April 9. Finally the boat is in the water. Made my shakedown trip today in some very rough conditions. Winds howling out of the north-northeast at 25+. Made a run to the back bay to find the stripers. With the bad conditions and the runoff from the previous rainstorms the water temp dropped and shut down the bite. We did however manage a nice catch of winter flounders, all keepers and a small striper. The weather report is good for warming up the water for Easter weekend with warm temperatures and a sunny sky most of the week.
April 14. Ran back into the bay near Keyport. Plenty of action with about a dozen slot size stripers and about 20 skates. But no keepers.
April 15. Started out near Keansburg on a very foggy day. The bass were hitting very light today and fishing was a little tough. Made a move over near Keyport for some better action on bass up to 29".
April 22 & 23 No trips this weekend with small craft warnings for 30 knot winds with heavy rains.
April 29 Ran back into the bay near Keansburg today. A little bumpy but bright sunshine all day. The bass were there along with some big blues to about 8lbs. We also lost some pretty big stripers on break offs. Lots of action all day.
April 30 Went back into the bay again for more big bass and bluefish action. Had multiple double headers on both bluefish and bass. Only kept one bass that did not survive the fight and it bottomed out a 25# scale , estimated weight over 30 lbs.
May 6. Nice day fishing the back bay for Stripers and Huge Bluefish. Had lots of action all day long with lots of double and triple headers.
May 13. Another good day of Striper fishing with the boat limiting out on big Stripers to about 25 lbs. Released lots of spawning bass and jumbo Blues.
May 18. Ran down the beach with Capt. Jack for a little bottom fishing. Had a lot of fun with a good catch of Blackfish and Seabass.
May 20. Tough fishing today with a nasty NW wind that started at 15 to 20 and built as the day went on. Fished on the Knoll in some bumpy conditions but we still managed a few keeper bass to about 22lbs with lots of big Blues to fill in the action.
May 26. Tried to get an afternoon trip in for Stripers but the combination of fog and thunderstorms kept us in port.
May 27. Fished the diving birds on the Knoll for a catch on Bluefish and small Stripers on light spinning tackle.
May 28. Ran outside to the clam beds today only to find tons of dogfish on every drop. Ran back inside but the bite was dead.
Tough day for Bass. We did however pick up a 7-1/2 lbs Blackfish on a whole clam.
May 29. The Bass fishing was better today. Chunked bunker on Flynns Knoll for Bass to 20 lbs.
June 2. We did some light tackle fishing for Blues and Bass on top this afternoon before the storms hit. Had good readings of Bass at the rip but had a hard time getting them to hit the Bunker we were drifting. Threw diamond jigs and small bucktails at the blues and had a great time pulling them in. We still managed to pick up a slot size bass on the top. All fish were released.
June 10 & 11. No fishing this weekend with strong NW winds blowing a solid 30knts all weekend. Forecast for next weekend looks good though.
June 16. Fished late afternoon for Blues on top at the tip of the hook and the rip. What a Zoo with a lot of boats trying to get in on the slaughter. Blues and Bass pushing the bait to the top where the birds were diving in the water. Great fun!
June 17. Fished the clam beds off the nude beach for Bass but only caught 40 or 50 dogfish. Boy are those things getting BIG. I haven't seen them that big since I was a kid. We made a couple of moves and ended up near the bridge were we finally found Stripers up to about 20lbs.
June 18. First Fluke trip this year. Ran out to the Knoll and caught a ton of short Fluke between 15 and 16 inches. We did manage to put a catch together of keepers with the biggest at 24 inches. What a beautiful day out there for Fathers day.
June 23. Tough fishing tonight. Looking for Blues on top didn't see a one from Sandy Hook to Shrewsbury rocks. Read Bass on the clam beds and tried to drift them heads but no takers. I think this stormy weather just put them down.
June 25. Got out in between storms for a nice catch of Fluke to about 4lbs. Most of the keepers were over 17". We did throw a lot of shorts back though.
July 1. Had a nice catch of Stripers off the Nude Beach today. Fought through the Doggies for a nice catch of Bass to 31"
July 2. Tough conditions for Bass today with Rough seas in the morning and SSW wind blowing at 20+. We ran down the beach to the Highlands bridge area and caught all of the dogs you wanted. Some of those dogs were pretty big. Made a couple of moves along the beach towards the tip with same results. Finally came in the bay and picked a catch of keeper Fluke to about 18".
July 3. We tried clamming the bass again and managed fish to about 32". They were not as plentiful as on Saturday. We then ran in close to the beach for a catch of smaller Fluke.
July 4. Gave the Fluke a shot today. Started inshore along the Atl Highlands flats with just short fish. We netted some bunker and stripped them for bait and then ran out near the Swash channel. The Fluke sure liked the bunker strips because we ended with a catch of Fluke to 20"
July 7. Went looking for Bluefish tonight as we had a reporter from the Herald on board who was doing a story on Bluefish. We found them on top off Sea Bright and had great fishing with the blues slamming the lures and performing spectacular jumps.
July 8. Had a pick of Fluke with many shorts and a few keepers off the knolls.
July 9. Fished with Capt. Jack today and had a good catch of Fluke keeping 10 up to 4 and 5 lbs.
July 16. Fished around Flynns Knoll and landed many short Fluke today with a pick of Fluke to about 18".
July 17. Worked the Sandy hook channel all the way out to Scotland for a good pick of Fluke. Lots of 16 1/4" fish out there.
July 23. Had Capt. Jack out today in rough conditions. We fought through the shorts for a pick of Fluke and some nice size Blues.
July 29. Fished the lumps near Sandy Hook Channel for a pick of Fluke and Seabass. Lots of shorts and dogfish also.
July 30. Worked the bay today for a good catch of Fluke up to almost 6lbs. We were on fish on every drop with lots of keepers averaging 17 - 20 inches and plenty of 16 inch shorts.
Aug 4. Had a Friday evening trip for Fluke tonight and the fish cooperated. Fished near the terminal channel with a couple of head boats in some very pleasant conditions. Had double and triple headers on some drifts and ended up with a nice catch of keepers up to about 3lbs.
Aug 11. Friday evening trip for Fluke. Fished the Terminal channel area and drifted over a nice pile of fish with keepers to about 18 inches. Also landed a nice Weakfish 20+ inches and a few big Blues. Lots of shorts and sea robins kept us in action.
Aug 12. Worked Flynns Knoll in the morning for a nice catch of Fluke and Blue fish. The action was not fast but it was steady. It looks like a new body of Fluke has finally come in.
Aug 13. We hit them hard today out at Chapel Hill. The Fluke were piled up in a few spots and we were on them. We caught double and triple headers on some of the drifts. That seemed to attract a bunch of boats to our location where we could not repeat our drifts. Ended up with 15 nice size keepers that did not need to be measured.
Aug 19 & 20 No trips this weekend thanks to the new ethanol fuel additive which clogged all of my fuel filters last week. I am all cleaned out and ready for the rest of the season.
Aug 26 & 27. Easterly winds 25+ along with driving rain and some severe thunder storms kept us in port this weekend. The weather looks better for next week as long as that hurricane stays outta here!
Sept 1 thru 4 . Well I weathered the storm with out incident, although many did not fare so well. Managed to get out on Labor Day but the fishing was tough. With a big ground swell and the water still churned up all of the usual spots were un-fishable. Ended up running down to Shrewsbury rocks for a catch of seabass with only 3 keepers and a 17 inch fluke. But with a lot of boats coming back with skunks, I think we did well.
Sept 9. Got out today to some beautiful weather. Unfortunately the Fluke did not cooperate. Plenty of action but only one keeper to show for it.
Sept 10. Fished all of my offshore lumps today for Fluke but just sea robins and dogs. I think I am going to switch over to Weakfish and Stripers unless the Fluking gets better.
Sept.17. Ran down the beach and offshore today to cast metal at Albies and Blues. Not much life in the ocean so headed back into the bay and ran into schools of cocktail size blues. followed the schools out of the reach to near Earle before the bite ended.
Sept 22. Trolled out at the mudhole for Tuna today. Started at the BA and trolled to the Oil wreck with only one knock down. Searched the pots all the way down to the Belmar end with just small Jacks and pilot fish under the buoys. Beautiful flat blue water and sunny skies. Had fun catching Jacks on light tackle though.
Sept 24. Did some weakfishing today in some bumpy conditions. Fishing was tough with a catch on Weakies to 18 inches.
Sept 30 Made a clamming trip to the Knoll and the SH clam beds. No sign of Bass yet but we ran into a school of large bunker with big Blues under them. Had a nice pick of Blues to 8 or 9lbs.
Oct 1. Ran out to those schools of Bunker again looking to see what was underneath them. Slammed the big Blues up to 10lbs
Oct 3. Made my last Fluke trip of the season and ended with a pick of Fluke to 20".
Oct 15. Tough day with the tournament going on there was not to many places to fish without getting mugged. Clammed and trolled with only 2 runoffs all day. Missed both of them.
Oct.16. Another tough day. Clammed the clam beds until tide changed then trolled the Shrewsbury rocks and the inshore area along the beach. Not one hit all day and the water got rough too.
Oct 21. Charter cancelled because of rough seas 3-5 and 25knt nw wind. I ran out and jigged blues for a couple hours.
Oct 22. Last trip of the season. Ran around between Old Orchard and the Breezy point and killed the Blues under the birds.
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. You can reserve a date with a $75 deposit .
