April 30-May 1. West wind 20 - 25 + and heavy rain. No takers this weekend.
April 17. Well the winter is finally over and the boat is in and ready to go. Made the shakedown trip today and managed to pick up a few Stripers in the process. The water is still a little cold for the Stripers but with 70 and 80 degree temp's this week, I think the water will warm up considerably. I expect the bass bite to take off by the end of the week. I still have an open day this weekend if you want to get in on the fishing.
April 24. Tough weekend for fly fishing. Wind W at 20+ and gusting, water dark and cold 51 - 53. To top it off we also had a FULL moon. Fished the south side of Raritan bay starting at the Spy House and covered all the way down to the point at Keyport. Had several hits on the fly's but no sets. Moved out to buoy 11a at Keansburg on some good readings but only a skate to show for all of that work. We could not fish out at Romer because the rough seas prevented standing to cast a fly. Hope it calms down next week.
May 7 & May 8. Another blow out weekend with a Nor'easter blowing all weekend.
May 21. Finally got a little break in the weather today. Forecast was cloudy with wind and rain. It turned out sunny with not a cloud in the sky. With all of the Blues in the bay we decided to take out the fly rods and we received plenty of action. Also ran into a school of Porpoise in the bay. Must have been a hundred of them feeding, what a sight. Tried out the Fluke fishing and caught a decent pick on Fluke near the bug light. Although most of them were still a little small there was plenty to catch.
This is a good sign of the fishing to come
May 28. Ran down the beach today for a little bottom fishing. Got a nice pick of Seabass and some small Blackfish. There were hugh schools of big Bluefish that kept the bottom fish hiding most of the day, but we managed to catch enough for some good meals anyway. Also caught some big Bluefish 10lbs + for a lot of fun.
May 30. Hit the back bay to test out the Fluke fishing today. Lots of almost keepers, but the big ones were hiding. Ended with a limit of 16.5 to 17.5 inch fish.
June 5. Well the Fluke are here in force. Ran around the bug light for a nice pick of Fluke on Sunday. The ocean was flat and the air was warm. Summer is here.
June 11. Had a very nice day drifting for Fluke near Flynns Knoll. There are lots of fish out there and they are starting to get bigger. We ended with a very nice catch of quality fish up to 4lbs.
June 12. Today was much tougher with wind against tide most of the day. We really had to work to get a decent pick of Fluke. We caught a lot of small fish to get some keepers to 17.5 inches.
June 25. Out with Capt. Jack today and had a nice day Fluking in the bay. Caught over 50 Fluke with a high amount of keeper fish. Even the small fish were very fat. Had limits all around.
June 18 No Trips this week because of engine problems. Hope to be back very soon.
July 2. Out with Capt. Jack again today and nailed the Fluke out in Chapel hill channel and on Flynns knoll and limited out on nice size Fluke.
July 4. Fished out of Ambrose for another good day of Fluke to 3 lbs.
July 9. Fished in the tournament today. Had lots of keepers and shorts but nothing over 3 lbs to add to the board.
July 10. The second day was a tough one for finding quaility fish. We only had a couple of keepers late in the day. On what was going to be our last drift of the day, we starting hitting big fish. In the next hour we caught 15 keepers between 2 and about 5 lbs. But still no MOBY Fluke.
July 16 Fished near Chapel Hill channel on the NY side in some very foggy conditions today. Lots of Jersey sized fish hitting but the big ones were hard to find. The biggest fish of the day was about 3lbs, although we had plenty of action.
July 20. Had a great day Fluke fishing in Ambrose channel today. We had the boats limit on big fish by 9am and were tossing 18 inch keepers back the rest of the day. Largest fish was 5lbs and the smallest was 20". That was "catching" not fishing.
July 23. Had a very nice day fishing out at Chapel Hill channel today. The Fluke were cooperating nicely. Ended the day with a nice catch of NY keepers to around 4lbs.
July 25. With a very stiff southwest wind that was over 25 knots and some very sloppy seas, I headed down the beach to find some smooth water today. As I was greeted by most of the Charter fleet I also found a nice pile of Fluke. The smallest keeper was 20" and the largest was 5.5 lbs. Unfortunately we broke one off at the side of the boat that was quite a bit larger than our biggest Fluke.
July 31. Fished Chapel Hill channel and Flynns Knoll for a pick of Fluke this weekend. The fishing was not as good as the last few weeks with wind against tide conditions and a lot more shorts.
July 30. Made a road trip down to Barnegat Bay for a sampling of Fluke and Seabass.
Aug 7. Headed down the beach and offshore in deeper water for bigger Fluke. Still had to reel in over 75 Fluke to get a pick of keepers. Great action though.
Aug 6. Had a good afternoon trip with a decent pick of Fluke after catching about 50 shorts.
Aug 5. Friday afternoon bluefish trip. With an unpredictable weather report calling for a chance of thunder storms, a trip offshore was not wise. We headed down the beach toward the Shrewsbury Rocks only to be greeted with a huge thunder head. Turned around and headed north again. Spotted the birds near the rip with Blues underneath. A lot of fun was had fighting these Blues on light tackle for a couple of hours. Most were released with a couple kept for the barbecue.
Aug 14. We tried to run out to deeper water for the bigger Fluke, but it was a little sloppy past Scotland light. I then ran inshore along the beach and fished some holes along Sandy Hook. One of the holes had a pile of nice fish to about 6lbs. We had a lot of good action with many multiple hookups on most passes. One of our charter was almost spooled by what could have been one of those Threshers hitting Fluke baits along the beach.
Aug 12. Another good afternoon trip with a pick of keepers to 3.5 lbs while drifting Flynns Knoll.
Aug 18. What a beautiful day out on the ocean. Flat seas and blue water. We ran down the beach offshore of the Rattlesnake after trying inshore where the water was cold and dirty and the Searobins were hungry. Great action, but no keeper Fluke. After the move we started picking up some nice size fish and ended with a pick of Fluke to 4lbs.
Aug 20. Fluke fishing is all about conditions, and today we didn't have them. With a full moon and a stiff SE breeze we had very poor drifting conditions. We caught a lot of fish, unfortunately none of them were keeper Fluke. We did manage a couple nice size Bluefish to go along with the many sea robins, shorts, sharks and large rays brought to the boat.
Aug 24. Fished from the back bay to down the beach past Sandy Hook today in choppy seas. We worked really hard to put together a pick of Fluke and Weakfish keepers with lots of shorts and Searobins thrown it.
Aug 25. Wow the wind was blowing even harder today out of the north and east. Fishing was tough again. We did manage another pick of Fluke to about 18 inches. The good news is that the fishing improved later in the day when the wind slowed and swung around to the South.
Aug 29. With a light South wind we had a much better day fishing in the channels today. Had the boats limit of Weakfish from 14" to 20". The Weakfish are finally back in good quantities.
Sept 2. Evening Bluefish trip. Ran down the beach to the Shrewsbury rocks to look for Blues on top. Had some small schools breaking but hit a huge school off Monmouth beach. Caught over 60 Blues to about 8 lbs. Also nailed 5 stripers to 18 lbs and one giant ray about 65 lbs. This was between just two anglers. What a night.
Sept 3. Ran back down the beach again and the school was still there but not as large. Caught over 30 Blues between 4 and 9 lbs. Ran back inside to finish up with the Fluke and Weaks.
Sept 4. Stayed inside today to look for some Fluke. Caught a million shorts for a small pick of keepers.
Sept 5. With a howling northeast wind the choices were limited today. We did manage to land a pick of Fluke to 19 inches in the bay.
Sept 11. Back in the Reach channel today for another catch of nice size Weakfish and small Fluke.
Sept 10. Joined the fleet in the Reach channel today for a nice catch of decent size Weakfish to about 19".
Sept 18. With yesterdays bad forecast I elected to fish today. We headed for the Reach for a few weakfish before the Coastguard ordered every one away from the channel. Ran over to Chapel Hill and ended with a very nice pick of Weakies to about 22".
Sept 22. Ran out to 17 Fathoms looking for Albies and Mahi. Water was too cold and Only Monster Blues were caught. Ran back in shore for a nice catch of Fluke to 4lbs.
Sept 25. With a strong east wind and rough conditions we could not get off shore today. We looked for the birds inshore and in the bay. Finally located some big schools and landed plenty of Blues to about 8 or 9 lbs.
Oct 2. Fished for Weakfish in most of the inside channels today for only a pick of fish to 19". Seems they had lockjaw today because we were reading them on the fishfinder.
Oct 1. Ran outside today looking for some bigger Fluke in the ocean. The ocean was flat but most of the Fluke were still a little small but fat. We ended with Fluke to about 2 or 3 lbs and some nice humpback seabass.
Well that was the last trip of this season for me. I will be heading down to a warmer climate for a well-deserved vacation.
I want to thank you for fishing with me this year and hope to see you again next spring for the Striper run. I will run a special holiday promotion for anyone who books before the Christmas holiday. A charter-fishing trip makes a great Christmas present for that special person, or yourself. You can reserve a trip with a $75 deposit and wait until after the holidays to commit to a date.
