Meetings

VHFC meetings are held on the second Friday of each month from April through November. New for 2024, doors will open at 7:00 with the meeting start time at 7:15 in the Manahawkin Community Center, 775 East Bay Ave, across from The Boat Shop, in Manahawkin, NJ. Meeting dates for 2024 are: April 12, May 10, June 14, July 12, August 9, September 13, October 11 and November 8.

We have a guest speaker at each meeting to help educate our members on successful techniques to pursue local fish species; locations, methods, equipment and conditions are discussed. We also have speakers who may discuss other areas of interest to anglers including boat upkeep and maintenance, personal skin issues encountered with excessive sun exposure, Barnegat Bay health and legislative / regulatory activity that affect anglers. Go to the Pulldown Guest Speakers for 2024 under Events for a list of speakers and their biographies.

Following the guest speaker, various committees report out on their latest news followed by a general discussion from members of their most recent fishing successes / failures. Light refreshments are also provided.

Membership Form

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.