Fishing for trout is slow due to the red tide event but bluefish and Spanish mackerel are hitting Gulp on jigs in Sarasota bay.

White shrimp with a chartreuse tail Gulp on a 1/16 jig fished fast does the trick. Both fish took the same offering.

For the second year, my wife Pat and I are down in warm Cape Coral in sunny southwest Florida. We arrived January 3rd and will depart on 28 February. As nice as everything is here, the fishing is still recovering from the effects of the red tide that plagued the west coast of Florida this year with one of the worst outbreaks.  The bloom lasted from summer through late fall before totally disappearing. Despite the beautiful water and abundance of dolphins and manatees throughout the bay, the fish are arriving later than usual.
Fortunately one speckled trout arrived and took my shrimp fished off a pier on a bobber. It measured almost 19 inches and was delicious!

What a beautiful day I had fishing on Sunday 18 November with my son Brian and grandsons Mark, Brendan and Tyler. We put 2 in the box and missed 3. All off Seaside with literally hundred of boats out on the water with the calm seas. As an added bonus, Tyler got an 8 pointer!

On Nov 11, Brian took Tyler,Carter & Brendan out striper fishing. They fished by Lavallette and kept 5 bass. The largest was caught by Carter and weighed 26.96 lbs at FHQ. They released another 7 fish caught on trolling mojos and snag and drop.

On Nov 12, Captain Larry and a crew of old salts ventured North past Seaside on a beautiful flat ocean. Only caught  2 bass to 30 lbs – nothing weighed in.

Despite the lack of reports of stripers in the ocean and the continued strong winds and wave action, Carl Wolfarth fished the back bay and caught this monster 39 lb / 44 inch bass drifting eels!

The VHFC Bottom Fishing Trip was held on 25 October on the Dauntless out of Point Pleasant, NJ. Members Marty Friedrich, Caesar Pesarini, Diana & Carmine Tocci and Ed Valitutto enjoyed lovely fall weather and drop and reel non-stop action in 100 feet of water 16 miles off shore.

Unfortunately, almost all the sea bass were shorts but per the captains advice, reeling several turns off the bottom resulted in an immediate hit by large porgies. This action continued for the duration of the trip. Thrown in for a little extra fun were several 2-4 lb blues. Everyone had a great time fishing together!

I got out Monday the 17th and took my buddy Paul on the final week of fluke season. It was a little bumpy on Little Egg Reef. I managed to get my three keepers but Paul wasn’t so lucky. We caught about 20 shorts and one nice sea bass. I had three nice fish; 1 just over 8 lb @28 inches, another just over 5 lb @23 1/2 and 1 @21 1/2inches. It certainly was a nice way to end the season.

Larry Leary, my son Brian and my grandkids went out fishing this Labor Day weekend. On Sunday we caught 11 keepers and on Monday we outdid ourselves with 15 keepers. The pictures in this report were all from Monday’s trip. Fluke were all 19″- 25″ including a 5.94 lb weighed in at FHQ. We crushed these fish on Monday and had our limit by 10:30 AM. We also caught and released false albacore. Great days fishing outside the LE Reef! My son and grandkids will have good memories of these trips.

Brian Leary & the grandkids fished the Beach Haven Marlin & Tuna Club Fluke Tournament and lost third place by only 4 oz! Still a great effort by them.
Since the winning tournament fish were caught at the LE Reef, they went there on Tuesday. Fishing was fantastic. They ended with 10 keepers up to 5lbs and 1 Mahi. Another great day of fishing on the Jen-Jen!

Once again, with good seas forecasted, Alan Goracy and I made another trip to the BL reef on Monday 8/27. And once again, he out fished me. Alan had three fluke and a Spanish Mackerel (we think) and I had one fluke. Sizes were decent 19, 20, 20 1/2 & 22 but certainly not FOM contenders.

We only caught maybe 15 shorts so the short to keeper ratio was low. The absolute killer rig was Alan’s chrome fluke ball with a Gulp nuclear chicken. That combo accounted for most of the shorts and his keepers. I caught my fluke on a teaser with a live peanut bunker I cast netted on the morning trip out of the lagoon. The drift started ok at .8 kts but later dropped to .5 kts. Since Alan had to return to his land house up in Hunterdon County and with slower drift conditions, we left the reef at 12:30 for the drive back to my dock.

With sunny skies, light winds and 2 foot or less seas, Alan Goracy joined me for a trip outside the inlet. For once, all predictions were accurate. We made the quick trip east of the inlet and joined about 150 other boats including the Miss BL and the CAIII at the BL reef.

In less than an hour, I had two shorts and Alan had one fluke at 18 and one at 22+. But then it really slowed up. For the next three hours we only caught a few shorts despite a reasonable ~.75 kt drift. After stripping out a few sea robins, Alan managed another keeper at 21. Final count: Alan limited out with 6 shorts and several birds; I caught two shorts. You know I got some ribbing on the return trip!

Back at my dock, Alan’s three fish weighed 2, 3 and 4 lbs on my Boga grip. Overall, still a nice day fishing.

Fishing at the Tires, Junior member Brendan Jelly caught this 4.46 lb Fluke. In addition, he and his Brother Tyler Leary caught 7 other keepers. We also had 2 Bonito and a Spanish Mackerel! Great day fishing with the grandkids. Especially surprised with the bonito and Spanish Mackerel!

With the calm wind forecast, I decided to make a trip to the Garden State South reef. Unfortunately, my efforts produced lots of shorts – both fluke and seabass. But I did manage to land a nice 3 lb. sea bass. I should also mention that I lost a keeper fluke at the boat.

I fished the past 2 days. On Sunday, I fished with a friend on Little Egg reef. We had a slow day with only 12 throwback fluke, 1 legal sea bass and a few shorts. I fished Monday with a party of 3 at the Garden State South reef area. We ended up with 5 keepers. The largest was 20 1/2. The water was clean and clear at both sites just tough fishing.

Went fishing on Thursday with member Alan Goracy. We headed North and with fast drifting (2 kts) in Double Creek, we had a few bites but no takers. We then drifted the shortcut parallel to the ICW that ends near the BLCG Station. After several drifts, Alan had a fat 20″ near the No Wake buoy where the cut ends. Several drifts later we moved to the inlet. We fished both North & South jetties with no success. We then drifted the cove from Meyer’s Hole to the commercial docks. I had a short and Alan had one at 18″.

The Third Annual VHFC Fluke Tournament & BBQ was held on July 14th at the lovely waterside home of Donna & Vic Harris. The photo shows club president Ed Valitutto with tournament winners Marty Friedrich (1st) and Bill Dabney (3rd). Marty’s fish weighed 3lbs 14 oz. Bob Klebosis (not shown) took second place.

Despite strong afternoon winds and lousy drift conditions, several anglers weighed in fish. Thirty four anglers and family members resulted in almost 50 attending the BBQ where great food and drinks brought smiles to everyone. Once again, thanks to the Harris’ family for their home and hard work!

A couple of my friends were off for the holiday and came down to fish. The giant Ray in the photo was as close as I could get it to the surface. It was about the size of a picnic table. We headed to a couple pieces of wreck for some sea bass and caught our six sea bass limit with a lot of shorts. We then headed to the red tower and proceeded to flounder fish. We moved around a few times and finally the fish started to bite around  2:00. We had a south wind drifting right toward the beach. We were fishing in 50 to 60 feet of water in short drifts. We ended up catching over 30 flounder with seven keepers from 18″ to 22″ until the bite just stopped around 4:00. I didn’t take any other pictures because it was late and we wanted to get back and clean up.