Fished the surf in Beach Haven on Thursday morning. Hit the beach at 4:30 fishing clams on a Hi-Lo rig and bunker chunk on a single 10/0 circle. Five large dogfish. Just before getting ready to leave, the bunker rod doubled over. Ten years ago, I would have gotten to the rod and landed the fish. By the time I got out of the chair and started running for the rod, it was out of the holder and heading for the surf. I dove to grab it at the last minute but by the time I got up, the fish was gone.

I went back out at 5:00 on Friday morning fishing the same setups, but with clam only. At 5:45 AM, the single 10/0 went down and the fight was on. I landed a 41 1/2″ Striper and put it back in to swim again. At 7:25, the Hi-Lo went down, and I landed a 42 1/2″ that also went back to swim. I only have photos of the fish on the ruler because there was no one else anywhere on the beach.

I’m heading down again at 5:00 on Saturday morning. Best day I’ve had in years on the beach!

I fished the Surf City beach at 6th street on Monday afternoon (5/23) and all I caught was one small 20″ striper. But I watched someone one street south land and return 3 bass. So today I went to 5th street at 4:00 for a 5:20 high tide. There was a light NE wind and for the first hour, my clam bait was chewed down by blowfish – my guess anyway.

At 5:00, I rebaited again and cast out into the surf. Within a minute I felt my bait being grabbed and moved around. Taking my time with the circle hooks and resisting the urge to set the hook, I slowly started reeling until I was sure the fish was hooked. When I got the fish on the sand, I knew it would definitely make the slot size but I measured to be sure. The fish measured just under 27″ and was just under 6 lbs. Once home, per Bonus Tag rules, I reported the fish online and requested another tag.

After doing a lot of work in the yard today, I forced myself to get out for the high tide and fished from 2 pm till 5:20. I hooked up with a small 14” bluefish in 5 minutes and then nothing. I decided to wait two hours after the top of the tide before going home. So, at 5:18 I started getting ready to leave. There were lot of weeds in the water but then the pole bent over, and I was on. A nice striper that measured 36” and 14.84 lbs. But wait, the day wasn’t over yet.
Then other rod bent, and I went to grab it. I had barely measured the fish that I just caught. Of course, it was a seagull, and I was glad it didn’t get tangled in my line.
The other photo is from last Friday. That fish went 36-3/4” and 16.44 lbs. If you remember my black drum report from a few weeks back, I seem to have the knack for catching just when I am about to pack up and leave!

I fished the Spray Beach area on Saturday 5/21. Great deep water and nothing but dogfish. First three stole my bait but #4 paid the price. Bled and gutted, I made smooth dogfish nuggets. Not bad! On Sunday, I went back to Beach Haven. There’s nice deep water by a jetty. I landed a 26 1/2” Bonus Fish and another 24” that was returned to the water. Finally, the ice is broken!

Our opening week trip for sea bass trip didn’t start too well. I was fishing with my son Shawn, neighbor Kyle and his boss Tony. One way to get a day off, is to ask your boss to come. As we started, that 1/2” increase to 13” looked like it would spoil our trip. Most of the initial fish were between 12.5 and just shy of 13”. However, we were fishing with Capt. Greg Carr on the Kev n Ash II and he has never failed us before.

He didn’t this time either. We moved several times and started getting good sized sea bass. We ended the day with a boat limit of 50 sea bass from 13 – 20+” including the keeper double shown below. Shawn got the beautiful big one and this time beat his father. We had time left on the charter so Greg took us into the bay for some fluke fishing before the winds kicked up. We did get 1 20″ keeper and 2 shorts before calling it quits.
It was another enjoyable trip. However, watch out next time Shawn.

Bob Dodds invited me to join a Brett Taylor Fluke charter for Friday May 6th. However, due to incessant NE winds, we rescheduled for Wednesday May 11th for 4:30 to 8:30 PM. Brett picked up Bob, me and a third angler, another Bob, at Bobbies Boats in Barnegat Light and we proceeded up into High Bar Harbor.

Unlike Double Creek which still has no marker buoys, High Bar’s buoys were not removed. But what remains is all but useless since the buoys are moved off their original locations and only a handful of the stick markers remain.

After an initial drift by the clam stakes which produced only one hit, we moved up past the homes and fished along the bay side of LBI. We were all dressed warmly and it was a pleasant evening fishing after a long spring. We only caught ~10 fish with 4 keepers – two 17’s, one 19 and a 21+ caught by Bob Dodds. Not the best catching, but the fishing was wonderful!

My cousin Joe & I booked Capt. Brett Taylor for Wednesday night 4/27 for a 7-10 PM charter for bay stripers. It was cold with light winds so we fished a number of spots on the West side of the bay.

Joe just turned 78, 8 months before me and has a few medical issues. However, we started fishing together over 70 years ago but haven’t in 55 years or more, so we wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. We talked about how life & families get in the way of doing what you used to do.

That said, the excitement of competition from our youth was alive and kicking. I was in my glory as I caught the first four. Then, bummer, he caught the next six. We went back and forth after that. We finished with 10 each from 15 -25”. I caught the largest, so I have some bragging rights.

Bottom line, we plan to enjoy a lot more “youthful” competitive fishing in the future for as long as we can.

Dave Spendiff joined me on opening day of the 2022 fluke season. We started at 1:00 in Double Creek to catch the start of the outgoing tide. The only bite was a blowfish taking a chunk out of my Gulp shrimp teaser. BTW, there were NO markers in DC as of Monday,
We quickly moved over to the BI buoy and spent a fair amount of time drifting along south of Oyster Creek all the way into 3-4′ of water. Once again, the only bite was one blowfish. There were 8 other boats fishing the area and we never saw a fluke caught. Oh well, things can only get better!

A beautiful day was called for so I rode the ocean front beaches scouting for new holes and cuts. Then I went to Graveling Point to meet some fishing comrades after getting some bloodworms from Ron at West Creek. Walking down to the point, I ran into another friend who was walking off with a 33” striper, later weighed in at 16#. I got excited.

Anyway, the next few hours were dead. I caught an 18” striper and didn’t see anyone else hooking up. I decided to leave at 5 and had one pole packed and went to bring in the other one. The tip was moving a little bit and I set the hook. Thought I was snagged on the bottom but then it started moving. Took me a while to bring in as I was using my pole with 15 # test braid. A crowd gathered as I landed the beast – a beautiful black drum. Fish was safely released after popping the hook. What a thrill. I estimate the fish weighed close to 40 lbs!

After returning home from our daughter’s home on Friday, April 8th, where my wife and I had been staying for two weeks while our heating and hot water system was being repaired, I did the two most important things; first – unpack, and second – fish off of my dock.

Two hours of casting resulted in eight fish caught, the largest a 14″, fat female. On Saturday, Ed and I caught more than 12 fish the largest being 14″ in a couple of hours. Last night my wife and I enjoyed fish tacos – thanks white perch!

This year, I brought my boat down to our place in Punta Gorda on Florida’s West coast to do some gulf fishing. Unfortunately, keeper grouper require traveling out into the gulf to get legal sized fish and we went 40 miles outside of Charlotte Harbor last week. I caught the twin 29 inch Red Grouper shown in the photos last. I didn’t weigh them as we only measure length for the Punta Gorda fishing club down here like we do at VHFC.

Red Grouper are excellent eating. My favorite is a grouper Reuben sandwich or blackened.  

I went out for a day of back bay fishing down in FL on Dragon Fly Charters. I had a blast! We started off cast netting for Pilchards and my guide made throwing a 20′ diameter net look like child’s play. We had tons of pilchards in two casts.
We started out casting for snook and I boated the snook in the photo. Snook are catch and release only so it was quickly released and sent on its way. I had two more on – one was a beast – but they both got off. 
I then caught the bonnet head shark shown and after a sporty battle on light tackle, released it for another day.
We then went after speckled trout. What a great fishery! Trout have a three fish limit over 15″ with only one of the three being over 18″. We caught them on both pilchards and shrimp under a popping cork. One was 15″, one 17″ and one 19+” We also looked to no avail for sting rays with cobia swimming over them. We saw a few rays but all without cobia. There’s always next year!

As most of you know, my wife Pat and I are spending January through March in Cape Coral, Florida. Fishing has been a little slow due to the “cold Florida weather”. However, things are warming up and so is the fishing.
While fishing today off a small park pier, a redfish inhaled my shrimp and gave me quite a battle. I estimated the weight to be at least 10+ lbs. Florida has a ‘catch and release’ on snook and redfish due to the red tide a few years back. So, after a quick photo, back it went!

With my boat scheduled to come out today, Tuesday December 14 was my last fishing opportunity. With a great weather forecast along with manageable winds and waves, members Alan Goracy, Dave Spendiff and Bill Dabney joined me for our last striper trip of the year.

With many good recent reports from Marty Friedrich, we headed south for Little Egg inlet. With the blowout tides, navigation was tricky but still doable. We started trolling outside the inlet but despite some good readings, we had no luck. A radio call from the Red Herring (Bill Figley) told us the fish were off Brigantine and biting!

We joined a fleet of ~20 boats fishing fairly close to shore in depths of 20 – 30 feet. With sporadic birds and fish marking the screen, we jigged the area and managed four fish 30 – 34″ in the box and a few others that got away. It was a great end to the 2021 season!
Bill Figley said his boat caught 20 – 30 stripers! The man is truly amazing!

Fellow VHFC member Dan Ludwig and I ventured out Dec 9 from Waretown for the tail end of the striper run in Dan’s boat the day before its scheduled haul out for the season. With a late start at 10:30 due to the sea conditions, we turned right out of the BI and headed down to Harvey Cedars since there were some reports of fish hanging around in the vicinity.

We found just a couple of other boats trolling and saw no one on the beach, although we did see a few marks on the fish finder. After two hours of unproductive activity, a radio report of fish in the box just north of the inlet called for a change of plans. We headed up to the coast guard station and discovered quite a few more surf fishermen on the beach and four boats trolling with one reeling in a fish. We set up a chartreuse mojo on the starboard side and an umbrella on port and started the troll in 35 to 45′ where we immediately started seeing fish marks and baitfish on the finder.

The umbrella rig showed signs of activity and we hauled in a small 22″ striper which went back for next year’s run. As it was starting to get late, we decided to make one more troll through the active area, whereupon the mojo was struck, and we brought in a nice 29+” fish. With that encouragement, the mojo went back in the water where it soon picked up another 28+” striper, making our limit. Although we both had our bonus tags, we decided not to continue, and headed back to the dock. All in all, a good way to end the season.

With perfect weather and low wave heights forecast for Sunday December 5th, Dave Spendiff and I decided to go striper fishing once again. Since we fished off the Red Tower on Saturday, we headed north out of Barnegat inlet and traveled along IBSP. Unfortunately, the bird play was minimal, so we decided to troll instead.
Dave opted for his mini umbrella rig that was hot the prior day and I chose my 9er shad body rig. Within minutes my pole went down and I had a real battle on my hands. It turned out to be three stripers: one tag fish and 2 shorts. We had a blast and by 9:00, we had boated 10 stripers. The action finally slowed but the tally was 14 fish on the troll with two bonus tag fish and two at 32 – 33 inches. We then threw paddle tails close to shore and caught 4 more 22-24″ fish.
Bill Figley called me later in the afternoon for his report. Bill went south out of the inlet past Harvey Cedars lump. Bill and two friends had 21 stripers including 6 in the box. The fish are definitely still in our area!

With the remaining fishing days dwindling, the nice weather and calm seas forecast for December 4th could not be passed up. Dave Spendiff joined me for a trip out Little Egg inlet to fish the waters off southern LBI. Also fishing the area that day were Marty Friedrich on a friend’s boat and Bill Figley and crew on his boat. In not in visual range, we all stayed in radio contact.
The fishing wasn’t lights out, but our initial action was a pair of stripers. Dave caught both fish together on a small three shad umbrella rig off the Red Tower. I also caught a slot but that had to go back! We just couldn’t coax any other fish to strike!

On Marty’s boat, they had two fish and lost two. More surprising was the 22″ fluke that also struck a Mann’s Stretch plug. Guess this fish wasn’t ready yet for the winter trip offshore!

A call to Bill Figley at noon before we headed back had their count at 8 stripers with 1 keeper.

With good striper action recently reported off IBSP and a decent weather / wave forecast for Monday November 29th, members Alan Goracy and Bill Dabney joined me for some striper action. We cleared the inlet at 6:45 and birds were diving from the pocket northward.

We started were throwing paddle tails and it didn’t take long for the hookups to begin. Most fish were ~ 28″. Two fish just under 28″ were fitted with bonus tags and three fish over the 28″ line joined them in the cooler. Bill had applied recently for his bonus tag but hadn’t yet received it so several potential slot fish were safely released. I’d estimate we caught 20 fish total with most in the first two hours.
The last picture shows the stomach contents of one especially fat striper. There are two adult bunker and 6 peanuts clearly visible!

I went out this morning at 4 am and immediately started catching dogfish. Two hours later had 8, first four were smooth then spiny. Caught the 39-1/2” striper shown below and released it. Stayed and got 7 more dogfish. Wind really picked up. I ran out of bait and called it a day. Maybe tomorrow will be the day! The striper shown at the beginning of the report was caught on 11 November, photographed and released. It measured 40 1/4″ and is my entry for the striper FOM.

With the fantastic weather forecast for Wednesday Nov 10th, Caesar Pesarini joined me for a day of tog fishing down at the southern sod banks. We started below the Rutgers building but the incoming tide was too fast and carried too much grass. Caesar suggested we try the sod banks across from the old fish factory. There the tide was a little weaker and after an hour the incoming weed finally disappeared.
It wasn’t fast and furious but we had fun feeding the bait stealing tog. Eventually we hooked up and landed ~15 fish with two keepers! The weather stayed beautiful all day for once.