Two Dogs, a Bird and a Weakie by Ed Valitutto

Posted on September 20, 2021 by VHFC

No, the title is not the name of the latest C&W hit but the results of many hours of fishing by Dave Spendiff and me on the last day of the fluke season. The waves originally forecast at 2 ft or less were upgraded to 3 to 4 ft. However, the buoy off BI was reading 4.9 ft early Sunday morning. Thinking Little Egg would be a safer bet, we headed south.

The large fleet fishing the inlet was ample proof that folks were staying inside. We watched several boats go out and return shortly confirming that waves were nasty. Our first drift produced our full catching of the day. Dave’s 16″ weakfish at least provided him a chance for the Melanie Boytos award. We never saw or caught a single fluke the whole day. Late morning, we opted for fishing the ICW along Holgate but nothing was biting there either. Oh well, there’s always next year!

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.