A late morning call from my neighbor (Tony) wanting to know if I wanted to join him for a Tog trip near Ol’ Barney, drew an immediate yes from me. I had been fishing from the bulkheads the prior day (Sept 25) and had several Tog but no keepers. A few minutes later, he called again to say his boat, Rig a Tony, had engine problems so off we went in my boat.

We anchored using my trolling motor about 50 ft off where Andy’s restaurant and the State Park properties meet at ~11:00 AM. The current null was at noon. We never moved until we ran out of my considerable supply of green crabs three hours later. The action was non-stop with many hits, misses, shorts and 7 keepers including the two we actually kept in the photo at 16 and 17 inches. After all the wind of the last several days, it was nice to get into some fishing action!

Larry Leary wrote “my grandson Tyler, and his friends made an overnight trip to the Canyon Friday evening. Weather was perfect for venturing out on the ocean. They caught a mixed bag including Yellow Fin Tuna, Mahi Mahi and Tilefish. Looks like they hit the jackpot!”

On Thursday 9/12, Mike Woodrow, Doug O’Brien and I headed out early for some fishing around the inlet and BI reef.
We also wanted to get some peanut bunker on the way out and found them to be plentiful near the coast guard station. One toss of the net gave us more than a full live well. We headed out to the monument and saw a few boats fishing the submerged rocks. Mike started things off with a bluefish on a top water plug and not long after that, Doug landed a nice one too. I couldn’t miss out on the fun and joined what was about 2 hours of 2-3 pound bluefish mostly on top water plugs.

We then headed out to the reef where we found lots of life including: sea bass, robins, skates and 3 keeper fluke. Ran into the boys on Ed V’s “Set the Hook” on the inside and then tried for tog along the fuel dock but had the same results as them: nothing but shorts. All in all, a great day on the water

Two days after the VHFC Fluke trip, I decided to give it a try on my boat. Joining me were John Stuebing and Bayside Dave. Shortly after leaving my dock, we saw the telltale signs of peanut bunker and the 2nd throw of my net got us more than enough.

Once on Barnegat Reef, the drift was okay but not great at ~.4 – .6 kts. Two things became obvious: the flutter spoon rig that had super results on our charter was not working at all. Captain Greg Carr confirmed Friday night that at least a 1 kt drift is needed for the spoon to flutter and not drag on the bottom. Secondly, the peanuts were the ticket especially on just a bare hook. Everything was hitting them,

We caught three respectable keepers, many shorts, birds and I had six skates! We tried tog fishing near Andy’s and the fuel docks, but all we caught were shorts. Still a great day on the water!

On Tuesday 9/10/2024, a group of club members and a few guests went out on the Super Chic charter boat for some bottom fishing.  After being canceled and rescheduled twice because of bad weather, it turned out to be a beautiful day.  We drifted the Barnegat Reef targeting fluke.  Many fish were caught and we ended up with 10 keeper fluke, a Spanish mackerel, a bonito, a bluefish, 2 large sea robins, and Ed took home a skate.  John Steubing won the pool with a 22″ fluke.  The filets were split up evenly among the group.  It was a fun day.

Jim Healy took Doug O’Brien and me out on his boat on Saturday morning 8/31/2024.  We targeted fluke using live minnows and peanut bunker in Barnegat Bay.  Drifting the west side of the dike in High Bar Harbor, fishing was slow but we caught about a dozen fish.  Doug caught and kept a nice 19″ fluke on live peanut bunker.  The bite slowed down, so we moved to the channel in front of the gas dock by the Coast Guard Station and set up a drift from there to the lighthouse.  We caught and released a few fish per drift and again, Doug got another 19″ keeper, this time on a live minnow.  The three of us enjoyed fishing together on a beautiful day and were happy to get some action.

On Tuesday, 8/27, club members, Bob, Bill, Boston and John joined Gino on the Kev n Ash for a productive but rough day. The weather and seas were perfect, but the fluke were challenging!! I don’t know about other club members fishing that day, but we lost a lot of fish.
They were getting off from the minute they were hooked, on the way up, and even on the surface before being netted. However, we finished with a limit of sea bass, several ling and 11 fluke. Which included a 23″, 5 pounder+ that I caught! 

Great trip on Friday, August 23 with John Stuebing and Pat Presutto. John had invited us to join him on his boat, the Salty Dog, for a tuna trip out of Tuckerton but we got reports of bluefin being caught at the Tolten wreck/lump area about 20 miles NE of the Barnegat Inlet. I’m out of Waretown so we decided to take my boat with John outfitting the trip and setting the strategy. We left the docks at first navigable light and were on the fishing grounds by about 6:30 am. John and Pat worked magic to get 6 lines out behind my 23′ 7″ Sea Hunt and we trolled the Tolten wreck and nearby lump all morning.

Because I’d never hooked up with a tuna before the guys insisted that I take the first fish. It was slow going until about 11:30 when a fish slammed one of John’s green Sterling spreader bars and the reel started screaming. I grabbed the rod and began the fight while John and Pat brought in the other lines. John took the boat controls and helped me by running the fish down and before long we had him in the boat and quickly on ice. Back home John showed us how to break down the fish and we split the meat to enjoy with our families. Hands down the most delicious tuna I’ve ever eaten.