Not catching any fish? Well, then you are not alone. A lot of times this week I pointed out the old adage that “fishing is great, it's the catchin' that's not so good”. A small modification on the “A bad day of fishing is still better then a good day at work.” phrase. Grandpa Mick, Pa of the Capt. Joel Mick of the Evelyn Ann is the originator of the catchin's not so good line. It really rings true. Remember to enjoy the relaxation of time spent away from it all. Enjoy the scenery, whether it be bathing suits or birds on the banks. There is a lot to see on the bay if you remember to look.
      This week, Fluke were caught in the weirdest places. One angler fishing 90 feet of water on a wreck for Sea Bass caught a Fluke. Anglers fishing for Bluefish on the Barnegat South Ridge caught Fluke. Activity on Long Beach Island beach surf reports activity on the occasional Fluke. A few Fluke are being caught on the reef sights too, but not enough to go out to the reef sites to say that you are Fluke fishing. Scattered reports, not many of them keeper fish. I thought, and kinda still think, that there are plenty of Fluke in the Great Bay, too. One pair of anglers earlier in the week reported of a pocket of Fluke down near the inland waterway in the Great Bay. Four rods out, four rods down. Drift another quarter of a mile and not a bite. Slowly swing the boat around and drifting over the same area produced fish several more times and then the tide changed and the action stopped. I guess the points that I am trying to make is that there are still Fluke in the Bay and if you are lucky enough to catch a Fluke, repeatedly drift the same area.
     Hey, folks up and down the Jersey coast, don't yell at your local tackle shop guy for the rising price of Minnows! There really is a shortage and there just aren't enough minnows to go around. Absecon area shops are getting as much as $5.00 a pint as they are offering a bounty on minnows. The minnowers are catching about 1/5 to 1/10 the minnows per trap than they were last season and they just can't make a minnowing trip cover the cost of bait. Many of them don’t think that it’s worth any price to put up with the fury of the Gnats this season! So, the tackle shop guys are paying higher amounts to get what little amount of minnows the minnowers can provide. I have been real lucky! We have the most awesome minnower around. This guy is a real Bayman. Crabbing is his primary profession and Minnowing is his sideline. Couldn't catch enough minnows, so he doubled his quantity of custom made pots and works from before dawn until after dark some days just to keep us going.  Many people speculate the reason for the minnow shortage. I just don't think anyone has hit the nail on the head though. First, we blamed
the water temperature and then it warmed up and the minnows still aren't around. Second, some people blamed the water quality. I disagree, because as many Shrimpers including myself can tell you, the bays and creeks are loaded with Grass Shrimp if you know where to look. Grass Shrimp are very sensitive to bad water conditions and would disappear in a heart beat if the water wasn't clean or didn't have enough oxygen. Third, there is this brown tide, which I don't know a whole lot about. It has the water shaded the
color coffee and in some areas of the Barnegat Bay, you can not see an inch into the water. Maybe, the algae bloom is contributing to the lack of Minnows. Could be that we are just in a down swing of a minnow cycle, or maybe a long dry spell affected the hatchlings last summer. We are in the middle of a wetlands crisis in my opinion right now, too. A lack of high tide and rain as well as too many hot bright sunny days have dehydrated the meadows almost to a ecological dangerous point. I am no biologist, maybe a lot of damage has already been done. The ponds that are on the meadows are usually full. At this time, the water level is approximate 8 inches below normal which is
pretty bad when some areas of the ponds are only 6 inches deep There is bottom exposed in some ponds that I never thought would get dry. This forced the marine life to compete for space and possibly food. I am sure this drought cannot possibly have any positive effect on the marshlands.
     A new bait product we have in the store is called Cleaned Squid. It is large Squid cleaned by removing guts, skin and the head. All that is left is the tube or what you actually use for bait. This Squid is prepared for food and the expiration date on the side of the box says something like use by September 9. We are able to offer this at the same price per pound as our large New Jersey Squid for several reasons. The first is that it is less labor intensive for us to pack out. The second reason is that the Squid is shipped in
from over seas. Freight expense is high and a savings is made by shipping 50% less weight which reduces the overall cost of the product.
          Where have all of the Bluefish gone? Anglers fished the Barnegat South Ridge in two different boats on Tuesday and caught a total of 6 Blues. That is a lot of gas for a couple of Blues. Shark anglers at the 28 mile Wreck are talking about a lack of Bluefish too. This weekend is the big Tuckerton Invitational Bluefish Fish-Off. It should be as difficult as catching a decent Fluke was for the JCAA tourney last weekend. I just don't know where to find an ocean Bluefish. There are a few in the Little Egg Inlet area, but that is off limits for the Bluefish Tournament guys.