Fishing Journal 2015_08-15

Some fishing trips stand out more than others. These are the epic fishing days with good company and non stop action. August 15th 2015 was one of those days.

It was a later morning than normal awaking at 7:30 AM. The tide was to be high around 9:00 am so sleeping in was an option i took. Brian called me around 7 and told me he would be at the drop in within an hour. This was perfect timing. Loaded the cooler picked up some breakfast and was on my way to the drop in.

With some strong reports of keeper Fluke being caught in the back bay this was to be the Back Bay Fluke Fishing Day!
Arriving around 8:30 it was already warm and sunny. Brian was on his way and arrived about 20 mins later which gave me time to slowly unload and rig up. We launched as the tide had started moving out. The water was a warm 82 degrees at the surface with an air temp around 84 degrees to start. We had a slight S-SW  breeze around 4-5 kts. This was perfect conditions. Not hot all day with no breeze it was a picture perfect day.

About 5 mins after dropping Bucktails with teasers tipped with Berkley  Gulp to the bottom in 10 – 20 feet of water hugging the edge of a channel boom Brian landed the first fish and first keeper. Not too long after that my rod is bent in half but missing that fish due to the new dead stick rod holder setup. The RaAM Adapt-A-Post Track Mount with the  Ram Tube Jr has a bait caster and a spinning reel side to lock in the rod. The Abu Garcia Vengeance casting rod I was using has a larger trigger grip which seems to get stuck in the hole that locks the rod in. After a few fish and working the rod from the holder it took a little getting used to but was manageable. The second fish hooked was a really nice fluke.  It was a good fight pulling drag  landing a really nice fluke measuring in at 21.5″.

Picking through short fish which were nice fat ones that put up a great fight. The dead stick rod seemed to be producing more.

By now the drift was moving fast. We were drifting almost 2mph. Still picking up fish riding out the drift until fishing slowed up then making the decision to go back to where we started find the fish and drift again.

Back at the beginning of the drift we were running out of tide. Finding a pocket of fish every time we would go over the spot fish would bite on both rods! Brian had one jump out of his cooler and somehow netted it before it got away. I lost a keeper measuring it for Kayak Wars and decided not to take anymore KW pohots for the day after that. A few more keepers and shorts we made the decision to call it a day at 3:00 PM.

Wish all fishing trips could be as good as landing 25 fish in a 6 hour day!

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.