Guys sorry I haven't been keeping up w/ the reports on this board. Been very busy (just got back from vaca!) and have been "posting" a lot w/ my blackberry as my PC at the shore house has been on the fritz
Here are some updated reports w/ pics:
Tues 8/2: Had the Saltwater Anglers of Bergen County on again for their second fluke trip of the summer. Their fearless leader, John T led the group along with Jim Z, Steve, and get ready, Dennis, Dennis, and Dennis. Wow
Ran out to the east and north where we were catching them and found crappy conditions with the NW wind and wacky current. We were able to pick a few shorts, sea robins, and skates but there was no reason to stay there. Ran a bit further north to fish the real sticky stuff - found the same conditions but did get one nice keeper of 22".
I decided to take a gamble and run up north thinking we'd have good conditions up there w/ the NW wind, and we did, but every drop we made we were COVERED UP by 12-15" fluke - it was truly drop and reel fishing but the only problem was they were all river-size fish. We made 3 drops off LB, and 2 up at the rocks, and it was all the same with just one more nice keeper coming out.
At 12 I got a call from a buddy who "hung around" locally by our inlet and said he was doing well, so I decided to take another gamble and double back to the south. This move saved the day as we had a good pick of mostly nice fish the first 2 drifts, and after our drift crapped out, we still had a slow "keeping it interesting" kinda pick going.
We wound up boating ~150 fluke, if not more, with 10 being keepers. Jim led the way with 5 nice keepers to 5#. We covered A LOT of ocean today, caught a load of fish, and the guys each had enough for a dinner at day's end, and as always the SWABC guys were great and we'll be seeing them again soon!
Sat 7/23: Had Ryan Brian and Kenny on w me today for the PP elks tourney. Ran to some nasty stuff NE of our inlet in 60-75'. First drift - 5 quick keepers, all quality fish over 20 inches. We had similar action until around 9 when it slowed a bit - we had some awesome spurts where it was "drop and reel" and had some short lulls in the initial 2 hours when the fishing was GOOD. We pretty much pounded this area all day and caught fish in spurts - 2 here, 4 here, etc w some lulls. We stuck it out in this general area waiting for that $$ fish but the best we could do was 7# (not too shabby!)
Brian bagged 2 nice fish early, one @ 7# and one over 6#. By 1130 we had our boat limit and kept that 1 slot open for a big one, but we never found that money winning slob. Kenny had his double limit, I had 12 keepers, Brian had his limit an Ryan had 5 nice ones. Every fish in our cooler was over 19", and we had a load of those "cookie cutter" 3-5#ers. We wound up with 41 keepers keeping only our limit of 32 - great day by any standards!! All fish were taken on Mai Tai bucktails tipped with a strip w/ a gulp or other softbait teaser. Keeper wise, this is the best day we've ever had on Reel Class!
Fri 7/22: Had "Spoonman" Scott A, Tom K, Fred M, Al,Erin, and Bill aboard for a ftyp trip. Ran north and off a bit to fish some snags in 60-75 feet. First few drifts were horrible as we had a tight se swell and no movement. After the first few drifts we got some movement going and a slow pick ensued. Wqe had a couple nice seabass come up as well as 1 keeper fluke.
After that area dried up we moved further north and found a couple more keepers and some shorts. We then made short move south to fish some real nasty bottom and got a very slow pick going with mostly keeper fluke. We hammered this area till 2pm and pulled several nice fish out topped by fred's 7#er. We also had a few in the 3-5 # rane plus one abt 6#. After the conditions changed, we moved further s and picked some more shorts before calling it a day.
We wound up boxing 20 keepers to 7# and 2 seabaSs. It was a real nice day on the water w a great crew - the bite was a grind but the guys came away w nice bags of fillets. Fred was on fire boxing his limit to 7#, and Tom also boxed 5 nice ones. Thanks for coming down guys!
