For the first time in a few years we are actually catching fluke into September!

Fishing is generally good and we are still seeing 20+ keepers a trip with lots of guys catching limits.  Big fish every trip have averaged around 7#.  Bucktails and gulp have been the ticket as they have been all summer long. 

Reports (8/21 to 9/6):

8/21:  Had Russ, Kathy, Fred, Phil, and Bob F onboard today for our special deepwater wreck trip (finally got it in!!)

Ran out east to start on a wreck 30 miles from our inlet, to find a dive boat setting up on the piece Capt was lucky enough to let us get a pass on the piece I wanted to hit since he was just getting in - good thing we didn't settle in because all we had there were bergall bites.Ran to the north to another wreck in 240' - a good amount of ling came up. Moved to another piece about a mile further away in a tad shallower, even more ling of mixed sizes from little hot dogs to nice 3-4#ers.  Then hit a wreck in 140' (very high profile wreck) and again had bergalls. Hit another rockpile in about 115' and had, you guessed it, more bergalls. Finally found some cod on another pile with debris which has been very good to us in years past, and pulled 3 cod off of it, one being a "NJ" keeper of 21.5" but not a federal keeper by Kathy. Fred also pulled the biggest sea raven off this piece I've ever seen at 4# 4oz.  We then hit another wreck further north for a few ling, and finally settled in on another wreck in 220' up further in the hole and pulled even more ling off of it, and for the first time in 6 years, I lost an anchor to a wreck and a net that was basically wound into the wreck Wound up with a box full of ling, and the sea raven. The crew was great, they all went home with nice bags of meat. Back for more fun later this week after a day off tomorrow!

Almost forgot -- Sidebars to today (there were several):

1. We were boarded, 24 miles from out inlet, by the NY DEC checking our fish and documentation. The guys were beyond nice, and spent some time chit-chatting with us about their boat and what the hell they were doing in our area. We even donated a ling to their cause because the one officer was a trainer for recruits for fish ID purposes.

2. While we were on the hook ling fishing at the last piece, we had a 12' hammerhead circling the boat.

 8/24:  Had Mike aka Sharkyispy's annual JCAA fluke tournament charter today. Along with Mike were Kenny, Scott, Sean, Larry, and Fred. 
Hard NNE winds early made the ocean "sporty" and we basically had to stay inshore all day long. Once we got off a mile + early it was NASTY as a south current was running off the beach right into the wind making the ocean gnarly.  So, we worked our way up the line, and got our lines in. First fish, by Fred, was a 19" keeper. Thereafter we picked some shorts and keepers here and there. By around 10:30 the wind laid down and we were able to run a bit more, so we did some looking finally off the beach and found a few patches of keepers and one fish around 4# by Fred.  At 2, we started working our way back south. At that point we had about 10 keepers in the box - so we hit a few hills and shell beds, nothing but shorts. Finally got settled in on a rockpile close to home and had very good fishing right on that pile for mostly keeper sized fluke until we had to go in at 345 to make weigh-ins.

Wound up with 22 keepers, with the biggest taken by Fred which was good for 9th place in the tournament in our port out of 37 boats - not bad but we could've done better. Very tough day fishing. The guys ground it out and worked tirelessly for every one of those 22 that made it to the box. Larry led the way with 7 keepers, and Fred had the biggest while all the guys put at least 2 in the box. Great group of guys as always - congrats to Jerry and the crew on the Monger for taking the port prize in point!

8/25:  Today Capt Kenny and new/old supermate Joey had J's crew on board for a fluke/bluefish trip.  For starters half of the crew was 1.5 hours late, so the guys didn't leave the slip till almost 8AM.  Kenny basically fished most of the fluke spots which produced for us on Saturday and some new pieces, however fluke fishing was horribly slow with only shorts, skates, and would-be keeper seabass coming up.  They then switched to bluefish after taking a ride, but missed the bite as the bluefish shut off by 11AM.  The crew called it an early day by 1:30 as more than half of the crew was seasick and only part of the crew was actively fishing. Kenny and Joe did everything they could to get these guys on the fish, it just wasn't their day.

8/28:  We had Bob F on for his birthday fluke trip today along with Larry, Fred, and Fred's brother Larry.  Took a ride to start the day, had 3 keepers in the first 15 minutes, then we redrifted that area 3X, and only had a couple of shorts. Made a few moves, and only caught shorts, so we finally made another move and got into some fish. We had a few real nice flurries to start where we had 3-4 keepers a drift, but then that sorta dried up, so again, we made another move, caught a few more, then again had the bite dry up. See a pattern?

Finished the day closer to home - had another good drift with a few keepers, but you guessed it, the bite dried up QUICKLY. Called it a day around 330 - didn't see a drop of rain all day also

For the day we literally eeked out the 4 man crew's limit of 20 keeper fluke -- a good majority of those keepers were right @ 18" (no real close ones) but we did have 3 fish in the 3-5# range. We did have 2 doubleheaders today, one consisting of 2 fluke by Larry M, and the other consisting of a legit 19" 3# seabass and a keeper fluke by Fred. Larry (flukemaster!) had the best fish of the day @ 5#, and we had a tie for HH with 4 fish.

8/30:  Today we had our long time customer Doug W charter the boat w/ his lady Sherri. Game plan was to fluke for a bit then switch to blues and possibly switch to bottom fishing. Fluked locally, caught shorts. Wasn't really that good with the swell.

We then ran north to where the bluefish have been being caught and we had a slow pick of gator sized blues in the 12-15# range on krocs, stingo's and 47's. Fishing again at best was a slow pick as we were basically drifting through the fleet and dropping the jigs on readings - which were at times THICK - but we weren't catching what we saw on the machine. Nevertheless we bent the rods a bit with these big bluefish (good to see them around again - yes I said that!!)

After a few hours of that, the crew wanted to try their hand at bottom fishing for porgies and triggers. That was NG as we read the porgies inshore, but the bite was very slow -- only had some seabass and taylor sized blues.

8/31:  Had Billy onboard for his annual fluke trip. Joined by Billy were his dad Bill, Derek, Dave, Brian M, and Larry Flukemaster filled the last spot.  Forecast was iffy from the get-go but we decided to give it a shot. Broke the inlet and were greeted with steady SW winds as we worked our way offshore to some pieces we haven't fished in a while. Once we got out there, the seas were stacked 4-6' with the hard SSW wind but we gave it a go. Larry banged the first keeper which was his best of the season, a beautiful 7.25# fish - the rest of the fish we pulled from that piece were shorts. After a half dozen drifts and a general ass beating, we headed back inshore a tad to fish some high spots, and pulled a few keepers.  We then bounced around to a few rockpiles, and pulled a few more keepers topped by Brian's personal best (7.25# - Larry's fishes twin!)

By 12:30 the wind picked up another notch and even the inshore spots were tough to fish with a fast drift and generally really sloppy conditions.

We bagged it a tad early, and were back at the dock by 2 with 10 keepers in the box. 9 of those fish were over 20", some nice quality fish today topped by 4 fish over 5#. Great crew as always, it's great having these guys on the boat - fishing was definitely tough as the guys earned those fish today, but considering what we had to deal with we certainly had an ok day!  Great crew as always!

9/5:  Had the guys from the SWABC on today and WMD Fred filled the last spot of the charter (5 guys).
Took a ride today and found a confused, washing machine chop with the hard west wind, N current, and SE swell. On the first piece we picked some shorts and a quick keeper, but that dried up fast. We then ran in on the beach and caught some more shorts, but that also was NG.

We then took a little longer ride to fish a piece I personally haven't fished in nearly 10 years and found immediate action with short and keeper fluke. Lots of fish, loads of bites, and lots of action. Sometimes we had 3-4 fish on at a time. Every drift we picked 3-5 keepers until it dried up - lots of quality 3-5#ers plus plenty of 18-20" keepers. Highlight of that spot was when I snuck up to the bow, got hammered, and thought I had the fish of a lifetime on - Joe came up with the net, and when we saw the shadow come out we thought it was a MONSTER, turned out to be a double header - top hook was a 27" 7# fluke and the bottom hook had a 18" keeper on it LOL.

By noon time we had the crew's limit and looked like we were cruising to the full boat limit but everything shut down - the wind shifted straight N and the current kicked in harder and what was a good bite turned into sea robins, short fluke, and dogfish central.  Bounced around a little more, just couldn't get any more keepers.

Wound up with the 5 man limit of 25 plus 1 or 2 more, LOADS of shorts (easily boated 150) plus a few lucky seabass that were very lucky - we also had 3 double headers - Ray, Frank, and Mike each had limits with Fred and John both getting 4 each. We had 8 fish between 3-5 #, plus the one 7#er. Turned out to be a good day despite a slow start!! Nice bags of meat for the guys - great crew as always!

9/6:  Had Tim B's crew on today from the way way yonder part of PA (3 hours to pp) for his buddy Steve's bachelor party festivities. For most of the crew, it was their first or one of their first saltwater fishing experiences.

We broke the inlet around 7 and found things to be a tad bit dicey with the NNE wind, current, and just a nasty big heave with a wind chop - we opted to wait it out in the river to wait for things to settle.

River was slow, just a few shorts and 1 keeper. By 10:30 the ocean laid down enough for us to sneak out locally and fish some spots where we heard there were fish. Very slow go to start, just a few shorts and more lucky would-be keeper seabass that went back. Finally, at 1:45, we finally got a good pick going of all keeper fluke and wound up boxing 5 on our last drift topped by a 4.5#er by John.... But, We had to bag it at 2 because the guys had to be back out in PA at their home by 6PM.

That last drift was real good and if we stayed we would've really put a hurting on the fish but sometimes ya gotta leave em' biting. Wound up with 8 fish, most real nice fish and 3 of them were right on the mark. A good day, and for the guys who never did this before they conquered the learning curve!