Monday, August 28, 2017

More East Winds

It seems that we had more east wind this summer then usual. Now, a tropical system is forming offshore and it caused us to tie up for a few days. Too bad, as fishing remains good and I was looking forward to seeing the crew from the West Milford Elks. Happy birthday Charlie. Yesterday on the fishing grounds, the current ran up against the wind. While this made for fair fishing conditions (you could tend bottom with 8ozs.) it caused an uncomfortable short and steep chop. We rolled all morning until the current eased. A boat limit of sea bass and some nice fluke for the guys that worked gulp. Roger had four nice keepers, the biggest just short of six pounds. Let's hope the bite holds up for this Saturdays big trip.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Who Wants to Go Fishing?

The "Barker" fished with Joey today and was excited to tell me he had four keeper fluke and two jumbo sea bass. His big fluke weighed in at 7lbs.10oz. and did not even win the pool. I have a few spots available on the Skylarker this Sunday 8/27,and the Labor Day weekend trip is sold out. Two weeks left, let's go get 'em!

Monday, August 21, 2017

Big News

I just had three spots open up for this Sunday 8/27. Send me an email, text, telephone, telegraph or blink your headlights twice if you would like to go. Only two weeks left in fluke season and Uncle Paulie had an 8lber. yesterday.

Summer Daze

The beat goes on. Most days we have a boat limit of seabass, some nice big ones too. Other days the fluke bite. It seems a whole bunch of little fluke moved into the river as we can watch anglers catching them on our way in and out. There have been sharks around all summer, and recently we had some dogfish-sized black tips grab the fluke baits and I had to stop the unsuspecting anglers from whipping them in the boat, saving a trip to the emergency room. Pretty good fishing and only a couple weeks left to do it.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Busy Weekend

Ocean fluke fishing is different then the fluking we are use to in the bay. We used to follow the tide around the harbor and found fluke in many different places. The offshore fluke fishing is dependent on the wind direction, as some day the sea bass bite and on others it's an all out fluke bite. Gulp has been the key to landing keepers as it does not attract the trash fish. I swear some people enjoy hauling in pin bass and skates all day! Good flukers will catch, as Uncle Paulie did on Saturday, boxing four nice fish to 6.5lbs , while the other 23 anglers aboard did not have any. NW wind on Sunday made the fluke bite, and yesterday we had fish up to 7lbs. along with the boat limit of sea bass. Next open trip is 9/2, filling up fast.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Cool Stuff at the Beach

Woke up early (4:30) and headed for the beach. Along the roadway was an endless line of bunny rabbits and a lone red fox that looked like it was looking for a hand out. The tide was low and the water had a dingy look with some eel grass and not much was biting. No pelicans were seen as they had been common the past few weeks. Osprey were diving just off the bar and a stray shearwater flew down the surfline, actually bumping my line on it's way down the beach. This was a rare sighting as these birds are usually way offshore. They are the ones that eat your tuna bait in the canyon. The snapper blues started to bite as the tide came in and the water cleared. The surf was steep and breaking despite the fact there was no wind and the ocean was flat calm, probably due to the full moon. I hooked a fish that was bigger then the snappers and gave a good fight running down the beach. I thought it was the first decent kingfish and was surprised to see a banded rudderfish about twelve inches. These fish are often mistaken for amberjack, as they look the same when they get to be two pounds or better. Sometimes we call them "buoy jacks." We left them biting and returned home when the sun got high.

Monday, August 7, 2017

A Very Nice Day Fluke Fishing

We headed out Sunday morning with a good group of fluke anglers, and made our way to where the fleet was gathered. The weather was crisp and cool, with a moderate NW breeze and the fishing stunk. Slowly we snuck away from the fleet and headed to the area we were fishing during the week, and when we arrived, the wind backed off and it was game on. Everyone aboard landed fluke  and we ended with limits around the boat. The team of Jeff Sr. and Jr. did exceptionally well jigging in the bow and had limits plus of both fluke and sea bass and took the pool with a 6.5lber. Special guest star Capt. Michael (aka "the plug") landed a limit on a rod borrowed from Skip. Roger, Anthony "The Barker" and "Candy Bar" Mike, jigged a bunch of "lemons" and everyone went home with a few fluke in the bag. All the good fish were caught on gulp. Looking to do it again Saturday, September 2, the last weekend of the fluke season.

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Good Fluke Fishing

Capt Steve had a light group of old timers yesterday, so Evelyn and I grabbed our rods and jumped on for a day of fluke fishing. The morning bite was good and it slowed when the south wind picked up. Evelyn had four keepers and I landed three. Looking good for Sundays trip as it seems the fluke are biting everywhere.