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October 6, 2009
This trip was epic. It doesn’t get any better. The type of
trip everyone dreams of…
On Tuesday
morning Rich, Rudy, my brother Max, and myself set off on a
bluefin trip. As far as I know, we were the only Jersey
boat that had some very good intel on a stellar bluefin bite
going on 68 miles to the east. The Long Island boats were
keeping this very quite. As we headed to the grounds which
were basically 11 nautical miles NNE of the Bacardi, the
anxiety level was high.
Well one
piece of the puzzle was coming together, as the radar was
showing numerous targets 12 miles from us we knew we had
found the commercial draggers. It was in this area that the
fish had piled up. I figured we would be one of only a few
sport boats that would be in this spot today. Well, ok, it
ended up that we were the only Jersey boat there, however a
small fleet of about a dozen boats did materialize.
The first
hour of following draggers and looking for fish were very
slow and I began to wonder if we were a few days too late.
One of the Long Island boats reported that he had found
some fish a few miles to the north, so we made the move. As
we began to pull back on the throttles, to my enjoyment, the
fish finder was showing good marks 100 ft. down. I yelled
down to start throwing bait, and before I had the motors off
the fish were stacked under the boat.
I figured
the first line down - we would be on, but it didn’t
happen until the third line was set. As I turned to check
the lines set behind the boat I noticed one of the red
balloons had just gone under. Before Rudy got to the rod
the line was already screaming off the reel. Fish on.
Before you knew it we had two on. The first fish was about
fifty pounds and we put that one on ice, the next one was of
the same size and was released. For the next 3 hours we
fought fish after fish and had them visually behind the
boat. Then with a blink of an eye they were gone.
So with the
fish gone I figured we would go back up where we had started
our drift and try to get back on them. The other boats had
lost them as well. After 10 minutes of looking around, I
marked one and then two maybe three, and had the crew start
throwing bait. After staring at the finder for 15 minutes,
6 fish came on the screen at once and were streaking up into
the chunks. Here we go again - round 2. Well, as tired as
we all were, things were about to get even worse - but in a
good way. The first fish smoked a good amount of line off
and took much longer to get to the boat. When we finally
saw this one it was over 100 lbs. The gaffs came out and we
had our fish over 47 inches. Every fish that we then fought
were all 100 to 150 lbs.
The choice
bait were the peanut bunker that Max had netted the day
prior. We were throwing these whole, along with whole
butters and sardines. The peanuts have a tendency to float
due to an air pocket inside. Well, the ones that drifted
back up to the surface in the slick were getting demolished
by these large bluefins and made for quite a show. We were
watching surface action along with seeing them eating baits
in the slick. We finally put out a bent butt 80 hoping for
an even larger fish. Rudy put out a fresh ling which we had
netted behind the draggers earlier in the day. It got
hammered and we fought that fish for a good five minutes
before the line parted. It was definitely a bigger fish,
only knowing this by the amount of drag we put on it. Oh
well. We also lost a larger fish on one of the stand ups.
The guys fought this one for at least forty minutes before
having another line cut that one off. We must have had the
entire school around our boat because the Long Island guys
were trying to reach us on the radio, and then they were
moving in very close to us and our slick. Even with these
guys 75 ft away and in our slick, they still couldn’t get a
bite. This just shows you that a single boat can hold an
entire school for certain reasons. I’m just glad it was
us. As we were still fighting two more, the last piece of
bait was being thrown over and I signaled to the two boats
next to us to come get right behind us.
As we pulled
away one boat was already tight. What an awesome day, along
with some very sore exhausted bodies. We will have some
video of the trip to view... so stay tuned.
October 1, 2009
The water that was in the Hudson had slid on down the edge
and was now in the Toms Canyon. This is the same water we
had fished up in about a week ago. We had a good forecast
so we shoved off and made the 86 mile run. The forecast was
for the wind to lay down and become light and variable. The
entire ride out I kept waiting for the wind to subside - but
no such luck. Actually as the sun set it came on even
harder and didn’t stop till around 4:30 am.
It’s always
great when you tell people coming on the boat that its
suppose to be a beautiful calm night. Well Rich told that
to his good friend Scott, who has been out with us a bunch
of times, and was glad to hear the news. Well let’s just
say that we’ll leave it at that, and get to the report.
Fishing was
great and thank god, there’s nothing worse than getting the
@#!* beat out of you all night and not catching. Actually
we set our sword lines out first and as Rudy had just got
the rod set the tip starts bouncing and the balloon is
dobbing. So he cranks on em a few times and gets the line
taught, Rich jumps on and gets the fish up near the boat and
we see now that it is a small sword. As I grabbed the
leader the hook pulled out and away goes an estimated sixty
pound sword. More than likely we would’ve released a sword
of that size.
With the
sword baits back out it was time to catch some yellowfins,
and there were plenty down there. The finder was once again
showing lots of fish under the boat. Wasn’t long before
Rich was tight with the jigs once again, and this would be
the way the rest of the night went. We would put a jig out
on the outrigger and with the boat rocking you could just
stand there and wait for the hit. The fishing was fantastic
with one after the other. Scott did make an appearance
battling through the harsh environment and boating some
yellowfin. Way to go Scott…..
Well, we
kept our limit of twelve fish with the biggest going thirty
five pounds and releasing many, many, fish. Watched a
beautiful sunrise over a glassy slick calm ocean. If
someone had told you 5 hours ago it was 5 to 7 foot out
here, you wouldn’t have believed them. Once again left em
biting and had a very pleasant ride home.
September
23, 2009
Wednesday morning
Rich stopped down at the boat just to see what was going on
and I informed him there was a good bite last night in the
Hudson. Most of the fish were small, but a lot of them, with
a bigger one here and there, and along with some good
swordfish catches. I also told him that tonight is your
only weather window to get out. Well the next thing you
know we are fueling and loading the boat with bait and food
and leaving for the canyon in a matter of hours. Rich was
able to find his good friend Chuck to hop onboard and join
us for the trip.
We arrived
at the 100 square just at sunset and found seven other boats
already set up on the prime ground. We found a spot just
north of them and got to work. In a few minutes we had
squid in next to the boat and after a couple swipes with the
net we had some nice live bait. After a few hours we had
some tuna under the boat and Rich dropped the jig down and
was tight. Chuck got in on the action as well. The tuna
were small just like the reports we had heard. They
averaged twenty pounds and we caught a lot of them only
keeping six. We also had a sword on for a few minutes
before pulling the hook.
The fish
stayed under the boat all night coming through in waves and
at times were busting on bait at the surface. Out of all
the fish we caught only two were hooked on bait, the rest
were all on the jigs. At first light we left em biting and
headed for home.
September 20, 2009
On Sunday we made a trip back out to the Princess, hoping
for another banner trip with the bluefins. Along on the
trip was Rich and my brother Max. Arriving on the grounds
at first light we looked around for some life. After
searching for thirty minutes we found the whales and bait
almost three miles from the fleet.
So we set up
on the drift and began throwing bait in the water ( chunking
)… Wasn’t long before we were marking fish on the finder
and Rich dropped a butterfly jig down. Within a few minutes
Rich was tight with a bluefin. A nice thirty- five pounder
was put onboard. The next couple of fish to hit the deck
unfortunately were bluefish, not what we had in mind. Well
we stuck to jigging and after losing quite a few jigs to
bluefish, we were rewarded. Max had a fish that was taking
some nice drag and we knew this was no bluefish. After a
ten minute battle on light tackle this tuna was boated and
released. The remainder of the day were all bluefish and we
pulled the plug a little early, which is almost never heard
of on THE BIG BOY!
For those of
you who don’t know, the size limit and bag limit on bluefin
are as follows: one fish per boat between 27 inches and 47
inches, another fish may also be retained if it is over 47
inches and less than 73 inches. Often you will hear people
refer to their catch as having their over and under.
Also the
picture of the fish finder. Those are all bluefish, not
tuna…..
September 9, 2009
We finally got out
for some of the great action they have been having with the
bluefin tuna. These fish are sitting about 45 miles
from the inlet and range in size from 40lbs, all the way
into the 200lb bracket. Average fish are between 40 to
70lbs.
We started trolling
inshore around the Monster Ledge area, and then found
ourselves slowly heading east. We had planned on
fishing close to home, due to some time restrictions,
however, I relayed the reports I was hearing on the radio
down to Rich, and before you knew it, we were running 20
miles to the east. Typically, the bite is over by 10am
out there, but today sounded very different as it was now
almost 130pm, and it was still good.
Pulling up in
the area, and looking through the binoculars, you could see
tuna chicks by the hundreds going crazy, and some bent rods
on a few boats. As we pulled into the birds, the
fishfinder lit up with readings. Rudy and I quickly
dropped jigs down and were hooked up instantly. Rich
took one rod, and I handed mine to Dave. Unfortunately
Dave broke his off, however Rich made short work on his 55lb
bluefin.
We started throwing
bait in the water and had a great show behind the boat.
As the sardines hit the water skipjack, false albacore, and
bluefin tuna were boiling the surface fighting over every
piece. At one point we couldn't get a bait or jig down
to the bluefins, which were now holding 30 to 50 feet down.
We also witnessed a finback whale swim under the boat
repeatedly. You could have reached down and touched
him, he was that close. Also, saw schools of rays.
These schools had hundreds of rays in them, and at one point
they were so close to the surface the tips of their wings
were coming out of the surface. This was like watching
Blue Planet - yet we were in it.
Rich's 11 year old
nephew, Evan, was also out with us and he had his hands full
fighting all three species of tuna. On about the third
release yours truly put a butterfly jig hook into his hand.
Yeah, ouch, but there were fish to be caught. It
wasn't that serious and would later get it taken out in the
E.R. Rudy cut the hook from the jig, and wrapped the
hook off to the side of my hand so it wouldn't get snagged
on anything. OK, great, now back to the awesome bite
we had going. I lost count on how many fish we lost, I
think it was up near 10 or so. Released about half a
dozen and soon had to think about heading 52 miles back to
port, dreading those wonderful needles waiting for me...
September 4, 2009
We had the Gerry
McCarthy charter out for a fluke and seabass trip. We
hit two of my favorite spots and one of them produced some
fish. The tide was ripping in the morning, along with
a stiff wind out of the north, which made for difficult
fishing. Anyway, we had fluke up to 5lbs and seabass
up to 3lbs. The wind finally laid down and it turned
out to be a beautiful day.
August 28, 2009
Hoffman's was
hosting the Tuna Stakes Invitational Tournament which was
running from the 23rd to the 28th. The rules for this
tournament state that you cannot leave the dock before 5am
on the day that you chose to fish, and you must return the
following day by 3pm for weigh-ins. So, you basically
were trolling, chunking during the night, and then trolling
in the morning before lines out. Eligible species were
bigeye, yellowfin, bluefin, longfin, swordfish, and mako.
We left the dock
Thursday with Rich, Chuck, Ben, and Pete. Our
destination just north of the Toms canyon. After a
pretty nice ride out, it was time to get down to fishing...
Spoke to a couple of other boats in the area and all that
they had to report were very small yellowfins. After
only about an hour, as we were headed north up the edge, I
finally had some marks on the finder. Sure enough, the
fish came up and attacked the spread. We went 3 for 5
on yellowfins from 55lbs to 67lbs. After that, we
pounded the area without a touch. Only one other boat
was able to hook a few at nearly the same time we did, and
the fishing went dead for them as well.
Started trolling
south looking for a spot to spend the night, then there was
this noise of a reel screaming line off - music to my ears.
This fish wasn't acting like a tuna, and I had a good
feeling it was a marlin, just what kind, I didn't know yet.
He finally showed himself leaping out of the water, and
putting a show on for us all. After the guys took
turns fighting the blue marlin, Rudy had the leader in had
for a release at bat side. The fish looked to be about
250lbs.
Action during the
night was dead. Besides a couple of sharks, one a
hammerhead, and the other a small tiger that we released,
there just wasn't anything going on until about 4:30am.
The skipjack and small yellowfin tuna came into the slick.
It was fund watching them eat, of course we caught a bunch
of bait and jigs, but nothing big enough to keep. Then
on the troll we saw plenty of porpoise and a few whales.
We stayed with them, hoping for a bite from the yellowfin.
Often, yellowfin can be found mixed in with the porpoise, or
just behind them; unfortunately this wasn't the case.
It was now 10am, and time for lines out and to head for
port.
Well, we didn't win
any money, but we did come close to taking heaviest tuna for
the day, We missed it by 5lbs or so. Enjoy the
pics.
August 7, 2009
Leaving the dock
somewhere around 11pm Friday night, we were headed east.
Destination, the Hudson Canyon. The bigeye bite was
still going and Rich was finally back from Florida, so a day
troll was in order. Onboard we had Rich, his brother
Mike, and my brother Max.
This was Mikes
first trip offshore to the blue water, and it will be one he
never forgets. We arrived on the west wall around 4am,
and was hoping to find some action there, away from the
enormous fleet on the 100 square. Well, there wasn't
much going on there so we picked up and ran over to the 100
square on the east wall. One of our good friends Cliff
was fishing there and called to tell me he had three on.
Rudy and Max quickly go the spread out as I dodged in and
out of nearly 80 other boats, all fishing the same spot.
I couldn't take the
traffic any longer, and moved off to the north by a mile,
hoping to improve our chances of some fish. Well, it
paid off, and it wasn't long before we started marking fish
on the finder. Went over a pile of fish and yelled
down to the crew to watch the lines, and just like that, we
had multiple hits on all eight rods. We boated two
nice yellowfins out of the attack. Back on the troll,
we went over another group of fish - I watched them on the
finder for thirty seconds before they decided to come pay us
a visit. This time we went 3 for 5 on yellowfins.
The fish were 55-75lbs. These may be some of the only
yellowfins of this size to be caught in quite some time.
Well, we didn't get
any eyeballs, but I'll take yellowfins like this all day.
It was a great day, along with good family on board.
July 22, 2009
Went out for a day
of fluke fishing with Rich, his brother Mike, and his son
Josh. Fishing was slow, but we did manage to put a
catch together. I believe Josh was high hook for the
day, and had the pool winning fish of 4lbs.
July 14, 2009
Had
the Dave C. charter out for a day of fluke fishing.
Conditions in the am where a bit sloppy, as we started out
on the Sea Girt Reef. Before making a run up north we had
numerous throwbacks and one keeper there. Tried a few more
spots along the way up north with just shorts. Fished the
snake for the remainder of the day putting five more keepers
in the box along with some nice sea bass. Was surprised to
see so many throwbacks out in the deeper water.
July 12, 2009
Had Rich and Laurie out for some fluke and sea bass.
Fluking was a bit slow but the sea bass were snapping. Rich
had a sea bass that was three and a half pounds, as well as
being high hook of the day. Nice work.
July 9, 2009
Made
a trip out to the Sea Girt Reef for some sea bass action.
Rich and his friend Ben were onboard. Action was somewhat
steady, the ocean was a little sloppy making conditions a
little more difficult to fish in. We tried a few different
spots and put a catch together before heading in.
July 5, 2009
We left
the dock at midnight and made our way offshore for our first
canyon trip of the year. Hudson Canyon was our final
destination. Onboard we had Rich, Ross, Keith Sr., Keith
Jr., Max, Rudy and myself. The reports had been just ok,
with a lot of small non legal yellowfin being caught with an
occasional keeper here and there.
Getting
on the grounds before sun up, I stopped just short of my
original spot, after seeing what I like to call “ fishy
water”. Well, it paid off big. As Rudy was setting the
third line of nine, I quickly yelled down to him “ watch
your hands” because I was marking a lot of tuna on the fish
finder. In an instant two of the lines got exploded on, and
the third got tried multiple times but couldn’t get the hook
in.
There was no wondering what kind of tunas these were -
Bigeyes, and they were smoking some line. Once we got Rich
and Keith set up, the battle was on. The first fish to come
to gaff was a 126 pounder, and the second, well lets just
say it was going to be large. After an hour and forty
minute battle the harpoon finalized our catch. After a
great dart shot we dragged the 222 lb. bigeye through the
door and high five’s were flying throughout the cockpit.
Back
on the troll we released a couple small yellowfins and some
skipjacks, and then headed back around 2pm. Great way to
kick off the season.
July 2, 2009
Had the
Jim Burke charter out for a bass and fluke trip. Once again
the bass fishing was just about dead. Think I saw one
fish get caught out of forty some boats. So off to the
fluke grounds we went. The fishing was ok, we put a catch
together with the heaviest fluke going 6.2 pounds. We also
had a mix of sea bass.
June 30, 2009
Had
the Gerard charter out for a combo trip of bass and
fluke. Well the bass didn’t cooperate in the am, so we
changed over to fluking. We were able to put a catch
together with the fluke and some sea bass. On the way in, we
once again stopped and tried like hell to put a bass in the
boat, but unfortunately we couldn’t capitalize. The bass
fishing has been hit or miss with the action being very
early am or late evening.
June 26 - 28, 2009
Rich and a couple of his
friends joined us on Friday for the 1st day of the Jersey
Coast Shark Tournament. We had plenty of action with the
blue sharks, but no makos. On Saturday the story was the
same - only a few blue sharks. Sunday on the other hand was
a bit different. Found some great water down to the south,
and put on the drift all alone on the 25 fathom line. As
time was wearing down, we finally had our first bite of the
day. Yes it was a mako.
After a short battle we released the mako which looked to be
about 100 pounds. Didn’t take long before we had our next
bite - once again another mako. This one was a little
bigger and the decision was made to keep it. Well time had
run out and by the looks of this shark it wasn’t going to
place in the tournament. So we put the lines back out to
see if we could release a few more.
As
luck would have it we did get two more shots, pulling the
hook on a mako, and getting another to bite. Our mako we
kept weighed in at 122 pounds. At least the weather was
kind to us this year.
June 23, 2009
Had
Cliff, Jack, Larry, and Rich on the boat for some bottom
fishing. Fishing was ok, we caught fluke, sea bass, and a
couple of bluefish.
June
20, 2009
Back at
it the next morning and we left the dock at 5am this
time. Didn’t want to hear that we missed the bite
again. Even at 5am there was a parade of boats heading
out the inlet. I made a decision to fish south of the
inlet today knowing that it would be a mad house north,
hoping to increase our odds. Bait was no problem to
get, as one throw filled us up for the day. We fished
multiple pods all down the beach, as far as Casino Pier
in Seaside. So much for getting up early from what I
saw and heard nobody did much of anything. Think I may
be going bald, from pulling my hair out in frustration.
Oh well…..
We made
up the day by having some great fun with the sea bass
out on the Axel Carlson Reef.
June 19,
2009
Got a call
from Rich in the morning and said he’d like to go fishing,
so off we went. Doug was onboard for the trip as well. Two
throws with the net and we were loaded up and began fishing
the pods just north of the inlet. Heard the bite was real
good early, too bad we got such a late start however we did
get a few chances - 3 to be exact and we blew every one of
them. Wow wish I knew when this bad luck of ours would end.
June 16,
2009
Rich had his
friend Peter G out for a day of bass fishing, we were hoping
to get Peter on his first striped bass . Well it took a
little while but the spoons paid off and Peter had his first
striper. On the troll we dropped a couple fish and just
before pulling the plug on a very slow day of bassin', the
fish finder lit up. We quickly deployed some live bunkers
down. Within seconds we had a hook up, followed by two
pulled hooks. Did another two drifts only to pull some more
hooks, ouch …..The two bass we did manage to land were in
the mid to upper twenty pound class.
June 13, 2009
Fished
Sat. morning with Rich and Laurie. The bait was
thick just out in front of the inlet, and with one
throw we had close to 100 baits. The net was so
full Rudy and I had to pull it through the tuna
door. We kept only forty baits and let the rest
go. Decided to head north to look for the bass,
radio was very quite as usual for a weekend. The
fish just don’t bite well at all do to all the boat
traffic on weekends. So we went out in the deep
where the boat traffic is usually much less and
looked around. Dropped on some marks and were able
to catch one bass. Tried to get back on them but
was able to locate, so we went on the troll.
On the
troll we did mark some good pods of bass but once
again the fish had lock jaw. On the troll for hours
with two bites and then finally landing a bass.
Rudy noticed some white water just inshore of us, so
we quickly reeled in the lines and steamed over
there. Of course as we pulled up to the area the
bass had gone down, so we made a few drifts in the
area. Plenty of bunker pods but couldn’t locate the
bass, and time was up for this crew as we had to
make our way home. The two fish were 16lbs and 25
lbs.
June 11, 2009
Got
Rich, Pete, and Doug out for a late afternoon bass
trip. Lately there has been a decent bass bite that
develops around six ‘clock and last into the dark,
so we figured we would give it a shot. We left the
dock around two o’clock, the seas were a little
sloppy, and there was fog as well. It didn’t take
long to get bait, so we slowly made our way up north
searching for any signs of bass. The fog made it
very hard to see anything at all, so my eyes were
glued in the radar and fish finder.
We went
on the troll up in Asbury and covered the grounds
there on up to Elberon only marking bait and not
much signs of any bass. By six we were down to less
than an eighth of a mile visibility making things
even more difficult. At around seven we were
heading home very slowly still looking for the bass
and as we passed Asbury for the second time we
marked the bass on the fish finder. I quickly
stopped the boat and had Rudy drop some baits down,
Rich and the guys were quick to jump in, as I was
yelling down that the entire screen on the
fishfinder was showing bass throughout the entire
water column.
Within
just a few minutes we had a bait on top get hit and
at the same time Rich was getting a bite. Well Rich
got tight and for the one we had on top for some
reason just didn’t want to eat and disappeared.
After a really good fight we landed Richs’ fish
which tipped the scales to 28 lbs. For some strange
reason we didn’t and couldn’t get another bite. We
should’ve had four fish on since we had four live
baits in the water, I’m pretty sure we stumbled
across the tail end of their feed. We made a few
more drops on them and they just didn’t want to
eat. It was now dark and the we were down to zero
visibility with the fog, so we made our way back to
port.
June
6, 2009
With another long day ahead of us we left the docks
even earlier, 3am. Wanted to be the first ones up there
to find bait and hopefully scout the area for fish.
Once again we got bait with no problems as gray light
was upon us and wouldn’t be long before lines in. The
entire area was beginning to fill up like a parking lot
for the superbowl. What a joke, I knew this would hurt
the fishing and it most certainly did.
This had to be one of the worst days of fishing I’ve
seen this year. We were able to muster up one fish that
went 28 lbs., one hit trolling spoons, and a pulled hook
on a nice fish while livelining. We pounded and area
where there were some very large bass scattered about.
They just didn’t want to bite and I'm certain a lot of
it has to do with the full moon. I'm positive in a few
days the bass fishing will be insane.
After fourteen hours on the water just on Sun.
alone mind you, all our hard work and effort for the day
didn’t get us far. However we did manage to finish 3rd
in the Brielle Commerce Family Day Tournament, and a
fourth place finish in the Hi Mar. This tournament has
always been good to us as we have placed in the top five
multiple times. The MRTC Tournament we did not weigh our
fish in since we knew there was a larger fish already
weighed in. Hey overall we did great and had a good
time.
June 5, 2009
Rudy and I spent Friday preparing for the 3
striped bass tournaments we would be fishing in this
weekend, along with Rich. The Hi Mar which runs out
of Highlands, The Brielle Commerce Family
Tournament, and The Manasquan River Tuna Club
Tournament - this is a club that we belong to that
holds many different tournaments throughout the
year.
We had an early departure on Saturday at 4am.
You could have lines in at 5am and commence
fishing. Well the early departure worked in our
favor as we headed up the coast north bound looking
for bunker. Came across the bunkers just off Asbury
in the gray light and loaded up the livewells in no
time. There were some fish in on the bait and some
good marks on the fishfinder so we dropped some
baits down. Wasn’t long before Rich had the first
bass of the day on for a short period before the
hook pulled. Rudy was next and he had a good fish
on. I got tight also, only to snap my line and put
me out of service. That’s ok because Rich was now
on another fish and I was getting ready to net Rudys’
fish. What a beauty this fish was tipping the
scales at 35.8 lbs. Followed by Richs’ fish that
went 28 lbs. What a great start to the day.
Throughout the remainder of the day only one
other bass was caught and released aboard The Little
BIG BOY ("TLBB") - this fish was lighter than Richs’
and didn’t help us in either of the 2 tournaments we
were fishing that day. The Hi Mar is a combined
weight of your two heaviest fish, and the other two
tournaments is single heaviest fish. With time
running out we made the long run up to Highlands for
weigh in. This was going to be a quick stop since
we had to make it back to Hoffmans in Brielle to
make that weigh in as well.
Got a call from a friend who was at the Hi Mar
with the final results. Team Big Boy finished with
a combined weight of 63.8 lbs, finishing the day in
fourth. Just five pound separated us from first
place. Back in Brielle at Hoffmans our fish was
holding 2nd place in this three day
tournament.
May 31, 2009
We were back at it on Sunday with Rich, Laurie, Ben, and
Lucia. We went just south of the inlet to try and catch
some bunkers. After a few throws with the cast net we
had plenty of live bait for the rest of the day. Now we
just had to find some fish. The boats fishing the
bunker pods weren’t doing anything and the radio was
full of poor fishing reports. So we slowly headed north
looking for some action. Headed out to one of our
favorite spots that we hadn’t given much effort yet this
year, and Marc from our marina happened to be in the
same spot. He informed me that we had just missed the
bite and things had slowed up.
With some marks on the fish finder we went on the
drift and hoped for the best. Wasn’t long before our
first bite. Quick to find out they were bluefish,
however Ben did manage to catch our only bass of the
day, after a long fought battle. With the fishing being
poor and the tide not in our favor we called it a
somewhat early day. Great company and good weather
beats a bad day of fishing anytime.
MAY 28, 2009
Got out on Thursday for another go at the bass. Rich
was onboard along with Chuck and Bill. We fished just
north of the Manasquan Inlet and just south of it as
well. Both areas produced some nice bass. Fishing was
tough today but we did manage a total of five bass from
20lbs. up to 26lbs. We did have quite a few bites but
couldn’t manage to keep them on.
MAY 21, 2009
Rich had to get in on some more hot bass action before
going away for the weekend. So he got a bunch of his
friends together - Davie B, Donald, and Matt. Hoping
for another great day, things on the vhf radio didn’t
sound all that great. The water temp. had dropped some
five degrees from our previous trip and nobody was
catching a thing. Got a report from Rudy, he was
fishing up to the north on another boat for the day and
said the fishing was by far terrible.
With
that I figured we would look south and hope for the
best. The bait wasn’t bothered by the cold water, as it
was stretched from LBI all the way up to Long Branch.
My brother Max was filling in for the day, as we both
tried to get some live bait in the well. That was going
slow so we went on the troll and I figured to look out
in the deeper water for some bass.
About an
hour went by till we had our first fish on the boat.
Just that fish alone was a good catch considering the
circumstances. About an hour later we had another bass,
this whole procedure repeated itself once more and then
the fish finder was starting to show some signs of
improvement.
We soon
started catching bass on a more timely note, than
waiting sixty minutes in between. Then it wasn’t long
before we had a couple doubles on as well. The boys all
caught two fish each reaching our limit and releasing
one. All the fish were 23 lbs. to 26lbs. We caught
all the fish off of Mantoloking in 52 degree water with
a screaming south wind... go figure. Sore arms and big
smiles is how I summed the day up. Can’t wait to get
back out.
MAY
19, 2009
What a difference a few days can make in the fishing, we
had Rich and his friend Ben out on the Big Boys first
trip of the season. Started the day a little late and
slowly made our way up to the north. Didn’t take long
to find the bait and start fishing. The bunkers were
hard to snag and were moving fast so we through the
spoons out. Wasn’t long before we had our first fish of
the day a nice 25 lb. We worked the area with a few
more bites and landing another bass of about the same
size.
Took a
ride up north where there was a good bite going on off
Deal. As we arrived a huge fleet had already
developed. We snagged some bunker and live lined and
had a fish in ten minutes. Had quite a few loses here
and unfortunately we had to start heading home. As we
reached Shark River Inlet I saw some activity offshore
with birds, and as we passed over that area the fish
finder was showing good signs. So of course we had to
stop! Had Rudy get the spoons out fast and they weren’t
in but three minutes before the first reel started
screaming. We soon had doubles on, even when we had a
single on the spoon being reeled back to the boat was
getting hammered. The highlight of the day was when the
bass came up on top busting everywhere, thought I was in
the canyon for a moment…
Had a
great trip with our limit and numerous releases. All
the fish ranged from 23 lbs. up to 28 lbs.
MAY 16, 2009
On Friday the 15th,
Rudy and I ran the Little BIG BOY ("LBB" - the 26'
Regulator) up to the Highlands with Rich to fish in the ASA
Striped Bass Tournament. The tournament would be our
first trip of the year, usually we would've liked to have
been fishing for at least a week or two by now, but weather,
and parts for the boat kept us from doing so. However,
we did manage some bass on Saturday while trolling spoons in
the pea soup fog. The fish were on the small side, and
unfortunately, we didn't place in the tournament.
Despite the weather and poor fishing, we made the best of
our first day back in action.
MAY 15, 2009
THE CREW FROM THE BIG BOY ARE BACK AND
READY TO FISH. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? BOOK A
TRIP NOW BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!
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