When Bill Figley called and asked if I would like to go fish for seabass, I couldn’t say yes quickly enough. I joined Bill, his son Nathan and Dave Spendiff yesterday (5/17) for an early morning departure. With the AC Casinos clearly in the distance, we quickly starting catching very decent seabass. Most throwbacks were legal fish because we were keeping the better ones.

By 9:00 AM, we were 9 fish shy of our 40 fish limit. Now we became real picky since the day was beautiful and we didn’t want it to end too quickly! Dave, Bill and Nate used clam and squid while I used an Ava 17 with a white tail with a hook 18″ above with a white soft bait. It was drop and reel with that combo and the fish were definitely larger. Dave and Bill each caught a nice tog that was quickly returned and no one had to deal with any dogs. It was truly a day to remember!

I had a great day seabass fishing with Bill Dabney and my buddy Wil. After a long day trying, we finally got our limit of 30 keepers. My buddy Wil also caught a nice Ling. We all caught a load of shorts to keep us busy. It was a beautiful day on the water and a great day of fishing!

Caught this beauty yesterday (5/14) evening fishing with my son Brian. What’s interesting, 8 years ago in the same spot we caught the same size Drum. I measured it at 30″ hoping VHFC had a contest for them but unfortunately not. Maybe in 2022!
Then Brian caught this one yesterday evening (5/15). Our experience is that these fish seem to bite close to sun down or early AM.
President’s Note: Bill Figley reported making 6 trips over the last 2 weeks for drum catching 4 all in one day. I fished with Dave Spendiff yesterday and Alan Goracy the day prior with not a touch. We fished the sedges off the Middle Grounds.

My grandson, VHFC Jr member Nick Rossi, lives in Harrington Park, NJ and loves Jersey shore fishing. But he has found a small pond near his home that has provided hours of fun catching carp. His prior personal best was ~10lbs. The one he caught this weekend went 29″ and was 13 1/2 lbs! My daughter said bystanders were cheering and clapping when he finally landed the fish. No small task on light freshwater tackle!

While speaking with Dave Spendiff on Wednesday, he mentioned he would be trying for perch later in the morning and welcomed some company. I arrived at 10:00 and we fished until just past noon. We quickly had 15 for the table. Dave kept 3 and I kept the 12 shown in the photo. We each had one that went 13.5″, threw back a few and missed a bunch. All were caught on a spinner with a small soft bait. So much for “You can’t catch them unless you have shrimp and then only in the evening.” Nonsense! White perch are active during the day, fun on light tackle and delicious!

With the honking west winds forecasted to finally slow down, I jumped at the invite for a day of tog fishing with Phil Simon. Our first stop was the Persephone, a tanker torpedoed just north of the Barnegat reef. My line barely reached the bottom before a ‘keeper’ sea bass was on. Oh well, we’ll try again once the season opens in a few weeks. Phil and I each quickly had short tog and then I caught a decent 17+ keeper. Then it all stopped.
We tried a few other wrecks with some difficulty locating them but to no avail. We finished the day on the Bone wreck where Phil caught two tog that went back after careful measuring. It was still great to get out on the water on a beautiful calm day despite the slow action.

I was waiting for a call from D&S Marina that my boat was ready for pick up and being a beautiful morning, I started fishing from the dock. Second cast got a good hit, set the hook and snapped the line! Who knows?!? For certain, it was a fish, so I retied and continued to cast. During the course of the next 20 minutes, I landed 4 white perch – one 10″ male and three fat females with the largest a 13″ fatty that fought nicely on the light gear. All were released to fight again.
Got the call from D&S, picked up the boat and am ready for some FUN for the next 9 months.

This is a summary report for the 10 weeks my wife and I spent in Cape Coral in Southwest Florida. The photo shows a decent Spanish Mackerel I caught on a shrimp under a float. After I filleted it, I brushed EVOO and sprinkled blackening seasoning followed by 3 minutes a side on the grill. It was delicious – skin and all!

Florida has many species to offer even for shore fisherman. I had several meals of kingfish (called Whiting by Floridians for some reason) and blowfish same as we catch in the bay here. The small kingfish were also ideal for live lining snook. I hooked and battled several but could never get one in for a picture like Joe Filice did! I also caught mangrove snappers, small sheepshead, speckled trout, saltwater catfish, stingrays (not skates) and several sharks all on shrimp.

But now I’m glad to be home and I’m ready for some NJ fishing!

Fished with my buddy on Tiger Tail Beach. I had been eyeing a spot where the sand bar tailed in towards a small point on the beach. Just looked fishy. So we took our shrimp and waded across the lagoon and through the mangroves to the beach. Due to high winds, we fished with a 1 oz slip sinker and 18” leaders with live shrimp. This is one of three Snook that I hooked and landed. My buddy landed a 4th and lost another one. Also caught a couple Crevalle Jacks and a couple mullet. This place is amazing!

Fished Tiger Tail Beach on Marco Island using a rig with a 3/4 oz. egg sinker and an 18” leader baited with live shrimp. Hooked this Pompano and landed it after several long runs – man do they fight for their size. I filleted it and brought it to the Capri Island Fish House where they prepared a meal for two with sides. Very tasty fish! Weather has been high 70’s and 80’s all week. High winds most days.

Or is it a late Thanksgiving treat? I started at 5:30 am and fished until 10:30. Nothing but a few dogfish. Bunker was everywhere but out a good distance as I watched dolphins blowing up on the schools. Went home and did the Christmas lights.

I decided to try again and was back on the beach by 4:30 pm. Had to double the weight from earlier in the morning to hold bottom to 8oz. I was getting a few more dogfish but at least it quieted down wind wise. I decided to leave around 6:30 but my wife told me to stay a little longer. So I called my friend from PA and talked about hunting when my pole bent over. I quickly hung up and the result was this 28-1/2” bass. Finally a keeper!

With near perfect weather, my grandson Nick joined Dave Spendiff and me for a striper trip on the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend. We left my dock at 6:00 and joined a procession of boats exiting Barnegat inlet and heading north to the striper grounds.
Unfortunately, it was a tough day. Bird play was sporadic and not very plentiful. We read plenty of bait but saw very few fish echoes. After an hour jigging near the birds without any results, we decided to go on the troll with most of the fleet. We tried two different umbrella rigs – one with green shad bodies and one with black tubes. Nick got his fish on a black tube. It was a nice fish but didn’t make the the 24″ tag minimum. Dave decided to try a Stretch Mann’s plug and after some time in the water, his fish took it. Unfortunately, it was a nice healthy striper but just over 39″, so it’s still out there swimming!
Both fish were taken with nothing but bait on the screen and both were taken ~2 1/2 miles off shore towards the inlet. We witnessed only one other short taken during the entire trip.
Since we promised to be back by 1:00, we headed home at 11:45. Low tide was 11:43 and going through the inlet was quite the adventure. Fortunately, there were no onshore winds to make the passage even more difficult. Overall, a wonderful and enjoyable day!

We went today 11/9 out of Barnegat Inlet and headed just south of Seaside. Slow pick but we were able to land 6 Bass and kept 3. One @38″ we entered for FOM, one @ 29″ and one @26″ using a bonus tag.
Absolutely a gorgeous day and flat seas. Appears that the fish are scattered but it can only get better in the days to come

I’m spending most of my time on the beach waiting for striped bass to come into shore. So far lots of schools of bait but no big fish. However, just want to let you know that even though they aren’t Fish of the Month, the white perch are still plentiful enough in the usual lagoon spots (if you catch then at the exact right tide) to provide a nice dinner.

We thought we would have a great day Sea bass fishing on Sunday 10/18. But with the nice weather and calm seas forecast, so did a lot of other folks. The Jen-Jen could not find a wreck that was empty – typical of the weekend loaded with boats. So we went to one of our Tog spots. Great catch and release day! We caught 25 or more and kept our limit of 4 with one being 18” caught by Captain Larry! Hopefully a contender for fish of the month. The weather was great except the seas had some 4-5 footers at the inlet that was a challenge!

Got out this morning by myself for a half day sea bass trip on Little Egg Reef. It was a nice morning with seas ~2 ft. After moving around and finally finding some fish, it didn’t take long before I got my 10 keepers with the biggest 18 inches. It was a great morning and start to the sea bass season!

This last Sunday, 9/27 my three sons and I spent 4 hours fishing with Capt. Brett Taylor of Reel Reaction Charters. We headed out at 7 AM, turning North out of Barnegat Inlet and moved to a small wreck off of Island Beach State Park. Literally on the first drop, the tog were on. We had to weed throuh a lot of shorts before we limited out, but it was wonderful to be out fishing with my sons again. We moved to the North jetty at the inlet with no luck on bass until my oldest son, Bill, hooked up a schoolie at the sod banks. In all, tog, bass, fluke and bluefish were caught and we had a great day with Capt. Brett.

We decided to fish on Thursday the 17th on what would be probably be the last day to Fluke fish due to the upcoming weather. We went headed south off a wreck NE of LE Reef. It was a sporty ride out but we were able to keep 4 nice fluke. We also had 4 Sea bass up to 20” – shame we had to release them! The ocean & bay were loaded with bunker – hopefully a good sign for the striper season to come. All said and done, we had a great fluke season!