I’ve been doing consistently well from the rocks just down from the lighthouse. Casting AVAs or other metals usually results in a hook up or a near miss. Lots of action and these are the best eating size fish. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get one yet that meets our club’s 22″ minimum at the fork for FOM entry. Oh well!

Looks like fishing is getting a bit more consistent – for the last few days at least. Yesterday, winds were supposed to be SW the night before but were actually NE and then went East for the day. We all know the old saying “Anything east produces least.” Surprisingly, we proved that wrong!
The Jen Jen crew was my grandson Tyler, his friend and fellow member Ryan Mollicone (high hook for the day) and my friend Kevin. We kept 7 nice fish up to 22” and caught a bunch of shorts and some sea robins.
Same area as my prior report on the GSS reef. Sure hope it continues!

Sunday 6/28 was supposed to be a rough day but instead turned out to be a great day for the crew of the Jen-Jen fishing team. The five members almost limited out with 12 keepers and a bunch of shorts drifting the Garden State South reef. Hopefully the rest of the season will continue to be as productive.

Caesar Pesarini and I went out fluking on Friday 6/26 with a forecast of beautiful skies and light NNW winds and for once the weatherman delivered. We started in Double Creek and quickly had 5 nice shorts and one that Caesar lost at the boat that looked like it would have made it. Unfortunately, the action died after an hour and with the NNW winds and an outgoing tide, we were drifting across rather than down DCC. I decided to try High Bar Harbor but the wind and tide made that small piece of water even more difficult to fish.

I then made the move to the BI buoy where I had some recent success. There the combination of tide and wind pushed us on a nice long drift south along Oyster Creek in 7 – 9 feet of water without fear of running into boats, buoys or shallow water. We probably hooked 20 more nice shorts and two nice keepers: Caesar got a 20″ fluke and I got a 22″ one. Best of all – no dogfish or skates and surprisingly no crabs!

I booked a charter with Brett Taylor of Reel Reaction for some Saturday afternoon skinny water fishing with my grandsons Nick and Vinnie and son in law Larry Rossi. Brett totally delivered! We fished a favorite cut of his adjacent to Double Creek in water 3 – 6 feet deep on his new shallow water skiff.
I don’t know how many fluke we caught but it was definitely over 30 with 8 keepers up to 20″. Brett knows these waters and provides a great quality charter. Give him a call and book a fun trip.

Got out to fish today but only could do a half day trip due to the addition of a new puppy. Lots of fog all morning but I still managed 2 keepers: a 21 and a 23. I also caught quite a few shorts. I only took the one picture but it was a good day.

I bet you thought a large gold Johnson spoon was only good for pike in Canada. I was fishing in Sarasota Bay on Monday, June 8 and caught this large spotted sea trout on a 2 1/2 inch gold Johnson spoon. If you look closely you will see the fish completely swallowed the spoon. Jerking these spoons mimics the flashing of larger bait fish and might prove effective in NJ for fluke in the surf or when larger bait fish fill the bay.

Also during this trip I saw 2 small sting rays playing with each other on the surface when a shark ate them both, in the bay!

Went out Tuesday 6-9 with my buddy Wil.  We fished some wrecks and had 13 keeper sea bass along with a lot of shorts. On the way back, we stopped in the bay and buddy Wil got a keeper fluke. Some days things just work out!

Fished the LE inlet but only to got a short and a shark. Moved to Beach Haven area and tagged this nice keeper.

On Saturday June 6th, I got out late morning with a neighbor to fish Great Bay. This was the first day I fished more than a couple of hours and it paid off. My neighbor had 2 shorts and I had 1 short and my 1st keeper of the season – a nice fat 20″ fish! It was a beautiful day and great to be on the water. My fish had a 5″ manta shrimp in its stomach.

With too much wind, rain and cold, it was difficult to enjoy any Memorial Day weekend fishing. But on Tuesday, things looked a lot better. Alan Goracy and I decided to take our grandsons out but both had Zoom school classes until noon. Since we planned on fishing High Bar Harbor with the high tide at 12:30, it worked out perfectly to fish the outgoing water.
We arrived at 1:00 and I was amazed at how many boats were there considering it was a midweek afternoon. Water temp was high 50’s and the drift was .8 to 1.1 kts. We stayed until 3:30 and only caught 8 fluke. But my grandson Nick had 3 keepers; one at 18+” and 2 at 19″. We then tried Double Creek for an hour and Alan got one just shy of 20″. Great time by all.

Well the weather man was wrong again! An east wind blowing 10 to 15 made for a rough ride out to LE reef and not much better once there. You could count the boats on one hand all day long. I was not seeing many fish on on my machine and no bites but then I got my first legal fish. Everyone says the reefs are loaded but you can’t prove it by me!

About an 1 1/2 hour later, I tried one more spot with tanks that had fish on them. I got the big one, had several hang ups and lost rigs. I headed for the bay and fished another hour for 2 blowfish. It was a rough but good day!

With the seabass season one day old, it was time to visit the AC reef for some early season fishing. We had decent weather and some good catching topped off by this 17″ beauty!

I went surf fishing today 5/12 around noon looking to fish the 12:30 high tide. A pod of dolphins were on the other side of the sandbar chasing bunker – usually not a good sign – when the fish hit my bunker chunk. I had only been fishing 15 minutes! Since I didn’t have my cooler, it was a short day on the water.
At home, my fish measured 36 1/2″ to the fork and weighed 18 lb 6 oz on my scale. I checked the stomach and it was empty!

I finally got down to Beach Haven for the first time this year and hit the beach around 1:45 on Saturday 2 May to fish the incoming tide. I fished bunker heads and chunks all afternoon with no action. At approximately 15 minutes before high tide, I noticed the rod tip vibrating. I picked up the rod and walked backwards. As soon as the fish felt the pull, it took off running and I landed this 29” striper. It’s the first one I’ve had in close to 2 years on the beach. Hopefully it’s a good omen for the rest of the 2020 season.

With the weather finally decent on Saturday 4/25, I wanted to get out and run my boat a little. I turned North on the ICW and went under the main span of the Causeway bridge eventually entering the small channel leading to Hochstrasser’s marina.

As I slowly approached the 4th and final span of the Causeway bridges, my fish finder screen lit up with all kinds of returns. Since I had a rod with a 3″ Storm Shad attached, I immediately started a slow troll down the channel and under the bridge. I repeated the troll stopping to jig at times but I could not muster so much as a follow let alone a hit! I couldn’t believe it especially with the screen shots shown.

This past Tuesday while fishing off my backyard dock, I caught 6 white perch. I was using a chrome spinner and the largest as shown in the photo went 12 1/4″. Nothing beats ‘Stay at Home Fishing’!

I went out trolling in Great Bay on Thursday 4-23. The water temperature was a warm 49 degrees and I caught one striper about an hour after the tide started going out. The fish was about 25 inches and was released in good shape to fight another day.

Just six weeks after having a knee replacement, Caesar Pesarini called me and asked if I wanted to join him Thursday 4/16 for some white perch fishing. Shrimp were unavailable but he had some blood worms.

There were a few anglers already on the bulkhead, all had masks and all were 6′ apart. It was windy and fishing was not very good except for one angler who was using a sabiki rig tipped with shrimp he caught himself. He was catching one after the other. Was he in a “honey hole”, was it the sabiki or was it the shrimp? I don’t know but I will definitely get a sabiki rig for next time!

Anyway, I had one keeper and several missed hits and Caesar missed a few until his bobber went under hard. He reeled in the extra large 12.5″ perch shown in the photo. Also interesting, the angler next to me caught a jumbo yellow perch. I told him what it was and assured him it was definitely ‘good eating”.

Last evening I was taking a “cabin fever” walk and at the end of my street, William Cook Blvd North, I looked over the Mill Creek lagoon and saw a guy pulling in a perch. So, I got in my car with bucket and rod and headed to the end of William Cook Blvd South. There were four anglers there, including club member Caesar Pesarini. I fished a spinner while everyone else was fishing with grass shrimp. After about an hour, I headed home with 7 great eating perch. including the 11 1/2″ first entry for FOM under the new length rules!