Only Caught One But It Was “THE ONE” by Ed Valitutto

Posted on July 12, 2022 by VHFC

Since my boat is still out of commission waiting on the Lift / Tilt Assembly, I decided to go out on the Miss Barnegat Light. With a spectacular forecast and since it was Monday, how bad could the crowds be? The answer – BAD! With Carolyn Ann III shut down and summer in full swing, I actually thought of getting off the boat before she left dock. Nearly every spot on the rail was filled with vacationers.

We promptly left the dock at 8:00 and proceeded to BL reef as usual. The weather was spectacular but the drift was just okay. The ship’s follow up FB report said “Nice day of fluke fishing again”. They failed to mention the catching was dismal with probably 6 keeper fluke and 3 keeper seabass. I caught my one fish on the chicken rig tipped with 5″ Gulp that we used up in Nantucket. It was a whopping 20″ but good enough for the $310 pool!

In the second photo, the 20″ mark is clearly shown but I failed to show the fish’s nose. Please don’t follow my example.

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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.

The triangle fly is probably the most unusual of saltwater flies. It’s one of the few, if not only, flies tied to a treble hook. It’s also barely a fly at all, because hardly any material is used. It is complete after tying the two straw pearl twinkle flashes and the tiny tuft of natural squirrel, leaving an entire hook fully exposed. Incredibly this barebacked treble fly is a knockout when it comes to sea trout.