It looks like the Nor'easter is finally pulling out. I'll be ready to start fishing again Monday, October 14th. Sea bass are back in season, and some nice ones are available. Stripers are on their way. but still will not get here for a few weeks. Pictured is a 51.5 incher caught at wreck inlet in October of 2004.
Yesterday I took my 5 year old grandson Sawyer for about a 1.5 hour fishing trip. He caught a couple of fluke, and five sea bass. I caught 11 sea bass, but he told me his fluke were way harder to catch, so he must be the better fisherman. I agreed. All fish were released.
We took the Rush men on a 4 hour bay trip this morning. They wanted to catch some dinner, so we targeted bluefish. Nine came home for dinner out of 25 to 30 that were caught. The fish third from the right shows the silverside projecting out of the bluefish's mouth. The bait was everywhere, and if you downsized to match the bait, catching them was easy. Can't wait for October 8th so that we can get out sea bassin' again.
Capt. Tim and I decided to take Babu III exploring early yesterday. We left the dock at 6 am in the dark about one hour past high tide with the expectation of being at the mouth of the Mullica River by 6:30. However, the tide had already dropped significantly enough that I couldn't safely take any of the short cuts which would allow me to be in the river on time. With it being dark, and not wanting to hit any crab pots I didn't get the boat on plane until 6:20. Going the long way we got to the Mullica a little after 7 which was 35 to 40 minutes after the magic hour for the stripers. Starting about a mile up the Bass River we drifted out into the Mullica only have small blues, sea bass, and white perch pay any attention to our offerings. Fishing our way up to the Wading River still did not produce any striper, but if you want white perch they are there in quantity.
Yesterday afternoon the NJ Bankers had a great time fishing aboard Babu III. In 3 hours of fishing they landed and released over 100 fish. Most were small sea bass, but they also caught 10 fluke to 17.75", 6 sea robin, 5 lizard fish, 4 shark, 2 weakies. The Riptide B&T salt clam and squid strips kept the fish coming over the rail at a steady pace.
My sons, grandson, and myself went fishing on the 19' boat for about 1.5 hours to console ourselves after the Eagles loss yesterday afternoon. Sawyer, my 5 year old grandson was high hook with 11 sea bass. James caught a couple of striper to 22", and Andrew and I had to be satisfied with the 1.5 pound blues. All fish were released. We got back feeling better than when we left.
Variety is all I can say about the weekend trips aboard Babu III. On Saturday we had the Dunleavy bachelor party out on a 4 hour mid-day bay trip, Tons of small sea bass and fluke were caught with a 16" fluke being the pool winner. We also had a few sea robins. Sunday we had the Peoples out in the ocean for a 4 hour morning trip. About 6 fluke were caught with one being 19 inches along with a 2 pound blue; several sea robins; one was kept for dinner, the first croaker of the year that also came home for dinner, and over 25 sea bass. All were returned quickly. Some of the sea bass were near 17". Tiffany out fished the guys with the two keepers shown. The fluke was the pool winner. Riptide B&T cut bait from squid tubes were best with minnows second best.
For the final day of the summer sea bass season we took the Kleinman bachelor party out for 4 hours of wreck fishing. Over 30 sea bass were caught with 4 in the 13" to 15" range, and they came home for dinner. Four fluke were also caught with one being 19". It came home for dinner as well along with a two pound bluefish. In addition to these fish we also caught about 4 sea robins. Riptide B&T salt clam and squid baits cut from tubes were the best baits again. The ocean started to get a little sporty on our ride back to the dock with a 15 to 20 MPH NE wind, but Babu III handled it well. Being a open center console it was a wet ride. Pictured is the Babu III after coming through the inlet. It is a lousy picture, but check out the length of the rooster tail. I didn't realize it was that long. We were only doing about 25 knots.
With only one day remaining in the summer sea bass season the Thomas boys fished with us today on a 6 hour trip. We started on wrecks at 50' to 60' and caught 6" to 8" sea bass, moved to 75" to 90' wrecks and caught 10" to 12" sea bass. Finally found keeper size sea bass on the 110' deep wrecks. Not monsters, but over 12.5". The largest was about 15.5". We caught over 60 sea bass, and did finally get our three man limit. We also caught sea robins, fluke (no keepers), bergal, and a bullet mackerel pictured. Fin 7 and Ian 12 had a great time, and are really good fisherman. It was Fins first ocean trip. Both boys landed several doubleheaders. The Riptide B&T salt clam and the cut squid from tubes worked great.
Capt. Tim ran a afternoon trip for me with the Fratto family. They fished for less than two hours before getting chased in by the heavy rain. But, in that short time to fish, they caught about 40 fish including the 16' weak fish pictured which was released, along with 12 fluke , sea robin, and lots of sea bass. Today, I had the Presley bachelor party group out for a early morning trip. The wind kept us out of the ocean, but we caught over 70 fish including kings, sea robin, striper, sea bass, sand shark, banded rudder fish, and fluke. Pictured are the rudder fish, the striper, and a 17 3/4' fluke. All fish were released, and Riptide B&T squid cut from tubes was the hot bait.
We took the Rifici family on a morning bay trip. They were the winners of the Brigantine Middle School Babu Charters fishing trip to support the Stokes class trip. There was good competition between Cecelia 10, Robert 6, and of course dad Tom. Tom caught the biggest fluke at 17.5 inches, but Cecelia's comment was you can't catch two at a time can you dad, and Robert said,"I caught the only shark". A total of over 50 fish were landed, and 7 blues went home for dinner. The Riptide B&T bait cut from squid tubes caught the most.
Yesterday we ran offshore looking for Mahi-Mahi. We had 4 takes, 2 hook-ups and landed both. Fishing the offshore pots we had scattered fish every dozen or so pots. Three of the takes were trolling and one was throwing chunked bunker from Riptide B&T. One trolled fish was landed as was the bunker chunked fish. After hitting numerous pots we switched to wreck fishing the deep, and got a 17" sea bass along with as many ling as anyone could want; however, we didn't want any. Today Chris, and his friends joined us for some inshore wreck fishing. Over 20 sea bass were caught with 5 nice keepers to 16.5 inches along with ling, and a large eel. We fished less than a hour when seasickness hit, so we moved back into the inlet for another hour and caught about 20 short fluke a few small sea bass, and a sea robin.
We had the Marinello men out today for a afternoon of bay fishing. About 40 fish were caught mostly fluke with some sea bass, a keeper blue, and a keeper king fish. The Riptide B&T white 3" gulps caught many of the fish, but the silversides caught almost as well. Pictured are Poppa with a 17.25" fluke that was released, along with the blue and king that were kept for dinner.
Wayne Line and his son-in-law fished aboard the 19' boat today. Capt. James left the dock for a early morning trip that beat the rain. Over 20 fluke and 20 sea bass were caught, but nothing for dinner. In addition, the butterfly ray pictured was released. It took about 30 minutes to land, and it was about 5' across. Riptide B&T spearing, and baits cut from squid tubes caught the fish.
Gavin 10, Steph 7, and Bubba 5 caught a few fish with us today. They caught sea bass were up to 14.5", along with blues, bonito, sea robin, and bergals. It was another beautiful day on the ocean.
Jennifer and David did a 4 hour inshore trip with us this morning. Tons of small blues continue to be available on the troll, and sea bass are on some of the shallower wrecks, but fluke fishing has been difficult for us, The Riptide B&T baits cut from squid tubes caught best today. We had sea bass up to 17".
We had the Pesarchick family in the ocean today for a early morning trolling and wreck fishing trip. The cocktail blues were still hitting the trolled clark spoons provided by Riptide B&T. We caught sea bass up to 15" on salted clam on wrecks in 50' to 60' depths.
The Ward family fished with us today. It was a slow pick, but we did catch fluke, sea bass, sea robin, and weak fish. We drifted various locations from 12' to 35'. A few fish were caught at each location. The Riptide B&T gulp, and squid worked best.
We had the Adamson family out early this morning. Trying the ocean proved to be too rough, so we fished the bay. A variety of fish were caught, but none for dinner. Fluke and sea bass were the most plentiful, but we also caught sea robin, sand shark, weakfish, and king fish. All of our Riptide B&T worked equally well. Everything from gulp/squid, spearing/squid, and minnow/squid caught.
We had Tim, Anne, Megan, Matt along with dads Tim and Brian on a early morning bay fishing trip. The small fish were really chewing, but luckily the green-heads were not. But, if they were, we were prepared with Capt. Ron's repellent from Riptide B&T. Over 61 fish were caught including 4 small sea bass, about 27 fluke and over 30 sea robin.