Guest Speakers for 2024

April 12: Captain John Kolias, Reel Fun Sportfishing – Captain John brings over 50 years of his experience fishing the waters of Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook, and the New York Bight to return to the club to talk about his techniques for fishing for striped bass. Just in time for the Fall run, Captain John will discuss his trolling, clamming, live lining, and bunker chunking techniques, as well as the importance of judging the best times and locations to score keeper fish. Be prepared to ask questions and enjoy a very interesting discussion. Captain John fishes out of the Twin Lights Marina in the Highlands, captaining a 25’ custom Parker. For more information check out his website at Reel Fun Sportfishing

May 10: Jenni Ackerman, The Fisherman Magazine – If you haven’t seen Jenni in her weekly “Open Boat” presentations as part of the Fisherman Magazine videos, you have been missing out on a ton of extremely useful tips on fishing the New Jersey coast. Although still early in her life and career, Jenni has been fishing since her days growing up in NJ and fishing the beach with her family. Jenni will discuss fluke fishing in our waters, just in time for the opening of the 2024 fluke season

June 14: Greg Cudnik, Fisherman’s Headquarters, and Fish Head Charters –If you have not attended one of Greg’s seminars before, get ready for more tips on fishing Barnegat Bay than you can manage to write down. Primarily a light tackle fisherman, his guide service is in high demand. You can catch Greg’s weekly fishing report and forecast on YouTube or at FishingLBI.com

July 12: Jim Hutchinson Jr, The Fisherman Magazine After serving as Managing Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, Jim rejoined The Fisherman family in early 2015 as Managing Editor of the New Jersey/Delaware edition. Long an advocate for improving the data that the regulatory agencies use to set yearly fishing quotas and bag limits, Jim will discuss the latest findings of The Fisherman’s Northeast Striped Bass Study using satellite tags in post-spawn stripers.

August 9: “Bayside” Dave Etelman – Village Harbor Fishing Club member and new board member, Dave will present a clinic on fishing the surf in NJ. Well known in the local fishing community through his YouTube videos, Facebook page, and other social media, Dave will give us the best advice possible on claiming keepers from the beach. Dave runs a popular Facebook group called “Surf Fishing LBI with Bayside Dave” which has 5800+ members and growing. It’s an online forum for surf anglers, novice through expert, to share their knowledge of the sport. Fishing reports from the beaches and jetties of LBI are shared and the group supports and promotes the local bait and tackle shops.

September 13: Captain Greg Carr – Captain Greg has been fishing the waters off LBI for over 45 years. He worked on the Carolyn Ann III from the age of 12 until 23. At age 19 he obtained his Masters Captain’s license and began running the Carolyn Ann. For the last 12 years he has been operating his own charter business, LBI Charters. Captain Greg runs a 28 foot Crowley Beal down east boat the Kev n Ash III, specializing in bottom fishing

October 11: Bill Figley Bill is a retired Marine Biologist who spent his working career working for New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife (NJDFW). Starting in 1985, under his leadership, all 15 NJ artificial reefs were created and began to be populated with all types of reef building hard structures. The reefs consist of 140 different ships and barges, 397 obsolete army tanks, 250 New York City subway cars, and thousands of concrete reef ball habitats. I do not know yet what Bill’s topic will be but I will guarantee it will be interesting!

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Fishing Facts

Of the fifty United States, thirty-eight have a striped-bass record. New Jersey has the largest striped-bass record—a 78-pound 8·ounce whopper that was caught in 1982. The state with the smallest striped-bass record is Iowa. That landlocked striper weighed only 9 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in 1983.

There’s something fishy about beer these days. Fish Tail Ale is popular as ever, and New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewery is one of the state’s largest specialty breweries. There’s also Washington’s Wild Salmon Organic Pale Ale, Florida’s Land Shark beer, Delaware’s Dogfish Head beer, and two versions of Stingray beer—a lighter version from the Cayman Islands and a dark beer from Canada.

The triangle fly is probably the most unusual of saltwater flies. It’s one of the few, if not only, flies tied to a treble hook. It’s also barely a fly at all, because hardly any material is used. It is complete after tying the two straw pearl twinkle flashes and the tiny tuft of natural squirrel, leaving an entire hook fully exposed. Incredibly this barebacked treble fly is a knockout when it comes to sea trout.