They’re Back! by Dave Spendiff

Posted on May 3, 2016 by VHFC

The bay ol’ timers say the big blues come into Barnegat bay around the 21st of April each year – last year they were a little late, this year they were on time. Caught (boated) 27 of these yellow eyed devils today, hooked twice as many and simply had to yell UNCLE on the last fish. Found them at 9:30 this morning and threw in the towel at 2:00 – absolutely spent! The pictured bruiser weighed in on the official scale (Fisherman’s Headquarters) at 17lbs.10oz! Caught about 6 in this class, 11 in the 10-14lb range and the rest in the 8-10lb class. The real record is, I only lost one surface plug and one spoon. Wish you all could have been out there with me hooting and hollering. As I told Kyle, my son, my poor boat looked like a WWI trench – full of blood, guts and scales! The wildest top water action I’ve ever experienced!
Bill Dabney and I went out the following day and had a good day of top water bluefish fishing and saw Billy Figley and his son, Nathen with their rods bent most of the day as well. Saturday, Joe Filice and I went out and had a slow start. As the wind abated and the sun started to shine things started to happen with blue fish in the 10 to 14lb class started hitting our spoons. We couldn’t get the surface bite today, but we were not complaining. Get out there before it’s over!
Dave

Posted in Member Reports

Membership Form

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.