12/30

We got through December with no problems. The weather stayed mild and the fishing was anywhere from average to epic. All we have in Philly is the Flatheads which may or may not be totally done for the season now. I got out with James and Owen the other night and we caught several Flatheads to 16lbs, I only used one rod and about 3 pieces of cut bait the whole time but caught 2 Flats and a Channel in the 2 hours I was there. Thats not a bad night, and for the time of year I couldn't be happier with the action. Of coarse now water temps have dropped a few degrees, the river has risen back up to 10x flow, and the action shut down. There is opportunity to catch Flatheads TODAY, RIGHT NOW, as water temps are still in the high 40's and the flow is stabilizing, and if we're lucky we might even be able to stick a January Flathead, which would be much more ridiculous than the December Flatheads we're seeing now.

Tip for those wanting to catch flatheads Today: Fish the deepest slowest water you can find. Understand these Flatheads were holed up for the winter just a week ago, so hit them in their winter holes with cut bait and you have a chance. You don't need much bait, you could honestly get a couple hours of Flatheading in with just a couple bluegills, I'd suggest cutting them into 3 pieces. Pretty stumped on what to target the next couple weeks here, thinking about Tog, Blue Cats in the Potomac, and also keeping an eye on party boat Cod reports from NY and RI.

For now, here are a couple Philly Flatheads, 13lb Channey and a garter snake who all who've decided to start chewing again just days before New Years-

12/26

Warmer than average temperatures, way warmer. Record highs have been falling left and right, we are still lucking out (or striking out, depending on how you look at it) with this El Nino. It was Christmas Eve when I figured it was about time to try the Schuylkill River for the warmwater species of Catfish we know and love, the Flathead, so I met up with Mike and Tan to fish a deep 30 foot pool for a couple hours. Flatheads are typically active in water temps above 50 degrees, with 60-75 being their prime range. Right now with water temps holding in the low 50's it is expected that there should be a bit of action. Low and behold, right at dusk on Dec. 24th, Mike got a promising run which ended up being the first December Flathead I personally have ever seen come from our river. Most years, we're lucky to catch Flatheads in November, on average our season ends sometime around Halloween, whenever water temps dip to around 50 degrees. There have been numerous times this month where I thought I should go down to the river and try for the December Flathead, but never did, not until right now, around Christmas, when water temps popped up and over 50 degrees, to now almost 55 degrees. As you can guess, by now there is a Flathead bite on the Schuylkill, if you can get some cutbait or fresh meat into their wintering holes, there is certainty of hooking up. I fished again today, this time with Romo way up the river, upstream of Black Rock. We fell victim to the 5 minute curse when a Fully Scaled Mirror Carp made a meal of my gob of nightcrawler. We intended on using cutbait for these Flatheads however couldn't find anything to chunk, so therefore opted for plan B which was worms from Wal Mart. We just had a good amount of rain which bumped our flows up to around 10x of what they average for this time of year, 10k cfs or so, receded now to around 4-5k cfs. Right after a rain is always a good time to throw some worms. Tomorrow (Sunday), is a sure bet for Schuylkill Flatheads, hopefully someone gets out there and puts a hurtin on them. James and Owen, a couple buddies of mine, were in on the bite way downriver of us today, in Philly, where they landed 6 fish to about 15lbs. Welcome to the new age, where we're catching Flatheads after Chrismas.

In other news, Stripers to 50" were reported from the beach today around IBSP. I didn't see any pictures of the alleged miracle cows, however did see proof as a couple 40"+ Bass were weighed in to the shops in central NJ. To whoever caught 40"+ Bass from the beach today, my hat is off to you, somehow 2015 just keeps producing. No word on many details but there are certainly enough Herring along our beaches to hold these fish, I wish I was there today. There are very few surf anglers left out there. 8'+ seas on Tuesday will but the brakes on the surf bite for awhile, who knows how long that action will last.

2 times I Flathead fished, and both times struck out. I witnessed 2 caught, both runts. Our buddy James wins the prize for December Flatheads, as him and Owen had 6 fish with a few 15lbers in the mix, all tonight from the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia where water temps are pushing 55 degrees. My skunking's didn't go unnoticed however, as the fish gods gifted the gold in form of full scale mirror-

12/23

Fished off Seaside New Jersey on Sunday from 1 to 4pm. There were reports of Bluefin sightings close to shore for the few days prior, and I was not planning this trip at all until Saturday night when I saw a video of what was more than likely Bluefin crashing bait half a mile to a mile off the beach. I had seen pictures on Instagram and Facebook of 50-150lb Bluefins earlier in December, but found out that those guys were fishing well out of range of a Kayak. Saturday though, the switch flipped, I called Romo who had been planning on fishing Sunday for "marsh creek muskies" and asked if he was down. He's like me, ready to pounce on whatever fresh information pops up, ready to change tactics just the night before, and with that, it was determined, we'd be be Bluefin fishing.

Sunday comes along, I sleep til 10am, awakened by the call of Romo saying he had just spent 100$ on Orca's and flouro, and I quickly got up and hauled ass to the shore. 1pm we're there on the beach ready to launch.

I should warn you that I am a very aggressive fisherman. I have no self control when it comes to certain things. I knew going into this day the odds of running into or even seeing a bluefin were low. Way low. Going into this I figured I had a 1 in 10 chance of seeing a bluefin crash the surface within eyesight. I also was fairly certain that if nothing else there would be Blues and Schoolies to be caught, but just the idea of hooking a bluefin from kayak was more than enough to get us to the beach and kayaking the ocean.

We didn't see a single Bluefin. I had given up hope pretty quickly at that idea after seeing less and less life the further offshore we went. There were schools of Gannets flying in circles, hundreds of yards above the ocean, circling, as if pointing us to where a school of herring might be hanging deep. I was jigging 7" Flukes in about 50 feet of water a mile off the beach and caught a Fluke. The fishing was tough most of the day, all I brought was a tuna rod and a couple jigs I had just bought, some RonZ imitation looking things, and a pack of 7" white flukes. I had a few missed bites, some of which were dogfish, others Bluefish, and Im convinced at least one other missed bite was a Fluke. Two times I had my soft plastic bitten in half by Bluefish, both on the troll.

Romo brought a slightly more diverse box of artificials and caught a decent sized Bass (28" roughly) trolling a deep diving Xrap. He had a few more lost fish on the troll before dusk when the Bass started feeding on the surface. For about the last half hour of daylight there were flocks of birds picking bait with bass under them, and we briefly had a hot bite, getting a dozen or more bass between the 2 of us. Here are some pictures and a link to the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIGn_25CE8Y