Fluke Reports 2006

[Scotty]

Scotty, You gonna wear a SOL hat? I swear mine is jinxed. Or I'm just a hack. Or I make my bucktail teasers too big. Or the water is too cold. Or the drift aint right. Or..........

 

I jest wear my ess eatin grin, don't need no hat

 

BobT - just keep fishing - you'll catch on

[whitechin]

Private boat in Raritan Bay. Three guys limited in 2 1/2 hours, nothing over 20". No special baits. Back in my house eating oatmeal by 10:30.

[coppertrout]

found some after exploring a couple of spots my grandpa showed me decades ago. best time was about 2 hours into outgoing. before that was nothing but shorts, after was about 3-1 keepers. was fishing 2 rods, bait and gulps. had to put the gulps away, kept missing on the bait. we siened up some of the niceset spearing i've seen in years, but the funny thing was they seemed to hit the killies more. when the bite slowed i tried a little lmb trick and hooked em backwords. did the trick. most days was every cast if i could keep the crads and blues away. snappers were very thin. put one on the big stick, and i don't know must have snagged a sub or something. that baby was going and never looked back 14lb mono snap. havent seen the fluke fishing this good in over 4 years. for the whole trip i kept 3 over 18" (top of cooler) for dinner one night. released all the rest, couldn't tell ya how many but my arms hurt. most days fished was 4-10am. also saw some outstanding sunrises.

[Allen]

short week, mother in law had surgery so we only had a few trips.

 

bluefish one day = slaughter

 

fluke in the river another day, much slower than last weekend but still a nice pick of fish w/ some nice keepers to 20"

 

fished a rough spot on weds, had a 2 man limit of fish to 24"/and just under 5# on bucktails, smelts, strips, and regular rigs

 

back at it on Monday in the heat

[Michael P]

Buddy's boat in RB. Broke the crack and there were acres of busting bluefish, little guys about a pound devouring littler guys about 3-4 inches. Caught some for bait. Powerdrifted channel edges around some wreckage looking for big kahunas. I jigged 4 keepers, not a touch on the boofish baits. Wind against tide made for interesting drifts. Could have jigged limits if I was not hell bent on finding a big one. Perhaps next weekend the mat will succumb.

[PAP]

Private boat yesterday. Hit Long Branch to Elberon, Deal down to Spring Lake. Hot a Hell on the water. No breeze.

Used squid, smelt, gulp, killies. A dozen shorts, 2 keepers 17 and 18" dogs and skates. Caught 2 short black sea bass also. Word to the wise make sure you bring plenty of H20. and a hat

Damn flies

[Slayer]

Private boat yesterday, 3 men, 2 keepers. Dozens of shorts and thats just me. Lots of skates and a few doggies. We fished from the hook down to monmouth beach, I jigged all day, the two keepers were caught on killie and a strip.

[Skolmann]

My son and I fished the morning trip yesterday on the Gambler. Boat near capacity.

 

We both started off using bucktails and each took a skate pretty quickly. Those using bait had slow pick so my son switched to dragging bait. I stayed with bucktailing and had just 2 hits in the first 4 drifts.

 

Moved to tight to the beach. Improved action, but mostly shorts.

 

I eventaully switched to bait and ended the day with 1 keeper out of 13 and my son had 1 keeper out of 7. Lots of skates.

 

Saw a few nice schools of bunker up tight but nothing harassing them.

 

Only @ 24 keepers for the boat. Pool winner was #4.

[Borneo]

Fished out of Barneget on Saturday, stayed in deeper water - 55 to 60'. Between 3 of us we had about 25, only 4 keepers up to 20". Not many trash fish. 2 nice sea bass also. Lost the drift about 11:30 so we went in early. There was no shortage of fish though. Stupid black flies were brutal, even 2 miles out.

[Joe]

My son and I fished the morning trip yesterday on the Gambler. Boat near capacity.

 

We both started off using bucktails and each took a skate pretty quickly. Those using bait had slow pick so my son switched to dragging bait. I stayed with bucktailing and had just 2 hits in the first 4 drifts.

 

Moved to tight to the beach. Improved action, but mostly shorts.

 

I eventaully switched to bait and ended the day with 1 keeper out of 13 and my son had 1 keeper out of 7. Lots of skates.

 

Saw a few nice schools of bunker up tight but nothing harassing them.

 

Only @ 24 keepers for the boat. Pool winner was #4.

 

 

Some big fish came up on the PM trip. My friend got an 8 & a 6 lber!

[GOTTOG]

Hit the Pigeon on saturday. Lots of fares onboard for overall slow pick of fish. I stuck with the bucktail all day and managed to put 3 keepers in the cooler, 16.5", 17", and a 3# flattie. 3/4&1oz Spro chartreuse tipped with white/chart/pumpkinseed swim-mullets. My better half claimed high-hook honors with 4 kills. Bite was way off and numerous fish came "unbuttoned" for the bucktailers and bait-draggers...was quite strange.

 

Drift conditions were nuts and even though the captain power drifts it just wasn't good conditions...especially when everyone puts their spools into free spool when he kicked it in gear. Don't they know that just keeps their bait in the same spot???

 

Pool fish was 4/4.5lbs. Seemed alot had 1or2 keeps, with a few having 3, and some with none. A few cocktail blues, searobins, and crabs made up the bycatch. A nice 5# weakie was caught on the first drift.

 

Snappers were in thick before departing from the slip. They produced a few fish only.

 

Spoke with the mate yesterday and sunday's trip was about the same.

[Matt A.]

Went out Saturday and the bite was off. 3 keepers and about 20 shorts

for 10 hours of fishing.

[BobT]

Last year someone posted that when live snappers weren't working, he sent one down after wackin' it then hooked up. Sent down a couple more in the same manner with success. I have to remember this stuff when out there.

[here fishy fishy]

Worst half day fluke trip I've ever been on, afternoon trip today on the Sea Hunter.

1, yes 1 legal fluke on the entire boat of about 25 fares. A few birds and that's it. I did not catch a single fish, not even sure if the 1 bite I had was really even a bite.

Left my straw hat on the boat to boot. If any of you guys go out this weekend, please ask someone to put the hat somewhere. I'll be back in a week or 2 for another try and pick it up then.

I've never met the mate working today. His name was Eddie, seemed like a good guy.

 

The only thing that saved the day was that I fished with my dad, who is 82 years old. we had a real nice time just the 2 of us. I love my dad and I always look forward to seeing him. I'm not sure how much more time he has left on this earth, so I cherish the time I get to spend with him.

 

Thats interesting... i went out the same day in the morning on the fisherman, my favorite and ONLY party boat... capt. Ron did what he always does, and thats put us on fish... he even called a few bites about 10 seconds before they happened, which was pretty crazy ... ended up with 4 shorts and 8 keepers, my buddy had 3 keepers, one of them being a FAT 8 pounder that took the pool... we were into fish from the beginning, with the first pool contender being about 7# and comin up within the first 30 minutes... hit slack tide about 2 hours into it and nothin... as soon as the tide turned we hit the fish again... all on the outside btw... the ratio was tough to call, but in a good way, around 1:1 or 2:1 shorts to keepers... personally, i got the most keepers to a single person on boat, and i have to say it was probably because of the powerpro combined with the berkley gulp... as far as i saw, my buddy and i were the only ones using gulp, and it showed... we were constantly gettin fish... everyone was too, but i have to say we pretty much proved the whole outfishing live bait claim... im a definate believer ... what was funny was durin one of the slower drifts capt. ron came down to us and was like, what is up with you guys huh? why aren't you pullin any up? its a little slower right now i guess... he said, oh really? casts his rod with an egg sinker and little fluke belly tipped with sand eel, and proceeded to bounce for about 10 seconds before pullin in a keeper... howd he do that?? anyway, great day out, but i ended up sunburned as usual... can't wait to get out there again, but of course only on The Fisherman, awesome boat, with great mates... eddie and robbie are always on top of things and their wisecracks keep everyone smiling... also, i might add, that everytime we are out capt. ron always does everything he can to make sure every child on the boat gets a fish, helpin them with whatever they need to make sure they are getting it right, so that they have the best chance of getting somethin... really makes me happy to see that, especially when a first timer kid on the stern caught 5 keepers... i'll bet ya hes hooked! the fishin did slow a bit towards the end, but after a day with plenty of double and triple hook ups, i didn't mind, my arms were killin me anyway! see ya out there soon!

[here fishy fishy]

i will post a pic soon, i can't seem to get the image to attach, somethin about the connection was reset... anyway i will post later today