After working on my boat all morning to get it ready for the the new season, I decided to try for blues in the white caps of Great Bay. After bouncing around for a while I hooked into a nice seven pound fish that kept me busy for a while and was a great way to start the fishing season. I landed four smaller fish and called it a day.

I went out opening day of seabass with a few friends on the Super Chic. I limited out on the seabass within 2 hours with the largest weighed in at FHQ being 2.6 lbs. I then used an Ava47 with clam and caught non stop eating size blues. It was a great day all around!

I left the dock this morning looking for bluefish. I headed in the same direction that produced a couple of days ago, north, under the RT 72 Bridge and into Manahawkin Bay. Started trolling a Tony Aceta #17 spoon and a yellow swimming plug and headed in the direction of Surf City. After crossing the ICW channel, I veered northeast and started picking up fish – first on the spoon and then on the plug, followed by a double with both rods going down.

The Chinese fire drill ensued as I tried to land both fish and luckily was successful. I cast poppers in the same area and had explosive hits, catching some and losing some – WHAT FUN! And so it went for three + hours. The fish were 8 -10+ lbs. Around 12:00 while trolling, I turned around to check my rods and saw a single engine plane just feet above the water and as it got closer, I realized it was a floatplane and it was landing! After it settled on the water, it turned east and headed for the shore, where it pulled up alongside a dock and was tied off. Now that is a first for me on the bay. You just don’t know what’s going to happen when you go fishing around here.

Fished a few hours in the morning the last two days with my neighbors in Great Bay. Saturday we had about a dozen Blues. We kept 5 and released the rest with the biggest over 8 lb. We also lost quite a few. We went out again on Sunday morning and discovered that the gators had moved in. All were 8 lbs and up with the largest one caught at almost 13 lb. They all were great fighters and look like small Tarpon jumping and shaking their heads out of the water trying to throw the hook. We lost quite a few like that and kept 4 while releasing the rest.

If you want to go offshore to fish for black seabass, there is probably no better boat to be aboard than Bill Figley’s “Red Herring”. Bill, his son, Nate, Ron Roshelli and myself headed out at 6:00 in the morning for a day of wreck fishing. We headed south and had lines in the water by 7:30 and it was game on! Everyone was hooked up on the first drop and there were very few periods when the action slowed and when it did, Bill would yell, ”Move, let’s move” and with the push of a button, the 36 volt trolling motor would jog us to a new spot on the wreck. By 11:00 we had 33 black seabass and two ling in the box. We decided to hit one more wreck on the way home where we quickly limited out. After refueling, we were back at the dock at 1:15. Great day, great fishing and good company – what more could you ask for?

How many times do you plan for a day of fishing and everything works out perfectly? Well today was one of those days! Phil Simon and I decided to go seabass fishing on the Carolyn Ann III one day after the season opened on May 15. When we arrived, Gina said they had a great day yesterday on the opener. Oh no! That’s almost the kiss of death. Should have been here yesterday!
Well that wasn’t the case. The weather was beautiful and the seas were perfectly calm. Best of all, we each limited out with 10 seabass and I had two small blues. What an enjoyable day and future great eating!

I left the dock around 6:20 this morning and headed for Manahawkin bay where I started the troll for bluefish with a Tony Aceta spoon and a Yellow Bomber Magnum A. l trolled north past Main Point as far as I could go before the water became too shallow, picked up and motored to the “limestone” channel just west of Sandy Island. Marked a bunch of fish, but was only able to entice only one small “cocktail” bluefish on the swimming plug. Went back to Manahawkin bay and trolled endlessly without a touch. Hours had passed, so I decided to finish out the trip by trolling over to the bridges near Ship Bottom and try plugging for schoolie stripers. As I entered the channel off of the ICW leading to the bridges a rod went down resulting in a 9.2lb bluefish being landed. Over the next 2 hours I was able to pick up 10 more, much smaller, blues before calling it a day. Lagoon and bay water temps were 50 degrees when I started and 58 going home at 2 pm. No telling where they will be tomorrow, but they are in the bay, so just go out and find them.

Caught this beauty early this morning in Surf City on bunker. I weighed it in at SCB&T – 27.50 lb and 44”. There were plenty of small bluefish around. I’ve lost 5 rigs to them in the past 2 days. This morning’s bass moved me into 3rd in the store tournament & 2nd in the Spring Derby.

Arrived down Saturday, 5/11, around 11:00 AM. Rigged up my new beach cart and hit the surf a couple hours before high tide, fishing bunker chunks & heads. I had two blues in the 28” range with the heaviest weighed in at Fisherman’s Headquarters at 5.7 lbs. Unfortunately no stripers. I also had a dogfish and a small snapper blue to finish out the day.

On May 3, I trolled spoons for king mackerel 14 miles off shore and caught 2. The migration is late but hopefully getting better soon!

Yesterday morning I got up with a plan of running a few errands before doing some yard work…so much for a plan! It was foggy and warm and I had a bunch of killies at the dock. I also had a pressing need to feed 6 guys shore lunch in Canada for 5 days with tidal run white perch and only one frozen bag of 18 filets in the freezer – GO FISHING!
The bobber on the first cast barely settled on the water before it disappeared and so it went for about one hour and then it was OVER. The fish were cleaned and another 18 filets were put in the freezer. I ran my errands, did no yard work but fished again last night and this morning with only one small largemouth bass to show for the effort. Yesterday lagoon water temp. was 69 – 70 and this morning back down to 60 degrees!

I’m happy to report a 33″ bluefish caught on 26 April followed by a 30″ fish taken on 1 May. Both off the surf and released to terrorize another day! Hopefully this is a sign that things are picking up. Get out there and fish!

Hello Club Members! Just wanted to report that I have been catching stripers in the bay on still water smack-its/any popper, Sebile stick shads and swimbaits. I have been going out at 5:45 am and catching them until 7:00am and then again at dusk at 6:45pm until 8:45pm. Just wanted to report this to the club and hope everyone can get in on the stripers.

This what four white perch look like after they have been caught, carefully cleaned and bagged for freezing or, as in this case, temporarily stored before deep frying in peanut oil.

Caught them at the Mill Creek outflow area on Monday, April 8 in the evening. I fished for them at 5am that morning, but it seems they are late evening feeders. Three were caught on grass shrimp and one on a lure. In the coming weeks, they should become more plentiful where ever fresh water flows into the bay. In my opinion, one of the finest table fair available.

Bon Appetite!

Grouper fishing is hot down in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida’s west coast. I caught this nice 28 incher in some of the bluest water I have ever seen in the Gulf.

I went fishing for Tarpon on the Peace River in Punta Gorda, Florida and caught this nice 48 incher!

I caught 13 spotted trout today in Sarasota, FL ranging up to 17 inches. All were caught on white Gulp shrimp with a chartreuse tail pattern fished with a fast retrieve. I was fishing in 3-4 foot of water with calm conditions and the fish did not bite for the first 2 hours. As soon the wind came up, the fish turned on. All fish were returned to the water.

Fished the beach with shrimp, a 1/2 oz barrel on a 12” leader and a 1.0 circle hook. We caught numerous mullet (AKA Kingfish to us Northerners), ladyfish, catfish & this 16” Sheepshead that came home for dinner with the mullets. What a blast this place is!

Took a back bay trip on a shared charter with my buddy Tom while down in Marco Island, FL. Fishing was slow along the mangroves with no keepers and only two small snappers. Ended fishing along a sea wall and pilings with shrimp on a circle hook and a 1/2 oz bullet sinker. Landed a nice size sheepshead and two mangrove snappers. All filleted and enjoyed as an appetizer before dinner. Won’t mention the weather out of respect for those stuck in the north.

Today we decided to stop at a small inlet feeding the bay area around Pine Island FL. I bought a dozen shrimp for bait and threaded a half shrimp on a small hook with a few split shots for weight. With all the small fish around, I was constantly rebaiting my hook. My wife Pat settled into a beach chair with her latest book and enjoyed the 80 degree temps.

After about 20 minutes, I felt a solid pickup and set the hook. Immediately line screamed from my reel heading downstream. I was using a light fluke bay rod so I couldnt put too much pressure on the fish. After a fun battle I finally brought the fish upstream and lifted it onto the bulkhead. It was a beautiful Jack Crevalle which I estimate at 5-7 lbs. After a quick photo, I released it to fight another day.

I stopped back at the bait store to show my catch as promised when I bought the shrimp. The comment from the store owner was “what a beauty and don’t they fight like hell!”