Fishing Journal April 18, 2015

First time I fished from sun rise to sunset. Although there was a short lunch break involved. It was a phenomenal day of fishing. The water was like glass again this morning. This is not at all common for Raritan Bay. Not complaining at all these days are the most beautiful!  It was the day of a new moon. The tides on these days are significantly different. Higher at high tide and lower at low tide. As a kayak anglers we should take more note of this as it can be hard to land on back bay beaches during extremely low tides. A 6′ foot tide difference can mean a long walk back when the foot of water on the flat is gone. Shoving off the beach not a boat in sight. High tide was to be within 2 hours. The first thing i noticed was the water temp at 53 degrees was perfect for active bass.

Started out drifting clam in around 9 feet of water where the Lowrance was marking fish. Not a hit for a good 20 minutes. Figured the fish weren’t feeding on clam at the moment.  Decided to switch to slow trolling a tube and worm. About an half hour later Captain Jim and his cousin Ryan spotted me from the deck of Ryan’s Boston Whaler they were on. At this point was starting to catch Stripers on the Kayak Carl’s Tube n Worm. Short bass but in the 20 – 24 inch range. IT was one after another for a good 45 minutes.

Weaving in between the anchored boats of a growing fleet. Wen i left the beach there was Right after slack tide the fishing turned on. It was one after another. I had now landed a total of 9 bass trolling. The fish now had seemed to disappear.Trolled for another 2 good hours only to find a few more fish.

Captain Jim and Ryan had gone over to another spot to see if they could find any fish. They were gone for about 30 min when again started to mark fish.

My reels locked in free spool clicker on. Trolling the Carls Tube N Worm on one rod and a Daiwa SP minnow on the other. This time drag starts to run out on the stick bait. I go to grab the rod an nothing.  Minutes later the tube n worm goes off. Drag screaming out. I set the hook. The fight is on! This fish is big prob 20 lb+ class. About 5 minutes into the fight the fish runs under the stern om my kayak and before I knew it the hook pulled. Lost a nice one.

Still trolling Capt Jim and Ryan are back casting storm shads. Casting and reeling. I had some storms but darker color and couldn’t find a bite on them. They hooked me up with one and it was on after that. Landed small fish but was till fun. In all had 20 fish plus or minus up to 27 1/2″. Lost count.

It was going on 2:00 PM and the new moon tide was falling fast. I decided to call it for that time and get some lunch.

Paddling back in the water became thin on the long beach. Now mostly mud the flat had become land and my truck had become far. Thanks to the Mullet Miller cart for saving me on this one. Still out of breath after wheeling across the mud and the sand in the lot.

Went to lunch at McDonughs Pub in Keyport NJ. Have to give them a plug since the food is always good there! While there met a few fellow kayak anglers! Nick told me they were catching keeper size fish off of Cliffwood Beach. Decided to go there and give it a shot. After contacting Justin Vail that there was fish in the area. The time seemed to fly by. I set off shore and trolled around a bit. No hits Justin joined me and we were blown south. The wind was blowing 10 – 15 easy. As the time went on still no fish but the wind started to let up as the sun begun to set. The next thing I hear is Justin yelling fish on!!  Its great seeing a guy catch his first striped bass on a kayak! I’m glad he was able to manage that since he came down and gave it a shot.

Now heading in its 7:00 PM. Im so worn out from a great fishing day we actually land on the beach a block down and I don’t even realize it until hitting the sand path back to the road.  Only excuse i have is i had never dropped in at Cliffwood before and I was not keeping track of my GPS.