June 1 Fluke Report

[Skolmann]

Jason & I hopped aboard the Capt. John out of Keyport this morning. Early on we had close to ideal drifting conditions with an outgoing tide and a light west wind.

Spent most of the day fishing the Reach from just west of the 20 rockpile to past the #14. Fished both the green & red edges as well as down the middle.

First drift had a steady pick of keepers, short fluke & cocktail blues.

On the second drift I switched from dragging bait and started working a 1 ounce bucktail. Had a few hits but didn't connect. Finally took a #4 blue on the teaser.

As the morning wore on the wind increased and the drift speed increased. By mid morning I started hopping a 2 ounce white Spro. Second cast I had a solid strike and into a good fish. Working the light spinning rod I took my time. Was soon rewarded with a nice FAT #5.6 ounce flattie. Jason mugged his way into my spot  and using the same rig took an almost as nice #4.75 fluke. Wind kept increasing making using a bucktail tough, so we both switched back to bait. By early afternoon needed at least 6 ounces with braid to hold (those using mono had 8 ounces). Niether of us took any more keepers but were kept busy with shorts, sea robins and cocktail blues.

I was eeked out in the pool by a #5.8 that was taken on the first drift of the day. 27 fares accounted for 32 keepers.

Fluke were on the feed today as evident by the variety of bait spit up and found in their stomachs when cleaned. Several spit up palm sized porgies when they hit the deck. Jason's had a slightly larger porgy in his. A few had some sizeable mantis shrimp in them. When held mine I noticed what I thought was the tail of a mantis shrimp sticking out of it's throat. I grabbed a pair of needle nose pliers and pulled it out & to my surprise it wasn't a mantis shrimp but a 8" sea robin that was partially digested.

[Uncle Luna]

 

[IrishAyes]

Nice catch Skol. Too bad you just missed the pool.

[Luna Sea 5]

nice catch

[twoforhooking]

Nice pull We were out there @ #20 when the wind started to blow. 7 oz. barely held bottom, headed in till tide swung.

[PeggyLee]

Skol, nice day !

[Pops Soul]

Nice Report Skolman 

[ped579]

 

[Bucktail]

Nice catch!   No pics?

[Skolmann]

  No pics?

I left my digital camera in the car. Jason and I figured out that if we leave the camera behind we usually have either a good day or catch a nice fish... . Plus I really need to get one of those pocket digital cameras the one I have now is the size of a 35MM camera.

Not to worry, I did have the mate take a picture(s) & I'm waiting on him to email them to me. Will post when I receive

[Still Running]

  Nice job tp bad about the pool

[Skolmann]

Just so happens that while we were moving to set up on the dift on which I took my fish, I looked into the cooler where the big fluke was (he's a friend of mine so I didn't feel bad about openning his cooler). After I caught my fish, I was sure that his beat me. But everyone else was saying the opposite. I didn't give much thought until later in the day when I looked again & thought well maybe there's a chance. Of course once that thought entered my mind I was already counting (& spending  ) the $$. Turns out my original instinct was right  . To add a little salt to the wound, not only was I in the $3 boat pool but the $5 side pool as well.

One thing I forgot to mention in my original post was that my fluke only had 1 eye. Wonder if the weight of that 1 eye cost me the pool?   

[Twitch]

nice 

[Sam3]

Nice report Skolmann. 

[shadyvito]

Great report. I wouldn't think that a flatty can eat a sea robin, I wish that I saw that! Hey, there's a new bait idea!

[Skolmann]

I wouldn't think that a flatty can eat a sea robin, I wish that I saw that! Hey, there's a new bait idea!

Yea who needs snappers, we'll just live line sea robins.

[gottog]

Nice going Skol

Was able to get out Sunday on the Sea Hawk with Theresa. Pulled an all-nighter getting some work done at home so was able to fish even though I got zero sleep.

Lighter crowd than I would have guessed, maybe a total of 22 anglers. Day started out fairly nice, outgoing tide, some wind and with Theresa bucktailing a keeper within minutes of the first drift. Was the "kiss of death" for her 

Wind with tide picked up and drifts were pretty fast. I stuck with bucktailing most of the day alternating between an ounce and a 2oz Spro. Was work and only had small periods of time when it really bounced the bottom right before you had to recast. Caught atleast 20 sea robins in varying sizes, 8 bluefish up to 6lbs, and if we were going by 2007 NJ regs I would have limited+ with fluke. Had quite a few that were just short by 1/4-1/2" 
Did manage to put 3 keepers into the cooler. Theresa had a few other shorts, searobins, and blues as well. My third keeper was when T switched rods with me as a person from the other side of the boat tangled with her and when they dropped the line it got hung up on the boat. Mate Donnie got the line off and I casted out to make sure it was OK. Bounced the rig three times and hooked into a nice fluke 

Saw the Flamingo out there jigging up cocktail blues non-stop. On one drift the were busting bait all around us and couldn't get the bucktail down without hooking one 

A LOT of fluke that were just shy of 18" released for the people on board. Still some keepers caught with a few having 2-4 keepers, others with 1-2, and some with the skunk. Bluefish, searobins, and shorts did provide a decent amount of overall action for the day.

Quite a few fluke were stuffed with small porgies as mentioned.  Shame that most of the fish just shy of being legal were all nice and fat.

Was able to sabiki up some anchovie or sardine looking baits in the morning at the dock along with some rainfish.

[Skolmann]

if we were going by 2007 NJ regs I would have limited+ with fluke. Had quite a few that were just short by 1/4-1/2" 

A LOT of fluke that were just shy of 18"

That could be the motto so far early in this fluke season.

Jason would have definitely limits out last week on the Misty & I would have probably been 1 fish short of a limit if the limit was still 17"s (& probably even if it was 17.5"). And yesterday we'd probably each had close to a limit.

GT, we saw you guys yesterday. Seemed that you mainly fished to the east of us. We didn't get that overwhelmed with bluefish. Once early in the morning had them busting around the boat & seemed as if everyone had one on the line. Afterward it was a few here & there. Also saw the Flamingo, long boat ride to be jigging #2-4 blues. I recall a few times seeing boats from Shark River inside the Hook by the Bug Light jigging #1-3 bluefish..talk about a looooong boat ride 

Mind boggling (at least to me) that a relatively small sized fluke #3-4) can swallow a adult man sized porgy let alone the twice as big sea robin my piggy ate.

Other than a few boats trying to cast net adult bunker didn't notice much bait around the slip in Keyport.

[gottog]

Baitfish were pretty close to the bottom on sunday at the dock. Tiny sabiki hooks needed.  Glow ones worked better. 

Saturday they were more visible and was told a guy was loading up with a cast net.

I am the boofish magnet this season

[Skolmann]

Finally got the picture