Fluke trip to NJ 7/25

[bulletbob]

Trying to avoid the combat fishing on a packed head boat, I and a friend trailered my boat down to NJ for a change. Left just before midnight and arrived around 4 so we made pretty good time.. Weather was awful to start.. Ominous blackish gray skies , looked like tornado skies. After about 1/2 hours a nasty south wind started, and it started raining sideways. We got a keeper straight off on a peanut bunker near the green can, and were hopeful, but that was short lived.. Started moving around, went outside but it was mostly shorts and birds.. Saw bird frenzies in a few places, with bait going crazy jumping and seemingly being harrassed, but we could not get a hit on our AVA jigs, and neither could anyone else in other boats.. The jigs might have had the wrong profile.. Anyway we fished hard from 6 am to about noon [by which time the weather became bright and HOT, with a lot less wind], and we got a total of 2 keepers , one on a peanut, one on a peruvian smelt.. Finished the day at the bug light in shallow water under 20 feet, and were catching a lot of fluke , but they were all shorts.. By that time the "good bait" was gone and all we had left were a few small stinkin squid remnants, but the smaller fluke loved it.. We actually ran out of bait... Gulp did nothing at all for me except birds.. I started with a 2 oz Spro w/ Chartreuse Gulp mullet, and a trailer hook with Gulp.. Birds were nailing the trailer Gulp, not the jig, and Fluke would have none of it.. Drop down a peanut or smelt, and fluke tagged it fast. Just too many shorts..The smooth dogs were fierce and relentless. NEVER saw this many dogs in all my years of fluke fishing .We could not keep them off our rigs... Damn things, its like trying to take your hook out of a snow tire. For some reason we saw a lot of blue crabs swimming on the surface out in the ocean a few miles,, Can't say I have seen that before in the ocean, just in the bays and rivers.. Got nailed by some horrifying storms going home as we drove through the hills and mountains of Pennsylvania...
Brought home a half dozen Sea Robins besides the fluke.. Fried some up today.. Pretty good as some of you know. Not as good as fluke, but better than some other fish that are regularly taken home to eat. I like them better the porgies any day.. In any case, it was nice to take my own boat out for a change. Just not that easy to do considering the distances involved.. Also a shout out to Fishermens Den North.. The peanut bunker were super duper fresh.. NOT frozen,NO stink, no softness.. We were told they were just netted a few hours previous, and thats how it looked to us.. The fish loved them, my only regret is that we didn't buy more.. We may have gotten another keeper or two... bob

[SplitShot]

Sounds like quite the Adventure Bob.... at least you got down here, got to fish and got home safe with those crazy storms.... :D

[ALS Mako]

Should of used some sea robin strips for bait. Always do good with them. Seems this year more keepers are coming from the channels rather than the flats. Glad you mad the trip down. Better luck next time out.

[bulletbob]

Should of used some sea robin strips for bait. Always do good with them. Seems this year more keepers are coming from the channels rather than the flats. Glad you mad the trip down. Better luck next time out.

Actually we did cut a few up.. They instantly got nailed by their brothers and sisters..Dogs loved them too.. I might have caught a few shorts on a sea robin strip as well.. Everything we used caught fish, but it seemed the peanut bunker got hit quicker and harder.. Plenty of fluke, just not enough keepers. bob

[dakota560]

Great report! Glad to see you make the trip and have some action. Maybe not a lights out day but sounds like you enjoyed the experience regardless. Never eaten sea robin but heard they're very good. Have to give them a try sometime, they seem to be very abundant this year. Was out at the Klondike three weeks ago and you could catch all you wanted and they we're the biggest I've ever seen. Sounds like you were fishing more shallow areas, with the heat we've had of late think many of the fluke in the bay have moved either into the channels or ocean. What was your water temperature? It's been crazy of late, last week on Thursday we had 74 degree water off Long Branch. The afternoon it blew hard S / SE and when we went back out the next day the same area was 61! Still amazed how a south wind can cause such a drop in water temperature. Glad you got home safe, if your trip home was on Monday there were some absolutely brutal storms passing through.

[bulletbob]

Great report! Glad to see you make the trip and have some action. Maybe not a lights out day but sounds like you enjoyed the experience regardless. Never eaten sea robin but heard they're very good. Have to give them a try sometime, they seem to be very abundant this year. Was out at the Klondike three weeks ago and you could catch all you wanted and they we're the biggest I've ever seen. Sounds like you were fishing more shallow areas, with the heat we've had of late think many of the fluke in the bay have moved either into the channels or ocean. What was your water temperature? It's been crazy of late, last week on Thursday we had 74 degree water off Long Branch. The afternoon it blew hard S / SE and when we went back out the next day the same area was 61! Still amazed how a south wind can cause such a drop in water temperature. Glad you got home safe, if your trip home was on Monday there were some absolutely brutal storms passing through.

Its funny, I have water temp on my Garmin 500C FF, and never ONCE did I even look!.. duh... I was not far from the party boat fleet, so I guess I was in the zone. We spent the majority of the day out in the ocean, and around the channels. Most of the boats all moved around from the channels to the flats so I guess there was a spread of fish.. We seemed t get more fluke in shallow water actually, just too many shorts.. Dogs and birds when we got much over 30 feet or so.. The dogs were relentless!, Never saw this many.
The trip home was brutal,, From Leonardo to northern Warren County near the Water Gap, my trucks digital thermometer, read from a high of 99 to a low of 96. Stifling hot, but I have GREAT A/C -thank You Lord!.. Started running into gargantuan and frightening storms, and by the time we hit the area around Scranton the temp was 67 degrees.. Hell of a frontal system.

It was nice to have my own boat out, but towing a 450 mile round trip for fluke is a PITA for sure. Always worried about a flat tire or truck or trailer break down... bob