The Fin Addict

New Site is Live!

2009-01-11T10:51:00.008-05:00

The new site is pretty much done, just need to add a few more older posts and all the pictures within the posts.

I will no longer be posting here. This page should redirect to the new site automatically in 30 seconds. If not just click on the link below.

The new home of The Fin Addict

New Site!

2009-01-05T20:41:00.003-05:00

It is not complete yet but for those itching to see the new format below is the link to it. I am still working on finalizing the formating and getting all the content from here and my traditional web site converted over into the new blog. It will contain all the great info of both sites combined into one, concise, easy to navigate site.

The Fin Addict (work in progress)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T23:25:00.002-05:00

Hope everyone has a healthy, safe and prosperous New Year. I have been thinking about making some big changes to my blog for some time now. I have finally gone ahead and started the design and coding of the new site. It should be done in a few days...can't wait to finish it.

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-24T14:56:00.007-05:00

As we grow up we are handed down traditions from our parents and close friends. One that was passed on to me from my best friend's father, Dave Sr., was slow cooked spiral ham on the grill slathered up with honey mustard all over and in between each slice. As times change we are forced to change our traditions. I am still making the ham for Christmas dinner but am forced to make it Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day. My mother has moved into a condo now and they have no terraces so they cannot have a grill. I don't think it will be a huge let down as everyone loves the ham left over cold, so it will still be enjoyed but not entirely the same.

A new tradition has been the addition of cheesecake to the dessert menu. I posted the recipe a few days back and it should be ready to come out of the oven by the time I post today's entry. It took some refining and everyone was happy to sample each version as I honed my recipe. We have even figured out the optimal transportation method for winter and summer so it will not run after being carted from our house to our destination.

In recent years it seems we have less and less time on our hands to do things. This time of year make time for your friends and family, and make time to keep your traditions alive and create some new ones you can pass down through your family.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

All Covered Up

2008-12-20T18:24:00.003-05:00

With snow at the house and then the boat, I shoveled the snow and ice from the walks and driveway and headed down to the marina. Luckily there was no accumulation there. I removed a few items from the boat and started erecting the frame for the cover and then got her covered up for what seems like it will be the worst winter we have had in a long time.

This year I am trying the tennis ball tip in Saltwater Sportsman to help prevent chaffing on the cover from the rocket launcher. It makes a lot of sense, and I added a little twist to it. I made two small holes opposite each other in the tennis ball. I then passed a length of shock cord through it and adjusted the length so there would be just enough to slip over the bottom of the rod holder and keep the ball in place over the top of it.

Next week I will remove the rest of the gear and get the v-berth and pilothouse cleaned. After that I will start on my many projects.

Jersey Joe's Cheesecake

2008-12-18T14:32:00.006-05:00

I thought I would spread some Holiday cheer and share my NY style cheesecake recipe. It took me about a dozen tries to hone the recipe just right to accommodate fat free cream cheese but I got it, and it was fun along the way sampling all the results. It also works wonders in getting clearance from the Admiral for that weekend long fishing trip. Enjoy.

CRUST:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons melted butter

FILLING:

32 ounces fat-free cream cheese
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs, separated
5 fluid ounces heavy cream
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, and butter together in a mixing bowl. Pour the mixture into the springform pan. Cover your hand in plastic wrap and press crumbs into the base. Using your fingers press crumbs in the sides of the pan. Bake for 6 minutes. Let cool.

In a food processor, cream the cream cheese and the sugar together. Add the vanilla, blend until smooth. Add 4 egg yolks and heavy cream, pulse until smooth. Pour into a large clean bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until a soft froth forms. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar slowly to the egg whites and continue to whisk until soft peaks form. Fold into the cream cheese, a little bit at a time until fully integrated. Pour into the prepared springform pan. Wrap springform pan and sides with aluminum foil and place in roasting pan. Fill roasting pan with 3/4" to 1" of water and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until firm. Let cool for 1 hour and 30 minutes, then refrigerate for at least three hours.

Hauled, Weighed and Blocked

2008-12-16T20:11:00.002-05:00

With 2008 winding down and the threat of a bad winter as well as some much needed drive maintenance I was hauled out today. But first before blocking we had her weighed just about full of fuel, no water and with full gear. She tipped the Toledo at 6,300 pounds. I thought it would have been a little more but at that weight being full I can tow her with the new truck.

Once she was blocked I flushed the motor, changed the oil and filter and winterized the motor. This weekend I will get the stateroom and pilothouse cleaned up and then get her covered up. Then I can start in on my winter projects.

Have wheels re-pitched
Drive service
Replace bellows
Replace gimbal bearing
New aft bilge pump
Replace forward bilge pump
Replace two rod holders
Add three new rod holders
Install outriggers
Install inverter
New cockpit power point
Plumb outdrive discharge overboard
Install fishbox macerator

And I am sure I will find a few others. A few of these items I have been putting off for some time, hopefully I can get them all taken care of this winter.

Last Trips a Bust

2008-12-14T21:04:00.000-05:00

With the lackluster fall striper run we decided to mainly target tog our last two trips. Saturday we set out a little later than normal, probably around 7 am. We were returning North to Elberon Rocks but never made it there. Instead of NW winds we were greeted by stiff N to NNE winds and steep four to five foot waves. At that point we decided to surf back home and poke around the inlet for some bass. We had almost no marks on the fish finder the entire time. We then ran out to the Axcel Carlson to scout out a few spots for Sunday and stay closer to home.

We checked a few wrecks and three out of the five looked very promising with many marks swimming around them. Upon returning on Sunday, our top three picks had dive boats on them and the sun was not even up yet. Then after dealing with a ground tackle issue on another spot we were inundated with dogfish and bergals. With the wind and seas pickup up we called it quits and began reflecting back on a season that had many firsts and personal bests for us.

Bunker Spoon Rods & Reels

2008-12-09T14:01:00.007-05:00

With the Holidays coming there have been questions flying around what rod or what reel should I use for trolling bunker spoons. Whether you may be buying these items for someone or planning on using cash or gift cards received to buy them after the Holidays I thought I would share my experiences and opinions about them.

Rods for spoons have a very specific blank that is used. Typically they are surf blanks that are cut down from 12 or 14' to 8, 9 or 10'. Some blank manufacturers have started rolling blanks specifically for spoon rods. They have a soft tip with a parabolic bend to them. This allows them to 'pump' and work the spoons properly.

If I did it all again, which I might next year...I would go with two pairs of custom rods from a reputable rod builder, they are about the same cost as production rods from Seeker in 8 or 9'. I currently have the 8' Seeker rods and would definitely go with a 9' rod next time for spoons. I would also get a pair of shorter 6' 6" or 7' strictly for umbrella rigs. This does not mean that you have to have two pairs of rods, you can get a pair that can perform double duty and troll both spoons and umbrella rigs. With the amount of trolling we do I find it more pleasurable to use a shorter rod when not pulling spoons.

There are two big advantages to getting custom rods. If you are going to only troll braid you can have lighter less expensive guides put on. And you can get removable butts which make them much easier to store on the boat. Plus you have many more options for other components-guides, swivel roller tips, grips, butt material and reel seat material, etc.

If and when I get new rods I will also opt for cork fore grips instead of foam. I like the feel better and I think they hold up much better.

The reels are very much personal preference. The Penn Senator 113HSP seems to be the defacto standard but there are more and more converts to Shimano Tekota's and other brands with heavy duty level winds. I have fished 113HSP's with and without the Accurate one piece frame, Accurate spools and Aftco Star Sets. I personally have the Shimano Tekota 800's and love them. They do require a little more diligence with maintenance due to the aluminum spool. But you get a lighter reel (5.2 oz lighter), they come with a one piece frame, they have a heavy duty level wind, they have two more bearings, are capable of four pounds more drag and they crank in 7" more line per crank than a Senator 113. 7" may not seem like a lot but when checking rigs for weeds or if they are fouled from bouncing bottom or to pickup and run to another location they do crank in a whole lot faster.

The only thing I miss on the Tekota's is the Aftco Star Set. It is a very nice feature to have but we work around it. But when I do go to a four rod setup (2 for spoons, 2 for umbrellas), all four will have Tekota 800's unless something newer and better comes along, but as of right now that would be my ideal setup.

Don't Believe the Weatherman

2008-12-07T21:29:00.001-05:00

Despite the gale warning we wanted to give blackfishing a shot. Worst case we figured we would just turn around in the inlet and go to the diner for breakfast. I got down to the boat at 5:15, all the flags in the area were limp, and proceeded to brush the snow off the dock. Then brushed off the boat, some of which we saved for the cooler...nothing like free ice! Got the gear setup, extra anchors on the bow and left the dock at 6. Broke the inlet at 6:30 to a flat windless ocean as we suspected. Just a very light 1-2' ground swell. Ran up to Elberon Rocks for some inshore black fishing.

Tied up on the first spot in 30' of water around 7. It was so calm it was hard to come tight at first. Around 8 a light breeze picked up and kept us tight over our spot.

Very slow for the first half hour, only one short but as the haze cleared a bit and the water temp went up a degree the bite picked up and for the next 2.5 hours we had a halfway decent pick of keepers and shorts.

Fished till about 11 and headed in as the wind started gusting to about 15 knots almost due west. Seas were still a ground swell with maybe 6" of chop on top. We looked around for bait and birds but did not see any and decided to head in.

We were glad we decided to at the very least take a ride to the inlet and look and see if it was fishable and the morning certainly was. Total for the day was four for the table to 4.5 lbs and 8 shorts. It was Tommy's first blackfish trip and he fed them quite well for most of the trip till he started to develop the touch and ended the day catching the biggest fish.

Short Shot @ Bass'n

2008-12-06T12:40:00.004-05:00

I had only a few hours to go fishing since I had to be home and ready to leave for a family party at 13:15 but we gave it a shot with a forecast for a bluebird day. After breaking the inlet just before 6:00 I was hoping to get a call that the party was canceled, it was one of the nicest days of the year on the water.

Knowing we had only a few hours and we would be fishing all day, weather permitting, on Sunday we did sort of an exploratory trip. We knew many boats, including charters and head boats limited out several days in a row to the North so we made a left turn after looking North, South and East out of the inlet through the glasses.

On the way up there were no birds working but rather just sitting and waiting and we only marked a couple of small bait balls with no fish around them.

When we arrived at the the rocks there were only about four boats there, and two minutes after getting there we were greeted with birds working and huge splashes about 75 yards away. It seemed to good too be true, and it was. It only lasted for about three minutes and we barely had time to get over to it before it broke up. Later I found out it was not bass but the giants had returned inshore on their migration south and we missed our first shot at a giant in December.

We jigged and trolled the area for two hours with only a small bluefish to show for our efforts. Being pressed for time we started South and stopped and jigged on some marks along the way a few times. We did manage to find a good school of adult bunker but there were no takers in or around it.

I look forward to reading the day's reports later to hear if anyone did hook up with the giants and to see where the reports of keeper bass will come in from so we can make a last minute decision on what to target and where to go on Sunday.

Busy Weekend

2008-12-03T22:26:00.001-05:00

Friday, don't think I will be down early enough for the afternoon bite but will be able to refuel and get the gear set. Also have a fishing club meeting.

Saturday I have a family event so that only leaves me about three hours fishing time...but we will make the best of it.

Sunday I should be out all day depending on wind and if it stays out the West when it picks up.

Not sure if I will be turning right or left yet waiting to hear from some guys who may be fishing to the North tomorrow and Friday. Should be leaving the dock Sat & Sun by 5:30.

Only 12 days, 1 hour 46 minutes till she is hauled out...have to make the most of it.

Where are the Bigger Bass?

2008-11-30T22:25:00.000-05:00

With little reports from the North we again decided to head South. Broke the Inlet just before sunrise and turned right. Did not mark any bait or fish till we got down to the Piers. Jigged a little and then got up on the troll. Put out black tubes, blue/white shads and a chartreuse/white mojo. The tubes got hit almost immediately. Once that short was released and rig back in the water we pulled the shads and put out white tubes instead. Then we had both rods go off...again more shorts. After both rigs were back in we changed out the mojo for a Santini tube. We had a couple more shorts before making the run down to the old CG station to join Bri Time and Striker Joe.

I always have a hard time leaving fish to find fish but our biggest in the area was 26" and it sounded much more promising further South. We could not believe how many boats were there as we were approching...there had to be two hundred boats easy, up North there were only a couple dozen.

We slowly cruised around looking for good marks to jig but after about 5 minutes of nothing concentrated enough we started trolling. Again before the rigs bounced off the bottom we had fish on. Although short they were a little bit bigger and were just short. We had steady action with one, two and even all three rods going off at one point.

Then we had a knockdown that started pulling some drag, we figured we finally had a solid keeper. After about 10 minutes it surfaces about 50 feet behind the boat...looked way too long and skinny to be a bass. It turned out to be a tail hooked 3' spiney dogfish. Got that puppy released and reset the spread, joked with Bri time about it and a few minutes later another knockdown peeling drag. We joked kiddingly in the cockpit about it happening again and sure enough, an even bigger tail hooked spiney.

We moved slightly deeper and a little South and started picking at shorts again but never found a keeper bass.

Beautiful day on the water, wish we could have stayed out longer but we had two crew members that had to be in by 3 so we headed in about 1 and decided to head back out light, just me and Tommy to see if there would be an afternoon bite. Ducked in BI, there were a bunch of guys fishing the inlet but did not see any bent rods on the way. I almost followed a boat through the cut but decided not to since I had no idea who it was and if they really knew where they were going.

After dropping two off, and talking for a few minutes at the marina we headed back out MI. Went about a quarter mile out and looked around. We thought we saw the blitz of the season just North of the inlet. Upon arriving to the several hundred birds working a very small area we realized it was a small netter. We were not really sure what they were doing but they were throwing something over the side and pulling lines in. The boat was in only 15-20' of water off Manasquan. A few minutes after us coming within 50' to see what was up they left. We circled the are to see if anything was picking up the scraps from below but there were no promising marks.

We cruised around the inlet, south to Bay Head, in along the beach, out to 65'. There was very little bait around and no solid marks to jig on either. We came across a small pod of flipping bunker, snagged a couple and sent them down but found no takers.

Once the sun got down behind the buildings we headed for the inlet, again with no keepers in the box. On the way in we looked at the weather and discussed plans for Sunday. We had figured we would be able to get a few hours in the early morning before the blow came through. Hosed the deck down and left the majority of the mess for after Sunday's trip and went to dinner. Checked the forecast again and decided to leave early-5:30 and get a few hours in...wrong!

At 1:45 am we were woken up by the chop slapping the hull, it had blown up way ahead of schedule and we had gusts from the East to 18 mph and about a foot of chop coming up the creek. We decided to check the weather and beach cams at first light and make a final call then but it was even worse by then. Had breakfast and then proceeded to clean the boat and gear in horizontal rain. Once we were done the rain let up...figures.

Hopefully next weekend we will be able to get back-to-back trips in if the weather cooperates. We are trying to get in as many trips before the boat comes out but someone upstairs seems to have other plans all the time.

We did finally get to try out the Tournament Grade Tackle Rod Riggers. We did have to grind out the notches a little for the heavy duty bar pins to fit since they are a 1/2 inch tall and don't seem to fit most accessories. Even though the fish were not big enough to pin a rod in a traditional rod rigger or holder it was much easier to get the rods in and out of the rod riggers. It was also much easier to let out or bring in some line without having to lean out over the gunwale to reach the reel. They lay the rods down a little more than most others too, the rods were just about parallel to the water, plus if you have a rod to pull umbrellas that doesn't have a gimbaled butt they hold them perfectly in the correct position unlike the more traditional rod riggers. Making turns is a bit easier as well, the cradles keep the rods from wanting to creep out of the rod holder. Everyone on board was very impressed by the quality and finish on them and we are anxious to try them offshore next season. Forgot to take come pics of them in action, will try and remember to do so next weekend.

Bass and Blackfish

2008-11-23T19:29:00.004-05:00

Left the dock at 5:30 and a brisk 23 degree air temp and 33.5 degree water in the creek. No ice in the water. There was a dredge I guess in the inlet similar to the one down in Barnegat with only one light on it and it stretched from first ICW marker to the sea wall. I can't imagine how they get away with blocking most of the channel with something like that, with no lights on it and not get fined.

Anyway, broke the inlet and had some birds and marks just outside...stopped and jigged but nothing. Started heading North since the plan was to hit Shrewsbury Rocks for bass then the Elberon Rocks for blackfish on the way back.

Made a couple stops off Spring Lake, Belmar, Asbury and Monmouth Beach jigging and trolling hear and there. We had a steady pick of just short, really fat fish the whole time. No blues brought to the boat although we suspect one jigged up fish that was lost just as we started to see color may have been due to its erratic fight.

Then while up off Monmouth Beach jigging I hooking into something really heavy and pretty much dead weight. I thought we might have a nice monkfish but it turned out to be a tail hooked spiny, one of the biggest I have ever seen.

On our way back South to Elberon Rocks just about at slack water we came across a bunch of birds working close to the beach and decided to jig a little more before the tide change and get setup on the hook. It was all blues about 3 pounds. it was fun for a while with poppers and jigs but then that wore off.

Made our way through the fleet onto some structure that looked good and got setup. Unfortunately I didn't end up right over the structure but with a short toss of the baits we were into steady action and since it is not high profile structure decided to stay put. We had great action as long as you pitched to the right place and put 6 keepers all around 3 pounds and one 3.5 lbs in the box.

At about 11 the wind started kicking up and we had some pretty good white caps and taller chop so we decided to started heading back down to MI. After running about 5 minutes along the beach it flattened out again and the wind dropped out we decided to look for birds and readings and fish a little more but we found nothing. Just after noon we decided to head in early and call it a day.

Water temps outside ranged from 47.2 to 50.8 and inside from 33.5 to 35.7. Trolling we had most fish on blue/white shads with some on wine colored tubes (Thanks Brian and Ken for the color tip, finally found some this week). White tubes, black/white shads and black tubes produced nothing. Jigs we used dorado color MegaBait jigs, black/silver and blue/silver did not produce. All our short bass were spitting up peanuts and rain bait...did not see one sand eel spit up. Same with the bluefish. The blackfish were very aggressive and there was no missing a subtle bite as there were none. I even caught two fish dead sticking while making a sandwich...something I have never been able to do before. We were a little apprehensive about the day after the first stop and the rods and reels being iced up from frozen spray the first few stops but then we just brought the rods in the cabin between stops and all was good.

It was a great day with some fish in the box and a warm dry ride home. We ended up running 51.1 nm putting 7.3 hours on the motor and burning about 28 gallons of fuel for 1.82 nmpg and an average burn of 4.8 gph. I definitely see a big difference with plus (89 octane) fuel and my nmpg and gph numbers. At the end of the day getting in the slip was another story with the blowout tides though...we had to stop short and tilt the outdrive all the way up and float her in.

Rod Riggers

2008-11-18T19:36:00.000-05:00

I have used several different brands over the years...Canyon, Reliable, homemade ones and custom ones. I have also seen many newer models at boating and fishing shows over the past two years. The one that really caught my eye was the Tournament Grade Tackle Rod Rigger. There are two drawbacks to these that I can think of. One they bring the rod tips in about 6-8" on each side. On a narrow beam boat this may be an issue depending on how much your bunker spoons swing. The second is you can not put a spinning outfit into them.

I know some of you are thinking why would you wan to troll a spinning outfit...well, I don't. But drifting for fluke I typically use the rod riggers. It lays the rod down, jigs the bait better than if in a rod holder and when a fish hits the rod tip pulls the bait away from the fish less when it is laid down. Again not a huge deal since I have very few spinning outfits anyway and almost always use a conventional when fluking.

One of the advantages is being able to use them when trolling offshore. You can put up to an 80W in these. A big advantage when trolling on a small beam boat. I can now extend my third and fifth wake baits out away from the flat lines by a few feet now, making my spread look bigger and leading to less tangles when multiple hook ups occur.

I can't wait to test them out this weekend. I will post my opinions and some pictures after the weekend.

New Rod Holders

2008-11-16T20:06:00.002-05:00

I was hoping to get out around noon for a few hours but as the morning went on the winds got stronger and stronger so despite their Westerly direction and reports of the seas being just a swell along the beach we decided to just work on our boats.

We did a group trip to West since we all had 20% off coupons and the stores had tables of stuff 40 and 50 percent off due to the stores closing and moving to a mega store. I was able to grab a couple of items I was in short supply of for half price plus 20% off...score!

Anyway back at the marina I removed the old factory rod holders, sealed the old screw holes and the hole for the rod holders themselves. Then covered the gunwale cap with masking tape to make out the new holes. They ended up a little close to the old ones but I am not too concerned as we are installing a backing plate and through bolting them instead of just using lags as they were originally installed.

Installation went fairly easy and once installed they looked great. The stainless rod holders with white liners looks much better on the boat than chromed ones with black liners. Over the winter I will order five more and replace the other two existing ones, add a center transom rod holder and two forward for the outriggers.

I also retooled my shelf for the bilge heater. After converting the raw water intake the new through hull and hose is slightly in the way of the old shelf. Plus the newly installed battery boxes cut down on the width in the motor well. Once I cut down the shelf length and made its feet longer it was a perfect fit once again. And just in time for this cold front coming through.

Next weekend looks to be very promising weather wise...lets hope the forecast holds.

Played Hookey

2008-11-12T19:32:00.000-05:00

Left the dock at 6:30...didn't realize I goofed on departure time till I got to the dock. Forgot to adjust my routine to standard time from daylight savings time.

Broke the inlet and the sun was already up and there were birds working at the mouth. With good marks on the sonar I jigged for a few minutes with not a touch, I also did not see any of the other five boats hook up so I did not stay there long.

Ran South and kept pod hopping and jigging. Had a steady pick of a range of blues and bass with about a 50/50 ratio, at this point it was still all shorts. I would move on when the fleet would join me.

Started working off the piers in 35-38' of water and had steady top water action with mostly short bass and an occasional bluefish for about an hour before the fleet showed up and put the fish down. Had a blast with small poppers and was about to get the fly swatter out but that was when the bite died due to boat traffic.

After speaking with Bri Time, and others from BFH I headed South along IBSP again pod hopping till I got to the pavilion. Still with about a 50/50 ration to shorts to blues. Then I jigged up and lost two fish that were about 30-32" trying to get them in the net. This was the first time I was using the larger net solo so it took a few tries to get the coordination down of the large hoop and long handle. Next fish was a 28.5" that I swung thinking it was short but found its way into the box.

Shortly after bite started to really slow I went up on the troll. I pulled a black tube rig and chartreuse and white homemade mojo with a 6" Gulp chartreuse power grub. Within 10 minutes both rods went off. The mojo seemed to have a larger fish but I decided to tend to the wire line first. Bad move...the umbrella rig yielded a short and after boating that fish, grabbing the other rod, taking two cranks it was gone. Most likely a bass as the grub had no teeth marks or missing parts.

Released the short and reset the spread and had pretty steady action zig zagging up and down between a 1/2 mile North and South of the pavilion in 35-45' of water.

Had to leave to go to the eye doctor and left the fish biting though it was slowing down as it approached slack current. Did not mark much on the ride North back to MI and only say one pod of birds working. Did pass a fin, stopped to see what it was since it was small...was a baby mola mola, only about two feet across. It was a little timid at first but then swam right up to the boat. Tried to take a picture but it did not turn out good. It was the smallest one I have ever seen.

It was a beautiful day on the water with very light winds, flat seas and non-stop action. It was good talking to all the BFH members. Thanks for twisting my arm and calling me down Brian. Was considering going wreck fishing and not having to make the long run home. It was a little frustrating though, I dropped a lot of fish for some reason. I changed out hooks and tried singles, doubles and trebles...it did not seem to matter if jigging or trolling. I would take a half dozen cranks sometimes more and fish was gone. At first I checked the barbs on my hooks thinking some of my buddies may have played a trick on me but they were not flattened. I did lose about about a half dozen jigs to bluefish competition bite offs but that is to be expected.

I tried several jigs, Sea Striker JigFish (Mega Bait style jig), AVA's, Kroc's, SPRO prime swimming (don't think they are made anymore, great sand eel imitation though) and bucktails. Had blues on everything, bass all came on the JigFish jigs in blue/silver, blue/yellow/silver or black/silver. Blue/Silver and blue/yellow/silver seemed to have the higher catch rates though.

Anyway finally tally for the day for the fish that made to the boat was around 30-40 bluefish and 27 bass with one keeper in the box and two lost boat side. Total for dropped fish was around three dozen. My back, shoulders and arms are sore today s I type this out but its all good!

Sun Harbor Fall Bass Tourney

2008-11-11T08:32:00.002-05:00

This weekend is the First Annual Sun Harbor Bay Club Fall Striped Bass Tournament. I know there is growing concern over the weather for Saturday, hopefully the fish and weather gods will cooperate and clear out all the weather by the Captain's Meeting. Last year there were a few tournaments that were threatened right up until the day of the tournament with bad weather...and we were fortunate that it cleared each time.

We have some great door prizes and give-aways in the Captain's Bags this year from Mann's Bait Company, Shimano, Tournament Grade Tackle, Lunker City and more. There will be food and refreshments at the weigh-in and it is sure to be a good time. Currently there are about 18 boats registered and we anticipate more the night of the Captain's Meeting.

So come on down and register Friday night at the Captain's Meeting if you have not already registered. It will be held at Sun Harbor Bay Club, 451 E. Bay Avenue Barnegat, NJ...see you there!

Entry Form

Success without Being There

2008-11-09T11:04:00.000-05:00

Apparently I missed a great day today. Got a call late Friday night and had to tend to family health issues. Mom is recovering well after emergency kidney stone removal surgery today.

After tending to mom before surgery Saturday I ran down to the boat to fuel it up for next week and drop off the gear to some of my regular crew so they could put it to good use in my absence today...they are sure glad I did.

Not sure what time they broke MI, I know it was early, probably in the neighborhood of 6:30. Not even 5 miles from the inlet they were into bass and blues right away. They had double and triple headers on umbrella rigs with tubes and shads with both rods going off at the same time several times...and then the one rod really starts screaming. Several minutes later they boat double header keepers on the black tube umbrella rig-a 30 incher and 31.6 pounder!

The slaughter continued with them boating, catching and releasing shorts and keepers till they were tired with a few fish lost as well. Not sure what time they headed in but it sounded like they were running when I spoke to them around 10:30 and Tommy said they went in early leaving the fish biting. Grand total was in the neighborhood of 75 blues and 50-60 bass. He said most boats were just running right over fish and the areas they were catching all morning in route to other destinations.

Wire Line Trolling Tips & Tricks

2008-11-03T10:34:00.008-05:00

This seems to be a hot topic lately so I thought I would start a new thread where we can share some tips, tricks and ideas that we do when trolling with wire line. Below are some of the things we do, I know a lot is personal preference. Please post your methods and ways in comments so others can also learn and pickup new ways of doing some old things. Enjoy.

Wire Types: Basically there are two types used, monel and stainless. Monel is denser than stainless but much more forgiving, it is less springy than stainless and does not kink as much. But that comes at a cost of about three times the price for the same test line and 300' length. Monel also stretches over time causing it to get thinner and thinner. Depending on how much you troll the wire will determine how long it takes for it to get thin enough to cause mystery break offs. I typically use a shot of wire for two to three seasons or, four to six half seasons depending on if you started using the shot in the spring or fall.

Marking Wire: I have tried the Malin pre-marked wire and it is not worth the extra money or even for the same money as non-marked. They started to slide on the wire the very first day we used them. I know a few shop owners that fought with Malin to give them refunds on the large spools they fill reels from because they had issues with them sliding as well. The best method I have come across is not easy to do and I have not mastered it yet...basically you use colored phone wire and create haywire twists and barrel wraps with the telephone wire onto the monel or stainless. When done this way they will never move for the life of the wire since they are interlocked with the haywire twist. The second best method I have used is to take a small board and pound two nails through it about a foot apart. Then cut a rubber band and tie each end around a nail stretching it a good amount in the process. Lay the wire over the stretched rubber band and then wrap tightly a colored piece of wire ten to fifteen times finishing with seven to nine barrel wraps on each end. This creates a good visual and also feeling mark if fishing in low light conditions. You can mark your wire however often as needed for your fishing habits. I personally mark it at 150', 200' and 250' as this covers all our needs.

Trolling Habits: I usually troll deeper water so we usually have the hole 300' out but if you are inshore and not deploying the whole shot of wire you should let out a few feet or crank in a few feet every ten to fifteen minutes to avoid creating a kink and also wearing a weak spot into monel especially, but should also do this with stainless.

Aluminum Spools: I have had Shimano Tekota 800 reels for three seasons now and my spools are healthy and fine. Yes they have a few pits on them but I have also seen worse on older Penn Senators with steel spools. The new anodized aluminum spools hold very well with wire line as long as you take care of them. We wash our rods and reels down after each trip, towel or chamois them off and then liberally apply CRC 656 to the whole reel and the wire, let it soak in a bit then towel off the reel and leave the wire coated well. This extends the life of the wire and the spool. Also about once a month or if I suspect damage I lay the rod on my bench, attach a hand crank spool to the other end and remove the wire from the reel looking for damage to the wire and also checking the marks are in the right location with a line counter. I also take this time to clean the exposed portion of the spool and apply some CRC directly to it. Once I am satisfied the line is OK I crank it back onto the reel pulling it through an oil soaked rag.

Wire to Mono Knots: To attach the wire to the backing I tie a Bimini twist in the backing first. Then I tie a long slender haywire twist in both ends of the wire line. This allows you to use a loop-to-loop connection to your backing and replace a shot of wire quickly and easily on the water should you break off, kink or have other damage to your wire causing it to be unusable. For the leader I tie a twelve to fifteen turn Albright knot and use eight to twelve feet of eighty or one hundred pound fluorocarbon leader to which I attach a two hundred pound ball bearing snap swivel.

Spoon Attachment Points: Whether the spoon comes with one or not I always attach a heavy duty, stainless split ring to it. I have had several spoons fail or severely weaken by them being attached directly to the snap swivel.

Spoon Weights: On spoons with weights I use either 3M marine silicone sealant or 5200 (whichever is handy). Most manufacturers of spoons recommend that you check the screws every fifteen minutes of use. I have found that if you bed them well with the silicone sealant or 5200 you pretty much don't ever have to worry about them coming loose and losing a weight to the screws loosening from the pumping action.

Trolling Speed: This has a lot of personal preference but we usually don't look at our tach or our SOG or SOW readings as much as we watch the rod tips. One thing we try to avoid at all costs though is trolling with the current. We always troll against it or across it. As for the actual speed we adjust the throttle till we have big slow pulses in the rods. You can run the spoon only a few feet behind the boat so you can see if it is wobbling back and forth or spinning. This will give you an idea of what the pulsing of the rod tip should look like.

Spare Shots of Wire: You have extra rods, reels, plugs, plastics, sinkers and everything else you use...carry an extra shot of wire. I keep at least one sometimes two spare shots with the trolling gear. You can mark them ahead of time and tie the haywire twists in the ends and even attach the flouro leader too. If you use a Bimini twist in your backing changing it out is a breeze as long as the damage to the line or where it parted is not in your backing. Even if it was once proficient with a Bimini it only takes a minute or two to whip another into your backing. Having a spare or two on board can really save the day sometimes.

Striper & Wreck Trip

2008-11-01T22:56:00.003-04:00

We had non-stop action all day...while it was not some of the species or sizes of them we wanted it, it was an awesome day on the water.

Left the dock at 6:25, broke the inlet, looked North East and South...saw some birds to the South and started jigging around them...nothing. Continued South away from the fleet near the inlet and kept working the birds and bait pods...had a couple of bumps on plastics, bucktails and various irons but no fish.

Headed down to Seaside when we got a call on the phone from a friend of one of the crew that was catching bass. Put out a dark red tube rig, pearl and black back shad umbrella rig and a chartreuse mojo. The tube rig got a couple knockdowns but nothing came tight. Shad rigs and mojo's started hooking up almost immediately.

Had a steady pick of medium and large blues with short bass mixed in about every two blues then a bass. We kept working that area and bait pods and switched out the tubes for pearl and blue back shads and that became the hot color so we switched both umbrella rigs to pearl/blue and put out the white/black mojo's since I did not make up any blue/white yet (shame on me for thinking they would not go after a blueback herring pattern yet). We kept at it with several fish on each pass until about noon when we picked up and ran up to a wreck in 65' of water.

Put the anchors out and two of the crew had sea bass in the boat before we came tight. Once we came tight over the wreck it was drop and reel action the whole time. We shifted a couple of times over it to try and find some bigger fish. We had a constant pick of sea bass and monster porgies (near 2 lbs). Then the wind died out and when the current went slack it was hard to stay over the wreck.

We picked up the anchors and drifted a few near by rock piles and put a few more fish in the box before heading in around 2:30 pm.

My best guess on the final tally was around 30 blues (kept 10), 5 short bass, 100 plus sea bass (kept 20) and 60 porgies (kept 15). What a great November day on the water, calm seas, fair winds, warm sunny day and fish in the box. It was great talking to all the members of Barnegat Fishin' Hole on the radio...shee's a keeper, just a fluke, Davo, heard EMALS but I don't think he could hear me, speedbump, sorry if I missed anyone (talked to dozens of guys on the radio yesterday), and even Jim made it out yesterday-I bet the neighbors are glad to see the lawn ornament gone!

LED Verdict is In

2008-10-25T11:32:00.001-04:00

Had my first real world testing this weekend. The red LED on the way in Friday night was great. The crew was able to sit at the dinette with the light on and it did not affect my vision at all. It made them happy being able to find munchies and beer, read, etc. and I was not blinded in the process.

The white LED lighting was great at night cleaning up, reading, and in the morning making coffee and breakfast. It is not as bright as incandescent bulbs but more than enough light for my needs. I accidentally left the cockpit lights on from when we got into the dock around 7 PM until the next morning and my battery voltage at point had barely dropped overnight...only a few tenths of a volt.

I will be changing out my navigation lights this winter to LED's as well.

Blues & Fluke

2008-10-24T23:29:00.000-04:00

We headed out a little late due to my getting out of work late. It would have been nice if the crew readied the boat but they started cooler diving early. We broke the inlet about 3:30 PM, just as it seemed the action was breaking up down off Seaside.

We had some small areas of bird activity but nothing to write home about. Had a couple of knock downs on red and black tubes. Snagged bottom letting one rig out in an area I had no idea had any structure...marked that spot as it seemed to be holding some small fish...will have to stop on it in the future when we have bait aboard.

Switched over to jigging and had a few blues in the 8 lb range and some short fluke also on both bucktails and iron. They must be really hungry, some of them were barely trice as long as the jigs.

It wasn't the numbers and species we were looking for but we had a good time, burned very little fuel and got to test my new LED lighting on the way in.

LED Marine Lighting - Part II

2008-10-21T15:06:00.006-04:00

I gathered up all the leftover parts from projects over this season and returned them to West in exchange for a second Dr. LED Mars Dome, the 1 watt/3 watt white dome. I powered it up with a 12v power supply in the basement with low light in the room and total darkness. I was very impressed with the light output of both the 1w and 3w settings.

I was skeptical about LED replacements, and frankly the more common replacement bulbs seem to be very weak but the Dr. LED products with their built in drivers are awesome. It will be nice to be able to leave the lights on all night or for even several hours at a time now and not worry about draining the battery. I always hated turning the lights off and coming back to dark boat and straining to step on in the darkness.

Now I just need to get a motion sensor activated light for when I arrive to the boat in the dark.

LED Marine Lighting

2008-10-20T11:00:00.005-04:00

I have been slowly converting my interior lighting to LED. For several reasons, but mainly to limit the drain on the batteries. I do not have shore power so when I overnight or weekend on the boat I rely on the house battery to power the lighting, stereo, coffee pot, etc. I had noticed a couple of times that if I had the v-berth light, dinette light and cockpit lights on for most of the night they drew a considerable amount of power. This was when I started looking into the LED alternatives.

I tried a couple of less expensive models out from Ancor and others available at local marine supply stores but they are nowhere near as bright or burn as cool as the Dr. LED lights. After doing some research I decided on the Dr. LED line of fixtures and replacement bulbs. I found the Dr. LED products to have the brightest light, in most cases, the least amp draw. I have installed their MR 16 Magnum Ring to replace the halogens in the v-berth and they are great - bright, cool (no longer burn yourself touching the fixture to reposition it) and plug directly in with no modifications needed. The light is a little different from incandescent or halogen bulbs, the LED's are much whiter light...excellent for reading...at least for me. I am going to try out their nav light replacement bulbs over the winter.

This weekend I replaced a dome light with a white/red LED dome light, the Red Mars Dome. Unfortunately it was bright and sunny so I am not really sure how well it is going to work yet. The v-berth lights are actually brighter than the old halogens, they don't get hot and hardly draw any power, so I am hoping the dome light will be just as good. The addition of the red lamp will be great as my crew regularly blinds me on our way out turning on the light to find things, getting rigged up or choosing which donut is next on their menu.

I was unable to test it at night as I did not stay over this weekend but during the day the white light seemed just as bright as my other incandescent dome light. Next time I stay over I will report on how the white and red light was at night.

First Blackfish Trip, No Keepers but...

2008-10-19T20:20:00.006-04:00

We had high hopes of at least wreck fishing this weekend but with the NE blow the seas were just too much for us to get outside. I did however change the oil, check all the other fluids.

Having the urge to catch something Tommy and I decided to head over to the banks of the Point Pleasant Canal. We grabbed some clam out of the freezer, headed over to the bait shop for some crabs, grabbed a sandwich and headed for my favorite spot.

Knowing the current would be very strong we got there a little early but it is a must to get a prime spot. We got into position and ate lunch waiting for the current to slow. With the strong N to NE wind I was by about an hour with slack current but we had no where to be so we waited it.

Getting anxious I decided to give it a shot while the current was still racing, I had two or three subtle taps but that was about it in the first hour. Once the current started slowing though the fish turned on.

We probably had sixty to seventy blackfish between us with about twenty five sea bass mixed in as well. Unfortunately we had not one keeper between us. There were about a dozen others fishing withing view and out of all of them we only saw one legitimate keeper caught.

We did not get our limit of one fish per man but it was still good to have non-stop action and catch a mess of fish despite the conditions. To top the day off Tommy caught his first blackfish among the many caught today.

My First BFT

2008-10-12T20:52:00.018-04:00

I guess the third time really is a charm as they say. It was our third bluefin tuna trip on my boat this year and on the third trip we finally got one!

As everyone arrived at the dock Mark and Wayne were a little apprehensive about going after they found out Tommy and I decided late last night to definitely sail for BFT and head out to the Mud Hole. We left the dock about 5:45 am with a full crew of Tommy, Mark, Wayne and myself. Despite the extremely swift currents in the canal due to Tuesday's full moon and with the max flood current predicted to be just about when we broke the inlet, the inlet was pretty calm.

Shortly after breaking the inlet I spoke to Scott on the Kimberly Ryan and they were about three miles out of Monster Ledge already...they were very anxious to get in on some inshore tuna fishing. About an hour later we arrived to our first spot and again checked in with Kimberly Ryan to see if they had any action yet.

We got to the west wall of Monster Ledge between first light and sun up, there were probably about two dozen boats there at that time with several charters chunking along the ledge. We set out our spread of bait and lures and started trolling the edges and zigzagging across the deep.

We had some good marks and fish deep, but no knockdowns. We keep expanding our pattern outwards and covering new water. The further out we went the less marks we had. As we started back in on where we had the best marks the port sort rigger line goes off. It was a red and white skirted ballyhoo.

With my boat having such a small cockpit the crew started clearing most of the lines right away leaving the starboard short rigger line in for a couple of minutes before clearing that line as well. It was funny as we were just discussing why we leave so early and never get our first fish before 9 am and at exactly 9:05 the rod went off.

It was a short battle that only lasted maybe 10 minutes and we had our under fish in the boat. My first bluefin tuna measuring out at 32" and weighing 22 lbs dressed.

We immediately reset the spread, changing out lures to all bait. We had an assortment of ballyhoo skirted in red and white, blue and white, green and white as well as naked hoos. We continued to work that area in tight and wide patterns but failed to find our over fish.

Later we started to troll towards the barn and Kimberly Ryan was doing the same and had a double header of an under and over fish about 8 nm away. They called us in on the action and we picked up and ran in some pretty sporty seas on the beam to their location. They had a dragger working the area and we had some pretty good marks up behind him but again could not get a bite. We then worked the area around the Lillian and good water and marks but not bites.

We worked that area for about an hour and called it quites and headed in. Water was clear and gray to gray/blue and 61.3 to 62.8 degrees

With the following sea and light NE breeze we were able to make much better time and a much smoother ride in. We ran in at 24-26 knots and broke the inlet from 26 nm out in just under an hour. It was a beautiful day on the water despite the somewhat choppy conditions making it a bit bumpy on the ride out and trolling with a head sea...but MY first BFT on MY BOAT...priceless!

Another Eastery Blow Ahead

2008-10-07T08:26:00.005-04:00

Tomorrow's weather looks great. I can't get off of work, nor can I muster a four man crew for a weekday with ease. This coming weekend has forecasted for another East to Northeast blow coming our way most likely keeping everyone at the dock or at least in the rivers and bays.

I guess I will do my oil change, hose, belt inspection, torque nuts & bolts, etc. and then go for a boat ride. Maybe head over to the canal and do some black fishing.

Due to conflicting numbers from my fuel gauge I will also re-measure the tank to re-calculate the volume levels at various point of the gauge. I had previously calculated that at three quarters of a tank I have sixty six gallons, thus only needing twenty four gallons to fill the tank. When refilling this weekend from three quarters it only took twenty gallons to fill the tank. I know it may seem trivial but I like to know my range for longer trips, know that I can go out and come back with less than a full tank with confidence and if I have fuel delivered, how much to have brought in and end up with a full tank.

The dock box could use a good cleaning out, over the season lots of stuff gets tossed in as a temporary storage location and never makes it back out. I also need to get a good inventory of my sinkers for the upcoming wreck season.

As much as I would really like to get a good half to three quarter day of fishing in, I can get lots of odds and ends taken care of for those days when we can get out and won't have time to do them.

Striper/Wreck Trip...The Glass is Half Full

2008-10-04T14:57:00.002-04:00

We bagged our offshore trip due to lack of reports from the canyons. Then we bagged our mid-shore trip again due to lack of reports and only a crew of three. It may have been a bad call with some reports trickling in from both the edge and the mid-shore waters.

Left the dock at 6 am and were shocked with the amount of boat traffic. More than any day we were out in the summer including the holiday weekends. The Point Canal looked like a Christmas tree when we looked back behind us with all the red, green and white lights.

Broke the inlet and were greeted with birds working from Bay Head South as far as you could see with the binoculars. We went from pod to pod of bait all the way down to Lavalette. Plenty of bait (peanuts and spearing) but only managed snappers and sea robins. The amount of sea robins was amazing, I think we caught more in two hours yesterday on both bait and jigs than we did all summer fluking.

After giving up on stripers we decided to hit some wrecks and rock piles on the Axel Carlson. With very little drift (.2-.4 knots) and no stellar pickings at any one location we drifted about eight different pieces. I had hoped to tie up and get some togging in but each wreck we tried was inundated with bergals to about 1.5 lbs. Some of the biggest I have seen inshore in a while.

We did manage probably over 100 sea bass and porgies though on clam, fiddler crab and gulp baits. Keeper ration was poor with many of the sea bass just under, right on or just over 12"...but with the small fillet size of a just legal fish we only keep fish over 14".We ended the day with a nice cooler of sea bass to 18" and porgies to 13" keeping only about a dozen fish for the table between the two of us and were back at the dock around noon.

Fall Weather at its Best

2008-09-28T20:26:00.007-04:00

Due to weather yet again we stayed tied up. I did however get some PM and other odds and ends taken care of this weekend. I also tried to get fuel while out for a boat ride in the Metedeconk and the bay but no fuel docks were open.

Originally my raw water washdown pump suction side was routed around the outside of the motor well. After installing the sea strainer we redirected the suction line under the motor. At the time it seemed like a good idea. However the hose that was used did not hold up to heating and cooling from the motor. I replaced the nylon reinforced tubing with wire reinforced wet exhaust hose as well as installing a sea strainer on the washdown pump. This was probably overkill but two buddies had their pumps die this year and after dismantling in attempts to fix them they were pretty loaded up with crap.

We went for a quick boat ride in Mark's 37 Bertram to test the new gaskets on the sea strainers prior to running offshore this weekend. After that we took a quick ride in my boat.

Next I performed the 100 hour service including: torquing nuts, bolts, clamps, servicing the batteries, checking all lamps, bilge pumps and electrical circuits for functionality, checking fluids and an oil change.

The marina was pretty void of life, similar to the waters along the coast prior to the big blow. By early afternoon I was the only one left at their boat.

I finally put each electrical circuit on its own breaker. Something I have been putting off for some time. Of course I left a brand new package of terminals at home on the workbench so off the hardware store I was...luckily they have an expanded marine section and carry waterproof electrical terminals and are only a half mile down the street. After getting back I also realized I left the spool of red number 14 primary wire on the bench at home as well. Luckily I found a three foot scrap in the bottom of my spare parts bin and began installing all the breakers.

I have to redo teh labeling, I was in a rush and did not cut them even or stick them on straight but at least I know which breaker is for which and they are all on their own complete circuits now.

First Weakie Trip a Bust

2008-09-21T08:12:00.000-04:00

I had a family party on Sunday so I only had Saturday to work with. It was dead calm at 5 am when I got up, not a ripple in the marina or the creek and none of the anemometers on the blow boats were spinning. By the time we left it picked up and was probably close to 12-14 knots out of the NNE. We decided to go for a boat ride and throw a jig or plug around a bit. Marked a few fish but did not find any takers between BB and the 42.

Went out to the inlet to take a look :shaky: . Turned the corner at Ole Barney and was greeted with 4-5' rollers and 8-10' breakers about 200-250' past that. Watched the Big Red Sled go out...I bet some of the fares wish they looked at the weather when they hit the first set.

There were a couple dozen boats fishing Myers, didn't see a bent rod in the bunch. I did have to hits along the dike on fin-s but judging from the sudden weight then head shake figured it was probably fluke hits.

Stopped in to Sun Harbor to say hello to Joe and Joey and ran into Swamp Bug in the shop. It's always nice to put a face to name.

By the time we got back and got cleaned up and had lunch it looked like a nice day. We probably should have headed out for the afternoon/evening as the weather looked a whole lot better.

Thar She Blows!

2008-09-18T16:20:00.002-04:00

Looks like Mother Nature is getting ready to blow for a few days with a good Nor'easter coming. While it will keep us inshore or in the bays and rivers again this week it may be just what we need to get the yellow fin tuna bite going in the northeast or move the long fin south from The Dip and Fish Tales.

Most likely we will be headed South in Barnegat Bay this weekend searching out keeper sized weakfish. There has been a pretty good bite of puffers and kings with spikes mixed in an occasional larger weak...hopefully we can key in on all larger ones. I hope to net a bunch of peanuts for bait Friday nigh.

Back-to-Back Sea Bass

2008-09-14T23:15:00.005-04:00

I had a weekend pass from The Admiral since she was away at a conference promoting our new products GP Reports. We had great weather all weekend, although I could have done without the humidity on Sunday.

Saturday I headed right for a wreck on the Axel Carlson. I made a couple passes drifting over it before anchoring to test the waters. On each of the two drifts I caught a couple shorts and put a keeper sea bass in the box on each pass. After anchoring up and getting in position over the portion that I wanted it was non-stop action with short and keeper sea bass and a few short tog with one keeper about three pounds. The bergals were not too bad, had about a dozen of them as well as two would-be keeper fluke at 22 and 23 inches that were released for next season. I also gave a couple of rock piles a shot, they each produced keepers and shorts as well. Upon returning to the Inlet I was greeted with acres of bunker with nothing working them, they were just flipping and being playful.

Sunday I got a late start leaving the dock about 7 AM and decided to head back to the same wreck since it was producing so well. It did not produce as I had hopped. I guess the swifter currents of the full moon on a day and stronger winds had put the fish off a bit. I moved around to the rock piles and began picking at fish with keepers, shorts and tons of bergals mixed in. I decided to call it a day early as the winds picked up a bit. Approaching the bell buoy there were fish busting everywhere. I grabbed the first rod rigged with an artificial which happened to be a bunker colored rattle trap. I immediately hooked up with something small...it turned out to be a snagged bunker. I knew there was something under them this time as they were spraying out of the water and not just being playful. Second cast I hooked into something much bigger...it turned out to be a four pound bonito. They were everywhere and I had one on with every cast until the fleet showed up speeding right through the breaking fish putting them down in a matter of minutes.

I can't wait for cooler temps to weed out the fisherman that lack both proper boat handling skills and proper etiquette when fishing bunker pods or schools of breaking fish. It is very frustrating and you can't explain to them that they will catch more fish if they adjust their methods as their way is the only way and no one else knows what they are doing. All-in-all it was a great weekend on the water with fish in the box two days in a row and sore arms.

Hanna???

2008-09-07T12:19:00.005-04:00

After much hype she was not much more than our average Nor'easter. But everyone pretty much prepared for the worst and fastened storm lines to pilings not already occupied by their everyday lines. I had thought about fishing but with the early morning fog I decided to stay in and work on the boat. Later on I found out there was a mad dog fluke bite right at the mouth of the inlet, pretty much anyone who went had limit catches in no time.

I did accomplish something I have been putting off for some time though. I replaced my main rear bilge pump with a much larger model and then replaced the froward bilge pump with old main pump. Also a big upgrade in pump size...from 360gph to 1500gph. I am not sure what they were thinking with only installing a 360 pump, it would not do much in an emergency that is for sure.

After making sure everything was in order if the storm did come through I headed down to Sun Harbor Bay Club to pickup some tackle I had ordered and also pickup a birthday present. Joey was having a ball with the wind and rain, but most others did not want to be bothered. Joe was hunkered down in the bait shop that seemed to be taking on a little water under the door from the wind driven rain. Not long after my arrival did the chop in the bay start breaking onto the fuel dock. Conditions were very different from Beaverdam Creek with their facing East and being closer to the inlet with no land mass or buildings to break the wind or sea coming in from the storm.

The ride home was pretty uneventful until I reached the Driscal Bridge where it seemed the heavens opened up and everyone forgot how to drive in rain. The rain and wind was no match for the RainX wiper blades and Venco Marine rain and water repellent though once I was able to break free from the traffic.

BFT Baby!

2008-08-31T23:03:00.008-04:00

We left the dock at 4:15 AM...I was told the night before 4:30 and was woken up at 3:55 to the sound of the diesels being fired up three slips down and Mark yelling COME ON JOE! Jumped up got dressed and hopped aboard just as the dock lines were being cast off.

Broke the inlet shortly after in very dark calm conditions due to the full moon. Not sure what the draggers were doing but it looked like one was coming into the inlet on the North side of the North jetty but it turned out they were dragging the beach for something.

The ride out was nice but then our port motor temp gauge was reading a little hot...hotter than normal. We quickly took readings on both motors with the thermal gun and everything was fine. Then we lost all gauges for the port motor. We then shutdown the port motor and cleaned the sea strainer which did not seem that bad but did it just to be sure. Fired her back up and the thermal gun was reading just about them same temps and then about 10 minutes later the gauges came back and everything was reading normal...by this time we had first light...which we were hopping to be out there for was creeping up and Mark put her up on pane finally and headed right to our numbers. If it wasn't for the thermal gun we probably would have limped back home on one engine and bagged the whole trip. You can never be too prepared.

Since we were behind a little we dropped the lines in about a mile or two short of our destination since we started marking bait, fish and had some whales in the area. It was pretty uneventful all morning. There were whales a porpoise around all morning, an occasional free jumping mahi and we marked a lot of fish in the 100 to 125' depths all morning that would not come up.

We stopped twice and jigged on some bigger concentrations of fish but no takers. We were also able to make a couple of wrecks not on any of our charts...we will be investigating them further on other trips.

We then zig zagged through a maze of what seemed to be endless pot strings along the ledge. Rum Runner picked up a small mahi in the maze.

There was one knockdown that we never saw the fish...it bit right through the wire on the pre-rigged bally. Water was probably a little cold for a wahoo so we suspected a small mako.

After that in the next hour I release two bags, that once filled with water put up a fight similar to a large cow-nosed ray. They were released unharmed to the garbage can to die a slow painful death.

We were getting ready to call it a day and decides to troll another half hour. Wayne and Tommy were sleeping, Mark was driving and me and Ryan were on the bridge talking...and then she hit. By the time Tommy got to the rod she dumped about a third of a 50SW. I came down from the bridge in two steps and landed on the cooler. Tommy fought the fish for about 10 minutes and had it just about to the leader, it looked at the boat and headed right for the bottom...well about 20 feet short as we watched it sound on the fish finder. Tommy got her back up a second time and same thing...right to the bottom. Third time she came up I stuck her right in the gills and she was in the boat.

While we were hooked up Rum Runner came fast trolled over, circled us and immediately hooked up a fish and boated it just after us. We worked the area for another hour, Rum Runner again hooked up and we did the same fast trolling over and circled but we could not find our under fish as they did. We trolled another 15 minutes and picked up the lines and headed in.

It was a joy not rigging baits at 4:30 that morning, especially with having to deal with the gauge and motor temp issue. The pre-rigged ballys from Sun Harbor held up better and didn't wash out like a lot of pre-rigged baits we have had in the past from other tackle shops.

Water was very clear but gray in most spots and also a grayish/blue in others. We stayed in the colder water...67-69.5 degrees. This is where we had the best readings of bait and fish deep. It was just a mater of getting the speed right to get them to come up. We trolled between 6 and 9 ballys naked and skirted in various colors and a WWWB varied from bird/bally, bird, daisy chain and spreader bar. The fish hit the port flat line bally.

It was an eleven day on the water with great conditions, beautiful sunny skies, good friends and a fish in the box. She weighed in at 59.7 dressed. One of the best parts was the 37 minute ride to break the inlet...catching BFT close to home...priceless!

Fluke & Sea Bass

2008-08-24T22:16:00.004-04:00

Left the dock at 5:30...got to the inlet and thought we were making a big mistake when the Henriques and Viking in front of us went down into the trough and all we saw was their hard tops and antennas of their fly bridges! Hit the bottom of the first trough and took water of next wave over the pilothouse...still not through the inlet it was too late turn around so we proceeded out to the bell buoy to see what it was like. Once out away from the inlet it was not too bad...4-5' rollers with little or no chop on them. I guess we just happened to leave at the wrong time of the ebbing tide as guys who left later said the inlet was not that bad.

Once we picked up everything off the floor we proceeded to the Axel Carlson. Hit several wrecks until we found the ones with fish willing to feed. Marked bait and fish on almost everyone we stopped at.

We had a constant pick of fluke (both shorts and keepers) as well as many keeper sea bass. Actually most sea bass were keepers.

The lack of drift I don't think was the problem with fluking...the ground swell and wicked bottom current in the morning had the fish off. The little bit of wind there was there was opposite the current but once they were going th same direction the fluking bite picked up.

Once the South wind really kicked in we headed into the Mantoloking pipe to give that a shot before heading in. More of the same...plent of sea bass on it and some fluke as well.

All fish were on spearing. I tried various gulp baits throughout the day and did not get a touch on any of them. Tried deadsticked and jigged...spearing did not matter jigged or deadsticked the fish just hammered it everytime.

All in all it was a great day on the water ending the day with seven keeper fluke to 23" and a dozen sea bass to 3 lbs! The highlight of the day was my personal best sea bass at 21.5" and 3 lbs.

Are they migrating early as in 2005?

2008-08-19T08:17:00.001-04:00

Curious as to your thoughts on what the weekend's forecasted heave will do to the fluke fishery. I have a feeling it will be the beginning of the end. In years past when the close was Columbus Day that was a much bigger deal. If my memory and my quick glance at my logs was correct the last time they fled the inshore waters in a hurry before a storm was in September of 2005. What do you think...will the heave starting on Saturday trigger them to migrate back to the shelf? It seems that they are already showing in numbers in the haunts that we typically fish in mid to late September.

Mud Hole BFT

2008-08-17T20:17:00.001-04:00

We decided to try something off the beaten path and run out to the mud hole.

It was a nice ride out but one out there it was sporty. We had whales all over, several draggers, weed lines, pilings, and birds here and there. We figured at least we may find some mahi if no BFT were around. We marked several bait with nothing under or around them.

The 75 degree water on the charts was no where to be found, instead we had a 69/70.5 degree break and that was about it. Water was cold, green and dirty.

Trolled up and down Little Italy, across to Monster Ledge, up and down the Ledge, around the Lillian and Arundo.

We did hear of some action at the Oil Wreck but that turned out to be amber jacks...at least that is what was said on the radio. I personally have never caught one trolling and have always caught them wreck fishing.

There was a school of baby mahi between the west wall of Monster Ledge and the Shark River Reef that we release a few of...the biggest being about 14" all hit on either the purple/black jet or purple/black cedar plug.

Due to the terrible water conditions we decided to run back in early and do some fluking. About 8 miles off the water was much bluer but cold...68 degrees and no bait to be found.

Once we got over to the Axel Carlson we had pretty steady action with fluke and sea bass. Fished a couple wrecks and put a half dozen fluke and 8 sea bass in the box and headed in.

After speaking with a couple guys who fished the Southern end of the Axel Carlson one had 14 keepers between two guys and the other had their limit and came in early.

All in all it was a nice day on the water despite taking a slight beating in the beginning. My first two home-made spreader bars swam straight and looked good to us back in the spread. Hopefully soon we will get some better water to the North and have some fish move in.

Mixed Bag

2008-08-09T22:09:00.003-04:00

What a day...it was a little sloppy once you got 4-5 miles off the beach early but then laid down. Actually needed a sweatshirt and jeans in the early morning. It was 58 at the dock when I left! Brrrrr....and it is August!

Anyway, started on the Manasquan Wreck and had only shorts, moved to the Valparaiso and more shorts and short sea bass.

Then moved to the NE side of the Axel Carlson. the drift was very fast and needed 8-10 ounces to hold bottom with 30# braid but it was worth it. On the first drift there I put a 21" and 23" fluke as well as a 17" sea bass in the box. The next couple of drifts produced some shorts, more sea bass and two skates.

I moved south a little bit and put two more fluke in the box a 24 and 25 incher (biggest of the day). After a few more drifts there with more shorts and sea bass and short sea bass I decided to head to a lump a little further off to the south since it was laying down. I never ended up making it to the lump.

On my way I was greeted by birds working and fish busting all over. From the distance it looked like bonito...but after a few passes it was not. I immediately hooked up a falsie. Then numerous single and double headers of monster bluefish and another falsie. I was getting ready to pack it in when something munch larger hit the green/yellow feather. I cleared the other rod, slowed the boat, increased to full and the drag was still screaming. I was at first thinking I might have finally done it and hooked into my first BFT but the typically pulsating was not there. After about 10 minutes and a brief pause of the slight give and take and I spotted the whip tail in the distance, another short run and the line parted.

The mono had been shredded above the 6' Bimini. 6' leader to feather plus 6' Bimini, mono shredded above 12' of line = big thresher! It was fun while it lasted. Actually surprised it stayed hooked as long as it did with a 150 pound mono leader.

I then heard back from a buddy in the marina that was out on the Axel Carlson curious about what I had found. I ran back to the reef to fish with them for a while and try and put them on that spot I was on earlier since they only had shorts all day but there was a dive boat on it when we returned. We moved in between some pots on another spot and immediately I put two more fluke in the box...a 20" and 22" fish. repeated drifts yielded some shorts and more sea bass.

Total for the day was one lost thresher, a dozen or so bluefish (released), two false albacore (kept for bait), 15-20 short fluke, dozens of short sea bass, 6 keeper fluke from 20" to 25" and 12" keeper sea bass. By far my most productive day bottom fishing this season.

BFT or Bust

2008-08-02T21:37:00.003-04:00

Friday night I did not sleep much with the anxiety of going off for the first time in my boat as well as if I actually had the range to make it back.

We left the dock at 4 am and made it out to Olley's just after the sun broke the horizon. The water temp was 75.5 and there was a slight one degree break over the Northwest corner of the lump. We started marking bait and fish deep and a few suspended between 20 and 30'. We were setting out 6 rods and before all 6 were out one went off...cedar plug on the flat line. A few minutes later 12+ pound bluefish. Didn't bother us too much as some of the reports we had said you had to pick through the blues but the BFT were in and out of the are.

Got that rod reset and the others out and about 20 minutes later two rods go off. Cedar plug on the other flat line and the WWWB skirted bally. Again two more gator blues.

Reset the spread and trolled around the edges, slowed down the speed and didn't get a tap. Increased to 8kts and picked more blues. We marked bait and fish almost the whole time over and around Olley's.

Picked up and Ran to the Star after Fear Knot reported they had bluer water over there. Water temp was a little cooler at 73.5 but the water looked a whole lot better. Trolled around that area for about a half hour and didn't mark anything or have any knockdowns. So we started South to the Fingers.

Got the spread setup and again before all lines were out we had a triple. Unfortunately all bluefish again. It was a first for me to catch bluefish in that blue of water.

The wind was picking up a little and there was a storm off in the distance. Not sure exactly where Fear Knot and WillPower were but they were reporting rain. Around 10:30 we had a real hard hid that screamed line off an 80 (Due to lack of anything better to bring...none of my buddies 30's or 50's were re-lined yet this year). It also just about ripped the rod holder off the rocket launcher even with a light drag. Before anyone could grab the rod the fish was off. Jigged the rod for a few minutes and nothing...checked the bait-bally was stripped off. We circled back over that spot twice and nothing.

At this point it was getting a little snotty out...tightly spaced 4 footers and some were starting to break a little. We started in for Manasquan Inlet but as the wind picked up a little more and we were running in the trough I decided to turn around and head for Barnegat and take the seas on the quarter. BI was at that point about 8 miles closer anyway.

Ran over Barnegat Ridge North and didn't mark a thing. Took us about 2.5 hours to break BI from the Fingers in the slop. We were surprised to see that many boats out at the Tires despite the conditions at the time we ran past. I would assume you needed 10-12 ounces yesterday afternoon.

Run up the bay was pretty uneventfully, we were pegged on E from Seaside but made it the last 10 miles home just fine. Highlight of the trip through the bay was seeing Barbed Wire doing about 140 mph and then seeing Jet Set making a couple of passes up and down the bay as well.

After taking on a load of fuel we found out we were not on fumes or as close to empty as we thought...only took 70 gallons to fill up and I hold 90. At the end of the day we did 123 miles for just about 1.75 mpg. We ran out at 22-25 knots fighting strong current, ran back in fighting wind, seas and current with three aboard, full of fuel, ice and cooler of tasty beverages and food.

Despite the lack of pelagics we all had a great day on the water, the boat ran great, made it back in fine and we now know we can take her pretty darn far in some slop and make it home with plenty of fuel to spare in a nice dry cabin!

Pt. Pleasant Elk's Fluke Tournament

2008-07-26T21:20:00.006-04:00

I fished aboard the U Lucky Dog for the tournament with Tommy, Ryan and Mike. We broke the inlet to gorgeous weather, flat calm seas and little wind. Not your ideal fluking conditions but we were determined to make the most of it and were glad the forecast was off a bit.

After a little debate to head North or South the captain pointed the boat North and hit the throttles. It was a quick ride up to the Sandy Hook Reef. Shortly after getting lines in most of the crew was complaining about the sticky bottom and wanted to move over sandy bottom. I tried explaining you had better chances of quality fish in and around structure but they were tired of getting hung up on the bottom after only our first drift. Oddly not that many rigs were lost though, most of the time they were able to get themselves free.

We fished two wrecks on the reef before moving to the edges of the mussel beds. We had constant action with shorts and just legal fluke as well as hordes of short and barely legal sea bass. We did manage a few keeper sea bass and I had one that was almost 18".

After moving around that general area we had a few in the box but nothing to write home about...maybe a three pounder. We tried off of Red Church and the Elberon Rocks and then started heading back South. As we started making our way South the conditions deteriorated quickly and came more in line with the original forecast. At that point we decided to head for the barn. As we neared the inlet we decided to make one last drift on the Axel Carlson.

I had a few good hits right away but failed to hook up. Even dropping back to compensate for the fast drift did not help. I switched out to a two hook-slider rig to try and hook up on the short strikes...still could not catch a break. I will definitely be headed out to that last spot with more favorable conditions next week though.

All in all it was a fun day but not very productive. Everyone caught fish, not everyone caught keepers but we did have some fillets for all and we had a great time.

Bertha Blowout?

2008-07-24T14:22:00.002-04:00

Looks like this weekend is a bust for offshore and near shore waters. I guess the remnants of Bertha are making their way inland. We were supposed to fish the Elk's Fluke Tournament but I can't see racing around and getting beat up over fluke. That and if I had to guess fishing will probably be off from the ground swell earlier in the week and the rough conditions tonight. Great conditions for tuna and bass but not finicky ground fish. I will probably just fish the river real early for a couple hours before the boat traffic picks up then go back and work on the boat and the dock.

Bertram Rendezvous 2008

2008-07-20T21:58:00.007-04:00

Ah, The Gathering of Eagles. This year was my first year at the Rendezvous. I was invited by Mark to attend with him on the Tigress, a 37 Bertram. We left at about 9 AM on Friday from Pt. Pleasant and had slightly sloppy run south to Absecon Inlet into the wind and sea. We didn't make bad time though arriving shortly after noon.

We got the boat and ourselves cleaned up and immediately the drinks from our boat and others started flowing. The Rum Runner was churning out frozen drinks by the dozen for the welcome dock party along with hot and cold hordevours.

We tried to have lunch but the patio bar was very unaccommodating. My being vegetarian sometimes makes for finding a good meal a little difficult. They had hamburgers and cheese burgers along with chicken sandwiches with and without cheese but could not make a grilled cheese. I even tried for a mushroom Swiss burger, hold the burger patty but the waitress could not figure out how to enter that in the computer. I reciprocated with not being able to figure out more than one percent for the tip.

At this point I am thinking, oh great if this is how the rest of the weekend is going to turn out...I am taking car service home now!

Luckily that turned out to be the only real issue of the weekend. We headed back to the boat for more of the usual festivities...more drinks and finger food.

After dinner we headed over to Trump's for a little gambling. It is not one of my favorite casinos and we didn't spend much time there since no one seemed to be winning. Back to the docks for more drinks it was. Do you see a trend happening here???

We had discussed fishing on Saturday the week before but had figured none of us would be up and were uncertain of the weather. As luck would have it Mark, myself, Mike, and Wayne were all up before 6:30 AM and ready for action. We contemplated on heading out over coffee, then breakfast, then beer. At that point we figured it was a little late and settled in for more drinking and finger food. We did hear later there was a pretty good blue fin tuna bite on the AC Ridge-figures. There is always next year.

Pretty much the rest of the weekend was drinking eating, a little gambling here and there and oh did I mention drinking?

We took a look at the new 41 but I was not impressed at all. The salon seemed cramped with the raised floor are for the dinette. This did create a pretty decent size second stateroom though. The cockpit was also a little strange...the gunwales were very wide, about 18" wide. Plus with the higher freeboard of the cockpit you would probably need another 2' on your gaffs in order to be able to reach the fish. For the roughly $900k price tag I was not impressed. Even less impressing was the cruise speed. I did not go for a ride but was told that at 75% it is only about a 20 knot cruise and 26 wide open.

Saturday night's dinner was a pig roast on the rooftop of the patio bar. There was also lobster for an additional fee. I think there were two pigs but not sure as I did not investigate too well. I had a salad, some corn, a $10 Coors Light and headed back to the boat to eat and consume alcohol that was already paid for.

Sunday morning was just spend getting the boat ready for the ride home, breakfast and refueling.

The run home was smooth and downhill despite the 3-5 foot seas. We left around 10:30 AM and arrived home about 1 PM. There was however pea soup fog where visibility at times was maybe 50-75'. About 5 miles offshore visibility increased to about a quarter mile for most of the run North. A few guys ducked into Barnegat, not really sure why. They all complained that you could not see the jetties till between them and that there were dozens of boats all over the place. The fog did clear for them once inside the bay though. We decided to keep running north and go in through Manasquan and deal with the canal again. Once we hit the bathing beach on Island Beach State Park the fog pretty much lifted and all we had left was haze.

Other than the fog the trip down and back was uneventful for us, we did hear on the radio one boat seemed to have blown a head gasket and another boat had and engine shutdown while running but never hear what the outcome of that was. All-in-all it was a great weekend with pretty good weather and good friends. Can't wait for next year.

I should have walked around with the camera more as there would have been some very interesting shots but this is what I ended up with...Bertram Rendezvous 2008 Gallery.

Fluke are Heare

2008-07-12T19:10:00.001-04:00

Left the dock at 5:20 and was up to Monmouth Beach at 6:35. First time in a long time we did not catch the train bridge on the way out!

Had two buddies from the marina aboard and I did not even get the engine off and my bait in the water before the first keeper hit the deck. A fat 19 incher. Minutes later we had more coming over the rails. We took a long first drift and the fish were in small pods in different parts of the drift so we started moving around to each spot.

There was constant, almost non-stop action as long as you worked and were not lazy about moving the boat back over the piece after a short drift. Water was 68-65 degrees. I say it back-wards because it went down as the South wind picked up. Went through about 8 lbs of spearing.

Made a couple other stops off the tennis courts for sea bass but only got one keeper and bunch of shorts. Did manage another keeper fluke there and another stop off the orange condos North of Red Church. Again short sea bass and tons of short fluke with a few more keepers mixed in.

Highlight of the day was we went up with two boats, the other guys were slow out of the gate so we had a few minutes on them. When they radioed to say they were about three miles away over the side went a bag of popcorn. Then two minutes later they were all excited on the radio asking if were in the action with the huge pod of birds working. Of course we said yes, just North of it drifting South into. Which was a line of crap since we had a North drift but the looks on their faces and words that soon followed yelled in our direction were priceless when they figured out what the bird activity was from.

Started home when some of the rollers started topping 5'. Probably was a good move as the inlet was not bad at that point but on the change of the tide it looked like it was going to get interesting. Coming into the inlet there were breakers topping the jetties and crashing almost up to the Tiki Bar.

Ended the day with 14 keepers to just under 5 lbs, only two skates, no doggies, three birds (always welcome for crab bait) and countless short fluke and sea bass. Another great day on the water with good weather, good friends and good times.

First Fluking Trip of '08

2008-07-05T20:11:00.001-04:00

We got a late start due to partying and watching the neighbors fireworks across the creek.

Left the dock about 5:30 with the intentions of looking for some bass early and then going fluking. Coming out of the inlet that sunken fishing boat is way closer than the half mile reported. It is more like 150-200 yards off the North jetty. The aerials and booms were visible above the water and the smell of diesel was pretty strong...there was no visible sheen on the water though.

Had some great looking pods off Spring Lake...bunker spraying, jumping clean out of the water not just flipping. But did not get a single run-off.

After a the rain passed and it looked like there would be no lightning we started running North. Didn't see much or mark much till we got just South of Shark River. Off in the distance we saw hundreds of birds working...we figured we hit the mother load. Wrong! turned out to be about 200 carcasses, some filleted some not...all stripers. Not sure if it was from a head boat in the inlet or by-catch from a netter that they took some fillets. There was also a lot of garbage and debris in the area. We kept pushing North.

Our final stop Monmouth Beach. We setup on our first fluke drift and had fish on and in the boat immediately and even double headers! There were a lot of 17.5" fish but we managed 10 keepers all over 19" with the largest being 23.5" at 4 lbs 13 oz. We had pretty solid action for over three hours with about 100 fish caught between the two of us. And for once I caught the largest fish on the boat. I bet if we did not try for stripers first we would have had no problems putting together a limit catch, the early morning bite is always much better up there.

We had pretty clear/clean water up North, it was 62 when we got there and 64.x when we left. When breaking the inlet in the morning we had 61.x. Entering the inlet on the way in there was 59.7 degree water in the river. Again the bait of choice fluking was spearing...we went through over three pounds in just over three hours. Most fish hit the spearing but we also had a bunch on the bucktails with pearl Gulp! jerk shads.

Weather Sucks

2008-07-02T18:42:00.002-04:00

Well, Mark called off the trip to the Hudson again this weekend. I hope this does not turn into a regular thing like it did last year. We went six weeks in a row with crappy weather before we were able to get offshore. It just doesn't pay to get beat up on the ride out and the ride in and hope you don't run into a thunder storm are really get your butt kicked.

So now it is on to plan B. We will be heading North early looking for some hold out bass and then on to Monmouth Beach for some fluking. We did our first fluke trip of 2007 the first week of July and had a limit catch so hopefully we can have a repeat in 2008.

Weather Woes

2008-07-01T16:02:00.001-04:00

It is amazing how unstable the weather is this time of year. If you watch the forecasts through out the day over the course of a few days you could literal go bald in a few short days. We have been trying to plan an offshore exploratory trip for weeks now. One day its a go, then the next it is off...oh wait two hours later the forecast is great! What the hell...come on Mother Nature throw us a bone here.

Last Ditch Bass Effort

2008-06-28T21:57:00.002-04:00

Thanks for calling us down EMALS (BFH Member). We were originally working some pods off Bay Head that every few minutes were spraying out of the water. But between the dozen boats not a single fish was boated.

So we ran down to Mantoloking by EMALS. We did see a few fish caught but wanted to escape the fleet so we ran down to about Lavalette in deeper water (65') and pretty much the same thing. Tons of bait, marked fish but none biting. After screwing around with a thresher on bass gear for about 10 minutes we started heading back North.

Around Mantoloking we saw up in front of us birds working, huge splashes, real choppy water and reddish/purplish water. Monster blues had a good sized bunker pod corralled and were working them South at pretty good clip. We stopped to screw around with them and then saw some bass mixed in up on top. We were amazed! It was around noon and we were only in 30' water. Had a couple good run-offs with marks on the baits but did not hook up with any bass. We boated a few blues to almost 13 pounds and then again...our top bait gets slammed. Huge splash and big hole where the bait was. Line starts screaming off, this time it figures its a spinning rod. Then we saw the tail. We just thumbed the spool since we knew we had no shot at this thresher. Another beautiful day on the water.

Mako Mania

2008-06-22T20:28:00.003-04:00

Fished aboard a buddies boat in my marina on a 32' Albie for the tournament. We first setup in an area of some smaller wrecks between the Triples and the Toms. We had a nice 68-70 degree temp break early in the day and 70-72 in the afternoon. We were a little concerned about the warmer than anticipated water there but it produced all day.

Our first run-off was within 30 minutes of setting up. The 50W started screaming, way too fast to be a mako...then just as I picked up the rod it stopped. Reeled in to check the bait and not a mark on it. Five minutes later again...screaming drag. Few minutes later we released a small bluefin.

About 9:45 we had the first mako in the slick, and two more after that but none of them took baits, just swam around and looked...both were probably in the 150-180 pound range. After they disappeared we had another run-off, Mike set the hook, took two cranks and the hook pulled.

Then we get another taker, Tommy grabs the rod, sets the hook and this time is stays hooked. After a brief 20 minute battle we had 140-160 pound mako boat-side and decided to release her.

Ten minutes after that we are blessed with another run-off...Mark grabs the rod, hits the fish for the first hook set and the rod doubles over...he screams big fish and sets two more times. At first the fish just sat there for a second. Mark took a few cranks in and then she came alive peeling about 50 yards on the first run...then turned and charged the boat. A few minutes later she was about 30' behind the boat, we got our first look at the fish...and it was big...about 250-280 pounds. She took one look at us and the boat and went straight down. Fifteen minutes later the line parted. Then she came back and gave us the finger buy jumping twice...once off the stern tapping the tip of the port rigger on the way up and then a second time off the starboard side just missing the side of the boat on the way down. I was standing on the bridge and when it did a somersault-tail over head the head was about two feet higher than eye level. Man what a sight...It was so close I could have reached out and grabbed the wire with the hook still it its mouth.

At this point we figured it just wasn't our day. We made up new rigs with longer leaders...our first mistake. We did have a few more fish come up on the slick throughout the rest of the day and a few more run-offs but no more hookups.

All the run-offs and hookups were on the deep bait, nothing on the top or mid water baits all day long.

It was a great day on the water, we all had a lot of fun. It was my first sharking trip and the first time for both me and Tommy to see a mako jump in real life. At the end of the day we had 9 makos in the slick, 6 run-offs, released a small bluefin, released a small mako and lost a big mako. We also learned some for next time...we will never go shorter than 14' leaders again!

Striper Success

2008-06-15T08:30:00.004-04:00

We broke the inlet about 5 am, looked left and there was an armada between the North Jetty and the Spring Lake Hotel. Took a quick cruise past it on the outside out of curiosity...seemed to be the JCAA Fluke Tourney fleet. Did not mark any bait, not surprising with the amount of activity there. Turned South and hit the throttles.

With reports of fish in Spring Lake and the South, Southwest winds for Friday and overnight we ran down to Bay Head figuring the bait and fish moved south. We first setup in 35' of water, marked lots of bait and a few fish. Had several small pods of bunker with bait spraying and coming clean out of the water. Had a couple baits slashed by blues and kept moving from pod to pod.

About 6:30 moved out to 50-60-' water as the sun rose higher and the haze started burning off. Had a bigger pod with a few birds diving. Me and Tommy both snagged bunker at the same time and after about 10 seconds both rods doubled over and line started peeling off. Unfortunately the only two spinning rods I have are relatively light with 20# braid on them. After getting nearly spooled I started backing down on both fish and reeling at the same time. About 10 minutes into the battle and having little line on the spool I loosened the drag a bit. That was about when Tommy broke off...probably due to the small spool exerting more drag than the full spool was set to.

I got the fish up after another few minutes about 15' off the transom and once she saw the boat she was off to the races again and we were forced to back down on it again. Finally after about 20 minutes she was in the net...41.5" bass! My first live lining bunker and first of 2008.

We quickly moved back on that pod and put a baits out on the conventional gear and had run-offs right away. Both came unglued about 3 minutes in. We had one other run-off a few minutes later that never came tight.

We continued to mark bait and fish but by 7:30 it seemed the bite was over and we headed back in.

We had water from 56 to 63 degrees, we stopped over a few wrecks just to see if there was any life in 80' and they looked pretty barren.

Despite losing a few fish it was a great day and a lot of fun on the water with light tackle. The fish weighed in at 25.1 pounds and 41.5". Seemed pretty light for its length, there was nothing in its stomach when I cleaned it. Not completely surprising after a long fight I guess it lost its breakfast on its way to the boat.

2008-05-28T22:32:00.006-04:00

The new tank is in and its time to fish! I am still waiting on calls back from the manufacturer but I am glad I did not hold my breath. It has been sixteen days since I last heard from them and they claimed I was their number one priority and would receive a call back from the man in charge...I would hate to see how their number 2-10 priorities are handled. So at this point I decided to save my season, repair the boat and let the attorneys and USCG do battle with the manufacturer.

After getting the tank in and taking on a half load of fuel I was headed out to search for some bunker pods and try and find some bass. I heard some radio chatter that sounded half promising but with no confirmed reports I was skeptical. On my way out I came across some birds working in the river with fish crashing the surface. Rather than leaving fish to find fish I decided to give it a shot.

I put on a yellow and white popper and had non-stop top-water action for almost two hours! Light tackle action at its best with two to four pound bluefish. Other than me and four kayaks I had the action to myself. The kayaks seemed to be brand new and their paddlers were trying to figure out how to handle them in the swift currents not allowing them to get in the killer action.

Conditions were still a bit breezy despite the reports of it laying down with a bright setting sun and chilly 55.3 degree water with 64 degree air temps.

All-in-all it was a great little shake down run and first fishing trip with the new tank. I am looking forward to an excellent 2008 season even though I am off to a slow and late start.

First Trip in Over a Month

2008-05-25T14:00:00.005-04:00

Since I still have yet to hear from the manufacturer of the boat about any resolution to the condition of the fuel tank we took Mark's boat out for opening day of the 2008 fluke season.

Due to all the reports we turned right out of Manasquan and ran down to the bathing beach. We had spoons in the water before 6 am and zig zagged our way to the CGS. Marked a ton of fish and bait, had a half dozen knockdowns, had three fish on for two minutes but nothing to the boat.

Around 10-10:30 we switched over to fluking. Stopped on a couple of small lumps with bait...only dogfish and skates. Moved further North to a small wreck off Lavalette and had tons of 16"-17" fluke. Spearing was the preferred over any type of strip bait but Gulp shrimp out fished the spearing.

Water was cold...started the day with 51.2 and ended the day in 15' of water with 55.3...most of the day was around 53 degrees.

I was amazed at the lack of boat traffic. I don't think we saw 100 boats all day including only 1 head boat. The huge crane being towed North was something...that thing was gigantic.

I did hear from a couple of guys after we returned to the dock that the few that ran North had pretty good results on 20 and 30 pound class fish up on the mussel beds and rocks, and they reported large bunker schools up there as well.

We watched a tug towing a huge crane all day. We first saw it before 6 am a little South of Barnegat Inlet. When we were packing it in around 12:30 it was up to Lavalette. All in all it was a great day on the water...great weather, great friends but no so great fushing but we all still had a great time.

Tank Condition Shocking...

2008-05-01T08:20:00.007-04:00

I was able to get down to the marina yesterday and get hauled out, pumped the fuel tank dry and pulled it out. The condition of the tank was shocking. More shocking was the design. The tank was built to pretty much the exact shape and size of the hold it was in. It had very little or no ventilation around it causing it to trap water, moisture and sit in water and condensation all the time.

This is most likely what led to its corrosion issue and eventually the forty or more pin holes that developed as a result of the galvanic action of the aluminum tank sitting in water.

I will be calling the manufacturer today to find out how they would like to proceed with this. I am hoping they will admit it was a bad design and allow me to have a new tank fabricated that does not conform or rest on the bottom of the boat causing the same issue within three short years.

Dock Party Report....

2008-04-26T19:20:00.000-04:00

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!

2008-04-19T20:05:00.003-04:00

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???

2008-04-13T20:49:00.000-04:00

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

2008-04-06T17:29:00.007-04:00

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!

Slow Winter Flounder Pick

2008-03-30T21:38:00.000-04:00

The boat has been running great and I was hoping to stay in the water through spring...but today we picked up about a 5' x 2' length of carpet in the wheels. I will be hauling out this week to make sure there was no damage and the wheels don't look damaged.

Anyway, on a lighter note, we did manage to get some fishing in. With water temps still low (41.2 to 43.5) we managed only one flounder at 13.5" and very fat. In speaking with some of the local captains and guides it seems that the fish have yet to spawn. Many of the fish caught during the week were full of eggs and sperm. Which is good news, we still have a shot at them. Last year we had similar water temps this time of year and the mad dog bite on winter flounder didn't really pickup until mid April.

Hopefully this week will warm the water a few more degrees to that magic number and the bite will turn on. And hopefully the carpet incident was a minor one and we will back at it this weekend again.

The Garden State without the Agricultural Dept?

2008-03-29T22:08:00.004-04:00

I received an e-mail tonight about a rally of farmers taking their tractors to the Statehouse. Also in the e-mail was information that I did not know. That the Department of Agriculture has been opposed to many legislature items against the recreational angler. Below is the e-mail I received, what do you think my fellow anglers?

Go to the link below and vote YES .

Farmers fear Corzine plan
Thursday, March 27, 2008
By Gene Robbins
Angry Hunterdon farmers plan to rev up their tractors Tuesday and drive them to the Statehouse to protest the governor's proposal to eliminate the Department of Agriculture as a Cabinet-level agency.

As many as 50 tractors and horse trailers from the county and northern New Jersey will rendezvous at Dave Bond's farm on Route 579 in Delaware Township. They'll gas up and leave by 8 a.m. to roll down routes 29 or 31 in time to reach a "Save the Department of Agriculture" rally in front of the Statehouse Annex, West State Street, from 10 a.m. to noon, rain or shine.

Not coincidentally, the Assembly Budget Committee convenes that day at 9 a.m. on the fourth floor of the Annex.

The slow-moving tractor-cade should be quite a spectacle, and could snarl commuter traffic. Farmers are out to make a point, although pitchforks and even placards on wooden stakes are prohibited.

From Tom Fote:

The saltwater anglers in NJ have not been treated fairly over the years by the Dept of Agriculture. They have supported the commercial fishermen over the recreational anglers at every turn. They support the menhaden boats in state waters, against striped bass gamefish, fought against recreational Sunday clamming and many other recreational concerns of the years.Their name was bought up at the latest Senate Environment Committee hearing of the Pots Off the Reef bill as supporting the potters over the recreational anglers. Over the years they were not friends of the Division of Fish and Wildlife and the recreational anglers. I would not consider it a loss at this time. Their functions could be absorbed by other agencies. A lot of the local agriculture board have commercial fishermen members and take up their positions at the local level.

You have a chance to show your feelings. The wording of the question is a little tricky since you need to vote yes if you support doing away with the Dept of Agriculture.

Tom Fote

Subject: NJ Dept AG

Below is a link to a poll on whether the Garden State needs the agriculture department. Please take the time to vote.

http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=OPINION

First Winter Flounder Trip of '08

2008-03-24T21:23:00.002-04:00

It was a nice sunny day with light winds in the mid forties. Water temps ranged from 39.5 to 43.2 degrees. Despite the mild winter we had I was surprised the with the water temps. Especially since it has not warmed much with the recent slightly warmer weather we have been having.

Armed with plenty of flounder chum, corn and blood worms we set out for our first spot. It was slightly less crowded than I thought it would be. There was only about a dozen boats just South of the Mantoloking Bridge. We set the pots out, started a heavy corn slick and had not even a tap after about an hour. We did see a few fish netted from a sailboat about a hundred yards away.

At our next spot along Herring Island we boated a nice 14" flounder in no time, but that was it for that spot. After moving over near Dale's Point we managed two more fish...a 14.5" and 15.25" blackback.

While it was not a stellar day, despite the wind against the tide conditions and cool water temps we managed to keep the skunk away.

Flounder Season Approaches

2008-03-20T09:48:00.002-04:00

There is a lot of buzz around here the past few days. I have been preparing rods, reels, jigs, rigs, sinkers, and list goes on. It is only a few short days till the opening of Winter Flounder for 2008. I have for many years fished opening day and am sad to say this year I will not be due to family obligations and the Easter Holiday.

In seasons past I have also typically caught a fish over four pounds on opening day and hope I can continue that tradition fishing the day after the official opener. if you are out on Monday the 24th give me a shout, will be glad to share real time reports.

Time to Fish

2008-03-16T19:42:00.004-04:00

I did not end up doing any fishing but I did poke around the bay a bit and there is a lot of bait out there. We had 4 aboard for a cruise around the bay...this was good since it simulated the weight of three aboard plus gear. She ran nice and cool, handled good and is ready to go for the 2008 season. I am glad to put the running hot/overheating issue to bed.

Even idling in the slip for 1 to 2 hours prior to the trip and after she still ran well below 180 and the risers only reached about 75 degrees. Now it's time to fish!

Fluke Belly for Bait

2008-03-09T07:05:00.004-04:00

What a crock...now that they jack the minimum size up, they legalize the use of fluke belly, back or ribbons for bait. Follow the link below to read the full article from the APP.

APP Article

Oh Happy Day!

2008-03-07T19:18:00.006-05:00

Indeed it is...launched the boat today after finishing up the installation of the new raw water intake system. The hoses, valves and elbows are all installed and clamped. All that is left is to bond the whole system. That will have to wait...we are launching today!

After the hoses were installed I reinstalled the battery shelves and boxes, all that remains with the electrical system upgrade is to install the new batteries. They are in, just waiting to be picked up from Sun Harbor.

On the shakedown run she ran a little hot. After inspection there was a ton of grass in the heat exchanger and hoses from last season. Now with the sea strainer in place that will all be eliminated. After cleaning the leftovers out she ran great, only getting up to about 165 degrees and the risers ran at a cool 75!

Can't wait to get back on the water on a regular basis and start catching again. I was so elated with being back in the water that I forgot to take pictures of the completed system, I will take some next week and post them with hopefully pics from my first striper of the season.

The Verdict is In

2008-03-06T20:24:00.002-05:00

On the 2008 summer flounder season that is. The NJ State Marine Fisheries Council voted unanimously to raise the minimum size to 18". We will retain the same bag limit at 8 fish but will have a shorter season by a week. The 2008 season will run from May 24th through September 7th.

Ready to Get Wet!

2008-03-02T18:48:00.010-05:00

I am ready! Finished up all the major stuff that needs to be done before going in the water today. I rewired the wash down pump and always-on buss bar for electronics memory. They used to be on the start battery and both always hot. I moved them to the house battery and the wash down is now on the fused side of the house load so it no longer has 24/7 power like it did.

We used Yacht Brite Pro Polish on my boat and two others yesturday. The results were great, all the boats looked great. The best part was despite the chilly temps it went on and off extremely easy. So easy it actually took longer to use the polisher than it did by hand and all three of us polished our boats by hand...even Mark with his 37' Bertram!

The battery boxes went in along with stops that I made out of starboard to further secure them. I just did not trust the flimsy straps that came with the boxes. Plus the plastic box sitting on a starboard shelf is very slick and moves easily. The house battery box I had to remove the handle on one side to get a good fit but since I don't carry the batteries around in the box nor did it seem to be structural in anyway felt it was not an issue to do so. Otherwise I would have either had to go with a tray again or a smaller battery...neither of which I felt were options.

The only thing left to do before going in the water is to connect the hoses for the raw water intake, just waiting on the hose to arrive. Assuming there are no issues with the hose and connections I should be launching this Friday!

Playin Hooky

2008-02-25T20:29:00.010-05:00

I was able to slip away from work and work on the boat in hopes of launching later in the week. Unfortunately some things took longer than planned and the guys in the marina won't be in on Friday which would be the only other day this week I could get back down.

Anyway we got the through hulls in today. That was the big hurdle, now that those are in it is all down sea from here.

I had planned on polishing the hull sides today but the water stains were so bad on the hull I had to compound the boat first, so now I need another half a day to do the polishing. On the plus side it does look really good now. At first I figured it would be good to compound it and make it look like it was just trailered out of the showroom...until I realized I did not put the last crate of tools in the truck. The one that had the extension cords and the polisher in it. I ended up compounding from the gunwales down all by hand...not fun.

I do have to say though that so far I am very pleased with a new line of cleaning products I am trying for the first time. I recently started to use the Yacht Brite products after seeing them in action on TV. I used the cleaner in the pilothouse for spring cleanup and it came out really nice. The compound worked very well, even when compounding it by hand. I have yet to use the polish, as long as it is not raining I will be polishing this weekend.

More Spring M and PM

2008-02-24T20:04:00.006-05:00

It has been a busy weekend (both Saturday and Sunday) getting the boat ready for launch next week. Filled with good news and bad. I don't need a new water pump but I do have to track down a broken vane from the impeller...hopefully it is in the bottom of the heat exchanger. The zincs were in good shape but for forty bucks why chance corrosion of much more expensive parts right? But before I was able to get any work done I had to shovel two to three inches of slush out of the cockpit, off the roof, etc.

Today I installed the new battery switches and charge relay and rewired some accessories. What a job to do the switches. The old switch, fuse, bus bars and breakers were through bolted onto a stainless plate. I removed the bolts and tapped the holes in the plate instead of through bolting. Why would you want to disconnect every wire and have to remove the panel to change a switch or add a breaker...that is just crazy.

I also put the start battery shelf back in and installed the battery box for the start battery. I have to get another house battery box to replace the one I just received, it was for up to group 31 and is way too big for the space. Hopefully I can get the group 29 battery into a group 27 box. If all the dimensions on the manufacturer's web sites are true it should fit.

I tried to polish the hull sides as well today but didn't realize how bad the water stains from the well water were. Interlux's heavy duty stain remover worked well but would take way too long to use to do the whole boat. Tommy had tested his compound on a small spot on my boat that I had not realized and since it was nice and clean there I am going to pickup some compound tomorrow to do the whole boat. I just hope I will have time after installing the through hulls, valves and sea strainer tomorrow to get the hull compounded and polished.

Got a Question???

2008-02-22T16:23:00.006-05:00

If you have a fishing or boating related question give me a call using Grand Central from Google. I would be happy to help my fellow boaters and fishermen as best I can.

Glass 100% Full

2008-02-21T08:34:00.004-05:00

The holes for the through hulls are glassed in! Woo Hoo! The glass work is complete and I guess you could say the glass is completely full. Progress...now that the weather is not cooperating for re-boring the holes and installing the through hulls and valves it is once again a waiting game. That waiting should not be that long however-Monday looks pretty good as far as weather goes and we should be able to get her done and ready to get wet then (fingers crossed). There is lots of work to do this weekend and the list keeps growing as I think of things. Not sure what happened this winter but boy did I get behind. I am sure burning my hand and not working on anything for two weeks did not help. Only 8 more days till backwater bass!

What Tide is it?

2008-02-20T13:43:00.004-05:00

My everyday watch recently started to self destruct. The rivets are popping, buttons falling off and needed another new battery. I decided to finally replace it. After some hunting around I found a really cool watch. I did have to give up alarm and countdown timers but I think it was well worth it.

I went with a Timex e-Instruments Time and Temp plus Compass. It has a compass, temperature sensor and tide clock, as well as the usual time and date features. It is water resistant to 100 meters and has a back light for low light conditions. Now I will always know what direction is home and the tide stage!

Sand Storms in Pt. Pleasant?

2008-02-17T18:44:00.005-05:00

I was hoping to start removing my battery switch and some wiring from the transom of the boat. When I arrived to the marina an old Egg Harbor behind me was doing wood and glass work. This was kicking up dusk, particles and some good size chunks of both glass and wood not only in my direction but into the cockpit of my boat. It wasn't a sand storm but it definitly blocked out some of the little light that was shining through the clouds...at least from the vantage point of my cockpit. The guys never even apologized about the mess on and in my boat or about me having to work in their mess. They were not wearing masks or respirators either. The best part was watching them repair fiberglass with bondo though. I hope they are not just repairing the boat for a quick re-sale...the poor soul that does not figure out that they cut every corner fixing it up will have some real problems down the road.

So without being able to work outside I turned my energy to the inside. I cleaned the whole pilothouse from headliner to sole. Applied the anti-fog to the windows, polished the stainless sink, removed the drain to measure for a replacement and measured to make a bracket to support the ditch bag.

I am still not sure what to do about the black streaks on the painted glass surfaces from sneakers and even boat shoes around the seating areas. Since it is not a smooth finish like gel coat it mars very easily. I may consider sanding it smooth and gel coating it or covering it with some thin teak plywood. I would rather keep it white or light in color so it does not feel closed in, but there is a lot of surface to sand and re-paint.

Hopefully the weather is good enough this weekend. I plan on installing the new battery switches, charge relay, breakers, battery boxes, batteries, battery charger and polishing at least from the rub rail down. If I can get all that done and next week we install the through hulls I am all set to get wet!

The Glass is Half Full

2008-02-15T20:54:00.004-05:00

I am very optimistic today...I spoke with the marina and we hope to glass in the holes for the through hulls early next week. I guess you could say we will have the glass completely full! Assuming the weather does not halt that later in the week we can re-bore the holes and install the through hulls. If all goes well the rest of the connections can be finalized and the fishing touches on the spring maintenance can be completed. It looks as if I will launch by the first week of March maybe earlier. Great news...I can then have a plenty of time to get a good shake down run in and if any unforeseen issues pop up have time to fix them before flounder season opens on March 23.

Sunday I hope to get all the templating done for cup holders, new rigging station and new shelving. The initial shelving will be for the ditch back with a small tray above it for odds and ends. After I get some other projects done I will move on to installing shelving in the lockers for tackle boxes and bins.

Keurig Brewer for the Boat

2008-02-11T14:23:00.000-05:00

I am not sure how many of you have Keurig brewers...we are devote fans. We actaully have two...long story. Anyway, they recently came out with a hotel model, the B130. It does not keep any water in it after brewing and has a very small footprint. Best of all it consumes half the power of thier smallest home brewer. The bad news is that it will not be available for home, boat or RV use until the fall...but it is coming and we can't wait.

Check out the B130

AC Boat Show

2008-02-11T14:19:00.000-05:00

I decided to go last minute. A couple of buddies called from the marina and they have free passes from their bosses booths so we mad the trek down. Yeah it sucks that they get away with jacking up the prices of the parking and even charge if you have a diamond or platinum card for the casino.

Ran into Mike and John, Dennis Jr. and of course Shawn and Michelle and Lenny. There was rumors Jeff was there but never saw him. Oh and of course our hard working duck from the Fisherman...Scott.

Got to see the new Shimano Lucanus jigs, pretty cool stuff but at the price they will be for bottom and wreck fishing I can't see buying them.

I would have thought Joe would have been in the World Cat booth but didn't find him there.

It seems like most manufacturers are somewhat jumping on the pilothouse bandwagon and offering at least a three side hard enclosure.

The boat that really caught my eye was the new Ocean. Very different layout, pocket in the keel for a transducer, only draws 2.5' for a 37! Only thing that seemed like it might be an issue on that boat was the deep tinted windows, although the front wasn't as dark so I guess it would be fine at night, that and I can't imagine that there is enough insulation and shielding to quiet the turbos on the Yanmars in the salon but they claim there is.

The Contender 38 Express was about the nicest outboard express I saw. It featured trip 350's but I can't imagine you can see over the bow too well running. The helm is just forward the cockpit.

I was hoping to see Everglades new 35' Express but they did not have it at the show...unless I somehow missed it.

Good News and Bad News

2008-02-07T21:10:00.000-05:00

Well let’s start with the good for a change. We in NJ are status quo for striped bass for 2008! The current 2007 regulations will remain in effect. We are well above the mortality rates, the spawning stocks were low but the young of the year looked really good especially in 2003 and not too shabby for 2006 so we are in good shape. Actually we are well above the point of action for the spawning stock, 30.9 million pounds is the point of action and we are at 55 million!

The bad news is NJ did not come into compliance with the tautog regulations and we now face drastic cutbacks. And rumor are flying around of one fish per person per season. We will just have to wait and see how the ASMFC rears its ugly head next.

The Real Fluke Proposals

2008-02-05T21:33:00.000-05:00

OK here is the skinny. The below proposals were wrong the four that are being made to the ASMFC are as follows:

17 1/2" June 28th to Sept 8th 2 fish
17 1/2" July 4th to Sept 2nd 8 fish
18" May 25th to Sept 8th 8 fish
18 1/2" May 17th to Oct 17th 8 fish

The Summer Flounder Board will look at them on Thursday and if approved then the NJ Marine Fisheries Council will be holding an advisories meeting to receive comments and then discuss and vote on it at their March 6th meeting.

I hope to get an update at the conclusion of the ASMFC Summer Flounder meeting in Alexandria on Thursday.

Fight for Summer Flounder

2008-02-05T14:24:00.001-05:00

I am not sure how many of you are following with detail the fight over summer flounder or fluke that most of the Northeast states are going through. There has been some speculation over the options being presented to the ASMFC and some controversy over the three of size options that were published by the APP this week.

5/24 - 9/8 18.25" 8 fish bag
6/28 - 9/8 17.25" 2 fish bag
7/4 - 9/2 17.25" 8 fish bag

There have been several comments that these are not actually three of the six and we may not know for another week or so if that is the case or not. But the fact that they are all a quarter inch size limit really has no bearing if they are viable options or not. In the history of ASMFC they have never approved a quarter inch minimum size, it has always been a full inch or half inch in size.

If you are not already involved at some level I urge you to join a local fishing club that is in-line with your beliefs as well as donating to one or more of the organizations fighting for the recreational angler and sportsmen and women.

Jersey Coast Anglers Association: http://www.jcaa.org/
Recreation Fishing Alliance: http://www.joinrfa.org/
NJ Outdoor Alliance: http://www.njoutdooralliance.org/
Save the Summer Flounder Fishery Fund: http://www.ssfff.net/

Two Week Catchup

2008-01-28T08:17:00.001-05:00

I know its been a while...just been doing small odds and ends on the boat and around the yard waiting for a good weather window to do the glass work and then install the through hulls.

The hailer is in and working very well. Definitely wont be able to use it to talk to whoever is anchoring the boat. Even on the lowest setting it will blow you off the bow. At lest the talk back will be a welcome addition and I will at least be able to hear what the anchorman is saying.

I also removed the battery trays to give us more room to do the raw water intake conversion and also round over the edges of starboard so we don't have a rerun of a Joey Fingers episode. Also I will be replacing the trays with battery boxes and will install starboard rails around the boxes for added security and to prevent them from sliding.

The outdrive is off and serviced and in fine condition according to the Volvo-Penta dealer. Zincs are in pretty good shape but since they sat out of water for a period of time are now oxidized and will be replaced prior to launch. There is no sense in taking chances with corrosion, they only cost about $30 and well worth the investment on new ones.

This past weekend was more of a social outing than a working weekend. Pretty much everyone on my dock showed up and since we have not seen each other in a few weeks we spent most of the day catching up and at lunch.

I did however finish putting the headliner back up and all the electronics hangers. Only items left on the interior task list left are a thorough cleaning, shelf/hanger for ditch bag, replace and relocate interior stereo speakers, and install a cup holder for the captain.

Who Said Mondays Suck

2008-01-14T13:36:00.000-05:00

I received great news today from Sea Sport. After speaking with Sea Sport about the coring and hull/liner gap and wetness issue I can put it past me and move on with repairs. Since the coring is not wet and only slight wetness between the liner and hull I should be in good shape. The coring is devinicell, which is a huge relief. The wetness is probably due to sweat. The gap between the liner and hull they also said is not an issue. I can either cut the liner back or fill in between it as I would fill in the removed coring with thick cell and bore through solid glass.

Now all we need is a few days above 35 degrees and we can kick this project into high gear and get ready to go back in the water in time for the winter flounder opener...assuming they don't change the date on us.

Hosed Again

2008-01-10T16:47:00.000-05:00

The new valve and full flow 90 degree elbow came today. Only problem is that I did not realize when I placed the order that the 90 has a 1" hose barb on it. My current hose to the wash down pump is 3/4" ID. I just checked the old fitting and it is a reducing fitting from 1" pipe to 3/4" hose.

I checked the online catalog and Groco does not make a 90 for a 3/4" valve to 3/4" ID hose so I am stuck with the 1" hose barb. I will probably end up running 1" hose to the strainer and then off the strainer 3/4" to the pump. If not I will see if the pump will accommodate 1" hose. There is always something to throw your plans off kilter.

Getting to the Core of the Situation

2008-01-08T18:51:00.000-05:00

I had every intention of boring a large hole in the bottom of the boat and installing a new raw water pickup today. Right up until we were halfway through the bottom. That was when I realized the hull is cored. That was not the worst part of the discovery...the coring was dry and not wood, it was some type of foam. But the material between the hull and the deck liner was wet.

At this point we decided to remove the existing through hull for the wash down pump and inspect that hole and the area around it due to the wetness between the hull and liner. While it is not conclusive it is possible that the wetness between the liner could be from this through hull.

Now that the coring back about 1.5" from the holes has been removed I will let it dry for the next week and then fill the void and holes with chopped glass and epoxy resin and then re-bore the holes through solid glass to eliminate the possibility of water intrusion into the coring.

The thing that has me worried though is the gap between the hull and the liner, it was at least 3/8", maybe more, I did not measure. I have to contact Sea Sport to find out if that is normal or if some sort of delamination has occurred. I also want to find out the layup schedule knowing that the hull is cored. And if they recommend drilling a larger hole through the liner to allow the backing block to contact the hull directly.

It also was probably a good idea to remove the existing through hull as it was quite lose and the valve that was originally installed was of poor material. The through hull was a Perko model and after polishing it up with a wire wheel to remove paint, growth and sealant, it seemed to be in fine condition. The threads on the valve however had no bronze left showing at all so later today I will order a new Groco valve.

The Groco valves seem to be of good quality, I know many boat mechanics that like them and no surveyors that dislike them. The nice feature on them is that you can remove a set screw and install it on the other side to have the handle open and close in the opposite direction. Which can be extremely helpful in a tight engine room or cramped compartment.

I also mapped out some of my existing wiring in plans to re-route some of it. The end result will have the bilge pumps and primary start battery functions combined. Right now there is an always on bus bar, wash down pump and cockpit power point also connected to the start battery. These will all be re-wired to the house battery, I will also be installing an automatic charge relay. Once that is all done the batteries will also be replaced prior to spring launch.

On a high note, I did finish testing the GPS to sonar NMEA wiring and have been able to pause the sonar screen, point to a location, create a way point and navigate back to it on the GPS. This is going to greatly improve getting back on structure, bait and fish this season. Especially when you pass over something at high speeds, being able to pause the screen point to it and then navigate to it is going to be awesome.

It's the Little Things

2008-01-05T19:05:00.000-05:00

It is amazing how many little things you can find to do on a boat. I started making a list of repairs I need to make and improvements or upgrades I also want to do. I think I need to transfer my list to adding machine tape! I still have a long list of little things to get down...new rod holders, cup holders, binocular rack, hang the ditch bag, replace the batteries and all the other spring maintenance.

I did find a real ingenious invention that will probably work really well for cup holders but is a bit pricey. I saw a product called Sea Suckers at the boat show in NY this week. They have two size suction cups that use a vacuum pump to adhere to the surface. This will probably work really well for a pliers and knife rack as well as mounting the fillet table to the transom cap instead of burning a rod holder for it.

One repair I was all set to do until I realized I had the wrong size hose was to replace the bow deck drain hoses. They are currently not smooth bore hoses, very thin plastic an leaking around the fittings despite the hose clamps being tight. I have not removed them yet but suspect that the thin plastic hose is cracked.

I did get the external VHF speaker connected up and working as well as the CO2 alarm. I also installed a cooler tie-down system on the swim platform to get the cooler off the deck and provide more fishing space.

To top the day off I worked on the NMEA cables from the GPS to the sonar. I now have the data flowing in both directions and have the ability to pause the sonar screen put the pointer over a bait ball or good concentration of fish and have the GPS navigate back to it or mark a way point for that particular piece of bottom. This will also be very helpful in setting up on a wreck or piece of bottom, once I figure out how to do it. My initial testing was not successful.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T00:14:00.000-05:00

Just want to wish everyone a happy, healthy new year!

Last Trip of '07

2007-12-29T17:41:00.000-05:00

I headed down the Parkway to exit 98 for the last trip of '07-as I normally do as if I were off to go fishing. It was a very sad 45 minute drive...I knew there would be no fishing trip but just repair, maintenance and improvement work to be done on the boat.

The marina was quiet with only the few in-water storage boats left bobbing the chilly 41 degree waters. A small 13' tender did go past in the creek, not sure what he was thinking being out int hat cold water with a boat like that.

After talking to Tommy for a while and then helping Ryan setup his ice eater I decided I have to get some work done as much as I did not want to.

On the to do list today was a short list of small things but they all included removing the head liner which is a PIA. You have to take down the stereo, satellite radio, GPS and fishfinder prior to taking down the headline that is held up by the chart rack, and numerous strips of teak.

Once down I proceeded with running a new duplex wire to power the CO2 alarm, let out a length of coiled GPS sensor wire and installed and auxiliary speaker for the VHF to the starboard side of the helm seat. The proceeded to put the headliner, teak and electronics back up.

I still have to connect the CO2 alarm, fuse and circuit breaker together but the hard part is done running the wiring. Same with the VHF speaker.

It is too bad the rain let up early in the day. I had planned on working the entire day inside the pilothouse due to the morning rain. Otherwise I would have washed and polished the boat, it was in the mid 50's and quite pleasant all day.

Hopefully in the coming weeks the weather will be fair again after this cold front coming in the next few days and we will be able to get the raw water pickup and sea strainer installed.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T22:46:00.001-05:00

I hope Santa was good to everyone. He was good to me...although he did not bring a new 4 man offshore life raft he did bring a few new things for the boat. For starters he brought a Fluke mini infra-red thermometer. This will come in really handy in reading surface temps at any speed, especially with my transducer thermometers on the fritz.

I also got a new horn for the hailer and a macerator pump. It will be so nice to not have to climb halfway into the fish box to clean it out anymore. And also not have to remember to put the plug in so the blood, guts, scales and regurgitation does not end up in the bilge.

The 2008 tide and current table books were also under the tree, but not Eldridge this year...somehow left it off my list. I did get some money for Christmas so that will be one thing it is used for.

One of the stocking stuffers that I can't wait to try out is a new pair of gloves...they are supposed to be waterproof. We will see. I have tried probably two dozen so far that claim to be waterproof and are not. So far the best for warmth and being completely waterproof are the Kenai gloves from Glacier Glove. They are a little bulky and slight pain to take off and on when you need to tie knots. But you hands will never be cold and wet with them.

Merry Christmas!

If You Can't Fish Might as Well Look

2007-12-21T14:14:00.000-05:00

Since we are now on the hard and Will be doing repairs, maintenance and improvements till February if we can't fish or use the boat we might as well look. I will be heading up to the NY National Boat show. I have given up going due to the cost of going and the lack of boats, tackle and accessories. But this year I received two free tickets so I am going to make the trip.

It will actually be good to see some of the new sportfish type boats that should be on display this year. That and what I really want to do is spend some time picking the brains of the safety gears vendors. I am starting to do my research on purchasing a raft and what better time and place than when most of the major manufacturers and bigger vendors of them will be all in one place.

So far I have been fortunate enough to borrow a raft from friends when needed. But I would prefer to have one on the boat always and this year I am going to take that step. The first big decision I made was to go with a canister model that will get mounted on the pilothouse roof. This will serve two purposes. One it will free up precious space in the pilothouse and two it will allow for auto-deployment in the event of a sudden sinking or capsizing.

Lets be realistic, if the boat were to capsize, and in frigid water what would the likely hood of someone getting into the pilothouse to retrieve the raft, exit and deploy it. The canister style makes deployment much easier in more dire situations. I will just have to be careful with placement in preparation to add a radar unit.

For those still in the water, good luck, fish on and stay safe.

Winter Cleaning

2007-12-15T22:03:00.001-05:00

It was a sad day today...I removed all my gear from the boat. Cleaned the wheelhouse and the bilge. There is something to be said for a bilge area that you can eat off of. For one, you know right away if there is a leak of any kind as it is clearly visible. I am fortunate that my entire aft bilge area is gel coated. It makes for quick and easy cleaning.

I usually take the all the cushions from the dinette and v-berth out and shampoo them but I had no idea I had so much gear on the boat. Last year I was able to fit the gear and the cushions in the truck. This year I could barely fit all the gear, and I actually left a few things on the boat and in the dock box. I think I am going to have to trim that down for next year.

Now begins the task of going through all the gear checking it to make sure it is up to snuff and storing it till the spring...well March anyway. Restocking tackle, checking all the rods, breaking down each reel and servicing them. Lots of work to be done. It is worth the effort though, makes the season go smoothly with perfectly functioning gear.

Thanks Everyone for a Great Season!

2007-12-11T19:22:00.000-05:00

I just want to thank everyone we had out this year. It was a great season, we caught tons of fish , had a great time and made some memories. Out of the 50 plus trips only once did we return to the dock without catching a single fish and only three times without anything in the box!

Originally I was not planning on coming out of the water due to the weather but since my chronic running hot issue needs to be rectified we pulled her yesterday. She is winterized and on a trailer waiting for a high speed raw water pickup and sea strainer retrofit. I received all the parts yesterday and should be doing the install weather permitting next Tuesday. If all goes well, the weather stays mild and bass stick around we should be re-splashing her soon!

What really surprised me though was that my zincs were pretty well intact. None of the metals, (drive, trim tabs, through hulls, risers, manifolds, etc.) show any electrolysis either. Strange because the previous year I had to have them replaced mid season and I was in the water for less time. IN any event I will be replacing them regardless since we will be adding a substantial amount of bronze to the equation with the new through hull, sea cock, sea strainer and three 90 degree elbows.

Will Mate for Boarding Pass

2007-12-07T08:42:00.000-05:00

Arrrgggg.....being tied up and soon to be on the hard is killing me. With the fall run just getting into high gear and some of the best weather in the last two months I am out of commission. Hopefully someone in the marina is sailing on Sunday and I can jump aboard and get at least one more striper trip under my belt. I would like to get into some bigger fish before they are gone. This fall all we have seen basically is schoolies.

At the very least I should be running down to Indian River soon for a blackfish slaughter on the Bandit. They do well every year down there and the average fish for them is a trophy in Central NJ.

Chronic Overheating Problem

2007-12-04T09:14:00.000-05:00

We looked into the chronic overheating issue and so far have come up empty handed. Checked the heat exchanger-nothing clogging it. Checked the raw water impeller-in excellent condition, not burnt and not missing any vanes. Checked the raw water pump-excellent condition. Checked all the hoses-free and clear and fastened tightly. Checked the thermostat-operating fine.

The only other thing it could be is a clogged or broken intake on the outdrive. Since I have not hit anything since last haul out that I know if it being broken or cracked is not likely. There is a possibility it is clogged but then it would overheat all the time. Last Saturday the motor was running for over 4 hours before we had a problem.

Volvo-Penta had service bulletins on other drive models for chronic overheat problems in heavy load/use applications. For my drive however there are no such bulletins.

After speaking to several mechanics they suggest installing a similar kit to Volvo's sea water strainer kit for the DPX drive overheating issue. Basically it bypasses the raw water pickups in the drive using a high speed raw water pickup thru-hull and intake sea strainer like on an inboard engine. This has several advantages. It is higher in the water column and less susceptible to picking up mud and debris churned up by the wheels and also allows for a visual inspection of how much debris is being picked up and when it needs to be cleaned.

After running this idea by a Vovlo-Penta dealer they say it will should not help the situation and I should just continue to clean out the heat exchanger when needed and not boat in an area where there may be weeds and mud. Unfortunately I think that rules out pretty much everywhere boats are present. I know the past few weeks we have had very low water but I had overheat issues when the water was very high.

The whole thing is very frustrating. I wish there was a bad part somewhere. At least then spending money on a fix makes sense. In this situation it is all speculation that it will fix the problem but it is speculation by the area's best mechanics so I have to go by their word.

I will probably be hauled out later this week or early next week and begin repairs and upgrades on the cooling system. If the weather is still somewhat mild and some bigger bass show up I will go back in the water for a while.

Where are the Larger Bass?

2007-12-01T20:47:00.000-05:00

We broke the inlet about 6:30 and looked around. With no bird activity and no marks near the inlet we started to run South towards Seaside and IBSP. I had great reports from during the week from that area and with a spotty forecast we figured we would take the shorter run to the South over the longer run to the North.

We had constant bird activity all day but they were very temperamental. If anyone motored remotely close to them they would scatter. The smarter guys realized with the quick drift that you could stop 150-200 yards away and be on top of them in no time. We picked up a couple of shorts on the first couple of passes.

Once we learned that Eric had again brought a banana aboard and it was promptly offered to the fish gods we had a double hookup as soon as the offending fruit sank beyond view. It was pretty steady short action from there.

The birds broke up and there was scattered activity but did not seem worth chasing. At this point we decided to go on the troll. The wind had also shifted direction and was picking up a bit. We had fish on before we could get the second line in. A double header of shorts on a tube rig. We finally got both lines out and were heading inshore for a wind break and North towards home and the intermittent overheating issue decided to rear its ugly head.

After reeling in the lines, taking a beating in steep 4' seas drifting while looking into the issue she had cooled enough to test. Started her up pointed towards land and attempted to get up on top of the seas. Once up on plane the temp dropped to normal. We all decided to just pack it in and head for the barn.

Despite the mechanical troubles it was an enjoyable day on the water. We were greeted to flat calm seas early in the morning and once back above IBSP it was mainly just chop. My cousin had two personal bests with the short stripers-his largest bass to date and also the most caught in one trip. In the future we will be sure to frisk Eric to make sure he is not attempting to smuggle an offensive fruit on board.

I know the Cape May guys have twenty to forty pound bass stacked up down there. I have also heard reports that the CT and RI guys have big fish to the North. I wonder if we will see some bigger fish soon.

Sea\\Insure

2007-11-29T10:06:00.001-05:00

I just got off the phone with Sea\\Insure, Sea\\Tow's new insurance company. I know several guys that have recently switched to them due to lower premiums for either the same coverage or more coverage than their current policies. I am not sure if it is an aggressive marketing push to get new customers and then jack up the rates. Sea\\Insure claims it is not. The only thing I can think of is that they are not including towing insurance because you must be a Sea\\Tow member to bind insurance coverage. I guess they can cut the cost of the premium by not including towing insurance. In my case for slightly more coverage from Sea\\Insure they are $205 less a year than Traveler's. Unfortunately I don't know anyone that has submitted a claim with them yet. $205 can buy a lot of bait and some fuel that is for sure, and I will be switching to them as soon as I dig out the necessary paperwork to document the purchase price of the boat and electronics. Check them out guys you might be pleasantly surprised!

http://www.seainsure.com/

11/24 & 25 Stripers

2007-11-25T21:11:00.000-05:00

Saturday was a slaughter! I had fish all day, now the day was only about two and half hours of fishing but it was non stop action. I made quick stops at Shark River Inlet and the mussel beds of Monmouth Beach on my way up to the Rocks but there were only very small fish in both places.

Once at the rocks there were gannets diving everywhere! It was the mother load....and mostly bass. Most fish were 25-27", and in total I had about seventy fish with eighteen keepers. I kept three for the table and they were 10lb 9oz, 12lb 4oz and 12lb 10oz. And only five to seven bluefish, so few I did not bother to count.

I wish I could say Sunday was just as good but most likely due to the South winds and the full moon it was not. We headed to the same area and looked for marks and birds. The bait, fish and birds were scattered and it was difficult to stay on fish for any period of time. The water had also dropped three degrees since the day before. We had three bluefish and two short bass and that was it for the trip.

Later I heard that chartreuse shad rigs were producing on an East to West pull a little North of where we were. We gave it a shot but only had bluefish. There were also several boats that were attempting to pull North to South with the current and crossing everyone else that was going East to West and West to East making it very difficult to troll so we called it a day and headed towards home.

We did make a few more stops where we saw promising marks and birds, I had a couple of hookups but dropped the fish before getting them to the boat. Sunday was just not our day. And from the sound or the radio chatter and other reports I read later in the day it was an off day for most.

Another Successful Bass Trip

2007-11-18T10:42:00.000-05:00

I arrived at the boat at 5:15 AM and it was cold...33 degrees and no wind to speak of. All of the flags within view were totally limp. The water level was very low due to the strong west winds and the gunwale was about six inches below the dock...luckily there was enough water to float out of the slip. We had to cancel a few trips last year this time due to not enough water to get out of the slip. I started the engine and started loading the day's gear onto the boat. Soon the engine was warmed up and with the heat on the pilothouse started warming up to a nice and toasty 68 degrees.

After finishing storing gear and readying some items for the trip we were ready to shove off. Once the crew arrived we were underway.

We broke the inlet about 6:15 just before sunrise. There were birds starting to take flight in anticipation of an easy meal. The fish finder was all lit up and we started jigging up shorts and bluefish right away. As soon as the sun started to rise above the water's edge the birds started diving and screeching. And the fleet of boats soon showed up. As it started getting more crowded we started moving south chasing the fast moving schools of migrating fish.

We continued to see fish breaking the surface all over and the spray of fleeing peanut bunker from the ravenous bluefish. Moving from pod to pod of bait we just followed the marks and jigged most of the day. Eventually we ended up off Top of the Mast where we had our best bite of the day. On one drift we produced about a dozen short bass, one nice 31" keeper and only one bluefish. Continuing to work that area produced non-stop action of mostly short bass with a few bluefish mixed in. At one point I reeled up leaving five or ten feet of line out, leaving my jig in the water to net Anthony's fish and a follower just slammed the jig.

By the end of the day we ended up just North of the bathing beach. We must have reached that area just as the bite died off as we had little luck in that area. It also started to cloud up a little more and the temperature was starting to drop. Which seemed to signal the end of the bite for us. We continued to work our way North and worked several schools of bait and fish but did not have the action that we had earlier in the day when it was a few degrees warmer. This seemed strange to me since the water was still 53 degrees. Usually we see this type of action when it is later in the year and the air and water temps are much cooler.

I would have included a picture of myself holding my fish here but there was an unforseen camera malfunction...or user error. We are not clear on what really happened.

It was a great day on the water with very pleasant sea conditions despite NOAA's forecast (no surprise there) and the non-stop action only topped off the day. We ended the day with a total of two keeper bass-with 9 and 12 pound fish. We had several that were between 1/4 and 1/8 of an inch short and about two dozen or so fish that were 26 to 27.5 inches in length. Mixed in were probably near 40 to 50 bluefish.

Our First Game Fish Catch!

2007-11-10T15:24:00.001-05:00

We broke Manasquan Inlet at about 6:30 AM to birds working and fish breaking the surface. It was not long after dropping a jig to the bottom that I had my first fish on-a short striper. Then it occurred to me-just caught my first fish that has game fish status. We figured this is going to be a great day having striped bass to the boat right away. The more fish we hooked into the more blues we started to catch. Moving around with the birds and watching the sonar we were able to keep a steady pick going with bass mixed in with the blues.

Nino got his first bass of the season and almost his first keeper, there were a lot of fish 26-27" and a bunch that were less than 1/4" short. As always all short fish were returned to grow up and fight another day.

It was a busy day unhooking, measuring and releasing fish. Something nobody ever complains about even when it is hectic on deck with multiple fish flopping around and more waiting for the net.

When there was a lull in the action we decided to go on the troll, covering more ground and it paid off in short time. With one umbrella rig out rigged with tubes and one bunker spoon we soon had fish on. At first it was blues but then we homed in on where the bass were. Again we had many shorts but after switching to both rods running tube rigs we quickly started picking up some bigger fish.

The bluefish were just gorging themselves on sand eels that must have been carpeting the sea floor. I have never seen blues with their stomachs so extended. The bass were getting in on the feast as well as they too had full stomachs of sand eels. It is amazing how much they can fit in their stomachs...this is the contents of a smaller 4-5 pound bluefish.

At the end of the day everyone had sore arms and big smiles. We ended up keeping 9 blues but released dozens of fish. We also had about 15 stripers and kept two for the table. It was a beautiful fall day on the water with calm flat seas, good friends and plenty of fish.

I am Vegetarian, I Fish and I Vote

2007-11-06T14:32:00.001-05:00

There has been a lot of controversy about Panter and Karcher's bills A3275/S2041 and sportsmen and women the last few weeks. These politicians were elected with a margin of fewer than 75 votes yet NJ has millions of residents that hunt, trap and fish. Those of you who know me I am a strict vegetarian for many years and I fish at least once a week sometimes more. I used to hunt occasionally but have not in a few years. Panter and Karcher are seeking to end all hunting fishing and trapping in this state because they are also affiliated with powerful animal rights activist groups that fund their campaigns. If just half of the sportsmen and women of this state go out and vote today we can ensure and protect our right to provide food for our families as countless generations have from our lands, streams, rivers and oceans. Our ancestors fought for the right to vote, please exercise your right to vote and make a difference.

First Skunking of the Season

2007-11-04T14:37:00.000-05:00

I was thinking to myself as I was breaking the inlet that if I had made it this far though the season without being skunked that I may make it through the entire season. After thinking that I should have turned around and only gone for a boat ride. After about 45 or so trips I had the skunk on the boat.

I knew before leaving the dock that the water would probably still be very dirty from the blow that had just finished the night before. Most of the crew that I was trying to line up had reservations from the weather forecast and not the prospect of poor fishing conditions. As usually Buoyweather.com was right on with the forecast. They had predicted a four foot ground swell and I think most of the day inside the three mile line was more like 3 foot.

I ran down to the Seaside Piers are good clip (26 knots) and put out a chartreuse Secret Spoon due to water clarity. After 30 minutes of no action I switched to bunker blue and then white. I was surprised to get knockdowns on the white in dirty water. I also pulled a few different Stretch pugs that also did not produce.

There were a lot of big marks deep and along the bottom. I did not mark any bait to speak of, not like two weeks ago. There were also a lot of small to medium sized fish suspended in the water column between twelve and twenty five feet. I stopped a few times to jig both deep and mid water column to try and entice whatever was there to bit but with no avail.

I spoke to several guys and not much was doing outside on the troll. The guys I spoke to that stayed inside Barnegat Inlet and clammed were producing shorts and slot sized fish throughout the day when the tidal stage was right.

It was a beautiful day on the water, the boat ran great, and I did about fifty nautical miles round trip on twelve gallons of fuel and returned to port safe and sound. Can’t ask for much more out of a great fall day…well maybe full fish boxes!

Mobile Blogging

2007-10-31T20:31:00.000-04:00

I can now blog on the fly from my phone...anytime, anywhere. Can even attach photos!

Fluke Crisis

2007-10-31T09:17:00.000-04:00

A recent article in the APP brings to light the severe cutbacks we may face in 2009 through 2013. While summer flounder stocks are up in almost every recreational fisherman's mind NMFS says they are not. The 2007 season was one of our best in probably 10 years, with us boating over 500 keepers with about 85 to 90 percent of those over 19 inches. The recommendation was first made for 15.77 million pounds, down from 17.1 million pounds. This will most likely be cut back due to overages in the TAL for both recreational and commercial fisherman.

What NMFS fails to realize that while concentrating their management efforts on one species other species receive a lot more pressure from both recreational and commercial fisherman. This could lead to declining stocks in other species very quickly.

APP: Fishing czar sends a shot across the bow

APP: Commission urged to rethink summer flounder plan