Best of Fishing of 2015

[Gerry Zagorski]

Put your photos and or stories here. I'll start.

I was wanting in the worst way to get out to the Mudhole and fish for some Mahi and an get a shot at a stray Bluefin Tuna if they happened to be around. Week after week I'd plan a date and weather or work would get in the way and I'd end up staring at all the gear I had in my office :mad:

After months of waiting and the season coming to close, in mid September, all the stars aligned and the day finally came. I took great pleasure in changing my voice mail the night before to "leave a message, I'm out fishing :D Went down to the boat the night before to hang out and sleep and as luck would have it, there were tons on real nice Mullet that Arty and I threw the net on.

Me, Billy, Art and Mike set out early that morning... A slow jog out of the bay in the dark but as soon as we had false light it was gitty up and go to the grounds. A few days before, I was watching reports and satellite services like it was my job and had a plan in mind.... We'd run SE to the northern tip of the Mudhole, look for clean water and if we didn't find any, keep on running to the more usual haunts.

First stop was the Monster ledge, nice clean water and lots'o pots so we trolled around there for an hour and a half or so without a touch. So, lines up and we take a run a bit further south to the Glory Hole. Lines in there and still nothing but a few Skippies after giving that area an hour or two trolling...

Now we are running out of time so we make a new game plan... Pick the lines up, make a bee line back to the Monster where we had lots'o pots and good clean water and lets do some potting with the Mullet we netted instead of trolling.

First pot we pulled up to, threw some mullet at it and one of the guys sees a flash. Put a Mullet on the hook and WHAM!! First Mahi on board.. Very fun on light tackle spinning out fits :) We worked the pots in that area for a while and had another 7 or 8 Mahi and then the afternoon breeze came up and put the cabash on things.

The biggest Mahi we had that day was only 10 pounds so not like we killed them but what a day we had...

Good friends, hot sun, cold beer, blue water and some light tackle Mahi in the cooler. Where you going after that??

[Captain Rich]

You didn't say where ! :D:D:D

[Gerry Zagorski]

You didn't say where ! :D:D:D

All is fair in love, war and fishing Rich ;)

[hartattack]

It was my end-of-June birthday & my son & I were eager to get out on Open Boat we reserved months in advance. Arrived at boat at 6am but due to mechanical troubles the trip was canceled. We hopped on half-day Gambler morning trip since we were already in Pt.Pleasant and had the day off.

I knew we were flukin' the sticky stuff so I suggested we pickup some clams since Sea Bass season was still open. "Nah dad, you're nuts - this is a fluke boat". So I only bought 1/2 dozen for myself.

Flukin' was slow so when I saw some Sea Bass coming up near us, I switched over to a hi-low rig and baited up with 2 clams. My rod doubles over on the first drop and starts shaking violently. Mates come over, learn I was using Clams and agreed that I probably had a big out-of-season Blackfish.

Much to everyone's surprise and delight, up comes a nice Knucklehead on the top hook, followed by a decent Cod on the lower hook. Mate does a superb job grabbing them both in one swoop of the net. When Captain Bob learns of this rare catch on a FLuke trip, he agrees that we traveled 54 miles too far East when I was on the Gambler RFA Cod trip a few weeks earlier :eek:

It wasn't the greatest fishing trip of 2015, but memorable because my son joined me on my birthday and we made Lemonade out of a Lemon start to the day :)

[Leif]

Six of us fought this one on the Mushin.

[Man Workin]

Best of 2015 for me was the trips I was able to make to the Point Pleasant Canal for non stop tog action with my daughter. Not to sound corny but teaching her how to cut crabs and hold a rod and reel was just amazing. In the canal this year the water stayed warm and fishing the tide produces a fish every cast. You need this when trying to keep a three year olds attention. We would take the weight off and let her reel them without the extra lead. Bogans would let us dress in their inside bathroom because she was a trooper when she had to be there at six. He would also give her a pink grub jig in the morning. So next year she is aloud on the boat for fishing in shark river and maybe some flaking with her new bogans girl stick.
Hope springs eternal right.
A safe 2016 to all
Brian

[BCinerie]

Was a good day!

[Blackfish Doug]

The best day of the year was a trip I did on the paramount. I had 58 Ling, 6 real nice fat winter Flounder biggest going 4lbs orl & a 35LB. COD. I was fishing light tackle for the Flounder using very small hooks size 1 & very light line 20 lb. test. That's not a very easy feat from a party boat in those debts. Plus this fish put on quite a battle I Had's no idea what it was when I first hooked it was not a dead weight fight on that fish.

[Tognut]

My best fishing experience was with my son...who is autistic, catching his first legal Blackfish on my friends boat. With no coaching, I looked over to see his rod bent, and the telltale sign of a nice tog on his line. I was very proud of him, and I made a big deal, but he just told me to calm down..!!
Great day...!!

RB

[Togman316]

I was able to catch my pb fluke and tog in 2015

[Togman316]

Some photos...

[catsmeow]

I call this past summer " The Lost Summer". I normally fish for fluke at the Hook once a week all season. Launch my 1985 17' aluminum Sea Nymph center console out of the Rumson municipal ramp. I have a 95 90hp Mariner for power. Was looking to get like a 70 hp but my son of course says dad get the 90. It's max power for the boat and have never been able to safely open her up. Well 2015 was year to take on my 1957 pick bathroom. If any of you guys are famliar with the contraction process of that era can appreciate what the demo was like. As far as fishing I take an early May trip at the opening of the season and get blown off the water. Boat is no good in a chop for sure. Spend the whole summer working on the bathroom. Figure its a good time to have my long negleted water pump serviced. Use the boys at OS marine in Perth Amboy. So I aways run fresh water through the engine using muffs after every trip. The boys as OS bust my chops how bad the internalls look. Especially around the thermostat. So no fishing all summer and want to take a trip like early Sept. Motor will on run for like 5 sec and stall. Back to OS for new gas hose and whatever else had to be done. All fixed. So here it is the last week of the season. Say gotta get out once after spending the money on the motor.
Look over the boat and check the flares. Oh man expire July 2015. It's like 7 pm
and say whats chances of being stopped. I think it was the Friday with close the next day. Get to Rumson, wind is howling. Would have not gone out if I had
been fishing all year. Wanna fish the Sandy Hook channel. Get to the bug light,
huge white caps in the ocean, no place for my boat. So we start drifting from the Coast Guard station back. Conditons suck but we are catching fish one after another all shorts. Oh well lot of action. About 1 pm we are off the ammo pier and I look over my shoulder. Coast Guard zodiac like 30 feet away. Cutter off in the distance 3 guys on the zodiac. They address me as captain (wow) and ask me if I have been boarded. Wow no way I have room for that. I say no. They tell me I'm going to be inspected. I say to myself what the odds ? So I fugure I will be extra nice and maybe only get a warning. The inspection goes well and then they ask for my flares. On of the guys not the main guy looks at the flares and says they are in violation. Wow the main guy says there is a 3 month grace period. I breath a sigh of relief. It's the day the Pope is in NYC. I say I thought you guys would be doing pope duty. They said they did that yesterday. Oh the cutter was out of Montauk. Funny it was so bad out there only a had full of boats. They must have had a quota. A while back they come back to us but vere off when they realize they checked us already. I have a full form filled out and was told if in the new future I get asked to be boarded just show them the paper work and would be good. Not sure how long that would be in effect.
Well not much of a fishing story but that was my 2015. Looking forward to a lot of trips in 2016. Good fishin to all..... Walt

ps recommend the boys at OS marine for all your boating repairs.

[Duffman]

Didnt have single bad fishing trip all of 2015. Catching was another story...:p

True bonding experience this year with my kid. Good stuff from stipers fluke crabbing and skeleton hill island exploring.

Boat ran well all year and everyone came home safely every trip.

Tons of Intel from guys on the board, y'all know who you are...thanks boys!

[Irish Jigger]

Best day of the season wasn't limiting on fluke, catching big bass, it was my 3 year old nephew hammering down on his first striper. A day to remember!!!

[kurtisb]

I had a chance to fish a rare open boat trip on the Monger for fluke back in September. In the middle of the day there was no wind and no current, we were just sitting still. Captain said we had only moved 6 feet in the last twenty minutes. I cast my rig up towards the bow and start bouncing it back towards the boat and bam, new personal best 8 # fluke. Next cast was to the exact same spot and bam, a 8 1/2 # fluke.

[bunker dunker]

everytime I got out in 2015 was the best and plan on more in 2016.

[AndyS]

Had a great tilefish trip, other than that it's all freshwater !!
( did a lot of river clean up too )

[broken bobber]

I believed we monied out in 5 tourneys this year... But the highlight of my 2015 was beating my personal best Fluke of 14.1 with a 14.3 oz jumbo...

Looking foward to 2016's 15 lb specimen....

[Walleyed]

During the phenomenal weather window we had on weekend of Oct 11 this year, I finally got the chance to land my first tuna. Picked up a nice mahi that day too (that's the bottom of a 150qt cooler).

[Capt. Debbie]

100 plus pound wahoo caught Labor Day Sunday on way to Baccardi on 31' Rampage called Continginsea.

[Quanman]

I'll have to say it was my sons first trip and fish in Cabo

[Jigman13]

That's a rather large wahoo! Congrats on that beast! Must've thought you snagged a runaway train at first hook up!

100 plus pound wahoo caught Labor Day Sunday on way to Baccardi on 31' Rampage called Continginsea.

[slammer]

Fished four days in a row in the fall beautiful weather and non stop action,live lining,shads.poppers

[CubasFinest12]

Great first year with the boat and we had a lot of personal bests. In the spring, my dad chunked a 40+ pound bass while fishing off Roamer. Over the summer, we had a day that i will never forget with 15 cod fish to 20 pounds along with a full cooler of ling and seabass. Then in the fall, we had 25 tog over 10 pounds. I caught my personal best blackfish at 12 pounds, and my friend joe (on his first blackfish trip ever) caught a 13 pound monster on extremely light tackle. 2015 was a great year of fishing (besides fluking).

[Gerry Zagorski]

Some great trips here.... Keep em coming.

[Capt. Debbie]

Hit him on the troll after seeing breaking bait. He fought like hell. But not epic. His stomach was empty. A beast to get into the boat after head gaff and tale rope. As we brute forced it over gunwale, we remember we had a perfectly good transom door we forgot about. DUH!


That's a rather large wahoo! Congrats on that beast! Must've thought you snagged a runaway train at first hook up!