Saturday, October 27, 2018

Fluke and Flounder

Started off the week looking for fluke again and only found a few as Sunday's strong NW wind seemed to blow all of the baitfish out of the bay. The relentless wind also caused us to cancel another off shore sea bass trip, but we heard of some flounder caught, so we took a ride to check it out. Only 33 degrees when we arrived Thursday morning and I thought we were making a mistake as we were alone on the pier under a full moon. Evelyn hooked up with a nice big flounder right away and it was game on, and we left with our limit as the pier began to fill with anglers. Friday we started out early again, and it took a while to get them going and the pier was getting crowded. Mark and JR met us there and we all took our limits out of a bunch landed and then the boys went to try for blackfish. Mark landed a keeper right away, and they were still getting bites as we headed home early for a nice fish dinner. We will see how things shape up this week as the strong nor'easter is moving away quickly and the seas just offshore are running 18 feet.

Saturday, October 20, 2018

Good Fluke Fishing

Now, that's a headline you don't expect to see in the middle of October. There was frost on the truck when we left for the beach and the thermometer dipped to 31 degrees in the pine barrens. At the beach it was warmer and there was no wind. Lots of bait and some small blues were jumping as we walked out to the spot and it was game on until the tide went slack. Tiny bucktails with gulp on light tackle and we had constant bites from 13 to 15 inch fluke until the tide went slack. A try for blackfish saw a few 13 inchers and some dink sea bass. After lunch, we took the long way home, through the woods, to check out the cranberry farms. Lots of fun exploring on a perfect fall day. By the way, some of the guys are doing well with the blackfish from the inlets and the canal. I even hear the stripers are biting on the "Pioneer Banks."

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Changing Seasons

Today we were scheduled for a bluefish trip, but once again had to cancel due to gale warnings. I was looking forward to going as we would have had a chance to hook a bluefin tuna. Instead, the Crab Lady and I packed up our traps and poles and set up on a local pier. After an hour of being pummeled by the NW wind, we landed fifty blowfish and one crab and retreated to spot number two. Many crabs were caught but all were short except for three. Grilled blowfish tails on the menu. The local fish market has them for $10/pound.

Monday, October 15, 2018

What a Day

We headed out in the dark Sunday morning and steamed toward the beautiful sunrise on a flat calm ocean. A big crew was aboard from the Schuyler Ave. fishing club. There were boats everywhere, like it was the last day of summer. When we arrived on the fishing grounds, there were about 40 boats and over 70 when we left for home, like an in-water boat show! Even the old "Pioneer III" came by, looking for fish. It was one drop, one stop hauling all day. Some sea bass, a few blues, and all the biggest kind of porgies you could handle. Not those little inshore models, but the biggest kind, 16 to 18 inch jumbos. A porgy beat a jumbo sea bass for the pool! Two of us cutting all the way back to the dock and full bags.

Friday, October 12, 2018

Fishing Report

When there is not a hurricane or a gale, there are plenty of seabass and porgies 15 to 20 miles out. The bluefin tuna are also there.

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Baseball

The Yankees lost to a better Red Sox team and in the good old days, the manager would have been fired. In this day and age of computer geek, video game, fantasy baseball it is not his fault, as he only answers the phone and the front office tells him what to do. Don't feel bad, but they accomplished what they set out to do, hitting more home runs then any team ever in history. This season was the first time since baseball started that there were more strike outs then hits recorded over the season. Now we have to watch the world series and all the metric wizards and number crunchers will try to tell me what I am seeing with my eyes is all wrong. Oh well, in six months we will have opening day and I will be leading the "Booooone" cheer when the puppet takes the field. Hmmm, that must be what he thinks the fans are saying.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Nice Days Ahead

Well now that hurricane September has passed, the weather has turned delightful. Yesterday we hit the beach armed with lite tackle and small bucktails and had a fish about every three casts. Most were snapper blues, but I landed eleven fluke and Evelyn had one that was keeper sized if the season was open. Today we went in search of crabs and took along fishing poles and it was a good thing we did. We did not find as much as a single crab, but caught a mess of blowfish along with kingfish, spot and snapper blues. Lot's of life around and it should only get better.