With a flat wave forecast for Sunday, October 24th followed by big waves for the rest of the week, Dave Spendiff joined me for a trip to the Garden State North reef. Despite the small number of boats remaining in the water, the nice weather had everyone out fishing and we had to search for a vacant wreck to fish.
But the story was always the same – shorts, shorts and more shorts! We probably caught over 80 short seabass overall. The last spot we tried was a small barge close to the edge of the reef. At this point, we had only one keeper. But we quickly caught four more keepers including a nice 16 1/2″ keeper by Dave and a very nice triggerfish I caught. The question is, “Have all the larger fish been caught or have they already moved offshore?” I think it’s perhaps a little bit of both!

I just finished a long weekend trip to the Savannah, GA area to visit two of my sons. I went fishing with my son Garth and his youngest son Carson on Saturday with a fair day of catching – both Garth and I had our Bay Slam by catching a flounder, redfish & sea trout. On Sunday, we left a bit later so that we arrived at “Black Man’s Cove” 2 hours before dead low tide. My son named this location out of respect of the two old men that arrived at the end of this creek he was in to get out of a howling wind. They arrived in two trucks and fished from the bank – my son had a long lunchtime conversation on that day and other encounters with them, at this location.

They were not there on this Sunday to witness my son’s first cast with a “mud dog” (Killie) 24 inches below a cork and hooked through the lips on a small 02 circle hook. It hit the water and disappeared below the water almost instantly. The rod was slowly raised, reel engaged and POP, the line parts – but more about that later. As the tide flowed out, the catching became more intense with 80 redfish and two very small flounder boated for the last 2 hours of the outgoing and 1st hour of the incoming. All fish were caught in a really small area. Absolutely insane fishing with 4 triple simultaneous landings and 6 doubles. We ran out of 3 dozen mud dogs, 1 dozen frozen shrimp, and 16 finger mullet cast netted in desperation. The mullet were live-lined and also as cut bait. The redfish sizes ranged between the fish shown in the second photo and were caught on light, “freshwater” rods with small 2000 sized reels. An absolute thrill!

On our way out of the cove/creek my son spotted the cork from his first cast break off and with a little trolling motor finesse, my grandson was able to grab the cork – the fish still hooked up! Took 3+ hours to boat that first hooked red! The last picture is an oyster bar that is at the heart of redfish and trout fishing and navigation in the southeast bays.

Bill Figley invited Bill Dabney, Ron Roshelli and me to join him on Friday 10/15 for a seabass excursion. The weather was perfect and the waves were 2 ft or less as forecast. We departed Bill’s dock at 7:00 and headed south to the AC reef.

With the seas coming off some serious wave heights and small craft warnings forecast for Saturday and beyond, the reef had a large number of boats all fishing the larger structures. Therefore, we fished individual tanks, rolls of wire and one subway car. Each had a few keepers and we moved from one spot to another once the action slowed. It was after 2:00 when we finally caught our final (40th) fish, preserving Bill’s continuous record of limiting out! What a wonderful time on the water with fellow club members.

The photo shows ~ a quarter of our catch!

I made a 48” fish ruler for the beach today. Total cost 11 bucks. Cut a piece of plastic off an old bait board and attached to the ruler using rivets and a piece of angle. I might do a smaller one for the boat. Basically it’s a yardstick with a right angle at one end for putting the fish’s nose against.
Don’t mind the deer in the background

With the waves too big for seabass fishing, Dave Spendiff joined me for a quick trip south to the sod banks near the Rutgers Research Center. On the way down before the middle grounds, we saw working birds and several boils on the surface. We were sure these were striped bass but they could have been bluefish. Since there were no takers for the lures and poppers we threw at them, we’ll never know for sure.

We arrived and anchored using my trolling motor around 9:30 as the outgoing tide was coming to an end. Within minutes Dave had a keeper tog and despite my ‘encouragement’ to dehook his fish inside the boat, the loud splash meant it would live to swim another day. After several shorts, I finally hooked my 16 1/2″ keeper on a jig. We caught several more shorts until the hard incoming tide brought a lot of seaweed that made holding bottom impossible even with 5 oz. Overall, a very nice morning!

Opening day for seabass was October 8th and everything aligned perfectly! Weather was beautiful, winds were light out of the west and waves were 2 feet or less. Bill Dabney joined me for a trip to the Garden State North reef for the day.
Let me say upfront, I have never done this before on my boat. My new trolling motor performed flawlessly but that’s only part of the equation. You have to find the wreck (coordinates aren’t always 100%) and you have to get positioned over it. I definitely need more practice!
We started out real hot having 9 decent keepers by 9:00 but then we hit a dry spell. We ended the day with 13 keepers, many throwbacks and even one fluke! As an added attraction, we saw a huge mola mola (ocean sunfish) alongside my boat.
Overall, it was a wonderful start to the season!

Dave Spendiff joined me for an early fall fishing trip on Monday October 4th. With 2 1/2 dozen green crabs from Tony’s B&T and a live well full of peanut bunker netted on the way out, we headed south to fish for tog.
We stopped about 200 yds (towards LBI) from the Rutgers white research building and anchored in 20′ of water. The action was immediate and non-stop. All were small except for the one keeper I got at 16+”. We caught ~30 tog and 6 small seabass before the crabs were gone. We then made several trolls in the open inlet where birds had been working the whole time. Either the bluefish weren’t interested or it was simply birds feeding on bait.
We then headed north and made several drifts with peanut bunker near the hole outside of Morrison’s. Dave immediately hooked up and reeled in a beautiful 19 1/2″ weakfish. We also caught at least 6 small fluke and had many bunker cut in half by bluefish. It was a wonderful day on the water!

October 1st was such a nice day, I just couldn’t stay at home. Since the waves were reasonable, I decided to go out and fish Little Egg reef. I caught a nice tog that went 18 1/2″ and nice triggerfish that was just over 15″. Both fish make for some great eating!

No, the title is not the name of the latest C&W hit but the results of many hours of fishing by Dave Spendiff and me on the last day of the fluke season. The waves originally forecast at 2 ft or less were upgraded to 3 to 4 ft. However, the buoy off BI was reading 4.9 ft early Sunday morning. Thinking Little Egg would be a safer bet, we headed south.

The large fleet fishing the inlet was ample proof that folks were staying inside. We watched several boats go out and return shortly confirming that waves were nasty. Our first drift produced our full catching of the day. Dave’s 16″ weakfish at least provided him a chance for the Melanie Boytos award. We never saw or caught a single fluke the whole day. Late morning, we opted for fishing the ICW along Holgate but nothing was biting there either. Oh well, there’s always next year!

Club member Dan Ludwig and his wife Cindy joined me on my boat last Tuesday afternoon for a 3 hour trip to the Gulf Trade Bow wreck just south of the Barnegat Light Reef. We cleared BI about 1 pm and conditions were really outstanding with a decent breeze and flat seas. Someone had left a marker buoy on the wreck making it very convenient to find it. Two other boats were working the wreck so we all took turns drifting through the area. We all discovered that the fluke were clustered in a small group to one side of the wreck so we all kept hitting that spot. With the wreck underneath, we only lost 3 rigs.

Eventually the fish ran out (or just stopped eating) but we managed a couple of keepers including a nice 23.5″ fish caught by Cindy and another just legal fish caught by me. Lots of shorts at 16+, some nice sea bass that had to go back, and a few sea robins. We were back at the dock around 4 pm.

Another neighbor went out the same day (all day) at the BL reef and then hit GSN. Although there were 5 or 6 of them (all NYC firemen), they managed only one keeper. So I guess in comparison, we did okay. Other reports from the BL reef seem to confirm that the fishing there continues to be poor. Wrecks outside the reef seem to be still producing, possibly because the fluke fleet has not been hitting them as hard. Unfortunately the weather for the close of the season looks unfavorable for trips outside the inlet. Since I still have 3 or 4 dinners vacuum sealed in the freezer, I can’t complain. I’m keeping my boat in the water till Oct 27 so I will be able to get out for some seabass and tog.

With only five days remaining after today (9/14) for the 2021 fluke season, Dave Spendiff and Bill Dabney joined me for a day on the GSN reef in my boat Set the Hook. The weather was perfect and seas were flat making for a great day fishing. Dave and Bill had 5 keepers between them while I worked on keeping the short count respectable. We also had a nice sea bass (still swimming for October) and two really sizeable sea robins which make excellent eating.

It was especially nice seeing Larry Leary on The Jen-Jen and Marty Friedrich on The Great Escape out there as well.

Great day on the reef on Thursday August 26. Wil had the spotlight again with a 5 and 6+lb fluke! The 6lb was with a double.  My biggest was 4lb and we had our 2 man limit by 1:00. I was out again on Friday on LE and caught my 3 by noon.

What a day to say the least! We left my dock at 5:15 Thursday morning (8/26) and headed south to Garden State South. This was the most fishermen ever on my boat (7). Included were VHFC members Brian, Tyler, Carter, Brendan, myself and guests Jimbo & Luke. Thought I was on a party boat except we had all experienced anglers.

We had to catch over 100 fluke and kept 17 to 25-1/2” but couldn’t beat Marty’s August FOM!! Stay tuned it’s still not over! We also had 2 nice Sea-bass in the mix. We were back at the dock by 12:45 for several hours of clean up! Well worth the early trip!

Another hot fluke day yesterday 10 August. We caught a 2 man limit with the biggest just over 5 1/2 lbs and 24 3/4 inches. We had 5 fish by 9:30 but then it took 3 hours to get the last one. The highlight was buddy Wil got a double header – 18″ on top and the 5 pounder on the bottom!

My son Brian & I left the dock at 4:30 AM heading out past Little Italy and enjoyed a pleasant ride out. Even though the weather was supposed to be a bit sporty in the morning and nicer as day went on, it did just the opposite! So with the seas being calm, we were able to fly out to the tuna grounds. We jigged for some time then trolled but not a touch. We went back to jigging and hooked up around 8:15. What a great fight on a Shimano Talica jigging rod.

We continued trying to no avail so we decided to wreck fish. We caught a few nice sea bass and then started our sporty ride-back in. We stopped one last time in Seaside and kept 2 nice fluke.

What a day! We ended it with bluefin on the grill. Yummy!!!

We had a good day on Saturday August 7th outside North of the red tower. We got 5 keepers all over 20 inches and I caught one just over 6 lbs. That’s a good day in my book!

Al Goracy and I booked a charter with our grandsons Nick and Chayton, on Brett Taylor’s Reel Reaction Fishing for a 4 hour bay trip that ran from 11:00 to 3:00 on Friday August 6. We had a blast enjoying nice weather, no bugs and caught probably 50 shorts with 6 keepers to 22.5″.

We caught most of our fish in an obscure cut off Double Creek that Brett’s skiff negotiated with ease. When that action slowed, he fished the #25 buoy which is just past the white shallow water buoy as you enter DC past the #42 tripod. I’ve traveled by that every time I fish that area and never thought to try there. We added two keepers and several shorts. Brett then made one drift in High Bar and one drift by the CG station and Bobby’s boats only to catch a few shorts. But, no matter where we fished, the blowfish were relentless! Gulp after Gulp were destroyed along with frozen spearing.

Everyone had a great time and it is especially nice to relax and let an expert run the show. BTW, Brett will be our speaker next Friday.

My solo trip to the Barnegat Reef began as I left my dock at 5:20 AM on Tuesday, August 3rd. It was an overcast chilly morning, particularly when you are wearing shorts! The inlet was as calm as I have ever seen it with the ocean not as smooth as I expected. So what else is new? I made a couple of drifts by the BI horn buoy and picked up two shorts. The drift was to the southwest so I headed for the northeast corner of the reef. On the reef, the drift was a swift 1.5+mph and I ended having to use 8oz to hold the bottom. Using my motor as a rudder, I was able to fish off of the stern with one dead stick, one in hand and my butt firmly in my bench seat. I lost an 8oz buck tail jig ($$$) on the dead stick and shifted to a rig with a sinker.

After many drifts that yielded 11 shorts and 2 keepers (18 & 21 1/2″), I headed for home arriving at 12:45. Both fish were kept in an iced saltwater live well and the smaller fish was still alive when I returned to my dock. It looked small so I re-measured and it was barely 1/8″ short. I revived it in the warmer lagoon water and released it. Should be a MONSTER next year! The rod in the picture of the larger fish is not a two piece rod, but a stick that snapped when I set the hook. What a dance I did landing that fish on a very stiff butt section in 49′ of water. What is not to love about fishing!!!

Today August 2, my grandsons and daughter decided it would be a good day for blowfishing. Two days prior when fluking near the artificial island just south of Oyster Creek, I noticed several boats anchored and fishing for the puffers. That was our first and only stop. We were ~100 feet south of the island. I had barely thrown the chum pot over when Nick had his hooks cleaned – a very good sign. We had non-stop catching until both chum logs were gone along with the clam bait.

Total catch of keepers was 72 including several over 10″. My grandson Vinnie entered one into our FOM which I’m sure will be easily beaten but he was thrilled anyway. I used my new trolling motor to ‘anchor’ and even with a brisk west wind, we never moved or even swayed. I was very impressed with the holding power.