Summary of Memorial Day Weekend.

We only fished on Sunday, Saturday the wind was suppose to be blowing pretty good, and Monday morning it was pretty foggy. Sunday we left the slip around 8:00 AM and headed for Skate Alley (marked as Flounder Alley on the charts). Jim picked up a short, about 16 inches right off the bat. Then all we caught after that were skates and sharks.

After a few hours, when the bay became a little calmer, we ran up to Miah Mall. The fishing was pretty slow here as well, but I did pick up an 18 inch keeper. The rest of the fish were skates.

Since low tide was at around 3:40 we decided to stay out for a while, so we went back down the bay towards the Sixty Foot Slough. Not much happening here either, I got one little shark and that was it. We got back to the slip a little after 5:00PM. We gave the boat a quick rinse and then headed over to the Harbor View for dinner. Around 6:30 a heavy fog rolled in off the ocean and the temperature dropped quite a bit.

In today’s episode of this old boat…

I headed down to the Bree Zee Lee on Saturday morning. I was there by 9:30 AM. I took a quick look at the new radar arch ( I like to call it my new role cage), and then headed over to Heritage Towers to pay the balance due and pick up some lights. Then I made a quick visit to The Depot campgrounds, and back to the marina.

I figured if I got the stereo hooked up first that might be nice. Trying to figure out how the new speakers were mounted on the radar arch was a bit of a challenge. Randy finally got the screen to pop off which exposed another 6 screws that was holding them on. Of course there were no pull throughs like I had asked for. So the drilling and snaking began. We got the speaker wires run, and I mounted the antenna ratchet mounts, but not the antennas.

I met up with Randy and Ruth and we ate at the Rusty Nail. New menu, not as much choice as there used to be. After that we headed back to the campgrounds for cocktails, OK it was beers from a can, cocktails sounds much more refined. After a while I headed back to the marina, and slept on the boat for the first time. This wasn’t too bad, and didn’t feel sea sick and it was relaxing, I just need to clean out more of the clutter in the cabin.

The next morning Jim showed up pretty early and we started connecting the stereo wires. Then we discovered one of the speaker wires was pinched off, so we had to re-do a lot of the steps from the day before. But the stereo is installed and working now. We also ran the AM/FM and VHF antenna wires.

We also mounted the spreader lights on the radar arch, and ran the wires for one of the lights. Much thanks to Randy and Ruth, Jim for helping with the arch, and Andy who loaned us his drill and bits when mine ran out of juice.

As for the fishing Capt. Dave M, Chuck and Buddy went out Saturday afternoon. I think they went up in the bay behind Wildwood, because it was blowing too hard to go anywhere else. We asked how they did when they sailed by, I think Chuck said they caught five, but only two keepers. I assume they were fluke.

Next weekend is Memorial Day, I plan to fish!

Nothing to report.

It sounds like none of the Bree Zee Lee buddies made it out fishing this weekend. Capt. Randy and Ruth called to let me know my new radar arch is installed, which is good. Hopefully next weekend I will get down to the boat and hook up some of the antenas and run some wires. Of course if the weather is good some of those wires can wait, until after we get out and drown some worms.

In the mean time I posted some photo's from last weekend, May 6th 2006, in the photo gallery section of the site.

First Fishing Trip for “Offshore Bites”

May 6th was a day of firsts. It was the first day of summer flounder season, the first time I took the boat in/out of the slip on my own, and I landed my first fish of the year. Jim and I got to Cape May around 7:30 AM. By the time we got sandwiches, bait and fueled up the boat, it was closer to 9:00 when we left the marina. We bumped into Capt Dave and Chuck from the Tiramisu at the Wawa.

Our fishing destination for the day was the Miah Maul, which is about 20 miles up the bay. We screwed around with the trim tabs a little on the way out, but they didn’t seem to be doing much. Overall the boat handled well, and it was an extremely calm day for early May. We got the fishing grounds around 10:00.

After having our lines in the water for just five minutes, they were very wet. You thought I was going to say we hooked up, no such luck. We called Capt. Dave on the radio and he mentioned they already had two fluke, and he informed us that he was by some of the head boats. We hung around where we started but there wasn’t much action, except for Jim untangling his line every 10 minutes.

We moved up by the Tiramisu and drifted along with them. Finally at about 11:20 I felt the familiar tug on the line. I was thinking if this is a fluke it might be a good size, but was expecting a skate. As I got the fish to the surface we netted it and got it on board. It was about 20 inches. It ended up being the only fluke we caught that day, later on I picked up a few skates. When we were getting ready to head in I decided to real in Jim’s line, and then I informed him there was a fish on his line. He reeled it in, but it ended up being another skate.

I think Capt. Dave and Chuck said they caught 9 or 11 fluke, but only 2 were keepers. Their biggest was about 20 inches also. They also had there share of skates and oyster crackers.

Getting the boat in the slip didn’t go too badly, not a perfect shot by any means. We cleaned up the boat and the fish. Then we headed over to the Tiki Bar at the Harbor view for some dinner, our bartender was Gail the snail. No she wasn’t slow but that’s what she told us her name was when we asked. She liked my Square Grouper hat and mentioned that she had been there quite a few times, it's a Tiki Bar in Jupiter, FL.

We ended up spending the night in Cape May, at the Summer Station. If I thought we were going to stay I would have brought my sleeping bag, and would have slept on the boat. Later on we walked over to the Rusty Nail and had a few drinks while listening to a blues band. I think there name was Blue Bones.

Will it float?

This was our weekend to act like Dave Letterman on the Late Show, when they throw stuff in a tank and guess if it will float. Much like that bit, we picked up “Offshore Bites” from Heritage Towers and dropped it in the big tank (a.k.a. the Atlantic Ocean). The answer is a resounding yes.

We left the Flemington area around 6:00 AM and made it to the Bree Zee Lee marina by 9:00 AM, which was just about high tide. We followed Capt. Randy and Ruth down; they were towing the “Just One More” down to the marina. Randy, Ruth and Jim dropped the “Just One More” in and got her in the slip, while Bill and I went over to pick up “Offshore Bites” from Heritage Towers. They didn’t get a chance to put the radar arch on this past week, so they’ll be putting it on at the marina.

When we got back Randy and Jim helped me unload the boat at the boat ramp, which went fairly smooth in my opinion. Then Randy, Jim and I took “Offshore Bites” out for a little spin in the bay, while Bill and Ruth went over to the slip with the new docking lines. Capt. Randy did most of the driving, I messed around a little. We wanted to get a feel for how the boat handles before trying to maneuver it into the slip. The wind was blowing pretty good, and we knew we needed new lines in the slip. Capt Randy got her backed into the slip. Then we spent a while adding and adjusting the new docking lines. While we were adjusting the lines another guy named Dave stopped by and introduced himself, I think he’ll have the slip next to me.

I've added a lot more photographs in the photo gallery section of the Offshore Bites website.

After getting the boats settled in the slip we went over to the Harbor View for lunch. We ate upstairs and had a nice view of the harbor. I guess that’s why they call it the Harbor View. After lunch we went back and took “Offshore Bites” for another little spin. We went up the inter-coastal heading towards Wildwood. We didn’t go too far, and then we turned around and headed back in. I did most of the driving and got a better feel for the boat, but there is still a lot to learn. I thought about trying to dock her, but with the wind blowing I decided to let Capt. Randy handle it.

From a fishing report perspective we heard from Capt. Dave M., he was fishing for Striped Bass over by Tussy’s Shoal. I don’t think he had any keepers. We did see a few guys cleaning a few nice sized drum and stripers over at the fish cleaning table, but we don’t know where they were fishing.

We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the boat. Then we headed back home. The question now is will it still be floating when we go back?