Took my son-in-law and two grandsons out for Fluke with Capt. Bret Taylor on 6/21. Action started off hot with Braden landing two keepers within the first half hour. After weeding through a lot of shorts, I landed an 18 1/2″ keeper. The south wind picked up and we had to fish hard, but no more keepers. Ended the day with approximately 3 dozen with the three keepers. Great day on the water and lots of fun. Taking my son, grandson and his friend out for another shot on Tuesday.

John Stuebing invited Pat Presutto and me for a day of Fluke fishing on LER. Despite near perfect weather, the recent spell of southerly winds has cooled the waters and the fluke have gotten lockjaw. John had 5 shorts and a nice 22″ keeper, Pat had a few skates, a dog, and one 21″ keeper and yours truly had a skate and a short!
Maybe I can’t catch a keeper, but I take a great photo! Still a fun day on the water.

Me and my crew went out yesterday on The Jen-Jen for a last shot at early season Sea Bass. The fish were biting and we kept 40 nice sea bass, 1 red hake (Ling) and several short fluke which we released. A notable high point was my grandson, Junior Angler Bryon Wyatt who caught the 16” blue fish pictured
What a great last day!

I decided to run out for sea bass all by myself on Father’s Day starting a little late just before 9. I headed to a wreck about 11 mi. out and it was non-stop drop and reel on a jig. I had my limit by 11:30 with quite a few doubles on the jig. It was definitely worth the trip.

Tim Naples

We headed out Father’s day for sea bass. The forecast called for NE wind with 3-4, but we were greeted with nearly a flat calm ocean once we left the inlet. First stop was a wreck about 12 miles out from LEI in about 70′ of water. Unfortunately, not much life on this wreck, and we only managed a couple shorts. Since the ocean was so calm, we decided to make a big move and head out another 13 miles to a wreck in 110′ of water.
On our first drop, everyone hooked up with keeper sea bass. Within ten minutes the keeper count was up to 10 fish, and the bite quickly slowed. We kept at it for a while trying jigging, using gulp, and even drifting the wreck, but the fish just went off the bite and we left the spot with a total of 15 keepers.
We decided to head back in to GSS and hopped from structure to structure which yielded us another 10 keepers for a total of 25 on the day. Would have been nice to get more of course, but it was a fun day on the water. I’m looking forward to the next trip.

I was bored on Saturday and my boat is waiting on a part. So, I figured I would hit the back bay shoreline for weak fish on light tackle. When I got to the Barnegat Bay bank, there really wasn’t much going on. While casting with my ugly stuck ultra-light with 20lb braid, I saw some cownose rays. I figured I’d give it a shot to see if I could land one and 25 minutes later, I landed the monster ray.

I was totally unprepared and had the Tesla instead of my truck. It definitely would not fit into my 5 gallon bucket. So… I cleared out the trunk and put it on my plastic liner mat. When I got it home, the butchering was rather easy, but bloody. Pulled up the first recipe the internet gave us, and my wife and I cooked it up for Father’s Day. It came out like a gourmet meal you would get at a Portuguese restaurant. It would make a great addition to any paella!

When Bob Dodds asked me to join his bottom charter on the Kev n’ Ash, I knew it would be a fun trip. The group was fellow club members Bob Dodds, me, Greg Camillieri, his son Dave and friend Bert. The weather was perfect, and the sea was super calm.

Unfortunately, the fishing was tough as we hopped from wreck to wreck picking up keepers as we went along. Captain Greg Carr really put the extra effort in to get us close to our 5-man limit even extending our trip almost two hours! The final count was 43 quality Sea bass, two Ling, two Skates, many Sea Robins and Blackfish, one Dogfish and a nasty Silver Eel caught by yours truly.

It was a wonderful day, and I can’t say enough good things about Captain Greg.

Joined my charter captain friend for Seabass and Striper fishing near Shrewsbury Rocks Tuesday afternoon. We managed to get our Seabass limit and then with dusk approaching, we headed closer to the beach to see if the Stripers were hungry. We went 3 for 5 with eels and I managed to get this one for a quick pic and release.

Yesterday members Brian, Tyler, Jimbo, & I with Max and Jared from Fishermen Headquarters headed offshore for a day on several wrecks. We had a mixed bag including almost 6-man limit on Sea Bass, many Tog all released a surprise of several large Porgies, 1- Red Hake and 3 keeper Fluke to 21”. Back to the dock by 2 with a lot of cleaning. What a beautiful day with a group of fun guys.
Unfortunately, not many pictures

We headed out for some bottom fishing at the Garden State North Reef Site. Fishing itself was a slow pick, but we did manage to put a decent catch together of sea bass, ling, and tog. Of course, all tog were released, with a few of them in the 3-5lb range and then the biggest was caught by Mallory – a 7 lb beauty! Most fish were caught using bait (squid and clam) but a few were fooled by diamond jigs.

The added photos show Bill Figley taking a power nap and Alexa Figley with a double header sea bass.

Memorial Weekend Wreck fishing was fantastic!

Day 1 crew: Tyler, Sean, Bryson and I had a great day of wreck fishing with lots of Sea Bass and Tog action with close to our limit.

Day 2 crew: Brendan, friend Nick, Tyler, Brian and I. We caught our Seabass limit with all nice fish 16-18”. Lots of Tog were all released. Never know what comes out of the Ocean. 

I went out Saturday on the Great Bay fishing for fluke with 3 buddies, including fellow VHFC member Doug O’Brien.  We picked up a couple keepers trying different areas before we found a steady bite.  We all caught fish and nearly limited out on fluke.  I was lucky enough to catch a nice weakfish along with a 21″ fluke.  Bucktails and jig heads with 5″ white Gulp jerk shads tipped with live minnows was the key.  It felt good to get out on the water again with good friends on a beautiful day.   

Excellent Memorial Day weekend fishing to report. On Friday, I got my limit of both blues and fluke. Saturday, I picked 150 clams, but fluking was slow. Today, Sunday, I caught my limit of blues with this gator blue of 33+” and two keeper fluke!

Unfortunately, I didn’t land any stripers and crabbing was slow. There’s always tomorrow!

We fished a weather window between some NE winds that didn’t want to move out of the area. We started inshore and caught a few sea bass mixed with good numbers of tog. We then continued to move out into deeper water and found better numbers of larger sea bass with tog mixed in. We fished anywhere from 50’-100’ of water with the best catching in the 80’+ range.

Although the fishing seemed a bit slower than recent early spring sea bass trips, there was plenty of action and we ended the day with approximately 100 fish with a 60/40 split of sea bass/tog. One especially noteworthy catch was a 7 lb cod!

I started early Monday morning in Surf City and got into a bunch of blues. It wasn’t what I was looking for, so I went back on Tuesday with club member Bill. We drove south instead looking for deep water at low tide. We decided to head back to where we started. It was another great day.

Bill started with a 32” striper. I was trying for fluke and lost a small one in the wash. So I went back to bass and one rod. Decided to put out another rod and was rewarded with my first keeper bass of the season at 28-1/2”. Then, it was bluefish, dogfish and skates. Oh my! Our friend Tom had the catch of the day with a real beauty, 43” striper. I caught another small striper before heading home . My wife and I had striper and bluefish for dinner. We both agreed the striper was the winner.

Our original plans were to go fluking but the exaggerated weather report kept John Stuebing and me shore bound. So, we decided to hit the beach instead. A quick stop at SC B&T for bait and we headed to 5th street in Surf City.

It didn’t take long for John to hook and land his first bluefish (or any fish for that matter) from the sands. A nice 27″ fish that was released. I then hooked into a ‘good one’ that I lost in the suds. I landed one ~24″ and had two other knockdowns. I bled my fish and brought it to the car to be iced. My bluefish cakes that night were outstanding! John also lost one and landed another.

A great time on the beach with fantastic weather and feisty bluefish.

Three months and hundreds of casts, with fewer than ten fish caught! I didn’t even see a fish caught during the annual tournament a couple of weekends ago and they were using grass shrimp – I did see a whole lot of beer swigged, however.
Perhaps it is the warming trend, only time will tell. I’ll keep casting and will report any perch over 12.00″.

Well, they arrived! Fishing on Wednesday, I caught two 12.5″ beauties! Can only get better from here.

I went fishing the incoming tide mid-island LBI with some friends using fresh clam and bunker for bait. I got 2 bass on clam, but both came off the hook. Then I landed this 32+” bass that hit bunker. A while later the ocean got really calm and the bite turned off. We left at sunset after catching a few dogfish. Seems the last few hours of incoming tide is producing fish. Side note: we didn’t see any bluefish.

Club member Bill and I along with friend and fellow angler Tom, hit the surf looking for action. And we were not disappointed. Bill caught two, the first and last of the day, 28.5 and 31.25”. Tom had a 29 and a 30”. Those fish were caught on clam. I was high hook with 5 fish 24,32,33,37 and the last was not measured but I put at 26”, Most of my fish fell victim to fresh bunker from SCBT. I also lost a big one when my braid parted. Oh well!

Water temp was 53 degrees. We fished from 10 am until 3 pm – about 2-1/2 hours of incoming and outgoing tides. All in all, it was a very awesome trip!

Brian, Tyler and friend Smitty went to the tog grounds this past Sunday morning. Tyler caught this 22” beauty which he safely released for another day. They caught several other big ones that were also released. But seven tog were brought home for the table.