The first Fall bay Tautog was weighed in today. This 4 pound 11 ounce fish gives hope that the Fall Great Bay Blackfish run has begun. The angler was fishing for whatever he could catch from the fifth bridge on Great Bay Blvd...AKA Seven Bridges road. The Tautog ate a Bloodworm. Now, just imagine the potential of fishing some Green Crabs (Tautog/Blackfish favorite snack) along the banks opposite the burned out bulkhead at the Fish Factory. The most important thing about catching Blackfish, is the location. Tautog are a structure fish. They are rarely on the open bottom. To successfully catch Tog, it is necessary to present the bait right in front of their noses. Sometimes, the bait has to be held still enough for Mr. Tautog to consider whether he wants to eat it. This is done by double anchoring the boat exactly over the ledge, in the case of Great Bay. Drop an anchor a couple hundred feet off the sod bank and drive the boat back to the sod bank. Place the second anchor firmly into the marsh. Tie the boat off so that the boat is bound unmoving right above the ledge where the water depth drops from 5 plus/minus to 20 plus/minus feet of water depth. Use a depth finder or a fishing rig to determine where the ledge is. In many cases, you can line yourself up with another angler who is fishing the same ledge area. You should be able to bounce the lead sinker along the bottom until it drops off the ledge into the deeper water. If that is true, then your fishing in the right spot. If not, then modify the anchor ropes necessary to change your position. The rewards of a good Tautog trip are well worth all the work. All that reminds me of a neat quote..."Fishing is fun, catching is work!" Anonymous Green crab baits can be prepared many ways. I suggest that you make the baits as easily accessible to Mr. Tautog as possible. Turn the crab upside down, and cut it in half with a heavy knife so that there are 4 legs on each side of the crab. Remove the claws and the top shell. Put the crab on a hook by inserting the hook into the leg socket and bend it around into the meat of the crab. Try to leave the hook buried into the meat. After a bait has been in the water awhile, check that small Sea Bass, spearing or minnows didn't eat all the meat out of your crab leaving you fishing with nothing but shell. Five ounce sinkers are usually necessary to fish the banks, because the tide runs pretty hard in this area.

Fluke have pretty much left the bay. Occasionally, there has been Fluke caught in the stakes on the North West side of the Fish Factory and in the mouth of the Mullica River. If you still want to try to catch bay Fluke, I recommend fishing areas closer to Little Egg Inlet. Ocean Fluke fishing reports were scarce this week. A combination of windy weather and super bay Weakfishing kept most anglers in the bay. I suggest hitting the best areas that you had good Fluke activity in the past few weeks.

The hot spot this week was still Marshelder Channel and the areas near the Brick Pile in Tuckerton Bay. Most of the high profile Striped Bass anglers tested their skill the past week catching 5 plus pound Weakfish on live baits like Bunker and Snapper Bluefish. However, a cold water temperature change slowed down the amazing action today. There still was some good fishing, but the anglers with Bloodworms and Sandworms out-fished the live bait guys as the Weakies evidently became less aggressive. In Great bay, the larger Weakfish are in the 3 pound/22" bracket. Anglers continued to catch them in front of the Mouths of Oyster Creek, Motts Creek, Big Creek, and even the Osborne Island lagoon entrance. Bloodworms and Sandworms are the bait of preference as Shedder crabs have become very scarce. The only Shedders around have come from Cape Horn Marina(296 4456). Give them a call and check on the availability before you drive over there. Plastic worms sales picked up with the Weakie action. Several anglers used 6" purple with and without fire red color tails on 1/4 ounce white jig heads. Most of the Weakie action has taken place early in the morning, but some anglers have been able to catch them all day. Another good area is out in the middle of Great Bay. As weird as it sounds, 3/4 of a mile South from the mouth of Big Creek produced limit catches of Weakfish.

The Kingfish are still here. A few anglers are really cleaning up on them, with some fish reaching 16" inches in size. If you have a favorite spot, work it this weekend. Otherwise, hit the old stand-bys at the orange ball in the clam stakes on the North West side of the fish factory or in the deeper water just to the South of the 134 Marker Buoy in the Inland Waterway.

I threw the crab trap back into the lagoon this week with good results. There were at least 15 legal size crabs in it the next day. We were spoiled by the quality of the crabs that we were catching last month. It made most of these crabs look small. So if crabbing is your bag, it surely is worth getting a few more trips in before the run is done.