Scott's Daily Fishing Reports April 1999
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Great Bay had a good showing on the Bluefish this morning. The best fishing was back in the bay between Oyster Creek and 139 Marker buoy of the Inland Waterway. This was the first day that trolling worked. Most of the pods of Bluefish in Great Bay have birds helping you locate them. Casting and retrieving 3/4 ounce bucktail lures with long slender strips of Mackerel bait has been very successful in catching these Spring Blues and Bass.
Sea Ya
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Fishing reports received in yesterday's e-mails:"4/28/99-YOU CAN WALK ON THE BLUEFISH AT HOFFMANS POINT AND LITTLE BAY RIGHT NOW BEHIND BRIGANTINE. CAUGHT NINE BASS THE LAST TIME I WAS ON THE BEACH WITH MY KAYAK. THE OTHER GUYS ON THE BEACH GOT SKUNKED."~Barrel
It's nice to get a report from a bit farther south for a change. Bluefishing is definitely picking up, although being outside today is not recommended as the seas are rough!
"4/27/98-WENT OUT LAST NIGHT AND BETWEEN SOME DECENT SIZED WEAKIES AND A FEW SHORT STRIPERS I LANDED A 27 1/2" WEAKFISH (7.09LBS) IF YOU BELIEVE WAWA'S SCALE. GREAT FIGHT...ONE NOTE, MYSELF AND THE GUY NEXT TO ME HAD OUR LINES PEEL OUT AND THEN SOMETHING BIT OFF OUR LURES.....BLUEFISH OUR PROBABLY SHOWING UP IN THE BACK BAYS WON'T BE SURPRISED TO SEE THEM SHOWING UP IN FISHING REPORTS SOON......THAT'S ALL FOR NOW...."~FishNut
Here's a neat one I haven't confirmed:"4/28 My neighbor just told me tonight that a 37 lb bass was caught at Gravelling Point on bloods. The fish was weighed in at Dicks Dock in Somers Point."~Ralph Y.
Sea Ya Later~ MizMo
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Action at Pebble Beach last night was mixed. Wasn't nearly as good as previous nights. There were a few fish caught between 6:00pm and 8:00pm with a little blitz around 8:45 with one angler catching most of the fish. He must have had magic Worms. Graveling Point was the place to be for some reason. Action was much better over there.
Batsto Falls Herring fishing has now tapered off to a hit and miss. You can still get a little blast now and then, but don't go with too much high hopes.
Last hour of daylight, action for the White Perch in Beach Haven West has been fairly good. (NOTE:this post was written as listed but didn't make it to the net until 4/30-8:10am) Sea Ya
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News of the day has to be the large body of Stripers from 20 to 30 inches that have been moving in and out of Little Egg Inlet and Grassy Channel. Anglers caught these fish under large clouds of birds mostly on bucktails, but many were caught on an assortment of plugs as well. One angler came in and stocked up on red and white 3/4 ounce Rat-L-Traps, so that is probably the lure that worked the best for him today.
Sea Ya
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Down at the Coast Guard Station this afternoon on the high water as well, Art caught a few Tautog with the largest fish weighing 8 pounds 3 ounces and it was 22 1/2" long. It was a real nice fish!
It is just known that first Bluefish in the Great Bay means first Blackfish in the bay as well as GNATS. WARNING, you only have a couple of days left to get that outside work done without bugs.
Additional weekend report: "04/25/99 Just thought I'd report in that the Carolyn Anne out of Barnegat Light still found a fair amount of mackerel on Sunday. We had doubts before going because we thought they might be gone. My son Mike and I gave a lot away, and threw some back, so I can't tell you how many we caught -- except, "enough."" ~Andy Barniskis, Levittown, PA Sea Ya
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Two fishing reports from this weekend worth posting:
"4/25/99 Threw the bucktail over in Grassy Channel. Picked up a nice 3 pound, 22 inch flounder but had to throw it back. Caught 3 stripers of nice size and weight but too short to keep."~Ralph Y.
"4/24/99 SPRING IS HERE!!!HAVE BEEN CATCHING SHORT STRIPERS IN THE BACK BAYS FOR AWHILE.LAST SATURDAY,MY BROTHER AND I NOTICED SOME VERY LIGHT TAPS ON OUR BUCKTAILS.I DECIDED TO SWITCH OVER TO A JIG-HEAD/FIN-S-FISH.ON THE FIRST CAST,(WEAKIE)YES, CAUGHT APPROXIMATELY 20 WEAKIES KEPT 9 NICE ONES..(NO TIDE RUNNERS) YET....RELEASED THE OTHERS...ALL WERE KEEPER SIZE...I LOVE THE SPRING TIME!!!!"~Ralph (fishnut257)
Spring is finally here (anglers go by weakies, not robins :) ). Time to get the boat in the water if you haven't already!
Be sure to check out last nights late fish report update, too! Sea Ya~ MizMo
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Lenny Sofield weighed in a 1 pound 13 ounce Bluefish that was caught at 9:15pm at Pebble Beach on cut Mackerel bait. The Bluefish was was still kickin' when he weighed it in and Lenny said that it would make a good dinner at that size. Lenny is the first angler to win our $100.00 gift certificate who went to the reel case and picked out a Shimano Stradic reel for $105.00 and we called it even. I didn't even have to write out the Gift Certificate. Done deal! Sea ya
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Pebble Beach activity this morning and late this afternoon has been good. Action really wasn't expected to start until sundown, but an angler just came through the store a few minutes ago to refill his Bloodworm supply. MizMo is off this afternoon, so tomorrow she will post the picture of a 30" Bass and a 2 pound Weaky that was brought in early this morning by a Pebble Beach angler.
Hot news of the day was that the first BLUEFISH was caught by an angler on a boat a few hundred yards off of Graveling Point. The fish was caught and released at 10:48am and we surely figured that a surf angler would have brought one in by now to claim the $100.00 reward. Sea Ya
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Fishing report: "4/24/99 Got out for a little while last night to Island Beach State Park just to relax. BIG mistake, had three poles out and couldn't keep up with the shorts. I had 4-18", 3-22", 2-24", 1-25", and a 26" all in 2 hours. WOW am I tired now! SEE YA"~Mike R.
Action at Graveling Point was slow. I figure the lack of activity due to bright sunshine, clear water and a very low tide right in the middle of the day. It still was a nice day to be out there and there were still a few fish caught. Night fishing here at Graveling Pt. tonight should be good! High tide is at 6:33pm and wind direction will be NE and is expected to drop down, so the fishing situation should be ideal. Sea Ya
The Batsto falls area has been a mob scene the past couple of days. Be courteous and have some patience with your fellow anglers.
Graveling Point produced keepers by boat and surf anglers. Information was scarce, but most of the activity occurred after 10:00 this morning after it warmed up enough weather wise to allow anglers to fish without cold feet and fingers.
Sea ya
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Here is one for ya, if you asked me early this morning, I would have told you the only chance of catching a Mackerel was to run out of Barnegat Inlet and look North. A late phone call was from an angler who was wreck fishing down South. His wreck fishing experience was poor, but on the way home, he encountered a school of Mackerel a little offshore of the Wreck Buoy and loaded up the boat. Maybe there is still hope for local anglers tomorrow, if the wind doesn't blow.
Sea ya
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No doubt about it folks the Herring are at the Basto Falls.
Since anglers are moving off of Mackerel wreck fishing has become the primary ocean fish source. Tautog are biting on crabs as well as clams now and Sea Bass are beginning to show too. It's still not real easy to fill the fish box yet, so go out with low expectations and enjoy a great fishing day if the wind will cut us some slack.
Additional Fishing Report e-mails:
Stripers--"4/21/99: Well I missed the birdplay in the inlet,instead I fished Grassey with bucktail and mackerel strip.NEVER GOT A BITE!! Then I decided to try up the river and that saved the day. Had 4 fish of which one was a keeper!"~Hilly
Plus, one from Tuesday that's good info:
"17 lb. 32inch caught across from Chestnut Neck"~Gzpcrepr"The Herring are real thick in the Egg Harbor River right now. I also heard that they are starting to show at Batsto. I hope this helps in your quest for Herring."~TJG, relayed from Don Kamienski. Thanks Don!
Sea Ya
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Due to some confusion caused by Scott referring to the area as Batsto Falls (he meant near the dam)as to where Batsto is located and where the fishing is going on,
I've included Batsto in the Maps section.
Report on yesterdays fishing: "4/21/99: THE HERRING ARE SPARSE AT BATSTO.WE CAUGHT SOME AND FISHED THE HEADS UP PAST GREEN BANK.WE LANDED 4 FISH UP TO 27 INCHES (so close)."~Lou Sea Ya ~MizMo
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Didn't have any recent reports from Batsto this afternoon to really determine if the Herring stayed in the area.
Sea Ya
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Gotta drop in this E-mail...A lot of anglers are checking this page for when there is more confirmation of the Batsto Falls Herring. With each incoming tide, the Herring should be getting thicker.
Just wanted to confirm the Herring sightings at Batsto. Tried to let you know on Monday night, but my server was down. I stopped there on the way home Monday night around 8PM and saw silver flashings in my flashlight beam. They were fairly steady. Keep up the good reporting Doug( fishtrek@jnlk.com) Sea Ya
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Wind prevented any sain anglers from pursuing Mackerel.
A few Herring jumping the Batsto Falls at 1:00pm this afternoon? This could very well be the beginning of the run. We will try to get a confirmation report of more Herring tomorrow. Also, the local game warden is going to set up a tent there. Make sure all your licenses are up to date and that your familiar with the Herring laws before you support our State with ticket revenues.
Sea Ya
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Neat story of the day was a Mackerel angler who caught a 31" Striper on a red tubed diamond jig in the area of the Little Egg Bell buoy.
Graveling Point activity wasn't half bad when the sun went behind the clouds. It's been real hard to figure just when the fish are going to bite. Activity definitely has been better after the sun sets.
Sea Ya
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Tried bucktailing in Great Bay today on the outgoing tide. Got nothing. Stopped in front of Oyster Creek but spent most of the afternoon at Graveling Point anchored up. Ralph(ralphyost@alphomega.com)
Found plenty of mackerel about 5 miles straight out of Barnegat inlet. Hope this is just the leading edge. Folks up in New York must want them a whole lot as the Dorothy B out of Brooklyn showed up around noon just as the bite slowed down. Rich
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Good Morning All! New puzzle and weekly special are posted!
Also, we have a new KOKOMO report! Welcome back, Capt'n Paul! Sea Ya ~MizMo
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Had one of our rare reports from Island Beach State Park:
"Island Beach was slow today only a couple of shorts. The guy next to me had one keeper that was just over 28 in. Keep a tight line."~Duane H.
This sounds just like the report for Graveling Today!
Mackerel fishing was good this morning about 2 miles off the Wreck Buoy (wreck buoy is 3 miles south of LE Buoy). Waters were reported as very rough, and only the larger boats were out there, after a long debate at 6 a.m. as to staying in or heading out.
Sea Ya
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Mackerel were reported 2 miles off the Wreck Buoy this morning, but the action wasn't as good as it was fishing in the rain yesterday. The fish were in small pockets and were real hard to hold at the boat. Quick little spurts of catching allowed most anglers who were out to call it a decent fishing day.
We weighed in a live Striper around two this afternoon from Graveling Point. It weighed 13 pounds 6 ounces 32". If you want to see it, check it out on the catch page.
There seemed to be a flurry of Winter Founder activity this morning at the Point too. If you were getting taps and weren't hooking up fish, try a smaller hook rig for the possibility of catching a few of them.
The 1999 Saltwater Regulations came in today, with a letter saying that the Digests booklets will be delayed until the end of May.
Sea Ya
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Still haven't received a positive report on the Batsto Falls Herring yet.
First Bluefish was caught at Graveling Point last year on April 12. The $100.00 gift certificate will be awarded to the first land based angler who weighs in a Bluefish. If by any chance we are closed when the Bluefish is landed, leave a muddy impression of the Bluefish on the front window just under the reward sign. ONLY ONE impression please. =) Anglers are pretty itchy that it could be any day now, since there was about a three pound Weakfish caught on Sunday, which means the Bluefish aren't too far behind. Graveling Point and Pebble Beach are both legal areas to fish for our surf contest. See maps on the opening fishing page for directions.
Sea Ya
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Hottest news of the day was the showing up of the Mackerel. Indications from Capt. Joel Mick is that the fish off of Atlantic City this morning were a spotty shot at the beginning of the run. It's only gonna get better if the weather will allow us to fish.
Sea Ya
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Excellent fishing report from Capt. Mick about yesterdays trip:
"HI GUYS,
EVELYN ANN SAILED THIS MORNING AT 6A.M. S.E. OF LITTLE EGG INLET. 5 MILES AND HAD VERY GOOD CATCH OF MACKEREL. 1/2 OF A BOX IN A LITTLE OVER 2 HOURS OF FISHING TIME. SO YOU SEE BOYS: THERE ARE SOME MACKEREL SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN CAPE MAY. OK THERE, GO HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND CATCH SOME MACKEREL. REMEMBER DON'T RUN TO FAR, THEY'RE IN CLOSE."~Capt.Joel Mick
Thanks Capt'n! Looks like they've arrived. Don't wait too long before you folks go out chasing them, they move north so fast!
Sea Ya MizMo
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The Batsto Falls had a good look-over again this afternoon and the Herring still haven't made it there yet.
Graveling Point had a flurry of short Striper activity on the last of outgoing tide. One keeper was brought in for a picture.
Anglers continue to pound the little Stripers at the Route 9 Forked River power plant bridge. Most of the fish are now being caught on lures in the warm water outflow of the power plant.
Sea Ya
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Solution to the weekly puzzle posted as per your requests :)
Clarification on yesterday's e-mail posting: We think by '"float" some worms' Bill meant that he was using some kind of floating rig.
Sea Ya, MizMo
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A current report from this afternoon from an angler who gave the Batsto Falls a look over, concluded that the Herring are just taking their time getting there.(No Herring)
Mackerel are overdue for our area too. Don't get scared just yet, they haven't passed us buy. As of yesterday at 11:00am, a large school of big Mackerel were within 10 miles of Cape May. The party boat doing the best reported by our customers, is the Miss Chriss III.
An E-mailed fishing report that may interest you....
"Hi Guys,
Stopped by the store Sat. morning to pick up some bloodworms for some Striper fishing. Talking to Russ he suggested I try over around Oyster Creek because I was going to be on my boat "The Fiddler" and because he said it was so congested around Graveling point. Having fished this area before and having good luck I decided to give it a shot. After the first hour with no luck I was ready to leave when I decided to "float" some Bloodworms. WHAM!! Right away I started picking up some shorts and then Two real nice keepers!
Thanks and keep up the good work."~
Bill
Sea Ya
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Very few Herring have made it to the Batsto Falls. The few that were spotted were out where the brook meets the channel on an incoming tide. Last year, April 9 was spotty and April 10 was hot and heavy activity at the Batsto Falls. It's just got to be any day now. There are still Herring at the Train trestle bridge in Mays Landing.
Sea Ya
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"We fishing the top of the incoming tide 4/10 using blood worms at Graveling Point. From our boat we could see a few throwback Stripers caught on the bank. We didn't see anyone in any of the boats catching fish. We moved a little closer to the bank and finally caught one throwback striper."~Ralph Y.
This is right in line with our weather related report yesterday...the water was just a bit too muddy throughout the morning and afternoon to catch many fish. Things cleared up by the evening, so that last night there were quite a few short Stripers caught, as well as a couple of keepers. Last nights low tide was at 11:30 p.m.. The morning report for today was also good, with a quantity of shorts and a few keepers. Tide did not seem to matter at all, but it was overcast throughout all the good catching.
Good News: "First trip out fishing this year, went out on the Miss Chris party boat out of Cape May fishing for Mackerel, between my wife, 8 year old son and I, we caught 85 and could have caught many more but we gave up as we have enough bait now for the season. The crew were great untangling all the lines and were a great help. Heard that the other boat from here caught around 100 Stripers, so I guess that's what we will be doing next week."~David G.
Confirmation: The Gaudios also went out on the Miss Chris this weekend and caught 150 Mackerel between them. They were 10 miles out from the Cape May shore. Looks good for the folks anxious to go out chasing the Mackerel!
Sea Ya
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Sea Ya
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Next batch is due around noontime. We are selling salted Clams/Herring/Mackerel fillets as an alternative bait.
Sea Ya
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"The kid and I stopped by the store for worms yesterday. Went to 'The Hole' in Pomona which charges $10.00/person to fish at a private stocked lake. Strictly catch and release. We started at 9 am on lures, fished for one hour with no bites. Switched to worm and small minnow. Kid got the first hit, a 13" large mouth bass on minnow. I got a 12" perch on worm on a float. Kid got a second bass, this time a small mouth 11 1/2" bouncing off the bottom with a worm. Hit a few more smaller perch on worm. As usual just when things were picking up I had to go to work. Oh Well!"~Walter B.
The Hole sounds like a nice change of pace! Located on 575 between Rt. 30 and Moss Mill Road (609)804-0150 or 748-8772.
"Two of us fished the first bridge (Big Creek) beyond Scott's from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday for winter flounder. I had one hit and Pat missed four. Neither of us brought anything in. We then moved the the fifth bridge on Great Bay Blvd. and fished for another couple of hours and caught nothing."~Ric M.
Bridge fishing here hasn't picked up yet due to the cooler water. Give it a few more weeks and things should improve.
They caught Stripers at Graveling Point today. Bait had a tendency to run short! Weighed in a 30 1/2" (2hrs after high tide), heard about several more.
Still no word on the Mackerel run. Mackerel are due here about April 10th. If the weather had been warmer today, boats would have made the trip south to look for them. If you go out looking for them, backup plan should be to fish for Tautog on the wrecks, in the event that the Mackerel are still elusive. Sea Ya
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Sea Ya
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NO Bloods until 12pm tomorrow--Sorry!
Fishing Report:
"Last night, we had 19 stripers on the last 2 hours of the outgoing tide. After the tide started in, the action seemed to slow down, but we still had a few on the incoming water. All the fish were small with the biggest at about 20". We fished "up the river"."~Hilly
Intermittent fishing on the point today, but it sounded better than yesterday's info. We had a report of several 30-38" keepers caught and released by one angler.(Delaware River area) There were plenty of shorts to keep the action interesting at Graveling Point with the high hook being 12 shorts for one angler confirmed by his friend. Sea Ya
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Sea Ya
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Sea Ya
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We had one Striper weighed in at 16 lbs.. 12 oz 33 1/2" by our friend Chris. Cedar tinged scales on its back peg it as a river fish, caught on Pebble Beach at the high tide. Just a friendly note...Pebble Beach is a residential area with some very nice homes overlooking the bay. If those home owners are inconvenienced by ignorant parking or litter, they will be forced to post no parking signs on Ohio Drive. Make an extra effort to be courteous and try to clean up after yourself and even the next guy who may be a slob, so that the few don't ruin a great fishing area for the rest of us. Don't forget, if the fish was currently caught you can click over on the catch page to see if there is a pic.
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Congratulations to Kelly Pritsch, who was the only person to find all the eggs in our website Easter egg hunt! There were several keeper size Stripers caught today at Graveling Point, two of which were weighed in at 7-8 lbs. each. Activity was still on the higher water. |
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| We have MACKEREL in stock: fresh fish and salted fillets. Photo shows Scott & Capt. Russ filleting mackerels with volunteer Earl Miller. NO, the fish were not caught near here! Scott made a run down to Cape May to meet a boat. We think the catch was somewhere off the coast of Virginia. Fresh mackerel is $1.50/lb., fillets $1.00 each (while supply lasts :) ) Sea Ya |
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Striper action at Graveling Point was pretty good the past few days. Anglers had their best luck on the incoming tides during the morning. Usually, the last of the outgoing tide is when the Striper fishing is best in the early Spring, but this year, most of the Stripers have been caught on the incoming tide. There were probably half a dozen keepers caught and released over the past three days.(lots of short Bass too)
The Beach Haven West White Perch action has been good the past few evenings. It seems that the magic hour of the setting sun is very important. The fish are there, they just aren't biting until the sun starts to set.
Batsto Herring are taking their time getting there. I believe that April 9 or 10 is when they showed up real thick last year. Check the copy of last Aprils' daily reports for the exact date; I am sure it is in there. The tiny chartreuse shad darts and the little gold spoons have worked well for us on the local Herring so far this Spring.
Capt. Joel Mick of the vessel Evelyn Ann running charters out of Oyster Creek New Jersey had his first good Blackfish Charter over the weekend. Thirty Tautog and a nice ling thrown in made for a great fishing day. Wanna book a Spring trip? E-mail him at: CAPTBLY47@aol.com
I spent some time this afternoon working on the report page catching up on a few loose ends. Yes...Frank(grin), the page will load quicker again 'cause I put March in it's own file and April only has a few days reports to load.
The tide charts are updated to reflect the full years data.
MizMo has been doing a little Spring cleaning in the web page the past few weeks and she feels pretty much caught up. I need a few watchdogs out there, if you find a bad link or a no longer in use link that goes nowhere, spelling errors, fragmented sentences, etc. please Contact Us us the page name where the bad link or error is. The page has become so huge that it is difficult to be perfect all of the time =). Any and all help will be appreciated.
P.S. I might even tell ya where one of the eggs are.(no way!)
Sea Ya ~)
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Today was basically a repeat of yesterday. High water in the morning produced the best bite, tapering off to one or two hits over a few hours in the afternoon. One striper weighed in today at 10 lbs. 29" Caught early on by Bob Hilton.
As you can see, we're running our own Easter Egg Hunt. No basket full of eggs found yet! We'll see what the e-mails show in the morning! Sea Ya
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Let's open this with several e-mails:
"Last night was the calmest I've ever seen. The rain stopped around 7:00pm and there was no shortage of shorts to keep things interesting. Three of us fished until 2:00 am and caught a total of 17 shorts and a small flounder. The biggest striper was 22 inches, but most were around 14."~Brad, @Graveling Point.
"First Striper trip of the season and my 10 year old son gets a keeper of 29" YAHOOOO." Mike R. @IBSP (island beach state park)
"Heard a report today tat stripers were taken with bucktail in Risley's Channel and in front of Hereford Inlet."~Ralph Y.
Anglers reported a decent number of short Stripers, with was at least one keeper of around 29 1/2" caught and released this morning at Graveling Point. There was a really nice Winter Flounder caught by John Brady, a 2 lbs. 8 oz 18" Fish.
Going into the low tide this afternoon, fishing dropped off. Anglers reported a few hits, but no solid bites. Sea Ya
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Anglers are beginning to wonder about Mackerel activity too. It always starts the same with Virginia or something like that. Rumor mill says a few boats in Cape May, New Jersey have caught them already. Expect the Mackerel to be in our area in another two weeks.
The Herring have showed up in force in the Mays Landing area this week. If that special live bait is your gig, it's time to load 'em up.
Sea Ya
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Good morning all. I was considering an animated gif that would have come up on this daily page, the fishing index and home page, saying that the site was kaput due to lack of interest! April Fools! But after another 10 hrs of link repairs and file shuffling, I didn't have it in me. (: Anyway...I cleaned house last night and this morning on 75% of the site, moved some folders, made sub-folders, and basically neatened things up a little. All the internal links should be repaired. If you find a link that doesn't work, please e-mail me! I found some glitches already this morning that I will repair tonight.
Meanwhile, the day is warm, the anglers are headed out, and we hope to have a great report for you later on! Sea ya, MizMo