Friend Anthony and I departed his dock at 8:30 to catch the 9:30 tide null at the BI north jetty. The plan was to fish for Tog and then try for Stripers with Spot before the winds picked up.

Tog fishing was really slow and to make things worse, Rig a Tony was catching while I couldn’t get a bite! It was just a matter of time before he got a 15″ and a 17″ keeper. With the tog in the live well, we hoped to get a replacement but everything was short. Finally, I had a decent fish on and called for the net. After several brief runs, I had a nice 16″ Triggerfish!

With the winds starting to crank out of the south, we headed for the sod banks looking for a Striper or Fluke on a Spot. The outgoing tide and strong winds made it near impossible to fish so we headed back. Great day with out third limit of Tog at the jetty and a nice bonus Triggerfish!

Left the dock today with fellow club member Rick and friend Larry. We decided to go fluking in about 60 foot of water off of LBI it was like a washing machine out there this morning. We picked our way through a few shorts and six keeper fluke with one keeper Seabass, Fluke were 18,19,19 1/2 , 21 1/2 , 22 and 28. Sea Bass was 14. It turned out to be a great day in the end and a nice ride back!

Fished on Tuesday with member Mike Almasi. Went out Barnegat and saw some birds diving on small bait fish. Took some blues and a small bonito. All the bonito chasing bait were small so we decided to hit a couple of local wrecks for fluke. Plenty of action with smaller fluke but we managed to find 3 nice ones. Nice day on the water!

Headed out for a canyon trip on Sunday. Water was clean and blue at 75 degrees.  Found some life with pilot whales and surface feeding Skipjacks. Heard via radio chatter that there were some Yellowfin mixed in. We unfortunately only managed to find a small 24″ catch. But we kept fishing and were eventually rewarded with a 62″ wahoo. An amazing fish to catch!

John Stuebing took me, Ed, and Glen out on his boat, the Salty Dog last weel.  We fished a few wrecks just outside the Garden State South reef.  It was a slow pick which gave us only 2 keeper Fluke (19″ & 21″) out of 40 fish caught.  We all enjoyed this leisurely day of fishing.

On Wednesday August 26th, I set out with a full crew of four to go fluke fishing on the Garden State North. It was an active morning with many short fluke but only two keepers there. We also managed to catch four Legal Sea Bass. We left the reef early afternoon and headed toward a wreck on the way back home. There we managed to get three more keeper flounder which ended our day with five fluke, 4 sea Bass and lots of shorts – not a bad day!

On Tuesday, August 25th I took a friend of mine out fishing.  We stopped at one wreck in 60 ft of water and started bailing short flounder with an occasional keeper. We also had about 10 doubles of shorts! By 11:30, we ended up with our six keepers – one 19″ and the rest over 20″ with the largest 23″. It was a good day!

I did something a little different for me. I took a solo trip today from Belmar on the Ocean Explorer. It was a nice day and I got my 3 keepers before 11am. Fish were from 19 to 20 inches. Not a lot of shorts in the mix like a few times in southern waters. But it was a crowded boat for a Monday!

On Tuesday August 18, Wil. Paul and I went out on a fluke trip. We got three keepers with Wil getting a nice 21 3/4″ fatty. The bite was slow with a minimal number of shorts. Then I had a trolling motor breakdown, so we switched to LE Reef. We started drifting but all we could catch were short flounder. I was still a good day!

Last week I had the opportunity to join Bill Dabney and his son Bill, along with Bill Figley and his son Nate and Brother Dave on a fishing trip to the Nantucket Shoals. We left on Monday and drove to Hyannis, fished Tuesday and Wednesday then returned on Thursday.

I have heard and read about the Fluke fishing on these shoals but you have to do it to believe it. Over the course of two days, we boated close to 60 Fluke and about 20 Sea Bass. By noon time on Tuesday, we were only keeping fish that were at least 5lbs. That’s right, several times I boated a fish that were between 21 and 23 inches only to see it released. In one day, I boated 5 fish that were over 5lbs!

Nate Figley caught the “Toad” of the trip, a Fluke weighing in at 11.4lbs. When I got home, I weighed my bag of fillets, 22.2 lbs. of fillets! I will be returning to the Nantucket Shoals.

Thank You to Bill Dabney who put together this trip together. Also want to thank the captain of the Fish Hawk who put us on fish and showed me how to catch in these waters. All in all, a great rip with great people.

A late morning phone call from Anthony aka Rig a Tony on Thursday August 13th asked if I wanted to make a quick trip to the North jetty for Tog. Of course I did! We arrived after the start of the outgoing tide and anchored about 8 – 10 feet off the monument but still inside the line of submerged rocks. This minimizes the impact of the outgoing tide allowing us to use jigs down to 3/4 oz.

My first drop yielded a frisky 14″ Tog despite the 78 degree water temps. After that, it was game on with bites and / or fish on almost every drop followed by stretches where everything shutdown? Anthony got his 16.5″ fish on green crab and I caught my 16+” keeper on sand fleas I froze back in December!

BTW, the West wind brought hordes of biting stable flies that contributed to the memorability of this first Tog outing!

2026 has been a tough fluke fishing year for many of us including me but as with much in life if you keep at it good things eventually will happen (or you go insane per the definition).  Anyway, I’ve been on several action packed outings catching shorts but keepers have been elusive for me until last week when my brother, Chris, and nephew, Jake, came to town.  They only had a few days and were chomping at the bit to get out.  On day 1, Tuesday, conditions forced us to stay inside so we fished the sedge islands at both ends of peak tide and lighting it up with lots of action and my first two keepers. Wednesday, we were able to get outside and headed to Seaside on the strength of an outrageously strong report from someone working at one of our local B&T shops (several packages of gulp were sold in the process).  Fishing there was good but not great and worsening conditions curtailed my plan to cruise to Axel Carlson.  The guys left Thursday with doormat dreams on hold for next Summer.

Dawn and I went out Saturday for a short bay trip.  Another rough outside day and the clicking August calendar brought out boats in droves and made fishing in and around the channels nearly impossible but I was lucky enough to connect with a 23” fish over by the dike.  Things are looking up.

Ran out to the ledge again yesterday.  We picked up two nice yellowfin, a 44″ and a 53″.  Water temps were mid-low 70s with clear blue water.  Both fish hit purple side trackers with a zucchini stinger.

On Friday July 17th, I set out on my boat with Paul and Mario. We headed out to one of my previous wrecks which had been holding a lot of fluke. Unfortunately, most of them were shorts but we managed to get four keepers up to 22″. We had a lot of action and I never had seen so many short fish in one spot. I even caught a double header – one was a keeper and the other was just a quarter inch shy. Still, it was a good day of fishing despite a lot of short fish!

Ran out of little egg inlet this morning. Caught Bluefin tunas on spreader bars!

With my daughter Lisa, grandson Nick and Nick’s girlfriend Liv visiting and wanting to go fishing but not wanting an all day outing, I opted for the Middle Grounds. My first stop was right off the channel markers running down to the ICW. Black Stable flies immediately swarmed us and none of my three sprays had any impact. I decided to try the ICW – guess what – there were no flies and the incoming tide with a southerly breeze made for a perfect northerly drift.

A few hours of fishing yielded ~25 shorts, two keepers including the 23″ keeper Liv caught and a 19″ fluke that I caught. For extra fun, Lisa had a short on the teaser and a cownose snagged on the bucktail. Lots of fun on a bay rod! Overall, a wonderful day on the water. BTW, Nick is now 19 but was our first Fluke Tournament winner 10 years ago. First place was $100!

Decided to do some crabbing on Monday 7/13/26. I headed south to Chestnut Neck Marina. Talking to Maryanne she suggested I head up river. The fresh/salt water line has moved upriver. The Perch and Crabs also headed up river.

With traps loaded on the skiff, off I went. Not far upriver I started crabbing. In less than an hour I had two dozen nice keepers. Twelve of those crabs were dinner Monday night! Great way to spend some time on the water.

On the day of our club’s annual Fluke Tournament, Bill Bond (Agent 6 7/8), Pat Presutto, and I went out with John Stuebing on his boat Salty Dog.  We went out of Little Egg Inlet at 6 AM heading towards GSS.  John set us up on a few wrecks on the way to the reef where we targeted Fluke using live minnows, whole squid, squid strips, and Gulp products.  The four of us boated 50+ Fluke, all shorts except for the 20″ keeper that I got.  We also caught and released many Sea Bass, a few Sea Robins, and a couple dogfish.  Bill did get himself a nice size Triggerfish.  Mid way through the outing, rain snuck up on us and it poured for about 30 minutes.  Thankfully, John’s boat is equipped with a cabin in which we stayed dry, then we continued fishing after it passed.  We never actually fished the reef since there were a couple dozen boats there already.  It was definitely a fun day of fishing, and we got back to the marina in time to clean the boat and get to the Tournament barbeque.

We started yesterday at the BI inlet and had 2 keepers. We then decided to run to GSS where we boxed 4 more fluke. Had a significant amount of shorts sea robins and small Seabass. All caught on gulp. Bonus was we had a Hammerhead circle the boat. We all returned safely soaking wet. Great day had by all.

Ed V’s Note: Larry finished 1st in our tournament with a 3.76 lb Fluke and grandson Bryson Wyatt finished 3rd with a 3.10 lb fish.

Bill 006-7/8 and I hit the surf to try for fluke. A total of 18 shorts and one bluefish. Plus one unexpected catch. Gulp sand eel was the ticket. Birds were picking up bait. The osprey’s were unsuccessful but right over our heads.
Nice morning except for lack of keepers.