Tog opened today at one fish per person until November 15 when it will go to five fish.
We had the Lomento men fishing with us today. Fishing was a little slow but we did manage to boat 15 fluke including the nice fat 21 incher pictured. Along with those 15 we caught a king fish, a sea bass, and a very large cow nose ray that pulled the boat around a little. The Riptide B&T gulps continue to be the best baits when combo'd with squid or spearing.
Emory caught this fat 24” fluke with Babu Charters today. It was the biggest of the 25 fluke landed along with 30 sea robins, a couple of sea bass, and a sand shark. Larry, Tate, Emory, and Leighton had a fun morning catching about 60 fish. #babucharters #brigantinebeach #fishing
We ran a early morning wreck fishing trip today to some inshore reef wrecks. The sea bass were really chewing. Over 50 were caught, and we had our 5 man limit of sea bass within 45 minutes of dropping the hooks into the water. The biggest sea bass was 17”. A few sea robins were caught as well. #babucharters #brigantinebeach
We had a excellent day fishing the back bay Thursday aboard Babu Charters. Over 70 fish were landed, and a fat 20” fluke came home for the dinner table. #babucharters #brigantinebeach
I had the Musto group wreck fishing this afternoon for two hours. We fished 80 to 90’ wrecks catching about 15 sea bass and a few sea robins. Most of the bass were less than 12.5”, but we did manage to get three for dinner. We were using Riptide B&T salt clam. The fog rolled in about 30 minutes into the trip, and stayed with us the remainder of the trip.
Derek, Christina, Lila, and Luke fished the morning with Babu Charters. Luke caught the first fish, and it was a nice fat 21 inch fluke that went home for dinner. We caught 18 other fluke along with about four sea robins. The Riptide B&T gulp baits continue to work best.
We had the LeBon family out fishing last Thursday. Two year old Connor and 6 year old Carson had a great time catching 29 fluke, 3 sea robin, 3 sea bass, and 3 sand shark. The Riptide B&T silverside/squid combo worked, but the gulp combo with either squid or silverside were best.
Wow! We had a day of catching today. Over 110 fish were boated on the six hour morning trip which included 99 fluke up to 22 inches, 8 sand shark, 4 sea robins, and a sea bass. Five fluke from 19 inches to 22 inches went home to grandma for dinner. Dan, Gene, Tim, Daniel, Nick, and Dimitriy had a great morning of steady catching. The Riptide B&T salmon colored 3" gulp combo-ed with silversides or squid worked great.
Jesse, Corey, and Chuck fished with us yesterday on a 6 hour bay trip. We caught about 40 fish total with most being fluke that didn't make the keeper size limit. It was a great day on the water.
I don't know when we will be able to start offering trips this season. But, when we do I expect that we will be practicing social distancing, wearing masks, and sanitizing the boat for everyone's safety. The social distancing will limit us to just taking two customers. Here is a photo of a good customer from Maryland showing off his large mouth bass caught from the river bank. No, I haven't started to run freshwater charters.
We had a small weather window this morning to try for tog on the inshore wrecks. We couldn't find any 15" ones, and we only caught three in about 2 hours of fishing. all were released. We did catch the first blowfish of the season, and it was big enough to get a couple of bites out of it for dinner. We were expecting North wind, but there was an easterly component to the wind that chased us back inshore. We are still not able to offer charter trips. I'll let you know when the restriction is lifted. I hope everyone is staying healthy.
We caught a lot of tog, but none for dinner. We were practicing social distancing. Only had my sons on the boat, and we stayed 6' apart. We didn't see another boat in the ocean. Just commercial tug traffic. We probably caught 25 tog, but most were in the 13 to 14.5 inch range, so we didn't catch any keepers. All fish were returned safely.
The Babu III is now in a slip at Deebold's Marina in Brigantine. This is the same marina I've been at for several years, but my slip is now on the floated. You no longer need to climb up a ladder to get on or off the boat. I haven't fished yet, but I'm getting reports of numerous small striper around along with some large bluefish. Because of the need to keep my customers, crew, and myself safe, I will not be taking any customers out until we don't need to be social distancing, but I will be fishing with my family. Let's hope we get this covid-19 behind us quickly. Stay healthy, and have a Happy Easter.
Atlantic City and Brigantine, NJ March 2020 Fishing Report This report covering the late February and early March fishing front for the Atlantic City and Brigantine area is being written with the February wind howling. The report will include the latest proposed striper regulations, bluefish regulations, along with where fluke and sea bass regulations are probably going. There will also be a update on the striper and perch fishing. The tog season will close at the end of February, and will probably reopen in April. New Jersey made a striped bass proposal to the federal fisheries regulators that called for 1 fish slot limit for a striper of 28 inches to less than 38 inches. This proposal will be reviewed and hopefully passed by the feds in April. As usual striper season will open for the back bays, and inlets on March 1 following last season’s rules. The new regulations will probably be implemented April 1. New Jersey has proposed the continuation of the striper bonus tag for a fish between 24 inches to less than 28 inches with the bonus tag program starting on May 15 instead of September 1. The bluefish bag limit will be three fish for the recreational fishermen, and five fish for the for-hire sector of the fishing community. The fluke and sea bass regulations will probably be about the same as last season size and bag limits with a mid-May opening for sea bass, and a later in May fluke opening is projected. It is looking like the March 1 striper opening will see plenty of short stripers available in the rivers. I’m anxious to see how the warm winter will affect the striper fishery. February saw a good catch and release fishery especially for those in kayaks. A good white perch bite was on for most of the past month with grass shrimp and bloodworms working well. I plan to launch Babu III soon after Easter unless the warm winter has the fish chewing sooner. Babu Charters will start the season focused on striper and bluefish. Starting mid-May with the sea bass opening we will also include wreck trips and offshore shark trips. Customers are starting to book now. If you have a specific date in mind, you should book ASAP. Tightlines, Capt. John Wilkinson [email protected] 410-320-9351
A striper of this size will need to be returned next season. It is looking like we will be fishing for 1 Striper per day per person between 28" and 38". This ruling has yet to be approved by the ASMFC Technical Committee. If the ruling is declined we will be subject to the coast wide mandate of 1 fish 28" to 35". Another change is the SBBP "Striped Bass Bonus Program) will continue as it has been with one exception. One Tag for each registered angler between 24" and 28" with a opening day for this program of May 15th, and if not accepted the bonus program will start September 1st. The for-hire bluefish limit will be five fish per person. It also looks like the sea bass and fluke limits will not change, and the fluke opening will be May 22nd. I think sea bass will be May 15th. I'm just putting this out for everyone's info.
Boat was pulled, winterized and wrapped today. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thank you everyone for another great season. I'm already planning for the 2020 season. It looks like we will have major changes coming for bluefish, striper, and maybe fluke. Happy Holidays, Capt. John Wilkinson 410-320-9351 www.babucharters.com
We went wreck fishing yesterday aboard Babu III. We caught several tog, two sea bass that were returned, and four spinneys that were also returned. Our largest tog was 6 lbs, and the others that we kept were in the 2 to 3 lb. range. The picture of the tog on the cleaning table, only a tog lover could love, They are very tasty.
This weekend our first ocean striper trips are scheduled. I'll be ready to troll, snag & drop, or cast lures. First we need to find if the fish are near Atlantic City and Brigantine, and then we need to see what they want to eat. The fish pictured is from a few years ago.
We had volunteer firemen out for a short afternoon trip of sea bass fishing. They brought 16 home for dinner. I'm not sure if they are going to be a firehouse dinner or not. In total we caught over 50 fish in about 1.5 hours of fishing. Along with the sea bass a blue and a trigger fish will be on the dinner menu. several bergals were thrown back as well. Riptide salt clam worked great. We also had some crab aboard, but didn't use any because I thought the tog were shallower