May 2000

Tuesday May 30, 2000

The Summer is supposed to be here but you could have fooled us. The east winds kept the temps. down all week and made most days a little challenging in the bay.

FLUKE

The fluking continues to be very strong. Most fish are being taken a killies and squid. Mike Werdann of Highlands, fishing on his "V.W. Doc III" landed a nice 22" fluke at Flynn's Knoll (North of the tip of Sandy Hook across the channel). "Big" Ed Misciewizs, the dock master at Bahrs landing had 5 keeper fluke and some "cocktail bluefish at the Rip on Wednesday. Ed was fishing with sand worms when the bluefish hit and tested out his new graphite rod. Big Ed is still looking for his first Bass. The Bahrs Party boat elaine B II reports a banner week:

"Fluke fishing has been very good all week. See a lot more throw backs then
last week
but still had some limit catches everyday. Friday was an outstanding day
Steve Coppell from Freehold with a 6.4lb Fluke, Bill McNally New Brunswick
with a 6.5lb Fluke,
Stew Low Westwindsor with a 5.3lb Fluke, Derek Binge, Woodbury N.J. with a
4.5lb Fluke
and to top it off Hank Bielski from Bloomingdale N.J. with a 10.1lb Fluke to
take the pool. We also had several other Fluke over 3lbs. Sat. wasn't to bad
neither Ron Zocki
Forked River took the pool with a 7.5lb. Fluke. Not too bad!!!!"

Striped Bass:

The charter boats are still loading the docks with big bass, but with the rough weather they had to work a little harder. It seems that the outgoing tide is the only bite in the bay. The live bunker fishing under the bridge is good but nothing real big yet.

I patrolled the surf of sandy Hook last week as I assisted my daughter's class trip to Sandy Hook. The NJ Marine Science Consortium People really give kids a great educational experience. On this day the kids got an extra bonus. This program attracts schools by the bus loads. About 15 busses filled with young kids swarm the Gunnisson Beach Area every Spring. As the kids were collecting shells, a lone fisherman was fishing two poles using frozen clams. I noticed that he was hooked up and mentioned it to the class, but they were not interested until fish came up on the beach for all to see. Then his other rod started to bend in the sand spike. He quickly released the first short Striped Bass and started reeling in the next. Soon a crowd began to gather. The teachers tried to keep the gang at a distance but when he waded into the surf and grabbed the 27" bass with his bare hands the cheers began to fill the air and it was no use in trying to keep them back. As he walked it up the beach holding it up above his head with two hands the uproar from about 150 6-12 year olds (and me) gave me the chills. The kids were so excited and so was this surf fisherman that I don't think that they will ever forget it. Who says that fishing is not a great spectator sport? I wish that I had my camera.

Monday May 22nd, 2000

The weekend weather was not so nice but it did not stop the fish. This May full moon weekend is always one of the best for Striped Bass. This year fluke and weakfish too! Dave Carrarra gave me an interesting weakfish report

Dave, Middletown, was visiting his grandmother in Staten Island. He took his dog and his rod down to the Raritan Bay beach. He saw that a nice size flock of seagulls were calmly working the just off the jetty. They were in one spot and seemed to be picking (eating) small broken pieces of baitfish. Dave, being the observant fisherman that he is, rigged up a "Finesse" white & green luhr and casted off the jetty. By this time night had fallen as he let the 11/2 ounce luhr sink to the bottom and began to retrieve it in when it was hit immediately. He reeled it in and could not believe his eyes, a big weakfish. Now this is a "No Bull Fishing Report" and Dave was fishing alone but he said that it was well over 10 lbs. and that it might be 14lbs. Dave grew up fishing on the Sea Fox Party boat so I believe that he has a good eye for that. Besides he does not own a computer and does not even know that this report exists. He said that he fished for a couple of hours with no one else around except his black lab "Mako" until the tide changed. He said that he had a weakfish on just about every cast.

Another report on weakfish came from Tom Waters of Sea Bright. Fishing off of his dock, again at night, he has been landing them on frozen clams in the Shrewsbury river. He came in and bought three bags of clams in our tackle shop last night. he has been picking up striped bass too.

STRIPERS

John Matteucci was able to sneak out during the height of the full moon last week. He always does well as he usually baits fishes when he can. I didn't have a chance to talk to him but from the looks of his fillet table in the morning , he has been doing well. He usually uses fresh bunker chunks and sometimes live bunker this time of year.

Yes, Bahrs landing 291-9554 has had a good supply of live bunker this last week. schupp's :Landing is carrying them too.

Captain Kenny Dubman on the K Kat2 had a few successful striper trips over the weekend. He mostly trolled and mostly had big fish. He said that now there are new striper regs. and the allowable fish come within a size bracket, all of the fish he is catching are too big to keep! He recommends people who want to take home stripers need to get a Fish and game striper "tag". On Saturday we weighed in a 24 LB striper for one of Kenny's customers. Fishing the Jersey side of the bay Jim McMillen, Mike Yablonsky, Mitch Berman, Kieth Killiston of Gettysburg Maryland had their Trophy Tags and loaded the dock with nice big stripers. They said that they had to release the biggest fish because they had already reached their limit. Look for photos on this site later in the week.

Here is a report given to me by Captain Pete Wagner on the Hyper Striper:

Jay,
Bass fishing has been super with limits being taken on every trip for
two weeks now. Sorry for the lack of reports, but we've been sailing
twice a day.Some large bass have also been included in the
catches,Pierre Pagerie boated the years largest so far at 34.4 lbs
last Thursday the 11th.That party also had 4 other fish over 25lbs.
Other large bass were 26lbs by Keith Force,27lbs by Charlie Marrow,24lbs
by Mike Henson from Pa.which was also his first bass ever.
Other than that it's been just super action both on the troll and on the
chunk.
Striped Bass if you really want to know about Marine fishing conservation efforts. You can start by checking out these sites. http://www.asmfc.org/news.htm http://www.jcaa.org/PID.htm

FLUKE

I have not heard from Captain Stan but, I know they are still doing very well with the fluke. I saw them cleaning fish and washing down their boat for a good 2 hours after they docked! The seagulls were having a feast on the scraps. This is usually a good indicator that the fishing was excellent. stan probably was too tired to boot up his PC. his customers have been using killies, and sand eels.

captain Stan just reported in "Hello Jay, Fluke fishing has been very very good. Sat. we fished 10 min.
from the dock. Most of the fisherman had their limits. Sun also very good
at the point of Sandy Hook again 6 limits were recorded and the rest had
between 5 and 7 keepers. Mon a lot of shorts showed up but still catches
between 3 and 7 fish per person."

May 16th, 2000

This weekend saw the beginning of the Bass blitz under and on the Highlands Bridge. Last saturday night I witnessed 12 keepers on the bridge sidewalk at around 1:00a.m. . It was an outgoing tide and they were taking them on white and red plugs. I have seen fish being faught every day putting on a show on both outgoing tides. The drift boats are using sand worms. The charter boats that I have spoken to continue their successful Striper trips w/ most parties limiting out with in an hour! They report that the big bluefish have moved into the bay along with weakfish making things more interesting. The new striper regs. for 2000 are due to be voted on any day. I will keep you posted.

I am starting to see some weakfish in the bay and today off our dock. They are being taken on flies and worms. It looks as though it is going to be a great weakfish season.

Fluke

Jim Hedges from Elizabeth was out on Saturday and had a nice day fishing near the Ammo Pier. He had up to 17"s and good aaction all day using the killie worm combination.

Captain Stan on the party boat Elaine B reports: Hi Jay, Fluke fishing remains very good. Some limits every day most people with 4 to 6 keepers every day. Some drifts with 40 to 50 keepers. Pool fish
every day is between 4 and 6lbs. WOW that is a great report.

Here are the new Fluke Regs for 2000: Changes for summer flounder, commonly called fluke, extend the recreational fishing season from May 6 through October 20, 2000. The minimum legal size limit will remain at 15 1/2-inches with a possession limit of eight summer flounder.
Here is a great link to learn about fluke: http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/flukefct.htm#migration

Monday May 8, 2000

The record 90 + degree weather made for an excellent start to the fishing season.

Jamie Gibbons 30lb Striper on Live Bunker won it w/ a 24lb for a total of 55.2lbs. He caught the big one at around 1:45 a.m. on Friday night/Sat. morning in the bay. His teammate Brian Penshaw reeled in the 24.8 pounder on the troll late Saturday afternoon.

Fluke

Joe Pinto of Sayerville weighed in his first fluke of the season. It was 17" caught by the Sandy Hook Coast Guard Station in the bay. he and his fianc�e Jolana, had 4 keepers and some shorts using worms and fresh chunked bunker.

Captain Stan on the Elaine B 2 reports, The Fluke season opener Sat. was very good,had 4 limit catches and
the rest with between 4 and 7 fluke final count was 100 keepers not to bad.
Sat. pool winner was Tony Satus East Brunswick
with a 4lb. fluke and a limit. Sunday was also very good with 3 limit
catches and most people with 4 and 5. Sunday pool won by Bill
Lindorfer from Middlesex with a 4.5lb. Fluke. A pretty darn good opening.

Spring Striped Bass results

Wedneday May 3, 2000

STRIPER REPORT

This is the week that we have been waiting for!! Last week's bass fishing was excellent again. All of the usual suspects banged out another successful weekend catch. Pete Wagner has been fishing two trips per day and limiting out on the stripers. He has been trolling and chunking with fresh bunkers. He has been too busy to give me a report this weekend. I did see him weigh in some big bluefish on Monday. Kenny Dubman on the new K-Kat 2 has been fishing the "Reach Channel" for bass w/ the same success. John Hayes of Atlantic Highlands fishing with his son picked up some nice stripers over the weekend. The biggest 31" and you can see that photo on Bahrs.com . There are boats worming the bridges but I think that we need a couple more days of this nice weather until it turns on hot. This weekend should be perfect.

The MBCTFC Striped Bass tournament captain's meeting is this Friday Night at Bahrs 7:00 . $60.00 entry per boat. I will report the winners next week.

WINTER FLOUNDER

I had a late report from Captain Rich Newallis Jr. from Monday. He had a charter on his boat "Just One More" and spent some time fishing the Oceanic Bridge area for some flatties. He said that they did very well with fish in the 2lb range. He also tried buoy two with some success but not as good as Rumson. He also is chunking bass on most trips. Ask him about it just1more@bellatlantic.net .

FLUKE season begins on Saturday and Captain Stan on the "Elaine B 2" will be ready for them. This warm weather should help the opening season chew. Weekend Blackfishing was just a pick they haven't regrouped from the
easterly weather. We will fish for them through Fri. Sat. we switch to FLUKE
@ 7:30 Daily.

Bass are everywhere and people are quickly forgetting the so so flounder season. I have seen some nice size bass being taken from all of the local bridges at night. It seems most productive at night. If you are wondering how they can lift a 20+ bass up 50 feet, you will have to venture out some night and see how they do it. You will be amazed. Maybe one night I will take some digital pictures. I just wish that they had a better way of throwing back the shorts. They leap can be treacherous.

May 2000

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