MAKO19
12-11-2006, 11:48 AM
12-9-06:
Fished with FightingIrish45 and my uncle JB on Saturday on the Mako19 and had a phenomenal day despite the horrible wind that was blowing. Our initial plan was to do some back bay clamming anchored up in one of our honey holes but after going over Townsends Inlet bridge and seeing that the inlet and ocean tight to the beach was calmer than the intercoastal we opted to go out front. We started heading north trolling stretch 25’s and had some throwback size fish on in a matter of minutes. After a few generous captains on the radio informed us of bird play south of Corsons we picked up and ran up there to find hundreds of birds, bait and STRIPERS just off Strathmere beach!! Most fish we slot size or smaller but we did manage a few keepers at 30” and 33”. After we found the birds they kept heading south following the bait and the keeper fish were off Sea Isle right on the bell buoy. Fish were caught on bucktails and any chrome jig that you could toss at them. There were also a few slammer blues mixed in with them as well. Crazy thing was that back at the cleaning station one fish had 3 whole butterfish in its belly! They must be on butterfish schools because these butters looked fresh enough to use in the canyons for chunk bait! Keep this in mind when selecting your lure or jig if you find the birds working. I never seen our recorder lit up the way it was today and we lost count of how many fish were caught and I don’t see a need to post ridiculous catch numbers like we experienced. Anyway, great time out and glad to see some fish up north were they have been lacking the past few months.
12-10-06:
Fished with my pops and grandpop on the Widowmaker and we were ready for war. We had fresh clam, spot and all the artificials you could think of on board. After breaking Cape May inlet we found a fleet on the Wildwood lump so we anchored up and tried with some fresh clam. Wind against tide and spiny dogs made for ridiculous fishing conditions so we pulled the hook after maybe an hour of fishing and opted to go bird chasing instead. As we were heading up the beach we found that the bait that was off Sea Isle Saturday moved a bit to the south Sunday and was set up off Avalon / Stone Harbor. All fish we caught were shorts but some boats around us put fish in the box. We had enough double and triple-headers to put smiles on everyone’s faces! After the wind calmed down we ran down the rips to finish up the day looking for keeper fish and I am glad we did. It was non-stop action on spot and bucktails and keeper fish were in the mix as a 33”, 31”, and 2 at 28” made there way into the box. The best thing was that there wasn’t a yahoo in sight and we were able to effectively work the rip holding fish and had bent rods on every single drift!!! With warm weather and ideal wind conditions this week I think that everyone that goes will do well. We found the fish on the “outside” rips where the clean water is!
Fished with FightingIrish45 and my uncle JB on Saturday on the Mako19 and had a phenomenal day despite the horrible wind that was blowing. Our initial plan was to do some back bay clamming anchored up in one of our honey holes but after going over Townsends Inlet bridge and seeing that the inlet and ocean tight to the beach was calmer than the intercoastal we opted to go out front. We started heading north trolling stretch 25’s and had some throwback size fish on in a matter of minutes. After a few generous captains on the radio informed us of bird play south of Corsons we picked up and ran up there to find hundreds of birds, bait and STRIPERS just off Strathmere beach!! Most fish we slot size or smaller but we did manage a few keepers at 30” and 33”. After we found the birds they kept heading south following the bait and the keeper fish were off Sea Isle right on the bell buoy. Fish were caught on bucktails and any chrome jig that you could toss at them. There were also a few slammer blues mixed in with them as well. Crazy thing was that back at the cleaning station one fish had 3 whole butterfish in its belly! They must be on butterfish schools because these butters looked fresh enough to use in the canyons for chunk bait! Keep this in mind when selecting your lure or jig if you find the birds working. I never seen our recorder lit up the way it was today and we lost count of how many fish were caught and I don’t see a need to post ridiculous catch numbers like we experienced. Anyway, great time out and glad to see some fish up north were they have been lacking the past few months.
12-10-06:
Fished with my pops and grandpop on the Widowmaker and we were ready for war. We had fresh clam, spot and all the artificials you could think of on board. After breaking Cape May inlet we found a fleet on the Wildwood lump so we anchored up and tried with some fresh clam. Wind against tide and spiny dogs made for ridiculous fishing conditions so we pulled the hook after maybe an hour of fishing and opted to go bird chasing instead. As we were heading up the beach we found that the bait that was off Sea Isle Saturday moved a bit to the south Sunday and was set up off Avalon / Stone Harbor. All fish we caught were shorts but some boats around us put fish in the box. We had enough double and triple-headers to put smiles on everyone’s faces! After the wind calmed down we ran down the rips to finish up the day looking for keeper fish and I am glad we did. It was non-stop action on spot and bucktails and keeper fish were in the mix as a 33”, 31”, and 2 at 28” made there way into the box. The best thing was that there wasn’t a yahoo in sight and we were able to effectively work the rip holding fish and had bent rods on every single drift!!! With warm weather and ideal wind conditions this week I think that everyone that goes will do well. We found the fish on the “outside” rips where the clean water is!