Hey Gang, On Sunday, we found some dense schools of bunker right off the beach but as what is normal of late there was nothing there except doggies. So we went a little deeper and found some bird play and occasional fish on the surface chasing sand eels. Thanks to our buds on another charter boat we were advised to put out some trolling gear even deeper. It worked. We ended up with a couple “overs”, measuring up to 35”, 4 slot keepers, and 2 bonus in about an hour. Persistence and flexibility to do different things (like things I don’t care for - trolling - ) paid-off. Had our first double-header of stripers on a trolling rig in like, 15+ years. On Monday we had Ken and his dedicated crew of anglers out for stripers. These guys were focused on using top-water, jigs and plastics. The fish were even more scattered than on Sunday and we had a whipping West wind. It was whack-a-mole on sand eels over a large area. We had 4 stripers. 3 in the keeper slot and 1 bonus fish. I have to hand it to these guys. They wanted to actively fish, not troll - which probably would have resulted in more fish. They really worked it. So, we emptied out the boxes. We threw everything - I don't limit myself and more importantly my clients to any one manufacturer in order to receive a piddling discount on gear - and all four fish were taken on sand eel imitators. The weather pattern through the end of the month shows the best days to fish are mid-week. This bite has not even broken wide-open yet. We will return to the Ocean City December 1st. Maybe the stripers will be inside the 3 mile line by the time they move South and maybe they won't. That's the frustration we have had over the past few years and why we moved to Manasquan Inlet for the beginning of the run. If you want a trip where you have your best shot at a good striper bite, book through our "Mighty Heron Stripers - Point Pleasant" Page. If you need a trip out of Ocean City, book through our Mighty Heron Charters - Let's Go! page. If you are interested in booking an ocean trip out of Ocean City in December, I suggest contacting us first for a report on whether or not we have a fair shot at finding the fish inside the 3 mile limit. This Autumn has been warm and the water temps are slowly falling so we will open up "up the river' striper trips until December 10th and then re-evaluate, based on conditions.

Hey Gang, That in initial wave of large fish that were found off of North Jersey finally made their way to the Cape-Atlantic area. Typical of the past few years, our friends are finding they are more scattered and need to be trolled up. Reports are most are being found beyond the legal limit of 3 miles. The main concentration of linesiders is still up around Raritan Bay and the outside of Sandy Hook. They extend as far South as Island Beach State Park. "Up North", specifically Manasquan Inlet, where we moved the boat for the month of November, we are doing pretty good the past few days. Look for our "Mighty Heron Charters - Manasquan" listing on fishingbooker to get in on the action before the end of November.

The air is hot, and the water has really warmed up. We have moved into classic summer fishing with a nice wrinkle this season. + Bay fishing is shifting into mid-summer mode. We are seeing many flounders and as usual for this time of year the keeper to throwback ratio is getting higher. Still keepers around and just because a fish might not be a "keeper", it does not mean it is not a nice fish. Charlie, his grandson Carter, and his pal Justin landed five keepers including a 23-inch 4.5-pound flounder on a recent bay trip. The "snapper/tailor" blue fish bite has been a little disappointing. By now, we hope to see more "pop-ups" of these guys. We feel confident they will make a better showing soon. The weakfish have been bigger this year but still not considerable numbers. Hopefully, they will continue to recover. A pleasant surprise is the large numbers of croakers showing up both in the bay and the ocean. They have not been this far North in many years. The croakers in the bay are small (think white perch) but they have been thick and provide action. Get enough of the larger ones and it is fish taco time. The reef and wreck fishing on our 5-hour ocean trip is already better than last year, when chilly water really put a damper on the bite. Nice - sized flounder are coming over the side pretty consistently. A fair number of keeper sized black sea bass are in the mix. Reports are that cobia are showing up and we hope to try for them later in the week. Small sharks are definitely around. We have not yet seen large schools of bunker to try to snag-n-drop for near-shore sub-tropicals. The tuna bite has been good to very good. They have been found as close as some of the ridges only 15 miles off the coast. Canyons are more consistent. We still have no consistent reports of mahi, but we will be trying twice this week. As important as fishing is, we are still very happy to have out so many wonderful families creating memories.