I went up to Sandy Hook with a few friends on Wednesday, October 26th to target bass by throwing plugs. We all caught quality bass in the 36″ range using 6″ pencil poppers. I was lucky enough to land this 47″ cow that had to be close to 50lbs. It took all I had in me to land this beast. I revived it in the surf, and it kicked away and swam off strongly.

Once again, I decided to drive to Barnegat Light and fish for tog off the bulkhead. This is the sixth time in 10 days that I have gone there. I’ve fished the same spot each time – just off the left side of the road that goes to the state park. There is plenty of space along the water before you reach the condo docks.

There is plenty of action and yes there are a lot of shorts. Today was my third keeper that I’ve brought home. I actually had a second keeper today that I gave away! My fish were all 16″. But I have seen fish that were 17, 18 and a 20″ that I netted for someone.

I usually stay for 2 hours or so. Tide doesn’t seem to matter either way. I’ve caught them on green crabs and equally well on sand fleas. Give it a try for yourself and catch a tasty meal.

Fishing the day after our club dinner was tough, but I couldn’t say no to John Stuebing’s offer to search for Striped Bass. After rounding Holgate, we headed north and quickly found schools of bunker – but no predators were bothering them! We trolled, threw topwater plugs and jigged to no avail.

We headed further north towards the pipeline and saw some really heavy returns. Our jigs barely hit bottom before they were hit by small weakfish (10-11″). We kept thinking a keeper was in the mix, but all fish were identical in size. We continued our search following small bird action and I caught a small bonito that was released. We ended the day trolling back towards Little Egg Inlet without success.

Despite our small success, it was still a great day on the water! Back at the John’s dock, I spoke with a someone cleaning off their boat. He had traveled solo up past Seaside Heights – quite a trip from Tuckerton – and had caught three large stripers 42, 44 and 47″ via snag and drop close to the beach. That blitz was also reported in tonight’s On The Water email report. Sounds like the fall run is starting!

After hearing about all the tog being caught in the Barnegat Light area, I decided to give it a try on Monday 10/16. I stopped at FHQ for crabs, but when told they had mole crabs aka sand fleas, I opted for a pint at $12. There had to be a hundred or more in the container and you don’t have to deal with pincers and cutting them in half.

I stopped near Andy’s restaurant and began fishing the bulkhead towards the new condos. I used 3 oz and flung the crab out a good ways. Immediately it was stolen. This continued the rest of the afternoon. I caught probably 25 shorts but no keepers. But I saw several caught. And yes, you will use most of those mole crabs feeding the hungry tog.

I came back Tuesday and had the same luck – all shorts. On Wednesday, I moved further away from the condos and closer to the road. After several shorts, I finally hooked into a bigger fish. I brought my long net and someone did the honors for my first jetty keeper tog.
I am in the LBI tournament and have never entered a fish over 8 years. I doubted my fish would win anything, but I wanted to enter a catch. SCB&T recorded it at16″ and 2.32 lbs! I will definitely give it another try before the fish leave for deeper water.

Went fishing with Ed (The Pres) yesterday. When I arrived at Ed’s boat early morning, he already had Ice and Bait ready to go. Off we went to GSN.
Once on the reef Ed positioned the boat over a sunken Barge and engaged the Trolling Motor. We picked at Sea Bass with a mix of shorts and occasional Keeper. We did this routine several times re-positioning on different wrecks. Around noon the bite seemed to turn off. We had a dozen Sea Bass and one nice Porgy in the box.
It was a good day of fishing and just great Fall weather.

With beautiful weather forecast, I joined John Stuebing for a day of sea bass fishing. John’s plan called for hitting the Boiler, a small wreck ~ 8.5 mi east of Little Egg inlet. We caught plenty of fish but the keeper ratio was low and after many drifts, John decided to try another spot.

Spot #2 was the Marvin, an old clam dredge about 5 miles south of the Boiler. Once again, lots of fish but it was taking time to get our 20 fish limit. Still needing 8 fish, John wanted to try a debris field another 5 miles south off A/C discovered using his relief shading feature. Here, the keeper ratio was better, and we finally had our limit. No FOM worthy fish and we only caught sea bass. The great weather and calm seas made for a nice day on the water.

Had a good day fishing this Labor Day. My daughter caught her first keeper fluke near Double Creek and the dyke. It was a great day on the water with fluking, blowfishing, clamming and swimming. My family bagged three blowfish dinners.

When Alan Goracy asked me to go fishing on Monday, I reluctantly said okay since Alan had to leave by early afternoon and I couldn’t last much longer than that. Last week, I was with a group of members who traveled to Nantucket for two charters, but that story will be in the next Newsletter. We started in the new channel leading to the CG station and had a few shorts and a bluefish. We fished a few drifts in the inlet, but nothing was biting. We then decided to fish near the horn buoy about 2 miles outside the inlet.

Immediately we started being attacked by sea robins. Then we got a few fluke including 2 that were close and 1 keeper that escaped while waiting for the net. Then Alan got a slot fish and we decided to redrift the area. Good thing we did. Alan landed a real fat 24 incher that went 6 lbs on my Boga scale. It was his personal best and a real surprise. With that we headed back home.

I had Wil and my buddy Bob join me today to fish on a beautiful Flat ocean. We fished the Garden State North and caughta lot of short fish. But we still had five keepers – three over at 22, 23, and a 25 – and 2 slots. We also caught our 3 sea bass and had to release 4 Between 18 and 22. At that point, we called it a day on a great trip with a lot of action!

With great weather forecast, I joined John Steubing on his boat out of Tuckerton on Friday August 11 for a fluke trip. John wanted to fish 1-2 miles along the Beach off the first White Tower north of the red tower.
Drifting conditions were ideal and we stayed there almost the entire time.

Fishing wasn’t furious but there were enough hits and fish to keep our interest. All together we had ~20 shorts with two slots and two overs at 18 1/2 and 19 1/2. A quick stop at a wreck John knew got us our two fish limit of seabass. Just a great day to be out on the water!

I’ve had good results three times over the past week and a half trolling for bluefish along Island Beach State Park. Lots of cocktail size blues in 20’-35’ of water trolling Clark spoons. This is my brother and nephew visiting from Virginia. We had a great time fluking on Friday & Saturday then chasing bluefish on Sunday.

Fished Sunday Aug 6th with 3 other anglers on my boat. We tried a couple of spots and found a wreck which held some fish. We caught 4 good sea bass with many released and then we got into the fluke. We had 4 overs and 1 slot with Wil getting a nice 22″. Just a beautiful day on the water!

With nice weather forecast, VHFC members Alan Goracy, Caesar Pesarini and Ed Valitutto went out for a day of fluke fishing. Having heard Little Egg inlet had been hot, that’s where we headed. Drifting conditions were near perfect – the outgoing tide and wind were aligned for a nice 1 kt drift the length of the inlet. Alan got a slot fluke and I got a slightly over one. But except for a few short fluke, there wasn’t much action including after the tide changed to incoming at 10:00.

We finally decided to call it a day and make one last stop along the ICW near Holgate. Good thing we did. Caesar caught a nice fat 20 1/2″ fluke during our first drift. After I hooked a cow nosed ray, we were done for sure.

Nice day on the water and the bugs weren’t terrible!

I went out today Sunday July 23 with my pal Wil for fluke and sea bass. We caught a lot of sea bass including quite a few nice ones such as my 20 1/2″ in the photo. We also caught about 20 short fluke with only 1 over and 1 slot. Of course, Wil had the unusual catch of a Remora. It was a beautiful day on the water.

On Friday, July 7, VHFC members, Bob Dodds and Phil Simon with future member (procrastinator) Boston Bob, went out with Brett Taylor. The fishing (catching) was initially pretty tough. It was a strange bite. The fluke were simply holding onto the Gulp, and then letting go on the way up. We started giving them a little more time and had success. We finished with 8 keepers from 18.5 to almost 23”. I had a great day with 4 keepers, 18.5, 21, 22 & the biggest one. The weather, wind and water could not have been any better. Well, maybe one more for our limit?

For several years, I have taken my granddaughters on an annual bay fluke fishing trip with Brett Taylor. This year, it was my oldest Ashley, 20 who will be a junior in college studying accounting and Maddie, 8, the youngest. Hannah 13, could not make it this year. We started out with high hopes and Brett didn’t fail us. Maddie caught the first legal fluke @ 18.5”, which was also her first fluke ever. She followed this with several more before she got tired.

The real competition was between Ashley and me. Over the past 9 years, she has always beaten me with larger & more fluke. She delights in that and loves to give it to me. It was not to be this year. We caught 8 keepers, my 4, Ashley’s 3 and Maddie’s 1. Overall, we must have caught another 25 shorts, what fun!

PS Ashley was not happy with these results and as a result, has challenged me to another trip in August before she leaves for college. Whatever happens, I will report in August.

My cousin Joe & I went out with Brett Taylor on 6/16 to continue our traditional summer bay fluke contest. We knew that the weather would be getting bad, but hoped that we could get some fishing in before the storm. I had the biggest on the last two contests. However, this time, Joe caught 2 nice @ 20 & 21” fluke right away.

As we continued to fish in a number of areas, we almost had a boat limit and Joe was gloating, still ahead.
Brett continued to watch the radar and it was almost time to leave, which Joe was hoping for. On the way back to Waretown, Brett made one more stop. I thank Brett, because on a very quick stop, I caught a 22” for the boat limit and a win.
We got back just in time for Brett to clean all the fish in the heavy rain.

Joe, will have to wait for our July trip to get a big one. Sorry cuz. (We have fished together, on & off, for over 70 years, each time, acting, like we were 8 year olds again. (What memories)

On July 7th, I went out fishing with Wil and two other buddies to Little Egg reef. We had a great day with 4 fish over 18″. We had one 19 1/2″, 2 at 20 1/2″ and a 24″ which I caught. We also had 4 keeper seabass and a triggerfish.

We caught several short fluke and seabass but no slot fluke! Oh well, no one is complaining!

I went out on my neighbor’s boat yesterday July 5th to GSS. We caught 3 fluke with 2 over 18″ and 3 sea bass along with some shorts. I had a 22″.

Today I went an afternoon trip with a fishing buddy to LE reef. We had 4 keepers – 2 over and 2 slots, I had the two overs – a 24 1/2 and a 21 1/2″ It was a good afternoon!