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 I invited a few of my buddies for some tog action. I never get to fish much plus never with LAB and also Boston Pete who is my neighbor when I'm in keyport. Alex (MVP) is a good friend of mine whom I've known for a very long time. Bite was real tough today. Wanted to fish the deeper water (100-120ft) but I had a fuel problem with one of the engines so we had to scratch that idea. At 15 mph, the sea girt reef was our only choice. I had a great time regardless of the fishing. Alot of good laughs with awesome company.
 Had a trip today with Joe, Harry and his buddies from the Passaic Boat club. Hit a number of pieces in around Elberon and the reef but fishing was a bit slow. Had close to a dozen up to 7 lbs. Wish the fishing would have been better under the beautiful conditions.
 Had Carlos Rivera and some of his fellow fire-fighters from the Newark,
NJ Park Ave Firehouse, had Emil, Kyle and Andres on board. Started out Tog dishing, Carlos had a nice keeper but that was the last one for the day. Tried Trolling for Stripers, no birds to work with so we blind-trolled only to lose a nice one near the boat. Great bunch of guys to have out.
 The blackfish were not on the chew yesterday. There was no current whatsoever which never bodes well for the togs. We tried everything from 40 to 65 feet and it was all the same. Very picky at best. Bill was high hook with his limit plus and there were a few guys with 3 or 4. If you were real sharp on the rod, you did ok. We ended up with 20 keepers and alot of short ones went back today. Anyway, back at it again this weekend.
  Had Brad on board today with his Dad Pete, and employees from his company Mark, Ronnie, and John. Started the run north, saw small pods of birds, but they were all Bluefin chasing bait, didn't want to spend time chasing the elusive Tuna, went on the troll at the rocks and had constant hook-ups of double and tripleheaders of short Stripers and bluefish, started jigging and landed a couple of keeper Stripers, more shorts, lots of blues and too many dogfish. Went back on the troll and landed more keepers, shorts and blues. Total tally was 5 keepers to 33 inches, 30 short bass, over 40 Blues from 3-10 lbs.
  Today I had a really good bunch of people on the boat. They were alot of fun all day. We caught a pretty good amount of fish today. Heather caught her first fish ever! The charter did great for never holding a rod before! A lot of short bass with one keeper going in the box plus a load of big blues. A bit crowded at times but a great day overall.
 On the marathon trip today I had a few of my favorite regulars and some new faces from Pa. The guys wanted tog first so after passing up on swirling bass everywhere we dropped the hook on a rockpile in 55 feet. Action was slow there so we made a few moves picking away at a few fish at each spot. We then went to a ledge in 52 feet and got into a steady pick of blacks up to 5 pounds. Our total for the day was 30 keepers up to 5 lbs. and a bunch of throwbacks. Two hours of bass jigging resulted in one keeper at 30 inches and nonstop action with shorts.
   Today I had a few of our regulars out on a split charter for this years' first blackfish trip. Went to the reef and hit a spot that produced big time last year around the same time. I spent 3 hours there thinking they would turn on. It never happened. I then made a 3 mile move to a rockpile in 56 feet and we had a decent bite for about 2 hours straight. We caught 25 keepers there up to 5 pounds with around 30 shorts going back. When the bite shut off my guys wanted some bass so off we went to the south. Bass fishing was real good on the jigs. We had around 20 shorts and 4 keepers plus a load of bluefish in 2 hours of jigging.
  Had Brandon with brother Nick and buddies Sascha and Frank. Started jigging Blues and short Stripers off of Deal, went further north to the rocks and were greeted with stiff 3-4 ft's and tons of Stripers rolling on the surface, we surface plugged and jigged over 2 dozen stripers to 30 inches. Headed back south to try some togging after 15 minutes of no action and birds diving all around us the charter wanted to get back to light tackle fishing. Went back on the drift and had double and triple headers of Bass and Blues until we left. They were feasting on peanut bunkers, crock spoons and surface plugs did the trick. Total tally was 40 Stripers with 6 keepers to 30 inches and over 40 blues.
   Had first time saltwater fisherman Jim from D.C. with cousin Mike, son in law Mike, and buddies Bret, Kathy and her dog Willie, a first on Andreas Toy. Started jigging outside the inlet for short bass and tons of blues, went on the troll to find a keeper and got one to 30 inches, had lots of short bass and lots of blues. Charter wanted to do some bottomfishing and went seabassing, fishing was slow only getting half a dozen, so we resumed the troll only to find more short bass and blues. Total tally was 20 bass with only one keeper, half a dozen seabass and about 40 blues from 3-8lbs.
 Had Frank and Sean back again this year, there normal routine is to troll, but told them there was a jig bite going on. Started jigging outside the inlet in 65 ft depths for tons of blues and short stripers, but only one keeper that just made 28 inches. So we went on the troll and limited out on shad rigs in short order, spent the rest of the day jigging doubleheader short bass and jumbo blues for the rest of the day. Total tally 2 dozen stripers, and 3 dozen blues.
  Had Steve with son Chris and buddies Scott and Al. Started jigging under the birds in 45-55 feet right outside Shark Inlet from first drop till we left. Landed over 20 Stripers to 36 inches and 20 blues to 8lbs. Fish were gorging on sandeels, so we used AVA 27's and 47's to obtain our Striper limit, then went into release mode after that. Also had Stripers rolling on the surface and caught some with noisy chuggers in every color, water temp was 57 degrees.
 Had Jeff Sorge with his crew of Ramon,Aaron and Jorge. Ran north from intel from Capt Jay, Gene and Rich, there was bird play off of Long Branch, got there towards the end of the bite. Jigged and trolled for half an hour with no bites. Ran inshore and found some working birds, trolled through them and had multiple fish on the rigs. Saw the marks on the screen and went to jig mode, jigged close to 20 Blues from 3-5 lbs and half a dozen bass to 29 inches.
 Had Larry with nephew Dan today. Ran out out the ledge in calm conditions in half an hour, had our first fish on 10 minutes after lines in, had Dan up first for his first tuna, hooked pull towards the end of the fight, redrifted same spot and had another fish on, Dan was on the rod again and had him within gaffing range when Mako took a swipe at him, got a bite out of the tuna and brushed the leader and fish was gone. Set up on the chunk with tons of marks on the screen but wind against current conditions had us swinging like a barn door with lines running to the bow. Went back on the drift and landed a BFT to 37 inches, all fish ate sardines 50 feet down.
  Had Reid Rose with buddies Keith and Ross on board today. Started light tackle fishing and landed half a dozen blues to 8lbs, shifted gears and tried some blackfishing, caught over a dozen fish with more than half being keepers up to 4lbs, only keeping our limit of 1 a piece, ended the day throwing popping plugs to Stripers along the beach. Todays was Reids first day on the ocean and he landed mutiple species first today. Also Ross had his first Striper today, fun day with the guys on a beautiful calm day.
  Had My three kids with their buddies Gustavo and Nicole Singares and William Isola. Got to the boat around lunchtime and had intentions of running down the beach for bluefish, after netting a livewell a peanuts I headed out of the inlet, after confirming the forecast and checking my weather overlay I decided to try a run to the ledge. Once I arrived half an hour later, we started chunking on the drift, within 5 minutes we had a double header on, landed one of the fish a nice BFT of 36 inches and pulled the hook on the other. Drifted for another hour and headed back in after some of the kids had a case of the "mal de mar". Cool thing was giving the kids their first feel of big game fishing.
  
Had a weather window today and couple of hours to kill, so decided to make a run to the Monster Ledge. Had no boat since the Contender was hauled out for some motor work and a paint job. Called Dave Owens and we ran his just purchased Grady the Kay-Jack from Keyport. Called frequent fishing customers Anthony Altobelli and Art Hoover, who gladly jumped on the trip with short notice. Got to the Ledge in a little over an hour and set up at 1pm. Water was Green and current was running against the south wind. First hour we marked some fish, but no bites at 2pm it was a steady bite for half an hour actually went to 1 rod, and left them biting,when the wind came on. Went 6-7 with fish up to 36 inches. The one fish we kept was close to 35lbs. Fish ate peanuts on 40lb flouro 40-60 feet down.
  
Had repeat customers Troy Grenewald, Dan Bombaci and Art Hoover, with newcomer Walter Farley. Decided to overnight in Hudson. Started a mid-day troll to no avail, so we went pot-hopping and landed over 2 dozen mahi to 10lbs on light spinning tackle. At night we set up at the 100 square in 600ft of water, didn't have much life so we went on the drift out in the deep for a sword, while out there we landed a nice yellowfin to 80lbs and released a sword. Came back to the edge and set up in 650ft marked some bait, and had a lot of life, mahi, blue sharks and mako's, so we waited for the bite. At 3am the yellowfins turned on, after it was over we landed 4 to 85lbs, biggest of the year, then at 5am the longins turned on and we landed another four of them. The tunas ate Shimano Butterlfy jigs, sardines, and squids. In the morning we went drifting for tiles and landed them to 10 lbs.
  Had Jerry with family members Nino, Sal and Franchesco. Ran to the tip for an uneventful troll from the tip down to the Elbow. Ran to the 100 square and decided to hit some pots for mahi, after some conversation charter wanted to target a sword, had a perfect drift form the 100 square to the Jones Canyon, no swords just a 50lb Longfin, decided to set up on the edge after midnight to be ready for the tuna bite, never happened, had plenty of baits but no tuna,water temp never got over 72 degrees, did however land the sword we were looking for while tuna fishing go figure.
    Had Gary Indyk with brother Craig, buddies Ray, Bill and Jean on board today. Started out the trip dropping the ashes of Gary and Craig's dad who was a World War 2 veteran who proudly served our country in all the major campaigns during that era, including Normandy Beach, very proud moment in my career to be part of the ceremony. Beautiful day today so we decided to mix some fishing in. Ran down to Seabright and light-tackled blues to 8lbs, set up on a rock pile and bailed some nice seabass to 2lbs. Great bunch of people to have on board.
  Had Dave Z with buddy Pete and Anthony A with buddy Chris out for an overnight trip to the Hudson Canyon. Was set to leave late morning but due to forecast left late and only had half an hour of trolling before dark, had some knockdowns and landed a 40lb Longfin. Set up in 700ft of water on the edge. Had mahi around the hydroglow all night the guys landed a dozen mahi to 10lbs, waiting for the tuna bite. Didn't have any hits until midnight due to lines running toward the bow, around 2am the life started to build under the boat, read bait and tuna but only one run-off, decided to try to get the bite started we jigged Shimano Butterfly Flatside jigs in glow pattern and landed our first yellowfin, fish that were in 150ft of water started to rise and we had all the life right next to the boat, had over 20 hits in the next 2 hours landing 2 longfin to 45lbs and 7 yellowfin to 85lbs with jigs mostly, then they ate everything sardines, squid, and butters. The great thing about the trip was getting Chris and Pete's first tunas!
  Had Pepe DelHirro in from Canada, he wanted to give inshore Pelagics a try. Made a run out to the Barnegat Ridge and had fish on right away, the false albacore and Bonito's ate any kind of squid or feather daisy chain in every color in all positions in the wake, clark spoons got some hits but not as much as the chains. Ended the day with a dozen Albacore, half a dozen Bonito and some blues.
 Had first time offshore fisherman Mike with buddies Chris and Bill. Started light tackle mahi fishing and landed 8 fish to 7lbs, went on the troll whch was uneventful so we went on the chunk early. Had 2 hits all night at the same spot I did well at days ago. Due to a cluster of errors both fish were lost. On the troll in the morning we only had one hook-up and lost that fish also. Didn't have many bites, and when we did we didn't produce, could blame the funky current due to the new moon, but will chalk it up to bad luck. Enjoyed my days with the guys.
 Had repeat customer John Lapchak with buddies Bill Crutchlow and Vinnie Molnar for a 30 hour canyon trip. Left the inlet and was on the first lobster pot in about 2 hours, started light tackle fishing and landed a dozen mahi's to 6lbs, went on the troll, had a White Marlin swipe my Canyon Runner Spreader Bar multiple times, he then attacked my Bally in my long rigger cleaned that bait, then Vinnie being a first time canyon runner feed him a mini green machine, which he eventually spit, no more knockdowns from tuna just pesky mahi. Set up on the chunk and went 6-10 on nice size yellows from 55-75 lbs before midnight, no more hits for hours, made a call to my buddy Capt Mike, who was bailing them, ran to him and had drop and reel fishing for 2 hours straight, easily attained our limit and then some in an hour, fish ate everything, insane drop and reel fishing, ran out of room and ice, and guys had enough of fishing, was back at the dock cleaning fish by 9am. Want to thank my mate John Forys who postponed his vacation to make the trip with an hour's notice, had the window and had to make the run. ~ Capt Fred
 Had Chris D, out with his son Luke and father Bart. Started out light tackle jigging outside of the inlet for Blues to 10lbs, made a run out to the Ridge in sporty conditions and had 3 knockdowns on the first pass and landed a Little Tunny. Soon after the conditions ended the trolling trip early, headed back towards the inlet and light tackle casted another dozen blues to end the day. Great time with 3 generations of the DeCresce clan.
   Today I had Mike Strauss, his dad and a bunch of friends for a fluke trip. We started out on some lumps out at the reef and we got a couple keepers there but it died out real quick. I then hit a wreck in 58 feet and we got into a nice bite boating a bunch of fish up to 6 lbs. When that died we picked a few here and there but nothing substantial. At 3 o'clock, I tried another wreck in 65 feet and it was nonstop until we left at 4:30. Our total for the day was 31 keepers up to 7 lbs. caught by Mr Strauss senior. We had alot of fish in the 3-5 pound range and we also had 4 seabass up to 3lbs. What an awesome day with some great company!
 Had Kevin out with buddies Dave,Neil,Flag,Lee, and Godfrey. Started out bluefishing at the Rocks with no takers, ran to the Mud Dump and read some fish, current was slow and water clarity was horrible, had a slow pick of fish to 8lbs. Steady pick of Seabass with over 30 fish caught kept the guys busy, ran south to the Sea Girt Reef to get out of the storm's path and managed a good pull of Fluke of a dozen to 20 inches to end the day on a good note.
 Had Dr Mike Rosenbloom with wife Barbara and son James. Started out drifting near the bunker pods at Sea Girt Reef, landed 3 Brown Sharks to 3ft on light tackle, turned our focus to fluke since none of the desirable shark species were around, first hour drift we landed a dozen keepers to 20 inches with hardly any shorts. Once the wind shifted to the south the bite died out completely. Hit some more lumps and added some short fluke and Seabass.
 Today I had Joe and his buddies from Monroe, NJ for a day of fluking. Joe fished with me at the end of June and his group limited out on fluke so I had big shoes to fill. Shot up to the rocky stuff and on the first drift Joe boxes a nice 5 pounder. I'm thinking it's on but it was like that all day. Make a new drift catch a keeper right away and that's it. Ran to the reef for a while to see if I could get something going but we had the same results there. We ended up off in Long Branch at 3:30 PM and on the first drift we box 3 keepers. Second pass nothing. The guys ended up with 14 nice keeper fluke up to 5 lbs. and also 15 seabass up to 3 lbs. Beautiful day on the water... Nice and flat all day.
   Had Alan Beneroff and Mike Reynolds on board for their first Canyon trip with me. Started off at the tip Toms with triple hook-up of Longfin to 50lbs, thought it was going to be a killer trip, didn't get another hit until late morning with a 70lb Yellowfin landed by Dave. Decided to drop down on some tiles and Alan landed his biggest ever close to 20lbs, went back on the troll and left the canyon at 1pm to avoid the predicted winds.
Had the Chris DeCresce charter with buddies Rick, Ted and Rufus. Started out trolling the monster ledege only got gator blues to 15lbs, water was semi clean green, picked and ran to the Glory, water clarity was a bit better,got short Bluefin Tuna to 25 inches, once the bite slowed tried a shark drift no life in the slick. Picked up and headed back to the monster to shark, again no life in the slick. Ran to the Manasquan Ridge to troll Bonio, no hits. Ended the day snagging bunker hoping to find something underneath them to no avail.
 Had Kevin Allocco on board today for an afternoon trip after my morning charter canceled due to rain. Started out trolling the ridge for Bonito, which was slow and landed them to 3 lbs. On the way out we saw pods of bunker so we went back to investigate. Pods were getting smashed! Snagged one on 12 lbs spin and fought a monster for 15 minutes before the leader chafed and broke, Thresher tail? Went into shark mode and put out a chum slick and set out the baits, had a run-off right away and missed it, 15 minutes later had another run-off and gave it a much longer time to eat the live bunker. 40 minutes later Kevin had his first shark, a Thresher 60 inches long secured to the boat.
 Today I had Mike Strauss, his Dad and two of his close friends from the Elks fluke tournament. I was undecided on where to fish. I was thinking on running south and fishing the edge of a few wrecks that I know have big fluke on them but I haven't been to them this year so I wanted to go where I knew some fish were being caught. I shot up to the Rocks and found a pretty good fleet already working the area. The bite was OK considering we did have a nice drift. I found 2 pockets of fish and we were able to land 16 nice keepers up to 4 pounds plus we also had a nice bunch of seabass up to 3 pounds. We only had 3 shorts all day and 2 of them came when I did a quick drift by the beach. All in all it was a nice day out on the water with some great company!
 Had Bob Joyce, his Dad and some of his family members for a 2-8pm trip. We started out by going offshore a bit to snag a bunch of bunker for the 5pm striper bite. After getting our fill, we headed in towards spring lake for some fluking while the charter waited for the bass to turn on. The south wind was already blowing 20 and the drift was flying. We got a bunch of 16's but no keepers.
Finally the bunker came inshore with some bass on them but also came the boats so we had a good shot but it was a quick one. We boated 2 fish both in the 25-35 pound range and it was over in less than an hour. It didn't matter because the winds were blowing 30 now and my guys wanted to head back in. A few cases of mal de mar will do that. Anyway grandpa caught the biggest fish of his life and that's all that matters! Nice catch.
 Had long time customer Steve with sons,Ryan,Chris,and Louis. Worked the beach from the inlet North to the Spring Lake Hotel, water 71 degrees and clean. Started out fluking to kill some time until the Stripers started up. Landed over 2 dozen fluke up to 19 inches, in water depths from 25-35 feet. The bunkers started to come in waves towards the evening and it was drop and reel fishing, caught our fill and headed back to the barn, good laughs and times with the Romain clan.
  Had Sidney Ruiz back on the boat today with his family. Was going to be leisure boat cruise/fluke trip turned into a live-lining session. Had wife Heidi with sons Chris and Bishop, found the bunker pods right outside the inlet and snagged the live bait, had fish on within minutes, Chris landed his first Striper on his life, fought it like a pro, fish was 33lbs on the boca grip. Winds were honking out of the east, so we ducked back into the inlet. Wanted to thank Capt Jay Kittle for coming out for the assist today.
 Today I had Jared Kaplan, Judd Levine, Jason Greenstein and JP Daley all from the city - out for a day of fluking... We headed straight up North and started working the same area I was in the day before. First drift banged four keepers and several shorts! Another pass on the same line only gave us shorts. There were tons of birds working which caught the attention of the guys so we headed over and played around with the blues for a little. They were all little rats but fun. After some casting we switched back over to fluke and starting a little South. On some sticky bottom we were able to nab the rest of the keeps and countless shorts which ended the day with 15 keeper fluke and 6 blues for the grill! ~ Capt Joe.
 Had Chaz and Debby Foster onboard along with their children Caroline and Harry, and Debby's parents Jim and Gladys for a day of Fluke fishing... we headed straight up North, stopping for a few drifts on the way. It was not the best drift in the world today but it worked pretty good. We managed 5 keepers out of so many shorts but had plenty of action throughout the day. We also boxed a couple of Seabass! All in all it was great day with wonderful people! Caroline and Harry were outstanding mates! I think I might have them on my next trip. ~ Capt Joe.
 Today I had a one man charter for a few hours of fluking. Michael Roth, Ceo of PharmaPress, NJ's top pharmaceutical insert supplier needed some stress relief so I headed back North and found some nice fluke for him. In 3 hours of fishing, he limited out and released 30 shorts. Biggest fish was five pounds!
  Had set up a Bluefish trip with Rob Sr. for his son, with cousin John and Josh. Decided to run a bit further offshore and try for both. Started with a tuna troll from a seine trawler in the mudhole and worked my way towards the Monster ledge, water 68 degress and clean green, no knockdowns and set up on the drift. Tons of Bluefish in the slick then a 8 ft Blueshark showed up Rob Jr's first shark, after a couple hours of drifting the sharks showed up, had at least 6 small mako pups hang around the boat until a 10ft Blueshark took the bait, all the guys took turns on the stubborn fish, took pics for the release. Good Luck Rob on your new life!
 Today I had a group from the Morgantown Fire Dept for some heavy fluke action. They crushed the fluke up to 5 pounds and released a ton of 16 to 16 1/2 sized fish. The charter limited out and went home with a nice pile of filets. I'm getting spoiled with the awesome clients that I've been taking out recently and these guys were no different. ~ Capt Carlos
 Today I had Gerald Paige, his dad, father-in-law and his sons,Xavier,Jared and Javan for a day of fluking. Well the fish cooperated nicely. We had steady action all day ending up with 28 keepers up to 4lbs. plus 4 seabass and a ling. Shorts were too numerous to count. The Paige family were a pleasure to fish with. Watch out for the youngest one. He was on fire today!!! ~ Capt Carlos
  Had brothers Pete and Leo on board today, what started out to be a shark charter, turned into entering the Mako Fever, shark tournament, mixed bag trip. Went to the Capt's meeting last night and ran into a bunch of buddies. Checked out this morning and made the 60 mile run to my spot, water was 66 degrees and green, made a couple of moves and found the fish. Started by jigging Bluefin to 33 inches. Then the sharking started, had Blue sharks up to the boat that we were hand feeding bunker, then we hooked the man in the blue suit. Landed him, he measured 63 inches, fork length, the brothers decided to keep him for the grill, knew it might not win the tourney, but would make great eats. Ended the trip working the scallop boats, with big fish under the sets, but no takers.
 Fished to today with Ex Baseball coaches from Linden High school Joe Mahan and Tony Picaro and ex football coach Bucky McDonald with restaurant owners John Sansevere, Tony and Pete. Had intentions of Striper fishing today, but with no current or marks, decided to fish for other species instead. Started out seabassing and caught over 20 nice humpies, did some fluking and caught half a dozen to 5lbs, and had blues up 10lbs.
 Well today we had Paul Cavanaugh and buddies Tim,Mike, and Kapoor. This had to be one of the worst striper trips of the year! We ran up the beach and anchored up on marks to die for started chunking heavy. NO CURRENT all morning swinging all over, lines straight down, and not one run off! After trying to wait it out to see if the water would start to move (which it didn't) I decided to make a move and do some sea bass. We ended the day with around 15 nice sea bass to save the trip. Rough day today. ~ Capt Joe
 Today I had Tom Swanson and some of his buddies from Doylestown PA. We set up right where Capt Fred left them biting yesterday and we had fish on immediately. The bass were all large and were cutting us off on the rough bottom. We then switched to 50 pound class tackle and went four for 10 on stripers up to Tom's 35 pounder that was weighed on the boga. After the tide change, we still read alot of fish on the screen but they wouldn't hit so we left and hit the seabass grounds. We finished out the day on a wreck and landed 25 nice seabass.
Great day on the water with great company! ~ Capt Carlos
 Had our first trip out of our new Marina, Will's Hole Marina Point Pleasant. Had Chris Martalus with father Bob, John, with son David, and Buddy Gilbert, had rough conditions of 4-6 foot seas. Started out chunking/drifting the rocks with 7 Bass to 30lbs. Once the bite died we went Seabassing and caught a couple dozen nice humpbacks.
  Today we hosted the Peterson Family from NY for some seabass action. We had a steady bite pretty much all day until the last hour or so when a screaming current out of the northeast killed it. We fished wrecks and rockpiles from 35 to 55 feet with the shallower spots producing more. There is alot of life on the inshore pieces now and it looks like it will get even better. Our total for the day was 60 sea bass up to 5 pounds, 2 keeper blacks and 1 ling. We released a ton of short blacks and bass and also 2 porgys. I want to thank them for a very enjoyable day out on the water and yes the Princess (John's daughter) was well taken care of. She has to be, she catches all the fish. Ha Ha!! She told me to write that!!! ~ Capt Carlos
 Had Miguel Oldenburg and friends for some striper action in the bay. We connected with fluke and plenty of blues but stripers were not chewin where we were fishing. Marked them on the screen but they never turned on for us so we decided to do some fluking to save the trip. Well, we boated 7 keepers up to 4 pounds plus many shorts and my guys also kept 10 blues for their barbecue bash they were having when they arrived home. As always they were alot of fun to fish with. See you next year guys!
 Had canceled today's Striper trip for Hogs down the beach, had my buddy/mechanic come over to tune-up the engines. Since the weather was great decided to make a quick trip for his dinner. Netted close to 100 bunker and started the drift, got completely covered up by Bluefish from 6-14lbs, with the last bunker, Kevin finally landed his dinner, which was his biggest Bass to date.
 Had a couple of my friends out today (Pat, Rich, Matt, Brett, Scott, and Joe) for a striper trip! We took a late start and headed to the usual spot to load up on bait. With only 2 throws of the net we had what we needed and we were off to the fishing grounds! It was a tough pick but ended up with 4 keepers to 25lbs. Unfortunately, we also lost 2 right at the boat. Bluefish were impossible to get away from again but the guys had an awesome day on the water and that is what it is all about!
 Had Todd and the guys back out with me today, didn't have enough of me yesterday after 18 hours, so we Bass fished today. Todd had his brother Rob, Dad, and Buddy Guzzy today. Popped 2 Striper cherries with brother Rob and Guzzy, who has never saltwater fished until yesterday. Had a decent pick at Round Shoal, still wound up with 5 Bass from 17-21 lbs, and of course all the bluefish you could handle up to 12lbs.
 Had Todd with brother Rob and friends Double Dave, Dave and Guzzi. Started out Tilefishing in less than optimal conditions wind agains full moon current. Nonetheless, all the guys were new to Tilefishing but all landed multiple fish to Pop their cherrries. Landed 20 fish from 5-15lbs. Went to deep drop at the Texas Tower and the first drop Rob nailed a 5lb Seabass to my surprise but, not much on the piece except monster Bergalls, tried jigging for Pollack to no avail. Great day with good bunch of guys.
 Dr Kudla, had sons Rob and Mark with George along today. The sons did all the reeling both the sons caught there first Stripers and landed over 20 Bluefish from 4-12lbs. The 4 fish to leader were 12-18 lbs.
  Had Eric with buddies Rich,Brian,AL and soon to be wed Brad,"Good Luck". Started out at the end of the outgoing with some lost fish and blues, on the slack drifted for 3 fish up to 20lbs, went back on the hook where we drifted and began to bail the fish on the incoming tide with heads on the bottom. All the fish went from 15-23lbs.
 Today I had an open boat bottom fishing trip with all of my regular customers. First I have to say that the water that I saw today was disgusting. I don't know what the hell is causing that but it's downright nasty! Well, the fishing was pretty damn good today. We had nice size sea bass coming up steady on the first drop and that bite lasted quite a while with some tog mixing in also. Next drop was also good for the same but then died out at the end of the tide. We then made a couple of drops further south that failed to produce much other than a ton of small bluefish on jigs. I then came back to the area where I started and we had a real nice pick of large ling with a few sea bass and tog mixed in to finish out the day. I read a ton of life on all the wrecks that we fished today. It looks real good for my upcoming trips. I want to thank Sam, Bill, Joe, Carl and the high hook for the day Brett for an awesome time.
 Had my sons Danny and Antonio out fish the ASA. Guys earned there award, they got up every morning with the crew at 3am, and worked through out the day. First day we weighed in a 16lb after a long tough day of fishing, (no wonder I didn't book any charters during a weekend like this), then day two we weighed a 23lb to clinch the title, thanks to Capt Joe,Mike,and,John for your help and laughs the entire weekend.
 Had Troy with family members, Bill,Stan,Ted,Seth, and buddy Joe. Had a slow pick of Blues and Stripers all day, did some live-lining and chunking, had some misssed fish, but still managed to land 4 Bass to 22lbs.
 Had Brandon friend of Jesse"skunked" out today, He was joined by buddies Kevin and Striper newbies, Frank,Chuck,Bernie and Sasha.Started out drifting fish to 25lbs, before setting up on the hook, popped cherries of all the newbies with fresh heads on the bottom, Blues were a pest at times but wound up with over 30 of them with 7 Bass from 15-26lbs.
 Had Mark with co-workers Mike,John,Rob and "freshwater" Mike, started chunking with nothing but blues, went out front and drifted a nice 37 inch, Bass, set up on the chunk, but wind against tide conditions this afternoon squashed that idea, drifted and landed 3 more keepers for a total of four from 15-22lbs, with over 40 blues from 5-12lbs.
  Had Jack with his sons Sean and Ryan out again this year, as soon as we started chunking heads on the bottom, the Bass bites was on. Limited out in the first hour, and played catch and release the rest of the time, the 2 biggest females were released with a another half dozen fish, total count was 14 Bass from 15-30lbs and 2 dozen bluefish to 12lbs.
 Today I had one of my regulars, Dave Zeigler and family out for a striper charter. We got our bait at the Bunker Drive-In and then we headed east. First stop was on fire right away. We boxed 2 nice keepers on the first drift and dropped a few. Next couple of drifts, we lost 2 big bass in a row boatside and dropped another half dozen or so. Striped Bass, for me anyway, has become like tuna. You have to capitalize on every striped bass bite you get. The bite died there so we searched around without marking much. We then headed deep into the back bay and got into a nice little flurry boating 3 more nice keepers and a bunch of bluefish. All the bass were from 32 to 37 inches and my charter also took home a dozen blues. Good day on the water!
 Had the Bob Chimlewski party out today... Headed straight over to the usual spot to get bait... loaded up and we headed over to the fishing grounds.. right away we set up and started chunking , bluefish after bluefish couldnt keep more then 2 rods in the water... we did manage another awesome weakfish that went 12lbs.. after all the fun with the blues we went on the drift and picked up 2 40 in bass also dropping many more... best site of the day was two HUGE bass followed a head right to the side of the boat im talkin MOnSters ... ended the day with some light tackle plugging.
 Had out the Sean Mullin Charter today for a striped bass trip... Got a late start and headed to get bait at 1 pm ... one throw of the net and we were off to the fishing grounds ... didn't mark much fish but set up on the drift and managed three bass with two of them going 40 in. and countless blues... at slack headed back in for more bait .. rest of the day was pretty quiet after that except for of course the demons... ended the day with some light tackle plugging for some more blues... great group of guys we had out today!
  Had Daniel and Jean on board, started out the trip yesterday but horrendous conditions made me cut the trip short and reconvene this morning, in 1 drift we limited out on fish to 41 inches. They ate heads and livies on the bottom and livies on top. Also had countless blues and wound up doing some surface casting to end the trip which made for a great show.
  Had John on with brother in law Eric and Art. Netted bunker and started drifting, had a bunch of blues, picked up to set up on the chunk and on the way there read some nice marks, dropped some live baits down and had instant hook ups, set uptide of the marks and started chunking, quickly limited out on fish to 40 inches, also landed over 30 gators up to 12lbs. Once the bite died we ran along the sod banks and light tackle surface plugged over 30 more blues.
  Today I had a group from the West Orange Fishing Club. Striper fishing was pretty good considering the large amount of boat traffic. We ended up with 4 nice keepers up to 18 pounds and my charter also took home 30 big blues. My guys also dropped alot of big bass today. They were rolling on the guys and spitting out the hook. We had the rods bending all day.
  Had Brothers John,Joe,Joe Sr.,grandson Bryce,with buddy John Z. started out drifting livies on the bottom for a slow pick, nothing like the night before, fought through over 50 gator blues, on the outgoing and had a slow pick. On the incoming set up on the chunk fishing heads on the bottom and limited out quickly. All fish were between 12-18lbs, released all the females over 25lbs.
  Had John with buddies, Bill,Dave,Joel,Vinnie and Fred. Started out down the beach, with keepers up to 30 inches, ran back towards Great kills to get bait, loaded up the bait well and drifted around Old Orchard, landed 6 fish from 15-22 lbs. All fish on live bunkers, had to fight through over 50 blues to 12 lbs, but today the Stripers bit better.
 Had Andy Jr, His dad, Mat and Bob, out today started clamming at round shoal with short fish and blues, went to net bunker and drifted the live baits got covered up with over 30 blues from 8-12 lbs, went back to clamming got some more shorts 1 keeper, went back to livelining and caught more blues with no Bass, read them heavy but couldn't get through the Blues.
 Today we had an open boat trip that consisted of scubanut, Art Hoover, Phil, John and Big John from NjFishing.com Board. We shot straight over to great kills to net some bunker 3 throws and we were on our way! Headed back into round shoal where we were the night before and started clamming... we had fish under the boat for steady action the whole time we were there! We ended the day with five keeper bass, a bunch of monster blues, and the bonus of the day was a 12.5 lbs weakfish caught by John ... AWESOME fish!
 Today we had out the Charlie Papa charter today and had some livies on tap so headed straight out to west bank to drift around and see if we could pick away at some nice bass. Came clear real quick that nothing good was going to happen with the monster blues that were around. So we made a move to great kills to recoup on the bunker and headed just outside and couldn’t buy a bass. Blue fish were just everywhere! We then decided to headed towards the back and anchored up on a round shoal and clammed up three keeper bass and several shorts to end the day! An awesome group of guys on this charter had a lot of fun with them it was a pleasure having them aboard.
 Had the Ferrick Brothers Tom,Tim and Chris out. Had a very slow day of Bass fishing only managed a dozen Bass, Tried live-lining which over 30 gator Blues from 5-12lbs, ran to Romer to clam and caught schoolie Bass to barely legal size, and wound up throwing popping plugs to surface Blues to as many you wanted up to 8lbs, with some keeper bass.
 Today I had "Scuba Nut" and Family for a striper charter. We started out east of everyone else in much cleaner water. Chumming pretty heavy we were able to start a pick of shorts and 2 keepers on the first spot plus a nice flounder but it died out soon afterwards. Made a second move farther east on some humps and we had the same type of action. Alot of shorts plus a keeper and then nothing so off we went to the east and same thing, alot of shorts plus another keeper. We also caught our share of skates. Great group of guys. We had alot of fun! Watch out for the "little" guy. Future pro fisherman!
 Had my kids Andrea and Danny on board,with Andreas classmate Juliana Tomasselli with Dad Jerry, My Dad and Mike. Started out trolling with some short fish, was going to do some clamming when the winds kicked up out of the Northwest to 20 knots, ran to Great Kills and loaded up the livewell, made some drifts near the reach and the kids all landed Stripers up to 38 inches.
 Capt Dave and I started out on the troll with the Ruiz Charter ended up dropping 2 fish right away ... set up clamming at round shoal and found some short bass... again started the troll looking for some keeper bass and it was just not happening today.. set back up on the incoming on round shoal again and ended the day with around 25 short bass up to 27 inches.. all in all the 3 man charter had plenty of action with the tough conditions.
 Had canceled today's charter due to unstable weather, decided to make a bait run for this weekends charters, on the way to Great Kills saw some Gannets active on flat calm waters. Since we had no bait I decided to troll some stretches, put out 4 rods and marked some fish, had a 4 banger at the same time, glanced at the sonar and it was covered with fish. After we landed all the fish I kept reading fish so I dropped a bucktail and we landed another half dozen fish. All the fish were over 30 inches up to 38 and were fresh Sea run fish, all the action came from the 19 can in 25ft of water on the slack tide, water was on the dirty side.
 Had Andrew out with his Dad, brother Greg, Cuz Lou, and Buddy Greg. Started out clamming with steady action with 2 dozen Stripers in little over an hour of fishing, decided to try some livelining to find some bigger fish, didn't have any luck, went on the troll and landed another half dozen with some decent keepers.
 Had Bob Murray and Mike Haney on board to shoot a Striper trip for the Delaware Valley Outdoor Show. Our goal was to catch Stripers in a variety of ways in Raritan Bay. Started out trolling stretch plugs since it was slack tide and landed a couple of Stripers. Started clamming on the flood tide but had wind against tide conditions with stiff Northwest wind, nontheless we had a nice flurry of Bass with a couple of tripleheaders making for some good camera action. Ended that session and livelined bunker along the Reach area with no touches. Ended the day plugging Bass on the sod banks of Pebble Beach to land more fish up to 28 inches.
 Had Ed Youngull and his dad, as well as some other NJFishing.com forum member Mike "Poncho", Chris,and young stud Jake. We started out clamming and caught 20 Stripers to start the day. Then ran back to Great Kills and with 2 throw backs by Ed and loaded up the bait well. Hit many spots never finding water warmer than 46 degrees, had no hits chunking bunker, went back to clamming and landed over 2 dozen more to end the day with close to 50 fish, but no keepers. Tried to find the big-uns, but no luck.
 Had Tony Picaro, with buddies Joe Mahan, Billy, Ted, Harvey and Corky, started out fishing end of the incoming 43 degree dirty water, struggled to land a dozen fish, hitting numerous spots in the back bay by the 1 can. Went to Great Kills to look for bunker very sporadic, went back to clamming and hit the outgoing still dirty but up to 48 degrees had non stop action caught over 50 up to 28 inches with some nice flounder to round out the catch. On a nice side note Joe Mahan brought 28 ALS tags and we used them up on all different size fish.
 Headed out around the 1 buoy winds kicking and the incoming tide made for snotty fishing conditions but we did manage a limit of striped bass up to 30 inches on clam... water temperature is still cold around 43 degrees We should be in for a good season once it warms up a little.
 We had an all day beat down today! We ran 100 miles to encounter some bad conditions. We had a stiff 20 knot north wind with a strong southerly current pushing up against five to six footers. We tried every tile spot that had produced big time but nothing!! We ended up with one tile for 5 hours of fishing. I don't know what happened to the winds going variable because that has never happened before. I was really counting on the tiles to cooperate because I knew that the sea bass weren't thick on the northern wrecks offshore yet. I ran west about 21 miles to a wreck in 260 foot but a New York party boat beat me to that one. We then went 9 miles and hit a larger wreck where we caught a couple a nice sea bass then we steamed about 20 miles to the south and those wrecks produced nothing as well. The surface water temps are 40 degrees offshore and there hasn't been any northerly migration of sea bass. I did everything I could. The guys were real troopers and a lot of fun to have on the boat despite the conditions.
 Had a window weather late in the afternoon so I had to take advantage before the boat is pulled. Ran down to the reef and set up in 50ft of water had life right away picked away at tog up to 8lbs and nice size ling. Seas got angry and got out of dodge with snow accumalating on the windshield.
 Today I had 4 guys on the last minute open boat trip. First piece in 60 feet was covered in dogs. They were actually chasing the bait to the surface. I knew that I had to hit something real "sticky" so I hit one of my old pieces in 50 feet that I nicknamed the "razor" 15 years ago because you get cutoff so easily but it holds large fish. Well we had a limit catch with most of our fish being from 5 to 10lbs. Joe was high hook with 10 keepers plus the 10 pounder and Anthony came close with 6 keepers up to 7 lbs. He also dropped an incredible amount of big ones today with the razor getting the best of him. Great day today!!
 Today I had Tom Swanson and a few of his buddies from Doylestown PA for a 6 hour striper charter. I started out by Ambrose on the birds and the action was pretty good. We got a bunch of schoolies right away and then my guys started jigging off the bottom with 4oz crippled herrings and we got 3 keepers with the biggest at 32 inches. The tide went slack at 11 so I hit a wreck in the area for about an hour or so and we got 2 keeper tog to 7lbs and around a dozen shorts. Of course the 7 pounder was caught by Stu who never caught a blackfish before. That always happens. He did do an excellent job on getting that big tog out of the wreck. We then tried looking for more bass after the tide turned but they were nowhere to be found so my guys called it a day. The weather was great and the fishing not so bad.
Started off the year on the right note, started jigging Stripers in between the channels, all shorts but over 30 on light tackle not bad for early January. Headed to the Scotland grounds for some Ling, had 3 right off the bat before the doggies took over, maHeaded back for Stripers and them eating popping plugs off the surface, landed another 2 dozen and headed in for the afternoon. Will be fishing until at least mid month.
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