June 2000

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June 27, 2000

Last week's report about fluking in the river received quite a response. It seems it is not a secret that big fluke can be caught in the river in June. the party boat captains having being fishing the shrewsbury with much success for the last 10 years.

Fluke:

Dave Cosgrove and his fiancée Jenn Manzi caught 8 fluke drifting the knoll on Sunday. Most where caught on killies. The biggest a 3.2 lbs was caught on a diamond jig while casting into a school of bluefish.

Striped Bass:

captain Pete Wagner Reports : Got a few good reports for you.
Monday a group from Panasonic had their limit of bass to 17lbs on the
troll.
Wednesday the Jay Factor party scored a great chunking catch on the
knoll with fish to 18lbs on bunker and clams.
Two trips on Thursday saw a double limit with the Morning's catch had by
Dino Torral from AT&T.The afternoon the Don Stake party had their limit
on clams.
Friday mornings trolling trip for John Cobiella from Pa.had 17 keepers
and a cooler full of big bluefish.Friday afternoon the Dave Fanslau
party totalled12 keeper bass and over 30 blues on the troll.
Saturday morning the Lucent Technologies party led by Scott Okal of
Brick had super trolling taking 15 keepers plus 30 shorts and plenty of
blues.Saturday afternoon the Ed Noack party from North Arlington
totalled 17 keepers plus 45 shorts and tons of bluefish.They had hot
fishing with double hookups being the rule.Father's day the Vinnie
Palmiri party from Pt Pleasant had a great morning with 13 keepers plus
25 shorts and 25 bluefish also going home for the grill.
It was a good week.

Bluefish

Christine Denicola, Holmdel, has been doing very well chunking bluefish on her boy friends party boat out of Belmar. She brought me 25 pounds of fillet bluefish to sell in the restaurant. Yes people do enjoy fresh bluefish prepared properly!

Jay Cosgrove

June 19, 2000

Father's Day Weekend proved to be a great weekend for all of those dads fishing out of sandy Hook. Although Sunday's weather was not so great, the fishing was. The full moon always helps the bite and this month's moon was no exception. It seemed to bring in the doormat fluke with their voracious appetite.

FLUKE

Captain Stan on the Elaine B reports "Very very good fluke fishing this week. Found the Fluke super thick in the river Wed. most of fisherman had their limit. Thurs. just as good,
Fri. back at the dock early all had their limit. With the weekend boat
traffic we fished Rarity reach Sat. and wound up with good fishing and 2
limits. Sun. back to the mouth of the river and again super fishing and more
limit catches.Overall it's been pretty darn good."

Party boats fishing the river?...they must have read my last report!
Two big fluke were weighed in on Saturday. Kenny Dubman's Charter on the K-Kat had a 10.1 lb while chunking moss bunkers for striped bass at Roamer Shoals area. Allen Bridges aboard the "Emily" from Little Silver , had a nice 11.3 lb fluke fishing the same way at Flynn's Knoll . They have been using fresh bunker chunks and fillets. If you score the filet and hook the bait properly you can present it with a more natural fluttering action. But the real trick is to have fresh bait, frozen is just as good as long as it not frozen more than 10 days and is properly defrosted in salt water, add some kosher salt and it will stay on the hook better.

STRIPED BASS

I was speaking with hank Gilbertson at the dock yesterday, an avid striper fisherman, he has been drifting worms all spring and having great success. he doesn't get a lot of keepers but when he does they are big. Last year we weighed in a 41 lb striper that he caught under the Highlands bridge one night in October. This year his biggest is 32lbs from under th Sea Bright bridge. He has mastered the drifting technique for night fishing in the Shrewsbury rivers. Hank puts in the time and you can usually see his white dory under one of the bridges most nights. On Fathers day he reported many bass at the tip of the hook in 23 feet of water. He likes to use sand worms and had 2 keepers and about 15 throw backs. The conditions were perfect just before the lightening storm that came through later that evening. P.S. check out John Matteucci's 54 pound bass caught in 1992. I just posted it on http://bahrs.com/goodcatches.html

MAKO

The Bay Agency Shark Tournament sponsored by Bahrs Landing, Friday produced one mako shark weighing in at 136lbs. They caught it late in the afternoon in the Glory Hole w/ about 61 degrees green& clean water. Phil got it back to the weigh station quickly in his new red Regulator "Opus One", just at the deadline for the tourney. There were no other makos weighed in. Dave Brown of Rumson fishing with Randy Duda took top prize for the "1st fish released prize" . They had 14 boats entered and most reported blue sharks down deep. Makos had to be 100 plus pounds to qualify.

See the photos at http://bahrs.com/fistour20.html

June 13th, 2000

This week saw the return of hot weather into our area. Saturday and Sunday were close to record temps 96 plus. The only cool place was about 1/2 mile off the coast where the cool water kept the air cooler. The fishing was good for striped Bass. The fluke was a little spotty on the weekend but better during the week.

Fluke:

Jason Dixon of Highlands Reports: "Hey Jay , I caught this fluke on 6/7/00 in front of long johns drifting spearing at the bottom of the tide.It weighed about 4 to 4 1/2 pounds and was 24 inchs long " I will have the photo in the good catches section on Bahrs.com .

Jim Hedges, Elizabeth and Ralph Kielbas, Sea Bright , caught Fluke on saturday out around the hook on Saturday near the "Nude" Beach. They used mostly killies and fluke belly.

At Atlantic Highlands, Charlie Fiore (92) of Little Falls was thrilled with the 5.3-pound fluke he boated to win Saturday's pool on the Atlantic Star. Capt. Ed Bunting Jr. reported fair fluking from his Sea Horse around Sandy Hook and the Navy Pier. The short ratio ranges up to 10 to 1, though a few bigger fluke are also showing. Mark Howard of Clifton boated a 7-pounder Sunday and Bill Castillo of Union City won Saturday's pool with a 3-pounder. Night stripers have been slow, but there are plenty of blues and there was a shot of big weakfish Saturday night.

Striped Bass: The Hyper Stiper was at the Gas dock on Friday with his regular Friday clients. They had a cooler full of stripers and sea bass. Dr. Andrew waters of Edison, had an 18 lb'r taken on bunker chunks on Flynn's Knoll. Chris Ozemko of Garwood and Gary Thompson of Montana (the state) caught his first striper an 18 lb'r also. You can see the photos on here http://bahrs.com/goodcatches.html

Mike Stavola of Middletown did very well on Sunday, also on Flynn's Knoll, with 4 striped bass over 34". He was using clam chum on the bottom and frozen clams as bait. He is another convert to the new system. Read past articles http://bahrs.com/weekfisrep.html .

Bass are being taken under the Highlands Bridge. The best report comes from one of the local clammers, (who wanted to remain nameless) caught 18 fish in two hours at the end of the outgoing tide on the Mobys side of the bridge. He had 9 over 28 " and 2 over 24 and only 7 shorts. I bet you are wondering what bait he was using. If you guessed clams you were wrong he was using softshell crabs. A known irresistable bait for Stripers. Once in a while your local tackle shops carry them. You can fish them the same as a sand worm except you have to secure them to the hook w/ dental floss or a small rubber band.

Tuna: Pete Cherasia of Rumson fished his new 57' Viking down off of Virginia Beach over the weekend. He and his crew came home with many fish flags flying. They loaded up on Yellowfins down in the canyons off Virginia. Hopefully I will be giving more offshore reports soon. There are a couple of Shark Tournaments coming up this weekend. We are a weigh in Station for the Bay agency Tournament on Friday.

June 5th, 2000

This past weekend weather was nice for a change. About 75 w/ low humidity after the front on Friday. It was a beautiful weekend to be on the water!

I was asked by Ron McClelland of Ron's Sportfishing Charters to relay the Costa Rica Plans for 2001. Ron is from Middletown and puts together affordable fishing packages for those who are adventurous. His trips are all inclusive I believe. Costa Rica, 2001. Dates Dept. Newark 2/17/01 Return 2/24/01. Four days
fishing offshore (MAI-MAI, sails, marlin), with optional half day fishing
inshore (tuna, jacks, Snapper, Roosterfish). Fishing days includes breakfast
& lunch. 5 nights at Harbor Reef Lodge, Nosara, C. R. 2 nights in San
Jose. Total cost, including airfare, should run just under $2,000.00. Need
$100.00 deposit ASAP. If interested call Ron McClelland 1 (732) 576-1663 or
e-mail RSFD1 @aol.com .

FLUKE:

Captain San on the "Elaine B 2" Reports :
Fluke fishing slowed somewhat this week. The main problem was lack of
drift. Power drifted all the ledges in Sandy Hook Bay to put catches together.
The weekend fished Ambrose Channel and the Rockaways very good action
with lots of shorts with enough keepers to keep it interesting. Most other boats that I spoke with also had the same results.

STRIPED BASS:

Sam Boulmetis, Sea Bright and Roy McClain , Louisiana fished last Wednesday and had some nice keepers at the dock. They boated 4 keepers up to 34" about 18 lbs. It seems the new bait of choice is sea clams, fresh or frozen seem to work just as well. A new bait product for the area is being developed by some of the commercial fisherman in Belford. The offshore clam boats have been catching huge sea clams for Cambels Soup Company's chowder for years. One of the captains had the idea to develop a clam chum system for stripers. The new system seems to work extremely well. It is not yet ready for sale but will be soon.

Stripers were also taken on the dock by John Matteucci "Tooch", Dennis & D.J. Nalepa Red Bank "Shakin", John Hayes "Morning Hayes", Captain Kenny Dubman on the "K-Kat", Captain Pete Wagner "Hyper Striper" and Phil Sciorentino "Tackle Box" ( Phil is mostly fishing at night and I have seen his parties bring back some nice catches in the dark). If you notice my name is not on this list. I have to get there soon!