Aug 26 2006, Strong Winds

On Saturday we took Offshore Bites out of the slip for the first time in a few weeks. We left the slip at around 6:40 AM. We decided to see if we could make it out to the Cape May Reef. The wind was coming pretty much from the East, and we were trying to head east. I finally gave up on that plan about half way out to the reef. It took us 40 minutes to get ½ way, once I turned the boat around it only took us about 10 minutes to get back to the inlet.

We decided to try the bay, so we passed through the canal and headed for the Sixty Foot Slough. We picked up 2 Croakers there. The water temperature in the bay was about 74 degrees. The wind was still picking up so we decided to move in closer to shore. We ended up just off shore over by the light house. There were a few party boats there. All we picked up there was about 8 little Sand Sharks. “Just One More” made it out and was fairly close by; they managed to catch one keeper fluke, plus a few shorts and skates. We called it a day by noon and headed back to the slip. I figured getting the boat back in the slip would be ugly with all the wind, but we got it in.

Have you sent in the form letter from the FISHERMAN to your member of congress? If you hope to fish for Summer Flounder/Fluke it would be in your best interest, or are you to lazy to mail it in.

Aug 19 2006, Secrets of the Old Grounds revealed

On Saturday Capt Randy took the “Just One More” to the Old Grounds for the first time. He hired a professional guide to show him the good spots, OK well he had Capt Dave M. on board and he goes to the Old Grounds quite often. They spooled up some reels with spider wire on the way out, because there’s a tendency to get stuck on the rocks out there.

The trip paid off, especially for Capt. Randy who got his first keeper size fluke in quite some time. I believe they caught 6 keepers and had another one donated to them at the docks. I think Capt. Randy caught 5 off the keepers.

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I also just checked the Mid Atlantic 500K website and Capt. Andy and the “Island Girl” are sitting in second place in the Blue Marlin category. There’s still a few days of fishing left.

Aug 12-13 2006, Bad Day, Followed by Great Day

Capt. Randy took ‘Just One More’ out to the Cape May Reef on Saturday. From the reports I heard the fishing was pretty slow and the conditions weren’t too good. I think Jim told me they had 1 short fluke, and a few snapper blues and ½ of a Sea Robin. The ½ of a Sea Robin was courtesy of a blue fish that chomped it in half. They also reported seeing two brown sharks meandering around the boat while they were at the reef.

On the other hand Capt Dave M. and Chuck (a.k.a. The Producers) took the ‘Tiramisu’ out on Sunday to the Old Grounds. They had a great day. They came back with 14 keepers, and had 20 overall for the day; Plus some Sea Bass and Ling thrown in for good measure. Several of the fluke were over 20 inches, with the biggest being over 26 inches and weighing in at close to 10 pounds. I would say that’s a doormat in my book. Not as big as the 131 pound Halibut that Sal caught in Alaska, but nothing to sneeze at.

Aug 5-6 2006, Fluke at the Cape May Reef and Old Grounds

Offshore Bites left the slip at 6:10 AM on Saturday morning. We were loaded up for trolling and then hitting the Cape May reef on the way back in. On the way out to the East Lump the seas were getting a little sloppy and we had to slow down to about 16 knots. When we got there the waves were a little higher then the 2-3 foot range NOAA was advertising. We did manage to troll around a little; it wasn’t too bad when the wind was at the stern. We decided to troll our way back to the Cape May Reef. We never had a bite on the troll. The water temperature out by the East Lump was around 78 degrees, and about 75 at the Cape May Reef.

We headed back to the same spot on the reef that we fished last week. It turned out to be a good choice. We ended up with 5 keeper fluke, plus a bunch of shorts. Jim caught 4 of the keepers, 3 of which were on one drift.

Capt Dave M. and Chuck headed to the Old Grounds and also had a good day. They came back with 7 keepers. Three of those were over 20 inches. Fluke need to be over 16 ½ inches to be a keeper in NJ, at least in 2006.

On Sunday we headed back out to the Cape May Reef. We were out of the marina by 7:10 AM. We spent of few hours back at the Cape May Reef, and only caught a bunch of Sea Monkeys (sea robins) and a few shorts. Then we headed south a little to Mary Lou’s Slough where the action was non-stop, with out the non part. There was nothing happening at Mary Lou’s.

After that we met up with “Just One More” and “Joint Venture” over by Higbee’s beach, just off the concrete ship. I took a few photos there and will post them in the photo gallery section, plus I posted some pictures from the Buffett concert in the photo gallery section also.