Mixed Bag Today by Ed Valitutto

Posted on August 5, 2022 by VHFC

Not only was the weather forecast for Friday exceptional, but my trolling motor was finally fixed – a broken battery cable that was initially bent and broke due to vibration. Friday was also the last day of a long visit by my grandsons – Nick & Vinnie. We headed to Double Creek to try for fluke with a later plan for blowfish.

The fluke in DCC, the channel by the Dike, the water back near the fleet and OCC were few and all small. But the boys did manage two small bluefish and Vinnie caught a nice 18 1/2″ weakfish.

We then anchored (using my trolling motor) between the BI buoy and the shoreline. We only fished for an hour caught 4 keeper blowfish and several shorts including a short fluke! Check out the photo of Nick’s doubleheader that has to be two of the smallest puffers I have ever seen. Any day on the water with my grandsons is a fantastic trip!

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Fishing Facts

Of the fifty United States, thirty-eight have a striped-bass record. New Jersey has the largest striped-bass record—a 78-pound 8·ounce whopper that was caught in 1982. The state with the smallest striped-bass record is Iowa. That landlocked striper weighed only 9 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in 1983.

There’s something fishy about beer these days. Fish Tail Ale is popular as ever, and New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewery is one of the state’s largest specialty breweries. There’s also Washington’s Wild Salmon Organic Pale Ale, Florida’s Land Shark beer, Delaware’s Dogfish Head beer, and two versions of Stingray beer—a lighter version from the Cayman Islands and a dark beer from Canada.

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