediately into big 12-13 pound bluefish that absolutely hammered our Maja bunker spoons as soon as we got them down.

Yesterday I had George Selph and Bob Keller back, and we decided to forego the sloppy conditions in the ocean and see what we could put together from the bay. After boxing a large blue and a 29" striper from the inlet during the incoming, we moved to the back and found mixed schools of blues and weakfish ravaging rainfish on the west side for some super light tackle action, then finished the morning with a bit of back bay fluking. By the time we came in, the fish box contained a "Barnegat Bay Buffet" of striped bass, bluefish, weakfish and fluke all destined for the table. Bob's 7 pound weakie and demonstration of how not to lip a bluefish highlighted the morning.

May 31, 2009

Not as much to report this week. By now you may have already heard about the absolute explosion of striper fishing along the beach on Memorial Day. Huge numbers of big bass, ranging from the mid 20 pound size up through 40 pounds, were ravaging the immense schools of bunker from Island Beach State Park all the way north to Manasquan all day long despite the holiday boat traffic. Everyone out there got fish, in what is being described as quite likely the best bass fishing day ever in these parts. And with all the bunker that seems to be around this year, we may yet see another couple days like that.

Then, as usually seems to happen, the weather turned and we had to cancel our Tuesday and Wednesday trips due to the high winds and dense fog that enveloped the bay and inlet. We did finally get a trip in on Friday, as Ringwood's Perry Iasiello and brother-in-law Joe Rossi braved the fog and heavy rain (and occasional lightning bolt) to test the back bay waters for a mixed bag of stripers and 5-7 pound bluefish. Perry's 36 inch bass topped the catch, and provided some excellent filets for their family seafood feast that evening at his mom's.

We'll be sticking with bass fishing for the next couple of weeks until they inevitably begin their migration up the coast, then switch over to fluke and sea bass until weakfishing gets started in earnest in late July. Plenty of good dates still available.

May 24, 2009

Lots of stuff to report this week. It's been busy, as it always is leading up to Memorial Day, with five trips over the past six days. Back bay fishing is suffering a bit right now from the large mats of slime weed and eelgrass flowing in and out with the tides, but when you can fish through it there are some really nice fish to be had. And ocean fishing for stripers appears to be ready to get started in earnest.

The week started on Monday, with Jim and Gene Karaman in from Lansdale PA with their old buddy Bill scoring a load of 5-10 pound bluefish on light tackle from the inlet channels. Wednesday saw Bloomsbury's John Oliver back this spring with son John and friend Gary landing five bass, topped by young John's 35" beauty, plus several large blues on the outgoing tide. Thursday the slime weed really took over in the main channels, but Pennsylvanian Mike Hoffman and fishing partner Bill still managed to pull two bass to 31" plus seven or eight blues out of Double Creek before we moved to the inlet land and release eight fat tog before heading in.

Friday and Saturday I took advantage of the light southwest breezes and relatively calm seas to head out into the ocean off Island Beach in hopes of trolling up some larger bass, and found some real beauties. On Friday the Steve Mastej party was out with me and saw Jim McEwan wrestle in his first striped bass, a massive 43 pound cow stuffed with sea robins despite the abundance of bunker in the area. Then in Saturday's dense fog, regulars George Selph and Bob Keller got in on the action with George landing our largest bass of the year at 45 pounds and Bob adding a personal best 42 pounder to the box.

So it was a pretty good week overall, with some real quality fish (as shown in these pictures) coming over the sides. Hopefully this action will stick with us for a few more weeks, and with fluke season finally opening up we now have a few more options. Hope to see you all soon.

May 16, 2009

This was a strange week on the bay. Normal spring patterns aren't holding... in fact, there doesn't seem to be any discernable pattern from one day to the next. We were out Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and the results were completely different each day.

On Wednesday, Karl Stefan brought out his son Karl Jr. for a day of planned light tackle catch and release fishing. The first hour or so was excellent back bay fishing, with a bunch of blues from 7 to 10 pounds plus a 26" bass coming over the side. Then, as if someone had thrown a switch someplace, the bite stopped. Totally. The only thing that came over the side for the next couple of hours was immense wads of slime weed that continually fouled our baits. Fortunately, a quick trip to the jetty at the turn of the tide led to the guys absolutely bailing big blackfish for the final hour or so of their trip. The final count was around 35 blackfish released, with most of them in the 5-8 pound range... really nice fish. The younger Karl also managed another bass that somehow managed to beat the hungry tog to his bait. Here's a couple of pictures showing the variety that showed up on Wednesday:

Thursday was a different story. Old friend Bill Murphy brought out sons Bill Jr. and Brian to celebrate Brian's upcoming wedding, and Mother Nature greeted them with winds howling from the south at 30-35 with higher gusts. Tough conditions to begin with, but then the slime weed started flowing as thick as I've ever seen it in my years on the bay, making it near impossible to keep clean lines for more than a few seconds. When the rains finally started late morning, we could only laugh and wonder when pestilence would show up. Final tally for the day, just a couple of big bluefish.

Friday was different yet again. Southampton's Hal Gilham was out with father-in-law Charlie in damp, foggy conditions and not even a breeze on the bay. We still had issues with slime weed, but found enough breaks to manage a pick of blues and bass throughout the morning topped by Hal's 34" bass taken way in back.

So that's the story for this week. The good news is that there are plenty of fish around, including some big ones, but they're just not as thick as we usually see them this time of year. The slime weed was definitely a problem this week, but we see it every year, it does eventually come to an end, and things return to normal. We should be in pretty good shape leading up to Memorial Day weekend.

May 10, 2009

Just when it looks like we've got things all figured out, Mother Nature throws us a knuckleball. Nine straight days of rain, flooding the bay with freshwater runoff and turning what should have been a spectacular week of fishing upside down.

We only made it out twice this week due to the weather. Wednesday's trip turned out to be a steady pick right through the tide, with the final tally being six bass and eight bluefish, plus one 5# tog (released) that must have been lost out in the back bay. All the fish were nice sized, with five of the bass being keepers and the blues all in the 7-8 pound class. Not the kind of mind blowing action I was expecting this week, but still a lot of fun and plenty of good filets for the table. Saturday was another story. After another three days of rain, the fish seemed to have finally developed lockjaw with the guys only managing a couple of bluefish and some skates all morning.

Fortunately the bay tends to bounce back pretty quickly after this kind of thing happens, and a few tide cycles should bring things back to normal. With no more significant rain in the near term forecast, this should be a pretty good week of fishing coming up.

May 2, 2009

I'm a little early with my report this week, but wanted to get the word out. It's time to go fishing! The bass have started to bite, the blues have arrived right on schedule, and fishing right now is about as hot as it gets. Ok, ok, that might be a bit of an overstatement. But check this out.

Yesterday I had Joe Piskorowski down from Rochester, NY with son Kyle and brother Danny to sample some Barnegat Bay light tackle fishing. After driving through the night to get here, only to be greeted by rain and a honking southwest wind, what happens? The guys started landing fish before all the lines were even in the water, and action was non-stop all morning: double headers, triple headers... every time things would quiet down for a couple minutes and we'd start to catch our breaths, the rods would start going again. As you might expect with that much action it was mostly bluefish, but these were the tackle busting arm straining variety. While we did have a few in the 3 to 5 pound class, most of the fish ran from 8 to 12 pounds providing fantastic sport on the light tackle we use. Joe's 31" beauty (see picture) topped the bass catch for the day.

So as long as the weather gods cooperate a bit, it looks like we're in for a couple of weeks of fishing mayhem in the bay. I've got a few days open this week if anyone feels the need to sneak out of work for a day to get in on this.

April 26, 2009

Flounder fishing has continued this week to be somewhat picky at best. There are still some fish around, mostly nice fat ones that produce some great filets for the table, but the numbers aren't what they should be and it's probably time to move on to something else.

The good news is that the warm weather of the past couple of days was exactly the trigger we needed to get our spring fishery for striped bass and bluefish underway. Yesterday morning saw the arrival of the first schools of mixed blues and bass on the flats, and with this 80 degree plus weather expected to hold for a few days the bay should be providing some superb light tackle fishing for the next month or so. We'll be mixing up fishing the flats with topwater plugs when the boat traffic is light then switching to clams for some bigger fish when the tide is right. The ocean is still pretty cold, so we're going to see some pretty dramatic water temperature swings with each tide over the next few weeks. In the past that's been the key to some really excellent bass fishing, so I'm expecting May to be really special this year. We'll see.

I still have a number of open dates available this May, so if you're looking to get in on some great light tackle action this spring, give me a call and we'll get it set up.

April 20, 2009

Well, the boat's back in the water, all freshly waxed and spiffed up, ready for the new season. Now all we need is for the weather to start cooperating a bit. I made it out a couple of times last week, once over Easter to make sure everything was working properly and then again on Saturday to actually get some lines in the water. There are some winter flounder around, although I had to move several times to put together enough keepers for a few meals. More and more it looks like the only way we'll save this fishery is to have a complete moratorium on them, both recreational and commercial. The way it works now, they keep trying to rebuild the stocks by tightening the screws on the recreational fisherman without making the necessary changes on the commercial side, totally ignoring the fact that commercial fishermen harvest over 95% of the fish. It's a shame that greed has been allowed to reduce what used to be great winter and spring fishing to its current state.

On the positive side, the bay water temperatures are right about where they should be for this time of year and we should start seeing an influx of bluefish almost any day now. The weather wonks are calling for near 80 degree temperatures over the weekend, and if they're right that might just be the trigger for some fantastic light tackle bay fishing. And we always (at least for the past seven or eight years) have started catching keeper sized stripers the week before May 1, so I'm thinking the next few weeks should be excellent for both bass and blues. We'll see. I still have some dates open in May for anyone looking to get in on the fun.

March 5, 2009

It's hard to believe with all this snow on the ground that the fishing season is right around the corner. A month from now the boat should be back in the water, so it's actually time to start making plans for the 2009 season. It's been a couple of years since I last sent out a "fishing calendar" to help in planning, so here's a brief rundown.

April used to be dedicated to winter flounder, although the past couple of years have been a bit disappointing. Barnegat Bay generally has a pretty good flounder run but the number of commercial fyke nets seems to be growing each year. So each year we just have to wait and see what impact they have. Last year the bluefish showed up in the bay by mid month, and when they arrive the flounder can disappear almost overnight. If the next month or so continues to be relatively mild, I'd expect we'll doing a lot of bay bluefishing in the second half of April. We've also caught our first keeper bass of the season during the last week of April for the past five years, so we'll probably be splitting trips between fishing topwaters for blues early then switching to clams for stripers.

We usually start our serious striper fishing around May 1 once the water temps get consistently into the 50's. This fishery builds up in intensity right through the month, with the best fishing taking place later in the month. Weekdays are best this time of year, as boat traffic starts really building up on weekends the week before Memorial Day. Bluefish will also invade the bay early in the month, and we should start seeing big weakfish by the second or third week. Again, we'll need to wait and see what impact the mild winter has but I expect May to be excellent this year.

June striper fishing in the bay should continue to be good whenever the bluefish leave us alone, and we should also have the larger weaks until around the 20th or so. But what's made June really special the past few years has been the huge schools of bunker cruising up and down the beach, bringing with them some of the largest bass you'll ever see. Nothing gets the heart pumping like feeling a 40 plus pound bass picking up your live bunker and starting to run off with it. And back bay fluke fishing will get started early in the month, and most years the larger bay fluke are taken during June.

There may still be a few bass around early in July, but the warming waters mean it will mostly be fluke fishing until late in the month when we start seeing the influx of smaller weakfish. The 2009 fluke regulations still haven't been finalized, but it's looking like we'll be dealing with the 18" size limit again this year. What we saw last year was a tremendous number of 17" fluke in the bay, with a couple bigger fish each day. Let's hope those same fish are back this year... with a couple added inches the back bay fluking could be fantastic. Late in the month, the fluke action will start shifting outside into the ocean, and we'll begin running out to some of the reefs and wrecks in the area looking for doormat fluke and some tasty sea bass.

As many of you know, in August and September I focus heavily on weakfish. Barnegat Bay has some of the best weakfish action anywhere. I've heard it called the new "Weakfish Capitol of the World". It's that good. The fish tend to be small, but the action can be non-stop. Some years we average landing over 100 fish per trip, all on ultra light tackle. This is a blast for everyone, especially kids as there's plenty of action and the tackle is easy for them to handle. In August we'll usually be anchoring up and chumming grass shrimp to draw them to the boat, and September we'll be drifting the channel edges with plastics. Fluke fishing will probably be shut down around Labor Day, but the reefs along our beach should be producing good fishing right up to the closure.

October and November we'll be back to bass fishing. In the bay we'll be splitting days between anchoring with clams and drifting live bait (spots) along the jetties. But this is also the time of year when immense schools of baitfish are migrating south along the beaches, and we'll have spectacular jigging action for bass whnever weather permits us to get out there. Ever caught 50 or more stripers in a day? This is the time of year to do it.

So that's pretty much what the seasons look like. I know many of you are only able to get out on weekends, but if you can get out during the week it's usually a better fishing. If you do need weekend dates, let me know as soon as possible as they've already started to fill up.

Hope to hear from you all soon.

January 15, 2009

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 our Fishing Reports from the 2008 season.

Fishing Reports from the 2008 season

Current Report

November 29, 2009