The best quantities of Weakfish fish are still being caught in the mouth of the Mullica River during the morning hours. The fishing in this area has seemed to slow down as the boating traffic picks up. Some anglers are fishing in the middle of the bay. It doesn't make any sense to me, but weakfish have been caught one mile out of Great Bay Marina toward 139 buoy, kinda' in the middle of nowhere. Other weakfish are being caught in the deeper water areas of Grassy Channel. Small jig heads 1/8 & 1/4 ounce with purple worms with red or white tails are a good bet in Grassy. Be sure to soak the worms in shedder oil, or tip the jig with a little piece of squid soaked in shedder oil, or a small piece of Sandworm or Bloodworm. The Mouth of Oyster and Motts Creek have been producing a little bit larger weakies on the outgoing tides. A couple of noteworthy fish worth mentioning this week were Pete Alba's 5 pound 11 ounce Weakie caught in the evening down in Grassy Channel and Ed Larnour's 3 pound 8 ounce Weakfish caught today around the 136 Marker buoy.

It has been hard to figure the fluke out. They are feeding, and then they are not. I believe that the fluctuating water temperature is making them a difficult fish to catch. The best Fluke catching reports are still coming from in the bay. Most of the good catches of Fluke are occurring in the area of the Fish Factory. The orange ball in the clam stakes on the North West side of the Fish Factory has still been a good place to start a few drifts. Some anglers are drifting between the islands around the Factory especially along the area of 126 marker buoy and are coming up with fair catches. The more aggressive fishermen are short drifting the sandbars from shallow water back into the deep water. Fluke like to wait in these areas for baitfish to be washed over to them by the tide.

There is a little bit of Snapper Bluefish action in the lagoons now. Most of the fish are from 6" and down. Best way to catch 'em is with a small hook with a little piece of spearing for bait. Fish the surface with a plastic float on the line about 18" above the hook. Casting and retrieving a minnow also works well. Small #10 or #12 hooks can also be fished on the bottom with a little piece of squid or worm with hopes of catching bottom fish. Every once in awhile there are Weakfish and Fluke caught in the lagoons, too.

Crabbing is great. Today, in our back lagoon, my children, Bethany and Alexander spent about 1/2 an hour with a bunker head on a trebble hook scooping at crabs. With their interest I put our large crab pot in the lagoon with hopes of adding a few crabs to the pot for dinner. They had a great time netting 5 crabs 5 inch plus point to point in length while the big trap caught 1/2 a dozen more. Not too bad for 1/2 an hour. Try taking the kids crabbing this weekend. Point the boat up the Mullica River, anchor in the mouth of a little creek that drains into the river or choose a small creek that drains into Great Bay. My favorite time to crab is the last few hours of the out going tide. I believe that it drains all the crabs out of the creek right past your awaiting baited handlines and traps. Some folks prefer the first of the incoming tide. Good luck and remember to enjoy the quality time with the family.