October 1st is the official start of black sea bass season. With a 12.5" size limot and 10 fish per angler bag limit, these super tasty fish make for a fun trip. Sea bass hold in huge schools over top of structure making them easy and fun to target. You can from bait on a rig, or try your hand at jigging them up. Either way they put up a nice little fight. Did I mention they are tasty? One of the best eating fish around. I have retired from teaching and will be running trips for sea bass, and then tog as the fall progresses. Please call to get in on the action!

It's been quite the week. It started off with me and my two friends trying to get out for some flounder. We launched the boat, cranked her over, and realized there was no water coming from the engine indicating that it was pumping cooling water through itself. We trouble shot it at the ramp, but no luck. I tried trouble shooting it at home without any luck. I ended up going up to South Jersey Boatworks where Matt took time out of his busy day to swap out the pump. She's working great now. Memorial Day, Andy and I launched for our second attempt at chasing some flounder. Engine fired up and pumped water like a champ. We had some frozen spearing that we wanted to thaw out. Tossed it into the live well and hit the pump switch, dead. Tried the hose, also dead. Went to turn on my electronics and realized my house battery was dead. Great. So, we fished old school. Boat, motor, and gear. No electronics. We had about an hour and a half of incoming tide remaining and the ICW all to ourselves. We drifted along some ledges, got some hits, and missed quite a few. Finally, Andy broke the ice with a fat 20 inch flatty. Shortly after he landed a doggie and a skate. Then the tide slacked. Around this time a dozen boats moved in and joined in on our drift. The outgoing tide excited the bite from the shorties. We pulled in two 16-17" flounder each and missed a bunch more. Most of the boats in the area were catching and releasing short flounder. We saw two keepers taken. All of this during the first hour of the outgoing tide. We tried a few other areas and missed more fish. Called it a day about half way through the tide. Andy shared his flounder with me and Lisa turned it into a delicious dinner of flounder milanese. If you know, you know. If you don't, try it! You will not be disappointed. I took my battery back to West Marine where I purchased it. I explained how it was suddenly dead, wouldn't charge, or accept a charger being attached to it. Gave bad readings. They said their warranty for batteries is one year, mine was two. Out of curiosity they asked to keep the battery to test it out. Why not? They called the following day and said that it was in fact defective, and that they will be replacing it. They stand behind their products! Thank you Weat Marine. Hopefully, that's the last of the issues with the boat. Today, I had a surf fishing trip with a favorite family that comes back every year. Christopher and company met me on the very chilly, and windy, beach at 6am. I set out the rods in hopes of finding some stripers, kingfish, and maybe some blues. What we got were a bunch of little smooth doggies, croakers, a spot, and a little ling. Not the day I was hoping for. The wind, and chilly, dirty water conspired against us. On the plus side, they had a blast despite the conditions and lack of quality fish. Hopefully the wind takes a break for the remainder of the summer. Wishful thinking I'm sure. Finally, night time bridge hopping has been fairly productive. Some nights are better than others. But it's always fun! Looking forward to more adventures as the fishing season heats up. Tight Lines!

The back bays, especially at night, are giving up small to medium sized striped bass. For the adventurous type, I run bridge hopping trips that cover a lot of ground and challenge your angling skills. There are some weakfish and a few bluefish in the mix too. Tog has been solid on the reefs, and in various places in the back bays. But it closed on April 30th. So, not much opportunity there. Well, you can catch and release. The beaches are getting fishy too. Black drum and striped bass are cruising the surf waiting for your offering. Catching thwse fish in the surf is one of the most fun ways to catch these brawlers. And finally, the Delaware Bay will be lighting up very soon with big striped bass and black drum. So, there are lots of choices. Not to mention, flounder will be opening back up in a week or so. Call to get in on the action!