Avalon Fishing Report

[Joe D.]

Fished a little further North out of Somers Point on Saturday. Caught throw back flounder in the back. Caught my first 'gulp' flounder on a 3" shrimp. I guess they do work. We then headed out to the OC reef which produced one keeper flounder and a small ling. We were hoping for sea bass, but I think they are in spawning mode so they have other things on their minds.

I'll be fishing SIC from the 16th thru the 26th of July.

[Hotrod]

Thanks for the report Joe..

[ped579]

Good report Joe, thanks keep em comin...

Paul

[stat4u]

Fished in wildwood around the grassy sound a few days this week. Alot of action but VERY few keepers. I have never seen so many little ones. Went out wed and caught 35 fluke all throwbacks. Most were caught on gulp 3 inch squid in new penny. Some were on pearl mullet 3" nothing on gulp shrimp. So far gulp has outfished all live bait I used.   WHERE ARE THE KEEPERS?

[dapbmw]

sean, gregman,

i'll leaving toronto for south jersey tomorrow monday. so i hope we can all hook up and teach me again how to fish salt water fish. i'll be staying tell next sunday. can you guys pm me?

cheers,
dave

[EAGLE AYE]

Late report for 7/11 and 7/12 behind SIC.

Had 2 cousins and an aunt out Friday afternoon.  Pulled about 15 fluke in a couple of hours.  No keepers.  Plain minnows were the hot bait.  They wouldn't hit anything else, not even bucktails.

Had my dad and cousin Ryan out Saturday A.M.  Same as Friday, no keepers and everything was caught on plain minnow.  Wanted to head out to the ocean and fish some wrecks off of Avalon but it was a little to rough for my 20 ft.

Docked by 9:40 A.M and started making shuttle runs to the sand bar inside of TI.  10 kids and one rottweiler had a good time running around catching hermit crabs and swimming in the bay.

[ped579]

  Sounds liked a fun day... 

Happy Catching

Paul

[IrishAyes]

Nice report Eagle Aye. Kids really enjoy running around on the sand bars checking out the aqua life. Keeps them entertained for hours. 

[EAGLE AYE]

7/18 got out for a couple of hours in the afternoon with my uncle and cousin.  Temp in TI was 77 degrees and there was lots of weed.  No fish caught.  Moved a little north and further into the back bay.  2 throwbacks about 16.5 inches each and very thick. 

7/19/08 had my brother and a couple of friends out who never went fishing before.  Didn't want to chance any sea sickness so we headed back to where I finished the night before.  2 hours and 15 TB's later they want to know how much my boat cost, how much for a slip, etc.  All in all a good day.  Took a cruise down to Avalon for some sight seeing.  What a zoo.  There were probably 60 boats fishing between TI bridge and Avalon Point Marina and another 60 heading in or out.  This is only about a 1/4 mile stretch of the ICW.  The lack of etiquette and common sense was amazing.  Boats were literally passing each other within a rod's lenght at WOT. I got the hell out of there and headed back to my slip at Larsen's.  There were quite a few flounder being caught in this stretch on the outgoing but I don't know how they could fish there. Had to have your head on a swivel the whole time.

7/20 headed out at 6:00 AM with dad to fish between TI and  APM.  We were the only boat there.  Water temp was 64 degrees on the incoming.  By 9:00 water temp was down to 56.  We had a couple of TB's and had two large blues(?)on for a second.  Snapped the line each time and one of the rods, my dad's, had 50 LB power pro on it.  Traffic started to pick up so we headed in for breakfast and cleaned the boat.

All flounder were caught on plain minnows or minnow/mackeral combo.  Maybe a switch to Gulp shrimp would improve my keeper to TB ratio?

[ped579]

Thanks for the good report EAGLE AYE.  Try using squid strips and the minnow, that combo seems to work great up north.  It might not give you more keepers but it is a deadly combo on the charters and works.

If you have trouble getting squid try Shop Rite they have 3 lbs squid in the frozen section of the fish counter for $6.99.

Good Luck.

Happy Catching

Paul

[IrishAyes]

Get the squid that Ped mentioned from Shop Rite, but use them WHOLE on a two hook rig. Place the top hook on the top of the mantle and the bottom hook between the eyes. 

[ped579]

I can't believe what the B&T's are getting for frozen squid.  One frozen mental about 7" long and 3 - 4" across flat for close to 3 bucks.

And the guy that bought it did not bat an eye.  Man I know some places are high but that is ridiculous.

Like I mentioned Shop Rite has 3 lbs for $6.99.  I an going there tomorrow and picking up a couple boxes just to have them for strips.

Happy Catching

Paul

[IrishAyes]

Paul, don't hesitate to use the ShopRite squid whole. It is amazing how many fluke we have cut up and had whole squid in them. Been using them whole for years and usually do good with them.

The $3 squid bodies you talk about are good for strips. They are thicker and longer than the boxed squid and stay on the hook much better. Buy them by the flat and the price comes down considerably. 

[EAGLE AYE]

thanks for the advice.  I'll be putting to use this weekend.

[gregman1069]

Hey guys. I'll be on vacation next week in Wildwood and am looking to get out.I'll also post in the open boat section. Anybody in the Wildwood/Cape may area lookin for a company? Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Lots of stuff going on right now. Hope to get my lines wet soon! Nice to see more contributers here!

[EAGLE AYE]

Went out on Friday, 7/25 with mom and an aunt and uncle.  Fished between TI bridge and Avalon Point marinafor the last hor of the outgoing and the start of the incoming.  We had a few TB's to 17 inches on squid and minnow.  We also hooked into at least 5 large stingrays, all at least 4 feet across.  One of them snapped in half the Daiwa bait casting rod that my uncle was using.  The rays all seemed to be sitting at one spot in the ICW and if we didn't reel up and move before we hit that spot someone would be hooked into one of these monsters. Funny thing was, there were 10-12 other boats making the same drift as us and they never hooked one of these rays.  Strange.  Water temps ranged from 74 on the outgoing at around 7:30 AM to 61 on the incoming at around 11:45.  A lot fun was had by everyone since none of the crew, except me,  had ever hooked anything larger than a 4lb fluke.

Saturday, we headed back to the same area to start.  Fished the last of the incoming again with 1 TB to 17 inches and 1 cocktail blue.  Decided to try our luck out in the ocean.  Stopped real quick in TI since there was a huge school of fish splashing just outside of the bridge.  I think that it was small blues but it could have been bunker. They took up the entire length of the inlet for about 100 yards.  I didn't have a snagging hook with me so we started throwing plugs and jigs and dropping some bait to the bottom.  Nada.  Saw that the party boats were about to come under the bridge so we headed out off of Avalon and found 1 small ling.  Moved out to the TI reef and again only one small ling.  Water temp in the bay on the outgoing was 72 degrees and out at the reef it was 66 degrees.  Used squid and minnows for bait again in the bay.  Switched to plain squid in the ocean because it was gettin more hits.  Also tried Gulp 3 inch glow squid in the ocean.  Nada.

Canceled fishing on Sunday due to the thunder storms.

Paul/Joe, I did finally get the squid from Shoprite on Sunday and will give it a try this coming weekend.  Would these work best on a Boa rig by Owner? I could probably tie something similar myself. Thanks again for the advice.

[ped579]

The Boa rig looks great for that type of bait.  I have not used them but being adjustable it looks like a good rig for different types of bait.  I would love to see the knot they use to make it a sliding rig.

Paul

[EAGLE AYE]

Went out from 6:00-9:00 on friday night 8/1.  Found a large school of bunker next to the Avalon Yacht club.  I didn't have a weighted treble for snagging with me so I threw plugs, bucktails, and Storm shads along the edges of the school and hooked nada.  I did see some crazy operators out at TI. One guy cut off the Miss Avalon party boat.  Ran right in front of her, maybe 25 ft at WOT.  Don't know what some people are thinking.

Saturday stayed in and hid from the thunderstorms in the A.M.  After lunch, took my brother and sister-in-law and their dog out to the sandbar inside TI for some fun in the sun.  Sunday was a wash and wax the boat day. 

I got some of those Boa rigs and will give them a shot this weekend with some whole squid. and will post the results next week.

[Pfishingruven]

Good luck!  I had never heard of the OWNER Boa Rigs before, so I looked them up.  Look kind of neat.  Very innovative and modern.  If they work they way they say they do, sounds really good.  Looking forward to your report on them!!

 

[IrishAyes]

The Owner boa rigs do work good. I have been making similar rigs for a while to use whole squid.

There are squid in the ocean now and whole squid should give you a good catch.