August 2001

August 30th 2001

Tom Cox of Rumson weighed in 2 dollfins (mahi mahi) which he caught 11/2 mile off of Sandy Hook near Beach E. They were in the 4-6 lb range and he said that the bluefish and bonita prevented him from catching more. Tom was spearing.

August 29, 2001

Fluke fishing is finally beginning to pick up this week. With less than 3 weeks to go in the season ( unless they extend it which may happen) I have been seeing some great catches at the dock. Captain Kenny on the K-Kat just hit the dock with some real nice fluke. He said that he wished that he had started the day out for fluke instead of the babylike weakfish that everyone has been catching. The weakfishing is good but the sizes are not there. They seem to be getting smaller every year. Jimmy Morenz was reminiscing about 20 years ago when the smallest weakfish would be 7 lbs. Back then he reminded me we had huge schools of sandeels which the weakies among others would gorge on. We haven't seen sandeels in N.J. in 15 years. I will have to look into why.

The Hyper Striper just got in from an overnight canyon trip. They had two yellowfins Tuesday Night. Last week was a bit different, I forgot to mention the 4 100 + yellowfin tuna brought in by Bill DeMott of Sea Bright on his boat the "Heavy Metal".

Kenny K-Kat also e-mailed me from the weekend.

Weakfishing remains solid, although typically tougher on weekends with insane amounts of boat traffic. Good catches for the Dan Buchan party, the Kurt Franhien party, and the Dave Schreckenstien party. The Mike Tobin party experienced the only tough trip this month, right on the new moon. Fishing bounced right back for the Ron Jarabek party, The David Lazarus party, and the Michael Borys party, who spent the second half of their day anchored on a wreck in the bay, bailing porgies as fast as they could get baits back to the bottom. The bay is loaded with porgies, which can be a nuisiance of you are not targeting them.

One of my weekend warriors Ron Motyka reports: "Hi Jay, Still catching them Fluke. Sat we were in NY again, just on the other side of Roamers light house in Ambrose channel. The faster the drift the more fish we caught, In outgoing tide in 70ft of water we landed 8 keepers and about 12 shorts.It seemed strange that we never caught a single Robin or Skate. (I guess I shouldn't complain). The bay had some huge swells this weekend, in fact I heard several Mayday calls to Sandy Hook C.G. Maybe these people have watched "The Perfect Storm" too many times on HBO !!! Any-way the surf kept my little unsinkable legend in bay waters all weekend. I did see some nice sea bass, triggers and porgies fished off the reef. Some guy at the Skipper Shop was saying he saw multiple great-white dorsal fins in his bunker chum slick just west of the Farms. (After a couple of beers and that Sun I guess a big blue shark could become a Man-eater) just wondering if you heard anything of these reports ??? See you soon, Ron Moyka "

Don't worry Ron,... "fish happens!"

Hudson Canyon Tuna

Captain Pete Wagner and crew members of the "Hyper Striper" came back yesterday (Thursday 8/16) with a great catch of 12 yellowfins up to 95lbs. He was chunking w/ butterfish and fresh spearing plus some bunker chum. He said that the action was fast and furious especially after Jimmy Morenz started chumming the spearing.

August 14, 2001

Sciortino wins Title

The long-awaited run of weakfish in Raritan Bay seems to be under way even if the vast majority of the catch consists of barely legal seatrout. Due to poor reports before the weekend, only nine boats were signed up for Saturday's Monmouth Beach Cartoppers Weakfish Tournament out of Bahrs Landing in Highlands. Yet, most of those competing got into good action with small weaks even if scratching out tournament-worthy fish was difficult. Capt. Phillip Sciortino claimed the title with a six-fish total just over 20 pounds, and also took the largest fish award at 5.2 pounds. Felipe Benedit of Monmouth Beach plus Bobby Phillips Jr. and III from Little Silver wormed with Sciortino on Tackle Box Sportfishing from Highlands in Sandy Hook Channel as they culled their largest weaks from among 36.

Weaks were also caught at the One Buoy, Chapel Hill Channel, Raritan Reach, off the Ammo Pier and on the flats from Keansburg to Keyport. The bay is loaded with bait readings, and weakfish are likely to be encountered almost anywhere. Remember that the limit in New Jersey is 14 at a minimum of 14 inches, but on the New York side it's just six at 16 inches.

Just in from Clyde Worthen of Sea Bright "Hi Jay nice to see you yesterday,sorry I didn't talk to long but the
rain and wife&baby home don't mix with fishin time!!Anyway the weaks
are in heavy at the
bug light in the channel west of the #1 can.We limited in one hour.Hyper
striper
Free spool and Little Hawk were on top of them too!Nice fish up to 8
Lbs.
It looks good for weakfish from now on!!!Tight Lines Clyde"

Captian Kenny on the KKat reports in: "Weakfishing is now in full swing, I am happy to report. The fish are just a short run from the dock. Excellent catches were had this past week by the Jim Kelly party from Port Monmouth, the Jim Gallagher party from Upper Saddle River, the John Jabra party from 21st Century Music, The Fred Wilson party from the Bronx, Jay Staudt and friends from Hillsborough, and the Richie Winter group from Parsipanny. We will be concentrating our efforts on the Weakies as long as the fishing remains good. "

Swordfish in the Canyon

Richard Quirk of Jackson, called in to report his weekend long canyon trip catches for 4th and 5th. While as I reported many boats stayed at the dock Rich took his buddy's 37' Luhrs the "Muntar" (Nowrwegian for happy...I think) leaving Friday night he said that it was a bit nasty on the way out but the canyon was great!. They found 78 degree water on the west wall which drove away the tuna. However a large mass of squid brought in dollfin and swordfish. They had 20 dollfin (mahi-mahi or dorado) and 4 swordfish releasing 3 and boating one 400lbs. plus. Rich said that he will send some photos since I have few swordfish on the site.

August 8, 2001

Hello Jay, this is Marty Slaybaugh, hope all is well. Fishing aboard John Byren's "Thresher") We went tuna fishing on Mon. the 6th and Tue. the 7th. We fueled up at your dock when we came in and saw your father and he asked us to send you the picture of a 95 Lb. tuna Rich caught. We had rough weather, 5 to 7 foot seas all night long and for the first 1/3 of the trip home but scraped up one Longfin on the troll (40 Lb.s), One tuna on the Chunk (Caught by Rich Petrusyk, 95 Lb.s) a 5 ft. blue shark and 3 small Dolphin. Well, take care Jay, love the web site. Talk to you soon. Marty

Also Canyon fishing over the weekend were the Stavola's again. The "Vista Mar" had a 92lb chunking. The "Blue Mile" Jesse, Anthony, & Chuck had 2 yellowfins 77,69 lbs, plus 6 dollfin up to 30lbs. The "Squid Hound" Bill, George & Joey had 1 Yellowfin 80lb & 1 longfin 50lbs.

Fluke Ron Motyka report in:
"Hi Jay"
Haven't seen you in awhile, IM sure your keeping busy. After seeing some bigger fluke around the marina, I took the advice and went to New York. The action was allot slower then my local drifts (i.e. coast guard station, bug light, false-hook) however I will settle for quality not quantity any time. We boated several door-mats yesterday just east of roamers shoal,( being a Jersey boy, I don't know the name of the channel). Center of the channel in about 60ft on raging out-going we hit em hard-multiple 8lb plus fluke. Not one sea-robin, but huge 10lb skates.........also saw a whale, maybe a lost pilot? Well after a season of one million shorts, it was nice to actually limit-out.

Shark Finnig Ban at Sea Needs your support read this

August 5, 2001

Bluefishing has now taken over as most boats forego looking for bass a \nd weakies. Pound for pound these August bluefish never disappoint those seeking action! Chumming at the Shrewsbury rocks is the best bet althought the charter boats have had no problems trolling. ( alittle bit of experience helps when trolling, otherwise it could be quite frustrating).

Weakfish are starting top appear but the only concentrations seem to be still in the rivers. I did see some nice one caught near horseshoe cove on worms but we are still waiting t\fro the run in the reach channel. Hopefully they will be in full swing for next week's tournament.

WEAKFISH TOURNAMENT AUGUST 11TH,

CAPTAINS MEETING FRIDAY At Bahrs Landing (2891-9554) AUGUST 10TH AT 7:30 PM

COMBINATION OF SIX heaviest FISH

Fluke fishing had it's up's and down's this week but we had our biggestFluke of the season so far. It was caught by Al Waranis from Trenton N.J. a regular on the Elaine B party boat, it weighed 11.1 Lbs.

Hyper striper Reports: Bluefishing has been very good the last few trips with a few bass mixed in as well. Curtis Hutchings and party were out on Tuesday and had all the bluesthey wanted on the troll along with three keeper bass. Al Pettracco party from nutley were out on Wednesday and chunked the blues steady throughout the tide with 4 keeper stripers added to more than 70 blues. Wednesday evening Bob Williams and party from Air Management Corp. trolled over 50 blues to 14lbs and three keeper bass. Thursday morning the Kuiken Bros.Company from Fair Lawn,trolled 55 blues and added 7 keeper bass to the catch. All the blues have been mixed in size from 3 to 12lbs. Ed Noack party chunked eight keeper bass and had a steady bluefish bite all day Sunday. John Cobiella and party from Bushkill,Pa, had fast paced blufish chunking and also added 9 keeper stripers to the box on Thursday. Thursday evening Al Pettracco and family were back out for a carbon copy from the previous week with super bluefish chunking and 4 keeper bass.Friday morning the Mike Smircich party trolled bass and blues before going to the chunk and putting a 15 keeper bass in the boat to 16lbs and twice as many big bluefish.

TUNA
Larry Ganello of Rumson had 9 yellowfin on Tuesday Night chunking in the Hudson Canyon. Eric Hecht fishing out of Atlantic Highlands got back from a two week trip to Marthas Vinyard with great reports including his 48' Cabo's first bigeye tuna 180lbs. he was there during the annual Oak Bluff's shark Tournament and witnessed at the dock the winning mako. A 1,102 pounder cought on a 27' center console! He was amazed!

August 2nd 2001

I have some promising sitings of weakfish in the bay. captain Phil from the Tackle box weighed in a 7.5lb weakie on Saturday along with some smaller guys. Sam Boulmetis also started to catch some as did John Matteucci. Most were taken on sand worms at the change of the tides near the 14 buoy in the Sandy Hook Channels.

Bluefishing in the bay continues to be excellent, along with enough striped bass to keep things interesting.

The Ken Link party from Tewksbury found the trolling to be excellent for blues, with multiple double headers over the lumps in the bay. Attempts at weakfish worming before and after bluefishing were unsuccessful.

The Ralph Petricone party from Oakland, NJ, found the weakfishing to be slow. A switch to chumming and chunking turned out to be excellent, with bluefish on constantly, along with 4 keeper bass. The blues ran from 5 to 10 pounds, and bit until the tide ran out.

At Leonardo, Capt. Freddy Coles reported three 51/2-pound fluke on his Freddy C. during Saturday's trip, but a 61/2-pounder by Fred Malley of Edison won the pool. A group from Blue Collar in Cranford hit large fluke during Sunday's sailing. Irwin Goodman had a 7.2-pounder to beat out Steve Holoth at 6.2 pounds, Harry Holoth with a 5.8-pounder, and Bob Jahn at 5.6 pounds.

Capt. Jerry Ciriello concentrated on fluking during his Sunday magic hours trip with Freddy C. and two New York youngsters came up with big fish. Chris Palazzo, 11, of Nanuet had a 7-pounder, while Eddie Larkin, 7, of Warwick caught a 5.2-pound fluke.

Capt. Dave Merrill fished the Leonardo Fluke Tournament with Bob and Jan Voytasik on their Bobby's Girl as five anglers managed 30 keepers up to 51/2 pounds out of about 75 fluke caught.

Giglio's Tackle in Sea Bright had the best striper reports in some time as Ray Soyka of Roselle eeled a 29-9/16-pounder and Perry Kasturas of North Bergen caught a 16-3/16-pound bass from the beach on a clam.

August 2001

Sign up for our newsletter