Fishing Journal 2015_07-11:

The Sunshine Foundation Fluke Tournament 2015 came upon me with no real warning. I had my dates off although my calendar displayed the correct date. Along with other big changes going on at the moment in time it was easy to mess up the dates.

The plan was to stay at my friend and fellow kayak anglers camper which is located 20 min from the tournament spot. Leaving Friday afternoon after 5 hours of work. The decision to take all back roads to Egg Harbor proved to be a good idea and also was nice to take roads through areas in NJ I have never been. Most people think New Jersey is an entire state of industrial companies and polluted but there is a higher percentage of Jersey that is farmland and old colonial style towns.

Going straight to the captains meeting since being unable to get there until 6:30 Eric Chamberlain and his son Brandon were there. I went in and registered and received a T-Shirt and a captains bag. Then it was back to Ricky’s camp. Eric made dinner in a dutch oven consisting of beef potatoes carrots and broccoli calling it cave man food. It was decent. Someday I will own a dutch oven.

The alarm went off at 4 am. Ricky had coffee going and he made us all an awesome breakfast with scrambled eggs bacon and potatoes!. Great way to start a day of fishing hard! Then we were off. We drove down a pretty much single lane road through all of the marsh and over wooden bridges. I had never seen anything like it in NJ.

At the drop in we just backed our vehicles to the water and dropped the kayaks right there. After launching i decided to try a little jigging right at the ramp. First cast fish on! It was a short fluke coming in at 15″.  Fishing wasn’t really that great. It was pretty windy all day.  By the end of the day Ricky had 6 shorts and i had the same of 6 short fluke landed. Nothing close to a keeper.

On the way back I caught a few blue claws of really nice size just hanging on my jig! We fished 7 hours and the outgoing tide and part of the incoming.

Around 2:00 PM we headed in. Drove back to camp and hung out for a little while before heading over to the awards BBQ. The food was decent. It included Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Burgers, Dogs, Corn, and watermelon. They were selling a nice beer glass for 5.00 which included free refills of coors lite. The awards were handed out and no kayakers all 13 of us entered drum roll. No Fish! The tricky tray prizes were insane!

After the awards dinner we went back to the camp and I hung out with Ricky and his wife Becky. Ricky and I took a walk around camp. Showing me around  some really nice spots. The sunset photo is from a point on the Mullica River. Chips Folley Campground is a really beautiful place. Its one of those hard to find Gems of New Jersey. 

Ricky and I had planned on going fishing again in the morning but he was pretty spent. He had a guide service on Friday and now had fished all day Saturday in the tournament.

I feel this tournament was well put together. I was surprised there was only 13 kayakers registered in the tourneys 4th annual. Its fun to fish new areas and especially with good friends!

While planning my next fishing day I have a few techniques for research. My first rule is to try to stay out of the weather. With weather forecasts of strong storms in the late morning to early afternoon and a stiff S-SW wind my plan was to stay close to shore and the launch with in an area the land blocked the wind. This day was to be the calm before the storms.

Arriving around 6 am in Keyport I dropped the big rig down from its truck top dry dock and loaded gear for targeting multiple species. This time of the spring there are 4 different fish typically targeted.  This means bringing more rods than typical but also need to carry a landing net. Fluke or Summer Flounder tend to spit the hook more than most fish because the way they naturally swim. Netting these fish is the safest way of landing them.

Once out on the water making the decision to fish back in the creek. Marking fish I set up for jigging whatever it was that I was marking. It looked like large bluefish with bass under them. Some fish were breaking the surface and I tried a popper for a few casts using my new Bull Bay Rod and Abu Revo Inshore. Around the 20th cast and adjusting the reel casting got backlash in the reel. It was not so bad at first but kept getting worse and worse. An hour later and about 150 yards of brand new 20 lb power pro cut and stripped it was time to go fishing again. I should have just put the rod down this was the first time  ever cutting braid on a reel due to a backlash and it was a bad decision. Never again will that happen.

The tide by now had dropped a foot or two. Paddling out more to the open bay. Using a 1/4 oz bucktail with a white teaser and 3″ white gulp on both my first drift was successful with a 21″ fluke! IT was a great fight and an excellent first fish of the season!

I kept making the same drift but the bite was slow and so was the tide. I managed loosing a fish at the boat that was borderline and missing a few hits. I decided to call it a day when the NW winds came in and the tide was at dead low. A successful day bringing home dinner. I regret not fishing the area I typically fish this time of hear due to the forecast. The storms however did settle in around 7 PM and they were pretty heavy duty. Lasting for 4 days and over 2.5 inches of rain.

Fishing Journal 05-9-2015

The same old routine at 4:30 AM on a Saturday. It was a drop in point much closer to home. The weather forecast was for a beautiful day, winds 5 mph max partly cloudy and in the high 70’s. Fishing reports stated Bluefish were all over Raritan Bay. There was no way to miss them. I was looking forward to a great day of fighting the big blues and possibly finding bass. It was to be the last fishing weekend prior to the J-Bay Tournament.

On the drive down it was raining close to the water crossing the Edison Bridge. Sean ‘Redneck’ Gavin sends over a text its pouring here close to his home. It was cloudy but I wasn’t at all worried about rain. Getting tot he launch it was breezy out of the South East. So we geared up. It was low tide and this particular drop in has been tricky in the past. We loaded our kayaks and dragged them across the worst mud ever. This drop in was always tricky during low tide but this year it was worse than it has ever been. Mullet cart struggled but made it to the waters edge.

At this point the wind had picked up to around 15 kts and the fog had rolled in so thick knocking visibility down to around 50 yards. We could see silhouettes of power boats out there and I was not willing to get run over so decided to wait it out. The good old lets smoke a cigar and see how it is when were done. Well it was exactly the same post cigar.

We decided to pack up and try another spot. Back across the stinky black mud and this time the Mullet Miller cart met its match. Stuck in the mud. If I had it strapped to the boat it would have been fine.

Arriving at another spot it was way too late by this time as I had to be home at noon on that day. The wind had subsided but the fog remained thick. It would have been nice to get out fishing but unfortunately not everyday is perfect.