Gr8ful Fish
07-23-2007, 09:49 AM
Took my brother, "Procastinator", aboard my "Bertha" for another banner day of fluking on Sunday, 7-23-07.
We decided to "take it easy" by starting late in the morning, since we were planning to head out offshore early the next morning to chase down some tunas. The NOAA forecast was calling for a Small Craft Advisory, so we figured it was going to whip up in the afternoon, and we would be back at the dock early. :rolleyes:
Started near the TC buoy with a nice drift down the edge of the channel, but the water in the area was the color of chocolate milk. I decked one 21" fluke right off the bat, and tossed back a couple of shorts on "weight & bait" while Pro tried bucktailing with a 3 oz. Spro. Pro also had the only live snapper we were able to net in the marina before we left that he fished on a teaser above the jig.
The fast drift was making the bucktailing difficult for Pro, so after my 3rd fish, he switched over to a bait rig as well. We worked over this area for a while, but never really found a good bite.
We decided to go check out some new areas, so we moved over to the SP buoy area where I boxed a couple more keepers measuring 20-21 inches, and Pro finally broke the ice with a nice 20.5 incher as well. While drifting, I looked down the Raritan Reach a bit and noticed a very defined break between the muddy-colored water and the clean blue water slightly North and East. Decided to move down the Reach to where the water was cleaner.
While running past Chapel Hill channel, I saw a HUGE sturgeon breach out of the water out towards the West Bank area. It was an awesome sight to see a 5-6' fish launch itself out of the water and come crashing back into the sea.
As I moved along the Reach channel, I found some areas that were holding clouds of bait so thick that they would disrupt my fishfinder's ability to read bottom. At times, we would be in 30-40 foot of water and the clouds of bait would cause the FF to read only 15-20 feet. :eek:
I suspected that the bait clouds were grass shrimp as all of my fluke recently had only grass shrimp, tiny mussels and small calico crabs (<1/4" or up to half-dollar-sized) in their bellies when cleaned. I repeatedly stopped on the bait readings and drifted or power drifted to keep us around the bait, and the fluke were there in big numbers ... at least for one of us! ;) :D
At the end of the day, we had 14 keeper fluke in the box with only one fish under 18.5 inches ( 10 for me & 4 for Pro.) 3 of our fish were from 18.5-20 inches, but all the others ranged from 20-23 inches. After boxing my limit and working on Pro's, we decided to pack it up. (Truthfully, I could have easily made a couple more drifts to finish up Pro's limit, but we needed to make sure we could get back to the bait & tackle store to pick up ballyhoo before they closed.) :cool:
Unfortunately, when we got back home at the end of the day we learned that Mother Nature apparently didn't want us molesting her tunas, so she was readying her fan and garden hose as an angler deterrent. :( Good thing we got those ballyhoos! :rolleyes:
Most of our drifts were along the edges of the Reach channel on the NJ side in 25 - 40 feet of water. All of our fish were caught on squid/smelt combos as this was the only bait I brought along for the day.
OH ... and the Small Craft Advisory that NOAA was calling for couldn't have been any further from the truth as I don't think we saw any waves bigger than 2' all day long!
- Gr8ful
We decided to "take it easy" by starting late in the morning, since we were planning to head out offshore early the next morning to chase down some tunas. The NOAA forecast was calling for a Small Craft Advisory, so we figured it was going to whip up in the afternoon, and we would be back at the dock early. :rolleyes:
Started near the TC buoy with a nice drift down the edge of the channel, but the water in the area was the color of chocolate milk. I decked one 21" fluke right off the bat, and tossed back a couple of shorts on "weight & bait" while Pro tried bucktailing with a 3 oz. Spro. Pro also had the only live snapper we were able to net in the marina before we left that he fished on a teaser above the jig.
The fast drift was making the bucktailing difficult for Pro, so after my 3rd fish, he switched over to a bait rig as well. We worked over this area for a while, but never really found a good bite.
We decided to go check out some new areas, so we moved over to the SP buoy area where I boxed a couple more keepers measuring 20-21 inches, and Pro finally broke the ice with a nice 20.5 incher as well. While drifting, I looked down the Raritan Reach a bit and noticed a very defined break between the muddy-colored water and the clean blue water slightly North and East. Decided to move down the Reach to where the water was cleaner.
While running past Chapel Hill channel, I saw a HUGE sturgeon breach out of the water out towards the West Bank area. It was an awesome sight to see a 5-6' fish launch itself out of the water and come crashing back into the sea.
As I moved along the Reach channel, I found some areas that were holding clouds of bait so thick that they would disrupt my fishfinder's ability to read bottom. At times, we would be in 30-40 foot of water and the clouds of bait would cause the FF to read only 15-20 feet. :eek:
I suspected that the bait clouds were grass shrimp as all of my fluke recently had only grass shrimp, tiny mussels and small calico crabs (<1/4" or up to half-dollar-sized) in their bellies when cleaned. I repeatedly stopped on the bait readings and drifted or power drifted to keep us around the bait, and the fluke were there in big numbers ... at least for one of us! ;) :D
At the end of the day, we had 14 keeper fluke in the box with only one fish under 18.5 inches ( 10 for me & 4 for Pro.) 3 of our fish were from 18.5-20 inches, but all the others ranged from 20-23 inches. After boxing my limit and working on Pro's, we decided to pack it up. (Truthfully, I could have easily made a couple more drifts to finish up Pro's limit, but we needed to make sure we could get back to the bait & tackle store to pick up ballyhoo before they closed.) :cool:
Unfortunately, when we got back home at the end of the day we learned that Mother Nature apparently didn't want us molesting her tunas, so she was readying her fan and garden hose as an angler deterrent. :( Good thing we got those ballyhoos! :rolleyes:
Most of our drifts were along the edges of the Reach channel on the NJ side in 25 - 40 feet of water. All of our fish were caught on squid/smelt combos as this was the only bait I brought along for the day.
OH ... and the Small Craft Advisory that NOAA was calling for couldn't have been any further from the truth as I don't think we saw any waves bigger than 2' all day long!
- Gr8ful