Mystic Island Weather Station (OPENS NEW WINDOW)

Friday, July 3, 2009 /\/\/\ 6:53pm

A lot of anglers were out today, but very few were back through the store this afternoon to give reports.
I heard the first of decent brown shark fishing down in the Grassy Channel area. If you're thinking fireworks and shark fishing tomorrow night, I would say it's a great idea.
Sea bass fishing is pretty good if you can find something that isn't plucked too clean. It's hard pressed to find many large sea bass, but there seem to be an okay number that just break the 12 1/2" size limit.
Big numbers of fluke came out of the clams stakes again today with a very small number of keepers in the mix. Anglers jigging their baits seem to be popping bigger numbers. Some folks have gone to bigger baits in hopes of targeting keepers, but mostly they just eliminated the six inch flatties.
Minnow status is hanging in there. The guys have been working their butts off and we should have a good start into Saturday morning with minnows. More deliveries are expected and just maybe we will not fall short.
Sea Ya

Thursday, July 2, 2009 /\/\/\ 6:35pm

It looks like it's going to be a hot and sunny weekend. Thank you very much Mother Nature! We sure do appreciate it. Welcome to July. July and heat equal green flies; be prepared. They are already pretty bad.
Fluke will be the target fish of the weekend. There are tons of little fluke still in the Great Bay. Now and again, a keeper is picked out of the mix. Although, they are a pretty rare find. Quite a few anglers have the plan to get out on the ocean even know there isn't much of a catch difference as of yet on the reef sites. Three bonus points to fishing the ocean on any busy summer weekend. It will be cooler. There will be almost no flies and the boating pressure will be much less.
If you want to yank on bluefish then a trip to the Barnegat Ridges is necessary as there haven't been any bluefish elsewhere.
If you want a weakfish, tough.
If you want to go crabbing; great news. Crabbing has been pretty good this past couple of weeks. The only drawback will be the amount of flies you will feed if you anchor up in one of the little side creeks off of the bay.
Sea Ya

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 /\/\/\ 6:11pm

Anglers that fished early had their trips cut short due to the thunderstorms that kept rolling through all day today. There was some real hot and heavy action this morning in the area of the clam stakes just before the first storm. Jeremy and PopPop Posluszny had twenty four fish on one drift with three keepers to hit the box, largest fluke was 3.8 pounds 22".
We have packed the walls with Berkley Gulp baits. It's flying off the shelves again this year. Popular ones are the three inch shrimp, specific color new penny and the three and four inch swimming minnows in pink and chartreuse. The swimming minnows are similar to the grubs that everyone has used in plastics for years.
Sea Ya

Name: Jim Hutchinson
Email: jamesghutch1@aol.com
Boat Name:
Phone: 609-978-0275
Website: http://www.fishbeachhaven.com
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Report Details
Date of Trip: 6/26-6/29
Location of Trip: Inshore ocean and Lindenkohl Canyon
Species Sought: Striper, sea bass, fluke, bluefish, tuna
Time of Day Fished: Early Morning (Still Dark)
Tide Fished: Low Tide (Outgoing water)
Weather Conditions: Sunny
Wind Conditions: 10-20 kts. S
Sea Conditions: 4-6 ft.
Primary Bait: Clams, Fresh
Secondary Bait: Squid
Lure Used: Trolling/Big Game Lure
Fishing Report:
The boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association have been returning to dock with some big catches.
The "Hot Tuna" with Captain Bob Gerkens won the Beach Haven Marlin and Tuna Club's Mako Shark tournament on Saturday with a brute weighing in at 186.5 pound. The crew for the trip consisted of the boat's regular off-shore mate of Rich Stracensky, its junior mate in training Ryan Kellogg, and Barry Thomas of Allentown, P. Capt. Gerkens was near the pole when the Mako hooked up on a whole mackerel and did its first of two spectacular back flip jumps. He had the duty of handling the rod to the end of the battle.
The fishing team did every thing correctly right up to the final gaffing. There were 3 other hookups for the day, one of which resulted in a release of what appeared to be a 75 to 100 pound juvenile thresher shark.
"The June Bug" with Captain Lindsay Fuller made it out to the Lindenkohl Canyon with Dante Soriente and friends. The action was fast and furious as they managed to boat some 25 yellowfin tuna. Most were small, but they did box 3 keepers along with several skippies.
The next day Captain Lindsay had the Catanese family from Hunterdon County out. Despite some rough seas they looked for bass in bunker pods, picked up a keeper fluke on the Garden State South Reef, trolled for bluefish at the Barnegat Ridge, and picked up several sea bass at the Garden State North Reef.
Captain Fran Verdi had a full week of anglers. One day he had Tom and Matt Pitzer for a day of sea bassing on the reef. The two brothers were all about catch and release with 46 fish released including 10 in the 14 to 17 inch range.
Another day Captain Fran shared the Huffnagle party, a large group from Pa., on the "Cousins" with Captain Adam Nowalsky on the Karen Ann II." Capt. Adam fished the waters from 65 to 80 feet and Captain Fran took the waters from 50 to 65 feet.
Capt. Adam ended the day with 40 keeper sea bass, along with a thresher shark that was on the line for a couple of minutes. Captain Fran had 19 keeper sea bass, 4 bluefish, one ling and a keeper fluke. The "Cousins" won the prize for the largest fish, a 3.6 pound sea bass.
Captain Fran was back on the "Dropoff" with the Williams party for some sea bass. He marked plenty of fish but it was hard to get them to bite. He worked 6 areas and managed 10 keepers plus loads of shorts.
Captain Fran finished the week with Lori Dobson’s party and Dave from the "Fish Eye" group. Lori’s two young sons fished hard and managed 4 keeper sea bass. Dave’s group came up empty on stripers but managed to pick up quite a few sea bass including 8 keepers.
Capt. Adam Nowalsky from the "Karen Ann II" reports that fluke are being caught on the ocean in lesser numbers than in the back bays but the percentage of keepers is higher. He says he plans to make the switch from wreck fishing to fluke very shortly. His recent wreck fishing trips include the Doriety charter which finished the day with a box of 86 fish, mostly sea bass to 3 pounds along with some line and a 12-pound bluefish.
The Sara Madonna Charter, a good group of EMT's fought the rough seas for nearly two dozen keepers for half a morning. The Beskin charter had similar results for half a morning’s fishing.
The Marhan Colangelo Charter from the Long Branch area filled the box with 56 fish, mostly sea bass to 3 pounds along with some nice ling to 2.5 pounds. The Fred Verdi Charter from Lawrenceville kept almost 60 fish, primarily sea bass along with some ling and a bluefish.
The Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association held its first Junior Mate’s Program last week with 8 eager future mates. It is not too late to sign up for this year with another meeting slated for Thursday, July 2 at the Beach Haven Maritime Museum at 7 pm. For information call Captain John Koegler at 609-290-3349.
~Jim Hutchinson

Name: Jack Bean
Email: jbean1@verizon.net
Phone: 296 8889
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Report Details
Date of Trip: 06/29/09
Location of Trip: L E REEF
Species Sought: FLUKE
Time of Day Fished: Early Afternoon
Tide Fished: High (Incoming water)
Weather Conditions: Sunny
Wind Conditions: less than 10 kts. W
Sea Conditions: less than 2 ft.
Primary Bait: Minnows/Killies/Shiners
Secondary Bait: Squid
Lure Used: No Lures Used (Rig or Hook Only)
Fishing Report:
Fished with daughter and grandkids had perfect weather and sea conditions. Caught 1 18 ½" fluke and several throw backs, 2 skates, 1 sea robin and 1 14" squid. Over all it was a great trip, kids had a blast and are looking foreward toward their next trip..jb
~Jack Bean

Name: Tony Cooper
Email: tc@captaincoopscharters.com
Boat Name: Chasin Tail

Report Details
Date of Trip: 06/28/09
Location of Trip: Clam Stakes
Species Sought: Fluke
Time of Day Fished: Early Afternoon
Tide Fished: High (Incoming water)
Weather Conditions: Partly Sunny/Partly Cloudy
Wind Conditions: less than 10 kts. NW
Sea Conditions: less than 2 ft.
Primary Bait: Squid
Secondary Bait: Minnows/Killies/Shiners
Lure Used: Bucktail
Fishing Report:
Hello Scott. Dave and I took the girls out on Sunday to do a little fluking and enjoy the nice weather that we were having. Fishing was a little slow but we had a good time. We caught probably 10-12 shorts. Nothing close to a keeper and then BAM! My biggest fluke to date. You guys were closed by the time we got in so we measured and weighed the fish at Great Bay Marina. Fish measured 29 inches and weighed 9 pounds even. Got it in 5.5 feet of water. Hopfully tuna next week as the girls hit up the beach. Thanks.
~Tony Cooper

Name: Dave Dickinson
Boat Name: Chasin Tail
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Report Details
Date of Trip: 06/28/2009
Location of Trip: Clam Stakes
Species Sought: Fluke
Time of Day Fished: Morning After Sunrise
Tide Fished: High (Incoming water)
Weather Conditions: Partly Sunny/Partly Cloudy
Wind Conditions: less than 10 kts. NW
Sea Conditions: less than 2 ft.
Primary Bait: Minnows/Killies/Shiners
Secondary Bait: Squid
Lure Used: Bucktail
Fishing Report:
Made it to the bell bouy and realized the weatherman was not telling the truth today. Cancelled mako trip called the girls out for some fluke fishing. Wind turned east by mid day and the bikinis went away. We caught a lot of small fluke and Tony Cooper landed a 29 inch 9lb fluke out near the clam stakes in five feet of water. Congrats Tony to a nice fish. It turned out to be a geat day.
~Dave Dickinson