Dock Party Report....

Got down to the marina at about 6:30 and unloaded the cooler and bag, and new rods to the dock. Went and got the bait out of the freezer, stepped aboard to unlock her and got a real strong whiff of gas. Opened the engine hatch to discover gas in the bilge. I am quite sure the auto censor on this site would not stop all of the obscenities that were probably heard in Barnegat from Point but will leave it at that.

Got out a few diapers, got the fuel absorbed, let the bilge vent for an hour and vacuumed up all the bilge water. After further investigation we could not find any leaks on the motor side. Started her up, let her idle for an hour and then let her cool off. Still no leaks on the motor side.

Best we can figure is a bad weld in the tank. The fill, vent, and senders are all on the top of the tank, nothing wet on top, and only a half full tank so the likelihood of it sloshing out of the top is low. Tried pulling the deck cover off but not only were the joints siliconed but they put a hefty bead under it before it was put in.

Poked around with a Rigid SeeSnake micro camera best we could. Below the tank on the hull liner it was pretty nasty looking...stained pretty bad. Looked like rust on the camera but hard to tell for sure from it. Going to call the manufacturer before we finish pulling the deck hatch to find out if there is any warranty on the tank itself.

On to the title of the post...at least at the dock the weather was not so nice and the forecast a bit off making me feel a little better about not getting out today. Since a few of us did not feel like working on our boats too much with the SE wind in our faces we turned to the next best thing to fishing...complaining about our boats, drinking and telling fish stories. The beer and vodka flowed, tons of snacks and pizza were consumed as well. In the end each of us limited out on slight tans, wind burns and buzzes. Hopefully soon they will finish up the dock work and we can move our tables, chairs and BBQ out onto the dock and get our after fishing and party grounds back in order.

But at least since a line was not wet we did not get skunked!

Fishing Breaks Wide Open This Week!

I will start off with what a day! It was beautiful out. I first ran outside just to take a peak and run the boat a bit. Started marking bait here and there, then started making tight isolated pods of fish.

Thinking this was going to be a bass and flounder day excitement started running high. Had to take short drifts with 1 or 2 shots to hook up on each drift over the fish. First few drifts ended in frustration with the fish just mouthing the baits. Felt strange though and not like bass. On the third drift about an 8lb weak was brought along boat side. I continued working the weaks for another hour and half There ran from 8 to about 12 pounds. I lost one boat side due to it not fitting in the net, so I have no idea of the weight.

All using my homemade bucktails. When the current went slack the bite died off. At that point I decided to run back inside and get on the hook and try for some flounder.

With most reports during the week coming from the river side I setup in a hole between the main channel and the old channel. I baited two rods and put them out. Before I could get the first chum pot in the water I had a fish on, nice 15+ incher and fat. Got the first pot in and the second rod goes off. Another nice fat fish. It did not matter gulp sands live sands they both produced. Fished four about an hour and had the best fishing ofthe season with non-stop action till the water temps rose above 51 degrees. Not one short and all fish over 14" with many over 15 and a couple in the 16-18" range.

What a day on the water. Great weather, great fishing, life does not get any better.

Where are all the Flounder???

The morning weather was perfect, sunny, light winds, warm...the winds quickly picked up late morning but not to a unmanageable state. Reports from many boats were not good for the morning tide but we decided to give it a shot anyway and pulled out of the slip about 11 AM after we all finished up some work on our boats.

We decided to stop a little south of Dale's Point since a buddy was closer to it and had no action, we figured we would give a different spot a try. Had a few real light hits and taps but no hookups, just lost worms.

We then moved to just outside of the canal on the North side, didn't stay there long as the current was pretty much at max flood stage.

Our last stop was a hole off the north channel along the golf course. Again a few nibbles but no hookups and a few crabs almost keeper size.

The water was 51.2 to 54.5 degrees. After speaking with a few guys that fished during the week we came up with the consensus that they are having a lat spawn this year. A few guys had fish during the week that still had roe in them. But we don't feel that they will stick around long if the water stays in the low to mid fifties, maybe two weeks three tops. Would be nice to see them stick around till a good bass bite materializes but not likely.

Also several guys had heard second hand reports from divers with fish stacked on top of each other at the Mathis Bridge and Mantoloking Bridge. Which would be consistent with them spawning. Earlier in the week a buddy was down to Island Heights and had limit catches and near limit catches of good sized fish.

Lay Day Due to Wind

Boy did I goof when looking at the weather. I committed to helping my mother do some packing for her move later this month on Saturday leaving me Sunday to go fishing or work on the boat. With the hard NE blow on Sunday there was 1 foot of chop with white caps coming west up the creek.

I heard a few guys on the radio claiming they had fish but you know how fisherman on the radio are...more likely than not they had no fish.

In between showers I compounded the aft pilothouse bulkhead and cockpit. I also tried the compound on the interior glass and it removed the three years of sneaker marks pretty well. Much better than anything else has. The difficult part with the interior is it is not gel coated nor smooth. It is splattered with resin and then painted flat white. A surface that I will never own again.

While I was disappointed to not fish, you can not get skunked if you don't wet a line!