June 23rd 2007 – Offshore on Island Girl
We departed the Bree Zee Lee marina with Capt Andy onboard the “Island Girl” at about 2:15 AM heading offshore for some tuna fishing. This is my first real attempt at tuna offshore, we’ve tried at the lumps with some of the smaller boats, but this is my first attempt at Offshore.

We cruised down to Poormans Canyon during the night, about an 80 mile run from Cape May. We took it a little slow since it was dark and we had heard reports of a lot of crap floating around out there. We had the lines out for trolling at 6:15 AM; sunrise was at about 5:30 so we missed on first light. We had 10 lines in the spread. There was a nice temperature break, from about 68 to 75 degrees in just a few miles. We trolled all day from 6:15 AM until about 1:30 PM and we didn’t catch a thing. We heard reports from some of the other guys that had a few in the box. We moved down to south Poormans after one report but didn’t get a thing all day. We were about to move one more time and Capt. Andy said I think there’s something stuck on the port side prop. Lou a professional diver jumped in and found some mono wrapped around the prop, not from our reels. He chopped that off and we called it a day.

Cruised back to Cape May and we docked by 4:30 PM. We ran a lot faster heading back since it was light out and we could see. So in summary 80 miles out, 80 miles back, and trolling all day, and no meat in the box. Maybe next time.

June 9-10, 2007 – This wind blows.

Slept on the boat Friday night and was up by 5:30AM to try and get some minnows, they have been difficult to find. I managed to get a pint of them, but that’s all they would ration. I told Jim to go get some for Capt. Randy but by the time he got there Jim’s Bait and Tackle was sold out. I had already stopped at Hands Too bait shop and they were also sold out. Jim did manage to get 2 pints from Miss Chris marina.
It ended up we didn’t need much bait anyhow, the wind was howling pretty good. A little before noon we headed to the bay behind Wildwood. We tried to fish there but it was low tide and we had to be careful to not to drift out of the channel, but we did. Thought we were going to be stuck for a while but we raised the motor and were able to back out. We won’t be doing that again with my boat. (So I thought). Jim fished for a while, no action so we headed back to the marina.

Sunday we made it out to Delaware Bay. We headed out to the Anchorage, which is on the Delaware State side of the bay, so the Fluke need to be 18 inches to keep. In NJ they only need to be 17 inches to keep. We headed out of the slip around 7:00 AM. We fished from around 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM. I managed to catch one keeper fluke, again on a green squid skirt, Berkley Squid Flavored Cut Bait, with a minnow. The fluke was about 19 and ½ inches long, and was hefty. It felt even heavier since I had a 10 once wait on to hold bottom.

The Victim

Jim finally got the stink off for this year by dragging in a skate. I was glad to see him catch something.

On the way home I let Jim drive the boat; we were doing fine until we came into the canal. The channel on the way in is closer to the left or starboard side of the boat, we were not quite close enough to the channel, and the boat came to an abrupt stop. Luckily we were going fairly slowly as we were approaching the no wake zone. Again we raised the motor and were able to chug through the muck.

June 2, 2007 – Finally Got Out Fishing

I headed down to Cape May on Friday evening because my friends band “Xclusive” was playing at Carney’s. I stuck around for the first set, and spoke to Dave briefly in between sets. I left some time during the second set.

I slept on the boat and woke up at about 5:30 AM. I went up to the car and Jim’s truck was parked there, and he was sleeping in the truck. I woke him up and we headed to Wawa for some coffee, and sandwiches. Then we stopped by Jim’s Bait & Tackle. As we pulled back into the marina we saw Chuck & Dave pulling out of the slip. We got out of the slip by about 7:20 AM.

We met up with Dave and Chuck up by buoy 19 in the bay. As we pulled along side them Dave gave us the big thumbs down and said they had nothing. Then Chuck had a bite but he lost it. We moved closer to the buoy and started our drift, less then 10 minutes into the drift I picked up a 19 inch keeper. We continued to reset drifts by buoy 19 and caught a total of 6 fluke, with 4 of them being keepers 1-18 inch, 2-19 inch, and 1-21 inch. Dave and Chuck moved a little east of us and ended up with 23 caught, but only 3 keepers. All the fish caught on Offshore Bites were on my line, which had a green squid, a minnie, and Berkley Gulp Squid Flavored Strip Bait. We had a mixture of stuff out there but that was the only that produced.

The wind started to pick up around 1:00 PM so we headed back in. I’m glad we did because it really got howling later in the afternoon.