Hi All,
The end of our 2007 Fluke Tournament season came on Sunday with a good fish weighed at 7+ lbs. but not in the money. We had huge numbers of fish, even a tremendous amount of shorts in deep water that we have not seen in a long time. Hopefully, this bodes well for the future. We also have moved forward with adding new members to our team and that is also fun. For those who fished with and against us in the tournaments - thanks for all the good times and fun this Summer!
We broke the Manasquan Inlet at 5:30AM. We were on our spot and dropped the lines at 6:00AM. BTW, the meteor shower was very cool! We began what was a trend all day ... catch fish every drop, no really big ones to win the tournament but all respectable. All fish, including big sea bass, were returned today. We even were able to keep the big fish alive until we found out that there were larger fish already weighed. I get the bozo award for losing a big fish near the surface. Oh well ... it was not meant to be.
The water was green inshore and cool in the low 70s. It was clear but not blue offshore. Our plan was executed well, except for a Dive boat being on one of the wrecks.
There are a lot of fish out there guys. You do not have to marry yourself to the Sea Girt Reef ... it was insane the number of boats there yesterday when a few miles away were more productive areas!
The bait of the day was ... Sand Eels.
Some may think this a bit strange but tournaments are the time to experiment. You only need one big fish and some gimmick may work. This year we experimented with side by side testing of hook color. We tried black, silver, gold and red. I will tell you that the color of hooks does not matter, in my opinion. No color outfished the other. The red ones look nice but were not more effective than any other.
So, to recap:
1. Lots of Fluke on the deep grounds.
2. The Sea Bass are getting smaller and less abundant. Fish early for these guys if you want nice size fish close to the dock.
3. There is an alarming lack of 5+ lb. fish.
4. Use hooks you feel comfortable with. Hook color does not matter.
5. "No fish on as bait, no catching."
6. There are other places to fish than the Sea Girt Reef.
7. There are huge numbers of bunker schools all over. There are predators, including sharks, on many of them!
7. Meteors, red planets, a dark sky and fishing are hard to beat!
My inshore season is now done for the Summer of 2007. I have one more trip on August 31 with some guys from the board. Any trips until the fall will be devoted to video or photography.
It was a pleasure giving you folks reports. I hope some of the information helped.
See you in the Fall ...
Good catching,
Capt. Ed
