Fresh Stone Harbor Fishing Reports

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!

It's been a fun few days. I ran a morning surf trip with Bryce. We had nice conditions, though the surf was rather big. We had fairly steady action all morning. Bryce hauled in kingfish, weakfish, spot, doggies, and a blue. No big sharks or rays though. The following day I had the pleasure of guiding Don and his family on the beach for an early evening outing. The action was a lot slower. We managed a few kingfish and small doggies. Again, no large sharks or rays. And it wasn't for a lack of trying. For both surf trips I put rods out with spot, doggie, bunker, and kingfish. Usually automatic hook ups. Not so this time. As has been the case this spring and summer so far, prevailing south winds have cooled the water. And it was cloudy. During the morning trip we had a massive school of bunker push in just outside of the break zone. I snagged a few and we tried them for bait. Not a touch. Not normal. The ospreys were killing it as usual. We had a few pelicans swoop in too. And the usual outstanding dolphin shows took place. In other news, bloodworms have been scarce this year. They seemed to have made the difference between the trips. I had bloods for the morning trip. I used them with bits of Gulp bloodworm. For the night trip I decided to try night crawlers soaked in bloodworm juice. I used Gulp bloodworms and Fishbites too. The crawlers didn't get touched. The fake stuff caught kingies. I still think the crawler thing could work. Maybe just need more juice. I'll keep ya posted. This morning I ran a back bay trip with Jillian and her family. More south wind today. We tried to punch it out to the reef, but about three miles out the waves began to get steeper and the white caps were growing in frequency. So we turned around and stayed in the back. They missed a lot of bites. But managed to get one 18" keeper and a short fluke. Not a banner day, but we had a lot of fun. In the end, that's what matters. Got some great news regarding some fish I have been after. Next nice day I will be out searching. Tight Lines!

Ran out to a local reef this morning with Chris to see what we could find. We had damn near perfect conditions; light wind, enough cloud cover to keep it nice, and a fairly calm sea state. We made it out to our destination fairly quickly and set up a drift over a nice wreck. I got it right the second attempt, and Chris hooked up immediately. We made a bunch of short drifts over the wreckage and picked off sea bass and flounder fairly consistently. We ended up with three keeper fluke to 19", and two keeper sea bass. Chris was high hook. Around the time the bite slowed up a dive boat rolled up and asked if we planned to move any time soon. We I formed them that we were in fact making our last drift and they could have the spot. They were grateful and proceeded to tell us all about the myriad of species we were fishing over as the structure holds loads of critters. I asked if they ever came across lobsters? They said they did, but not lately. After our informative conversation we cruised off to try some rubble. Not a touch. We checked another wreck. Dead also. Given the suddenly dismal fishing we decided to try our luck at trolling. We ran a little ways off the reef area and deployed a variety of metals and a teaser bird with a Clark spoon attached in tow. We cruised around doing 5-6mph. The water on the reef was 71-72 degrees. The area we were trolling was 75-76 degrees. And the water was a clear and blue as could be. As we trolled around we marked all sorts of bait schools. Then we had a few flying fish erupt from the water. Those little buggers are so damn cool, and pretty! There were little storm petrals flying here and there. And a huge leatherback turtle came up to gulp some air. Finally, the bird teaser Clark spoon got hit. Chris hauled in a little false albie. No other action. We ran back to the reef to give it a try again. We were one of five boats left on the reef. We drifted over the structure three times, got a few hits, but no hook ups. Decided to call it a day. Even though all of our good action came from one wreck, we had a great time. Things are finally starting to look up and shape up to where they should be this time of the year. Finally... Tight Lines!