All Blog Posts (1,336)

Friday, May 25, 2012: Kinda pale ;looking out there but the relatively light onshore winds make for fairly decent fishing conditions. The surf is pushing a 2 to 3 foot easterly short-period swell and the water is clean and, once again, looking very fishful. However, I did some beach stops and the fishing pressure is surprisingly light, considering every breakfast joint on the Island is hoping, with waiting lines. 

I have to think that boat anglers will find some serious…

http://www.onthewater.com/fishing/massive-70-pound-plus-connecticut-striper/

Thursday, May 24, 2012: It seems fishy out there. You can smell it – helped along by light directly onshore winds. That said, where the hell are the frickin’ bass? Yes, there have been a scattering of beachfront bass taken, mainly shorts and a few just keepers, going for clams and bunker.

Yesterday, I had my first full-skunk plugging session in weeks. I had a workload on my mind and wasn’t overly immersed in my casting. I swear there’s some cosmic thing…

1. Drum, red  -- 55/0 -- 1985   Daniel Yanino     Great Bay
2. Flounder, winter -- 5/ 11 -- 1993   Jimmy Swanson      Off Barnegat Light
3. Hake, white  -- 41/7 -- 1989   Wayne Eble      Off Barnegat Light
4. Kingfish, Northern -- 2 /8 -- 2004   Chester Urbanski     Barnegat Bay
5. Perch, white -- 2/12…

Wednesday, May 23, 2012: If you’re a saltwater angler on the mainland right now – noon – you’ll surely be champing at the bit. The skies have been burnt clean -- into a blue like we haven’t seen in awhile. What’s more, the sun beat down has already pushed mainland temps well past the predicted high. It’s into the 80s.

And if you’re contriving any way possible to get over here to fish the LBI area, you’re kinda on the right track. That said, I’m going to go off the…

I really should concentrate purely on fishing for this holiday weekend’s column.

Nah.

(Disclaimer: The following is based on an actual occurrence, though I may have melted down the hard cold facts a wee bit.) 

I saw this advertisement for a “Hoarders Seminar” and felt professionally compelled to attend. I figured it would be a load of really cool people, all mulling around eating bagels, sipping energy drinks and ravenously talking about all the cool…

LATEST SIMPLY BASSIN' BOARD 

The big weekend will be hugely fished. Let’s get folks signed up for Simply Bassin’.

Entrant      Date      Weight    Length            Site        Bait         Date          Shop

Standing                   lbs/oz       Girth                                        Weighed

                (Of…

Sunday, May 20, 2012: Winds and waves are conspiring to squelch any hopes of slow and easy angling, be it boat or beach. While high rip current warnings are in effect, it’s closer to just crappy surf conditions.

With the way everything has been early-ized this spring, yesterday-formed Tropical Storm Alberto shouldn’t be overly surprising – and really not as much as indicator of things to come as many folks might think.

What I call the Southeast US Gulf, where Alberto…

Saturday, May 19, 2012: Damn, it was mighty decent out there today. I got in a load of backwoodsing time and the energy/wildlife level was through the high-sky ceiling. It’s days like today that remind me why I’m a spring person – and a summer and fall person during those seasons. Yes, that leaves one season of which I’m not “a person.”

Freaky comment: I stopped by Cumberland Farms for a cold one (Pepsi “Throwback”) and the talk in line focused on the gorgeous day, to which a lottery…

This is the time of year I throw my hook/line/sinker support to one of the most valuable training experiences any young angler/navigator can get.

The Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association’s “Junior Mates Program” is back and looking to train “juniors” for mating duties.

As I say each year this is an uncanny offer. Throughout the planet, mate training is literally a secret pass-down cache of knowledge, limited to friends and family of those who know the ropes – and…

THIS A SKATE MEAL -- JUST IN TIME FOR FLUKE SEASON 

Thursday, May 17, 2012: Briskifying NE winds have ocean-bassing smaller craft ducking back into the bay, midday. There are/were real nice bass in recent days – though “rcent days” and “today”…

I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE UP TO: Life is always throwing clandestine profundities at me. Perfect example: Driving up Rte. 9 over the weekend, I eyed a billboard advertising the New Jersey Lottery. Taking up almost the entire sign surface were the weighty words: “Win Before Your Neighbor Does.”

What a weird frickin’ concept.

I have always liked my neighbors, but, just like that, this billboard spoke to me. Its words began sprouting in my brain, like tiny little paranoia…

Entrant      Date      Weight    Length            Site        Bait         Date          Shop

Standing                   lbs/oz       Girth                                        Weighed

                (Of catch)

Sunday, May 13, 2012: I expected some reports glittering with fish scales but short of very decent boat bassing things have come up sorta short. “Jay, Fished my street end and the only fish I caught was a 22-inch bass on my first cast with a jig and about an hour later another small bass on clams. Talked with a guy who caught a 31 inch striper last week but has been skunked lately. The water looks great. …H.M. (Cherry Hill). 

At least you saw rod action, Hal. And I’m not…

Friday, May 11, 2012: Gorgeous out there. Light west winds and ideal air temps. I’m guessing by the chatter and the number of vehicles on LBI bearing rods that more than a few anglers played hooky (pun intended) today. Also, a huge number of hardworking sorts purposely do long weeks (6-dayers) during the winter so they can string together a load of “long weekends” from now through fall.

Interestingly, I had an economics professor (I was interviewing for a non-fishing story)…

Thursday, May 10, 2012: Rains have finally ceased, many areas got an inch of what’s called soaking rains. That actually doesn’t mean the total amount of rain as much as it means the duration that measurable rain feel. We were pushing a solid 18 hours of moisture, ideal for plants. The up side is there wasn’t a torrential downpour so runoff shouldn’t overly impact the bay.

I’m betting this weekend might really take-off angling-wise. Fluke, blues, bass, drum and blowfish are…

Wednesday, May 09, 2012: Weather has taken a turn for worse, considering the forecast hadn’t predicted nearly this much drippage as we’re seeing – all frickin’ day.

Once again, it’s better to look at the big picture – and the sky-high chance of a wicked drought this arriving summer. The more rain we can put into the system – including the deep-down aquifers – the better we’ll weather the dryness to come.

If the droughtiness does settle in, it can have a huge impact on…

 Weekly Blog-about May 9

Well, it seems I’m no longer a full-blown fellow American, despite my devout, Taliban-targeting, gun-totting, ground-worshipping, Born in the U.S.A. nationalism. In fact, It seems I’m attached to the American fabric by one badly frayed thread.

I was crudely advised of my shaky homeland status while obediently trying to renew my NJ driver’s license.…

Monday, May 07, 2012: Ground swell has it roughed up out there. Light fishing pressure along the beach – and even out in the ocean --despite some decent bass hookups.

The news has been the cows mixing in with the grazers. I know of three fish over 40 pounds taken in the suds. This could make for an insane Simply Bassin’ tourney beginning this coming weekend. Remember to sign up prior to landing a 50-pounder.

Fluking remains a slow launch. Then there was a bag…