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.

Went looking for more tuna this weekend and thankfully there was a lot less fog this trip out.  Water was significantly warmer this week, mid 70s in the morning and high 70s as the day went on.  We spotted an area with tons of two-tone dolphins just short of the canyon on the way out, but didn’t have any luck, so we continued on.  Once we got to the ledge, I didn’t see any birds, whales, or dolphins, but thankfully, I was marking a lot of bait.  We got the gear out, and 30 minutes in we had a triple hookup.  Unfortunately, we lost one of the fish but managed to boat the other two.  The first hit green dial trackers, and my new favorite lure, the same purple Sterling deep runner as last week.

Headed out to a canyon to look for some yellowfin last weekend.  We had fog for the entire 80 mile ride out.  Water temp was 69-70 and clean, clear blue.  We had one knockdown late morning, but the fish didn’t get hooked.  We finally managed one fish around 1pm.  Wish we had more, but at least we went home with something.  The fish hit a Sterling purple deep runner chain.  Already looking forward to the next trip. My cockpit display below – 150 gallons & 197 nm or 236 mi

Junior members Eisner and Azlynn Simon joined Secret Agent PopPop 006 7/8ths and club member Pat Presutto on a quest at Brant Beach from 5am till 9am on the incoming tide while the terns were bombarding sandeels nonstop. We only managed 1 dogfish as we tried for Striper, Drum, Bluefish and Fluke. We still managed to have a great morning. Oh well better luck next time.

Today, Friday June 26, I was invited by Bob Dodds to go on a fluke charter lead by Capt. Brett Taylor. Accompanying us was Bob’s friend, Bill Scott.  We went out into the bay and fished a variety of locations. Each spot yielded a catch so that by the end of our 4 hour trip, we totaled approximately 48 fluke which included 5 keepers – the largest of which measured around 19″. A great time was had by all. Thanks to Bob and a big thanks to Capt. Taylor.

On Wednesday June 17th, my buddy Bobby and I headed out to Little Egg Reef to do some flounder recon. We had a decent day with water temperature at 66°. We had about a dozen shorts and picked up three keepers – one @20″ and two @19″. It was good to see there’s some flounder out there and they’re biting!

Weighmaster Pat, Ed V and Bayside Dave joined up for a deep wreck fishing trip with John Stuebing. Since the Sea Bass have been elusive, John’s plan was to travel 20 – 25 miles offshore for some deepwater action. The weather forecast was promising but unfortunately, it was wrong. Two to three foot seas were growing to three to five the more we headed offshore.  John’s 27 foot Parker, Salty Dog, was throwing us around like ragdolls. Halfway out ~12 miles, John decided the pounding was too much and his trolling motor would not hold anyway.

We settled for Plan B and went to an alternate wreck where the water was not as deep as originally planned. We all caught fish but there were a lot of throwbacks. After a few hours, the seas had settled and John decided to run a few miles further out. The keeper ratio was much improved at the second stop. We ended up with 31 Sea Bass led by the 19.5″ beauty caught by yours truly and 6 Ling. Still a fun day on the water but my backside is still sore from the bouncy ride out!

The Leary Clan – Brian, Tyler, Sean, Bryson – Max from Fish Heads and I fished yesterday 6/13 at the BI north jetty rocks. We caught a half dozen Stripers to 37” all on Spot. We then tried for fluke in the bay but only had one short. I sure hope the fluke fishing improves. Nice day with the family!

I headed out for another sea bass trip on Saturday 6/13 with Rick and Perry as our captain. It was a beautiful day with light seas. We headed towards 100 ft of water where we fished and caught our 30 fish limit and some ling and a cod. Largest sea bass was 19 1/4 making it a great day on the water!