Well, Mike finally broke me down and got me to meet up with him at a local inlet to fish. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy fishing with Mike, he's good people! It's the inlet. I just never seem to do well there. At least not consistently. I ran to the area after school with all of my gear. I popped into Boulevard to see if there were any decent reports. The big report was that there was an abundance of snot grass. Everywhere. Yeah... this just gets better. I arrived, and began to put on my waders and boots. A guy approached me to ask if there was a better place to fish? He explained how it was windy and Grassy and he had only landed a dinky flounder all day. So I gave him a spot to try and surveyed the water. It was definitely windy, there were white caps. Yup, it just keeps getting better. So, with very little hope, I trudged down to meet up with Mike. When I arrived Mike seemed quite jubilant as he already had a nice blue on his stringer, and was just bitten off. Maybe there was hope after all. So, we waded out to our waists and cast. Mike hooked another blue, and then we were both bitten off. I gave Mike a Zman to try, and I put one on too. Blues can't readily bite through them. And they did the trick. Mike and I landed a nice blue each and added them to his stringer. Mike likes smoked bluefish. Reminded me of an old client, Ralph. We continued to fish as the sun began to set. The tide turned to head out, and terns dive bombed the water here and there picking off spearing. As I was reeling in one of my hundreds of casts, it suddenly stopped, rather close, and took off. After a spirited battle I landed a nice 21" striper. A nice change from the blues. Mike struck next with a notice 24.5" striper. Another great fight, and quick release. Thena short while later my life e was hammered again, but the hook somehow managed to come loose. It felt nice at least. A few casts later the beast struck again in the same spot. This time the hook stayed put and the battle was on. I fi ally wrangled the striper to the sand. It was a solid 31" striper. I was going to release it, but Mike said he'd love to have it over for dinner. So, onto the stringer it went. My next cast was a nice chopper blue that swam away. And then Mike got a dink bass. The sun was quite low at this point, and the tide was dropping fast. The stringer fish were running out of water so Mike went to move it into deeper water. Next thing I hear Mike in a bit of a panic. He forgot the striner wasn't attached to his sand spike, but merely looped through. When he pulled the spike up the striper saw it's opportunity to bolt. It swam right past me dragging the three blues along with it. Before we could fathom what had happened, they were gone. No smoked blues or tasty striper for Mike and his family. We laughed trying to imagine some guy flounder fishing ending up snagging that mass of fish and blue cable stringer. What a haul! We fished a bit longer. The guy just up from us landed a dink striper. The grass and current started to pick up, so we called it quits. I am happy to say, I was wrong. It was a great trip, with a good friend. We had a blast! If only the stringer hadn't swam away... Tight Lines!

Ran the Brynnie-B II around the back bays this morning with Justin and Amy onboard. The forecast wasn't great, but we figured we'd try to beat the rain and see what we could find. We had a nice assortment of baits; salted shad and mackeral, minnows, Zman's, and Gulp. We each dropped a rod down and waited to see what might come out to play. My first creek of choice had a wicked eddy toward the top end, and was quite a bit more shallow than expected. The wind was blowing across the creek which made the drifts a bit wonky. I finally ended up deploying the trolling motor to compensate. We made four drifts down the creek with everyone getting a hit here and there, but no hook ups. We moved out into the ICW and drifted in various depths from 6' to 26' or more. On our first drift I felt like we were in water that was much to deep for this time of the year. But then again, the water was reading 66 degrees. Suddenly Justin got hammered and he pulled in a spike weakie. It was a start. On the next three drifts it was the same, each ending with Justin catching a spike weakie. I adjusted the drift a bit, and Justin still got his little weakie, but he also nailed a nice 18.5" flounder. Next drift he got hammered by a 22" flounder. Both flounder came while drifting up a steep slope, from 20' of water to about 6'. We dialed the drift in, but only got another spike weakie and small blue. I moved the drift out into deeper water and worked over an area that is usually productive. Amy hauled in a nice 22" weakie and then a bigger blue. Justin got another snapper blues. Once the tide died out I deployed the trolling motor again. About that time some rain moved in and we decided to move. We made a short run to another area and tried a few drifts. I landed a dink flounder and missed another. Amy landed a 17.5" flounder right after. On subsequent drifts we got some half hearted hits, and both Justin and Amy got some epic snags. We called it a day after Justin's. It was a really fun morning. I had planned on hitting the surf too, but the weather pretty much shut that plan down. Not to mention there was an ASAC tournament today too. There have been some really solid reports of stripers and drum in the surf, so that is definitely on the hit list. And from the sound of it, the Delaware Bay drum fishing is beginning to light up. And then there are the pictures and reports of the bigger weakfish that have been missing for far too long popping up. I may need to bust out the Korkers... Tight Lines!

This is a tale of two trips. One along the shore of the Delaware Bay, the other on the ocean side. We hit the Bay side last night based on some killer reports of large stripers being caught on bait and plugs. So, Idgie, Bubbalouie and I met up with John and Trevor. We set up a rod each with chunks of bunker and cast them out with high hopes. You couldn't have asked for a better night. It was comfortable with a slight westerly breeze. The sky was clear with loads of stars, a few meteors blaIng past, and even two satellites cruising past. Despite the gorgeous conditions, our baits went untouched for most of the night. About the time we thought we'd run out of sandy real-estate, the encroaching flood tide turned. We hoped the fishing lull would change with the tide. Instead The trash fish turned on. I landed a big doggie and then a skate. That was it for the night. Woke up at 6am this morning with hopes for better fishing. Gathered the gear back up and raced over to my spot along the shore and met up with Chris. Chris beat me there by thirty minutes. He was smarter than me and stayed in last night. He already had two rods set up and had just released a doggie. I set up three rods to try out a variety of baits; bunker, fresh clam, and salted clam. It was a really nice morning with a light breeze and small surf. I set the rods out and we waited. I noticed the guy fishing two hundred yards or so south of us landed a decent striper. About that time my bunker rod got assaulted by a doggie and the rig broke off. Shortly after the rod with the salted clam bent over screaming! I snatched it up and battled the beast as it took off down the beach. I managed to get it under my one rod, but it somehow wrapped up both of Chris's lines. I finally wrangled it into shallow water and leadered it onto the beach. We unhooked her and did a quick photo shoot and then walked her out into the wash to get her revived and released. She was about 44 inches. We spent the next ten minutes untangling the mess the bass made of Chris's lines and then got reset. Chris had to leave shortly after for some work related duties. Lisa popped down to hang out with the dogs and I. The bite pretty much stopped after the morning excitement. I managed a doggie and a skate afterward. I stayed until noon hoping the bite would pick up on the dropping tide. Didn't happen. The ospreys put on a spectacular show at least, pinwheeling and diving and carrying off the occasional bunker. The terns joined in picking off unsuspecting baitfish in the surf. So, two very different outcomes, but a great time overall. Time spent fishing is never wasted... Tight Lines!

Tog season is on it's way out for now, which sucks, as it has been phenomenal all April. The back bays continue to light up as the water warms. Stripers are abundant and are fairly thick in all sizes, hitting plastics, plugs, and bait. Weakies are showing up here and there and are bigger than usual. At least from the photos I've seen. Haven't caught one yet. Got my first bluefish of the year last night. One loner. Tried for more, but no luck. Hoping the big yellow eyed demons show up finally. Miss them! Even the surf is lighting up with stripers and a few black drum. So there are loads of options. I'll be hitting the surf in the morning. Hopefully there are some willing takers... Tight Lines!

I began fishing in April with the water warming into the upper 40's and finally hitting the magic 50 degree mark. Lots of bridge hopping trips at night with good results. Mostly short stripers with a few keepers in the mix. Every night is different. You need to figure out what the stripers want and how they want it presented. It really makes a difference between catching and leaving with a skunk. Regardless, it is a ton of fun! My other main target has been tautog, or tog, or blackfish. Everyone calls them something different. No matter what you call them, they are extremely fun to target, and provide a challenge for any angler. They strike quickly, being master bait stealers. Fight like bulldogs. And will readily pull you into the craggy structure below. I have made a few trips out onto the reefs and wrecks for tog and it's always an absolute blast! The season is only getting better. There are reports of weakfish here and there, and black drum are beginning to make an appearance in the Delaware Bay. There are lots of options for fun trips this time of the year. Can't wait to retire from teaching so I can dedicate more time to chasing all of these scaly brawlers. Until then it's nights and weekends... Tight Lines!

It's been awhile since I've put anything up. Slacking, but I felt like I was in a rut posting the same old bridge hopping reports. Well, I finally changed it up over the last few weeks. I got out with Jesse and Troy on the Brynnie-B II for some tog fishing. We ran out and scoured the reefs and wrecks for the feisty brawlers. Ot didn't take long to find them. Every piece if structure we fished had plenty of willing nibbles tearing up our green crabs. Troy was the newbie on the trip, but he caught on quickly. Jesse was the high hook on the day, with Troy taking second. I was in a distant third. We brought home four keepers. Should've been five, but Jesse had o e slip through his hands and over the gunnel. We landed 70 some odd fish between the three of us. It was pretty much a bite every drop. Today I went out with Justin and his wife Amy. We ran out to the reef hoping to get onto a decent tog bite. It was a little choppy early on, but calmed out nicely. Our first wreck didn't disappoint. We pulled up a load of tog, with three keepers in the mix. Once the bite slowed we moved to another wreck. Another solid bite with keepers in the mix. Our third option was already taken by two other boats, so we cruised on to a small, nondescript wreck. That turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. It was covered in tog. We landed several keepers, including Justin's tog of the day, a 20" 6# beast. Finally we made our way to another reef and worked over a variety of structures. We landed a few more keepers, several shorts, and added a bunch of sea bass to the bag, including three nice keepers. Overall it was an epic day. Amy was the newbie to tog fishing on this trip, but you wouldn't have known it. She absolutely slayed them all day. We landed upwards of 100 fish today, counting all of the tog, sea bass, and the few spiny dogs in the mix. It was non-stop action all day. And it was an absolute blast! The only other fishing I did was down in South Carolina from the surf. Lisa and I finally snuck away and hung out with my parents for a week. It was really nice catching up and relaxing. Anyway, I landed a bunch of croakers, some snapper blues, and a tiny pompano. Not what I was hoping for, but it was fun. And the best part, while beach combing, we found four sharks teeth. That will be a new obsession to go along with sea glass hunting. Still waiting for the striped bass to move in off our beaches... Tight Lines!