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

9/15/15

We're live, back on it, the crack is back!

Lets start with the facts. 2015 is going to end as one of the most intense El Nino years on record, and for us saltwater folks, this has direct impact on our fisheries, most important of which is the warmer water that has taken grip on our coastal shorelines. Water temps in Southern New Jersey hit 80 degrees sometime in mid July, and have been hovering around 80 ever since. Now with the onslaught of shorter days and lower sun angle we are seeing our temps fall back a bit, but we're still in the mid 70's throughout most of NJ.

Lets take a look back to 2012, the warmest year on record. It brought warm waters to our shores at about the same time, and we had fantastic shark fishing all summer. Now in 2015, same deal, sharks on top of sharks on top of sharks. If you didn't catch any Sharks this season, you either didn't try, or you need to find better spots, because the run was strong all the way up to Cape Cod. Expect sharkin to finish strong sometime in October. 2012 also brought perhaps the best numbers of Redfish that our region had seen in decades, Redfish everywhere from as far north as IBSP and south, we got a real treat that year. Those fish were the 2010 year class of fish, for some reason we had an outstanding spawn in 2010 which is what put 2012 in the books as an epic Puppy Redfish year. That year our fish were all 15"-18". My best day that year came about a week after hurricane Sandy came through, where I easily put 40 Reds on the sand over the course of 2 days in Early November. Reds were caught through January that year.

Now in 2015, the 2010 year class is back, and after 5 years these fish are packing a punch, expect these fish to be over 30" and pushing 3' by the time they decide to head south in a couple months. Right now, there is a population of 5 year old Redfish spawning along our Cape May County beaches. Redfish are fall spawners, usually dropping their eggs in September along our out front beaches, before moving off the spawning grounds and onto their feeding grounds. They are concentrated around certain areas where they have chosen to spawn, and are feeding on Mullet and Sand Fleas, the bite has been going on for almost a month now, however you won't hear about this anywhere other than right here on sea money. Thanks to an elaborate network of die hard fishermen, I caught wind of this Redfish bite a couple weeks ago, I figured I'd spend all of Labor Day Weekend down at the shore probing the Jetty Pockets, Inlets, Creek Mouths and sand structures with mullet in search of these southern ghosts, and after 3 days I had nothing, absolutely nothing to show, other than a few Sandbar Sharks and a Couple Kingfish and Weakfish. Mullet was easy to come by that weekend, and has been ever since, which is providing our Reds with the forage they need to take up residence in our Jersey waters.

I filled in a friend on the Redfish bite, he got out in his boat for a couple hours one day and hit a 15lber in just a couple hours of fishing. The following week, he invited me out, and I finally got my chance at a Red, getting 3 Redfish all 32"-33", 2 fatty females ready to pop and one longer skinnier male, milting on my hands and shoes. 2 of these fish came on jigs, 3/8th ounce jigheads with 5"-7" zoom flukes in white and pink. 1 fish came on a live mullet fished on a half ounce jighead. These are rare fish for NJ, and a testament to the strength of the 2010 year class. I feel with the warm water of 2015 and the large number of spawning fish around right now that this will be another successful year class for the Spawning Redfish, which should strengthen this fishery as the years go by. With the decline in Striper population, and warmer trending water temperatures, it only makes sense that Redfish will become a more viable fishery for New Jersey in the future, also thanks in part to the brilliant regulations on these fish. Once a Redfish is sexually mature, at about 3 years of age, you are no longer allowed to harvest. You can harvest up to 5 fish depending on which state you live in, but there is a federal slot limit in place, which allows harvest of fish on 2 year olds only, which are just reaching sexual maturity. Redfish are a true Gamefish, incredibly versatile fishery, can be caught on all lures and baits, fight with an attitude and can handle mishandling better than most saltwater fish. The perfect fish for New Jersey, and all coastal waters.

Basically, the Redfish crack is back!

In other news, everything is slow! Worst year for Fluke fishing in probably 10 years, word on the water is a 29% reduction in recreational harvest in 2016 due to lower numbers of Fluke. I believe it, I haven't fished Fluke this year like I did in years past, but the few times I did I was lucky to pluck just a keeper or 3 in a whole day, a far cry for limiting out in 2 hours like I'd seen in years prior.

Striper Fishing... not much to say about Striper Fishing. They're there, and in fact 2015 has been a better year than the past 2, but still sub par in the books of those who've been doing it for more than a decade. I don't have much left for Stripers these days, after great fishing in years past, now it seems like more work than its worth. Actually, on second thought, Ill probably do a lot of Striper Fishing this fall.... for now though, water temps are too warm and I have the Redfish on the brain.

Albies! Albies showed up on the Jersey beaches this past week, they've been running strong in New England for awhile now, Jersey is just starting to get in on the fun. Schools of Albies have been seen running the beaches as far south as Cape May, and surely as far north as Sandy Hook. I'll put in a couple sessions in search of my first Jersey Albie, however, Ill be in Marthas Vineyard for a week in October, which is when the real Albie fishing will take place (hopefully!).

Freshwater wise... Man, I really don't have much for freshwater right now. I fished a couple tournaments in August, a bass Tourny on Octoraro lake and a Catfish Tourny on the Delaware. Didn't place in either. Filmed an episode of HookShots with Field and Stream Magazine, that was a lot of fun, kicked back on the river banks with 3 guys I've never met, one of which who makes his living off creating 10 minute Videos, hearing stories of traveling to fishing destinations and shows gone wrong.. Terrible fishing, but worthwhile company. Worth it? Yes.

Flathead fished a reservoir for the first time. Can't get into much detail about that, but saw some big Flatheads. The Schuylkill River sits low on my list of fishing destinations right now.

These are the fish for which will drive me to the edge and back over the next 2 months, beautiful Jersey Reds each in the 15lb range -

11/17

It is with great pain that I write this, for I spent all day Saturday and all day Sunday fishing in South Jersey with some of the best fishermen in some of the best spots with some of the best bait, and I didn't catch a single goddamn fish. Thats an exaggeration, I did catch a single fish, many fish actually, but none worthy of being called a keeper. Fishing is pretty limited right now, many of the fish we expect to catch in Jersey waters have left our bays and shorelines by this time of year in search of warmer waters. Our water temps are generally in the lower 50's, which is a great water temp for, wait for it, Striped Bass and Tautog. Yes, thats right, Striped Bass and Tautog. Heres my weekend.

I reached out into the cloud to a person I met last year, a guy named Ken who may have a similar condition as the rest of us known as fishing addiction. He has a place in Wildwood so with that I had found a way to justify fishing for days, that is, with a place to sleep 10 minutes from the fishing spots. Drive down to Cape May on Friday after work to hang out and chunk some Bunker on a Cape May beach. The bunker I picked up is real fresh, Off the Hook in Cape May gets good Bunker, as I have recently found out. I meet up with Ken and we fish from 5pm to a little after 8pm, which would be the last of the outgoing and start of the incoming tide. We catch trash fish, Spiny Dogs and a Skate, we only go through 5 Bunker. We knew from the start that the Surf is deader than Satan himself, but figured it was worth a shot. I might add that there is a WNW blowing at about 25mph, which would do nothing for us other than make it feel colder.

My plan for the weekend was to go out on my buddy Dano's boat on Saturday and chunk the bay, and then fish Sunday somewhere for Tog, either from shore or from party boat. My plans were tied loosely, open to change, the best idea that could enter my brain before the time to fish would be the one to go with. Ken earns himself a spot on the boat and the 3 of us push off the dock around 7am Saturday Morning. Its still blowing out of the WNW at a good clip, 20mph or so, and the High Temp was forecasted to be in the lower 40's. We have 40 fresh bunker, heading west through the Cape May Canal. We come around the last bend and the ferry terminal comes into sight. The Canal is calm, only a couple hundred feet across, no room for the wind to really kick up a lot of water, but as the Bay slowly comes into view it is clear that we are bearing down on the Black Gates of Mordor. Dano's boat is 21', which is nowhere near large enough to get out on the Bay at that time. We get about 10 feet
into the bay, which is equivalent to 3 waves to the face, before saying fuck this, doing a 180 and running back into canal. It's cool though, we knew this was going to happen, we were prepared. The wind forecast called for diminishing winds later in the day, so we would go out front along the Beaches of CM and WW and chunk our bunker and troll stretch 25's under the protection of the coastline and wait for the bay to calm down to fishable levels. West wind blowing off the east coast, calm water, you understand. It's still choppy out there but totally fishable... Dogfishable that is. Right now, anywhere you go along the beach, you're going to catch Spiney Dogfish. After about an hour or 2 of chunking (25' of water along the beach), and catching our share of Dogs, we went back inside to go make sure the Black Gates of Mordor were still closed... they were, in fact worse than the first time. So we stop by the Marina and grab some Trolling lures and we troll in front of Wildwood. We don't catch, but we do come across large schools of Bunker, which we snag and keep in our cooler just in case we do end up getting out on the bay. Theres boats everywhere out front, all people who couldn't get out on the bay most likely, all fishing out front for Dogfish. Well 3:45pm comes around and we make one more attempt at the Black Gates, and this time they're open. Unguarded and Open. We get out with little problem and in the last hour of the day are able to hit a 38lb Bass. Crazy save right there, I was pretty convinced we weren't making it out to the fishing grounds on this day.

Fillets off the 38lber

Dano 38.6lber 11/15

Stomach Contents

Something worth mentioning is there is a troll bite along our beaches. We didn't catch any but over the weekend many large fish were quietly boated while trolling off our South Jersey Beaches.

So feeling pretty defeated by a stubborn NW wind and an Angry Bay, we go have some drinks at Harbor View. Tomorrow would be a new day.

Sunday Sunday Sunday, goin fishing on a Long ass Jetty in the most southern part of NJ, off limits to the public. Fuck yea, Easy limit, no one else to compete with, thousands of hungry tautog waiting to commit suicide as soon as we drop down, this was going to be a good day. It was opening day... the limit now 6 fish per man. There are only so many spots to catch Tautog from Shore in NJ, especially during the 2nd half of November, but the Cape May Inlet is one of them. Oh don't worry though, everyone already knows that, based on the hundreds, literally hundreds of people who were out there on Sunday. The North Jetty is open to the Public to fish on, only catch is you have to walk a mile down the beach to get to it. Would you believe that over 100 people made that mile death walk on Sunday? In NJ we may call that fishing, but in life we call this the Asian Invasion. Yes, over 100 Asian people walked that mile to catch fish for themselves and their relatives, for it is only the beloved "Brack Feetch" that could cause a mass migration as this. No I am not racist, not any more racist than the average human being, but if you were to look at everyone on that jetty you would see that more than 9 out of 10 were asian. You would also see that not all of them were poaching Tog, despite the fact that many of them were. I have a hard time getting off the subject of Asians and Blackfish and poaching, but anyways, Ken and Myself found our way out onto the south jetty and fished for about 5-6 hours without a keeper fish. SIN!
How the hell did we go out there and not catch a single 15" Tog? We did get lots of shorts... and each broke off 2 nice fish, but it really wasn't our day and after losing about 30 hooks we would decide it a good idea to go try a bridge to the north. For the record, there were boats lined up along the entire jetty, leaving us the tip of the jetty to fish. Loaded with fish out there but challenging to land, pulling them straight up from 30'+ (perhaps more lie 50'+) along a wall of rocks. No excuses. We failed. We failed at the 2nd spot too. 2nd spot also was extremely pressured... 30 guys on a smallish bridge. The pressure on these fish is real. We caught somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 shorts all day. At one point while we were on the tip of the south jetty we had a boat collision right in front of us. I looked over and saw 2 boats side by side, they looked to be sharing crabs or food or something, both holding on to the other boat in a seemingly friendly manner, but it turned out no, it was some dumbass opening day shenanigans, too many boats in too little of a space, the video tells the story-

Dano is a beast. He fishes like a madman when the time is right, and when it comes to chunking cows he dials in. Hes been out more than a few times this fall and hes boated a 30+lber on every trip except for one, even on Saturday in an hours worth of fishing he still set up on a 38lb fish. I was out with him and our friend Mike last Sunday and we had a pretty great day considering how its been. We got 6 Bass, one fat short and 5 keepers going 15, 23, 34, 35, and 36lbs. Its been really really dreadfully slow out there, I know we got pretty lucky that day, most people are reporting skunks or just 1 or 2 fish. There are beasts out there though, fish to 59lbs have been weighed in since last weekend, the key is though you have to have luck on your side. Time is critical, the more hours you put in the better, I've been lucky to have gone twice, however in 2 trips I have caught just 2 stripers. 1 fat short and a 34lb fish. Heres a video showing all our fish last Sunday.

Also adding a few pics of some more Delaware Bay Cows 30-40lbs, all Dano right here.

I striper fished from the rocks at Barnegat Inlet twice this fall and didn't get a bite either time. I came across this video though of what Barnegat looks like when there are fish there...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NqmHjdnRwQ

NOVEMBER 1ST

This is the mega fishing recap for the Phila-Jersey area from the past period of time. Its for my friend Romo who drove to VA Beach 3 weeks ago for Bull Reds and got skunked. Sorry bud.

I. Freshwater

Ian with a nice Schuylkill Hybrid

Closest to home, the Schuylkill is fishing poorly. The Flathead bite has been off since August when a couple friends caught a couple nice fish. Usually it picks up in September before slowing down with the colder weather in October, but this year the action died with the water flow. The Skuke dipped below 1000 cfs in July (I think) and with the flows went the action. August started OK with a slow bite, but some rogue fish.. but it ended shitty, and September, a month when "it pops", was deader than'a rattlesnake birthday cake. The Skuke was crazy clear for months, with the water at 500cfs and lots of flushing rains in the spring, we were left with clearer than normal conditions which really shut the whole thing down. Stripers, Hyrbids, and Walleyes do still exist in the river, those who put in the time can be rewarded with a few nice fish, mainly target any of the dams on the river and you may or may not catch a decent sized gamefish.

Romo with a late season Flathead

James Jersey Crappie

My buddy messaged me online and said he fished for bass for 10 hours one day this week and didn't catch a single bass. He was up in Bucks county at a couple different spots, says his friend also got skunked. I have tried for bass a few times recently and have hit or miss results... more recently its been more of a miss.

Meanwhile, if you can locate some panfish (Which I suggest you do), the crappies seem to loving the colder weather. I had good action on gills, bass and crappies in some local spots, however, nothing was of noteworthy size. A friend in NJ has been doing well fishing a drainage of the Delaware, catching a bunch of Crappies with several over the 13" mark. Panfishing could be the best thing going right now, and should stay hot for the next month and until our lakes lock up with ice.

Schuylkill Crappie

What tried to eat Tim's Shiner?

II. The Shore

Saltwater in New Jersey. I have been completely out of the loop with the shore lately so rather than speculating and theorizing about non-existent Stripers and Striper feeding habits, I made a phone call to a friend who is still very much immersed into the Striper Surf Fishing lifestyle. He Primarily fishes North Jersey, from LBI to Sandy Hook. I asked him, hows the Striper Fishing been? "Sucks. Fuckin Blows". Those were his words, and in fact he said the words sucks and blows dozens of times during our conversation. The last striper he caught was during the 2nd week of October, he got into a backbay bite landing 7 fish with one being a 35"-36" fish. 2 trips since then, nothing. The beaches have generally been very slow, however there is 127 miles of oceanfront beach to fish, so my understanding is about 125 of those miles have been a dead zone. Halloween day there was a nice bite right at the beginning of this Nor'easter that put Bass to 35lbs on the beaches from the Hook to IBSP. It wasn't every beach, but plenty of different areas had action from nice fish.

I haven't heard a single thing about reds or specks in South Jersey. My guess is they are too few and far between to target, I think our brutal winter last year may have been detrimental to our 2010 stock of reds, and I don't think theres been a hot speck bite going on, not in the last few years.

Jersey gets the same run of fish every year. Stripers start to trickle in during October, and in November its usually a better bite, before turning into a boat game in December. If you wish to read more about Jersey stripers and other current action, scroll through the hundreds of pages of online reports at Striperonline, for you will surely find better info there than here.

It is set as of 10/29/14 that the Striper Regulations will be set to 1 fish @ 28"+ in 2015. Cool.



III. Marthas Vineyard Striper Derby 2014

In 2013, Myself and 3 friends embarked on an epic journey to Marthas Vineyard during the Fall Striper Derby to stay at a house on the Island and compete with 2 thousand other fishermen for a chance to win a brand new Boat. That year was great, the fishing was slow and all the fishermen had given up, we went 4 days without getting a fish to weigh in, but on the 5th day we stumbled into a major Albie Blitz which would provide ridiculous action with no one else around. For 2 days we had blitzes all to ourselves, but by the 3rd day the masses caught wind of the bite and there were no less than 20 other anglers at the spot, waiting to catch Albies. Well the third day, the fish didn't show, and about 20 people got skunked. But not Bill Hansen. Bill was one of the 4 I embarked on the journey with, and on this day he hooked, fought in front of 20 people, and landed a 13lb and some odd change False Albacore, which would win the Shore Division of the Derby. By winning the Albie division, he was placed with the winners of the Bonita, Blue, and Striper Division, where each were given a key. 1 of those keys would start the new boat, and a grand prize winner would then be crowned. Bill didn't win the boat, but he did win a ton of cool prizes and some money, so fuck yea Bill, and fuck yea Seamoneyfishing for getting to the top.

2014, the same journey would not be made. Instead, 2 of the 4 made it up during different weeks of the derby, Bill went back in attempt to redeem himself, and Romo also went back for his piece of the pie. Heres what Romo had to say about the 2014 Derby-

The 2014 derby was one of the best years for false albacore and bonito in over a decade. I saw breaking fish every day I was on the island at 3 different inlets. Fish were much pickier than years past, only taking the smallest offerings on the lightest flouro. This led to a lot of breakoffs, including a heartbreaking fish lost at pogue gut. I had the inlet to myself on the third morning and a rogue albie blew up on my deadly dick at the end of my cast. The fish ripped drag and began to quickly empty the spool on my 4000 stradic. It showed no signs of slowing down so I panicked, lightly cupped the spool and instantly my light 15lb leader parted. I only saw the fish's strike but it's power was much more impressive than the 6-7 lb fish I encountered the rest of the week.

I also was lucky enough to get my dad in on the action as he took down 2 albies in 2 hours of fishing in his last day on the island. Both fish hit blind casts while 30+ surf fishermen and fly rodders were kicking the sand and bullshitting after an uneventful sunrise. They were his first albies and he is hooked. 

My first kayak albie was awesome. I was bobbing around in front of an inlet on a cold, dreary morning. The jetties in front of me grew more and more packed as the sun came up. No fish showed, but I stuck around anyway, keeping busy by jigging seabass, scup, flounder and bluefish that blanketed the bottom. I had my rod on my lap when a pod of albies blew up in a jetty pocket that no one was watching. I made one cast and saw the fish blast out of the water. My line started singing and the guys on the jetty turned and started casting but the fish were gone. That fish ran out into the bay and took about 10 minutes to subdue. I drove to the 8AM weigh in and locked in the top spot in the kayak division for albies. This fish would stand until 4 days before the derby closed. 

The kayak fishing at the less busy inlets was excellent. There were fish breaking almost constantly for 2 days but, again, were very finicky and line shy. I fished with about 10 boats and a few kayakers for those 2 days and I was able to land 2 out of the 3 albies I saw hooked by the entire fleet in that time.

Here are a few pics from Bill, who fished the last week of the derby. He said the fishing was really good and is already booking a house for the 2015 Derby. He got his wife in on the action too, nice work Bill!

                   
                         





IV. Bull Redfish. Part I



It was the first week of October and I had a Friends wedding to attend on Friday night. I had been working Saturdays for months and I finally had an excuse to get out of work for a 3 day weekend, and it was on that Friday, before the Wedding, that I called my friend Mike and asked if he wanted to go fish the VA beach area for Bull Reds the following day. He said ehhhhhhhhh yea Ill do that, so we leave Philly around 10 am Saturday and drove south to the Bridge Tunnel. This trip was spontaneous, spur of the moment, saw a picture online and said fuck everything lets go. The way a fishing trip should be! It was going down as the Nomadic Suicide Drum Trip, with nowhere to stay, we brought sleeping bags where we would huddle up and sleep next to our rods, probably with our lines tied to our beards to wake us up when the 50" Redfish would bite.

While at the wedding, I had told my friends that I was going down to VA beach to fish for Bull Reds. Half of them wished they could go, they supported my decision and said "go get em, you can do it", while the other half, my friend Romo included, said "thats retarded. you're not gonna catch any Bull Reds, thats gonna be a long drive to catch nothing".

Well Mike and I got down to the CBBT in about 5 hours and stepped out into a ridiculous wind which was probably somewhere between 25 and 30 miles an hour out of the west. We threw all our crap in buckets, bags, we had 6 rods, a cooler, hoodies, more bags, a net... we were well on our nomadic way. Orginially I had it in my head that we would fish close to shore, along the rock outcropping which builds the 1st (or 3rd, depending on who you ask) island of the Bridge Tunnel. So we cast out, first only to catch bait. We have none, we weren't prepared with fresh cob mullet or salty spot heads... but we did have 8 pints of green crabs, for the sheepshead, spades, trigs and totaugs which would surely be down there. So we're fishing... not catching much. Mike gets a small Jack, then a minute later yells "Yo!" and points down to the water. I run over and look down and see a nice happy school of bunker, meandering around under the pier. Tie on a treble, and boom we have drum bait. It was around this time that I see a net coming up the end of the pier with a big fish in it. At first I'm like whoa.... then Im like, thats gotta be a shark... but that tail doesn't look like a shark. So I sprint, from the start of the pier out to the end just in time to see a 50" drum getting swung up the rail of the pier. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?

A 50" Drum which hit the planks
a couple hours after we arrived.

I take 3 pictures with my phone and I jet back to our trash camp where all our rods are scattered and everything is pulled out of our buckets and bags. Somehow I manage to have a fresh bunker head out near the end of the pier probably 2 minutes after seeing that fish.... and I go back to bait fishing. Schools of bunker meander through and Its great, we were able to get at least a dozen fresh bunker which would provide glorious cut bait for the Bull Reds. About 45 minutes after I casted out my drum rod, it gets a run. I set the hook, the fish rips drag, I tell myself its a shark for the duration of the 5 minute fight. It real slow pulls drag straight down under the pier, toward a piling, reaaal slow. I refused to believe it was a drum until I saw it on the surface. OH MY GOD, the blueish black tail with the golden body, there on my line, and its big! Mike gets the net and first swoop that fish is in and ascending up the pier. We get it up, its there in the net, laying on the ground, measures 44". I take some pics, and release it.

44" Drum, my first Bull!

Incredible. Just like that, probably 2 hours after arriving, mission accomplished. So Im siked as hell. The wind is intensifying, the bunker are still hitting the cooler, we get a few shitty shark/skate runs... it's nice. One guy had about a 60lb Brown Shark up to the side of the pier and broke it off. There were no bottom fish around, a couple spike weakies here and there, but no spot or croaker. Its getting windier and winder as the sun sets, and the group of people who were out at the end of the pier leave, so we go out and try out there. I get another good run right as its almost completely dark and its another nice red, this one smaller at 40".

2nd nice one at 40" made this
a successful trip

They don't call it Seagull Pier for
nothing!

That would be our last Hoorah, for by the time night fell, we were fishing in a sustained 30-40mph wind. There were no gusts or luffs, just gouging wind at the same speed, blowing everything away and over as soon as you put it down. By 12am we are out of bait and contemplating suicide so we decide to drive 3 hours to lewes where we stay at my parents house. That drive back was painful in the wee hours of the morning. 3 hours of empty road, 50 mph speed limits, and extreme wind burn. After a successful trip and knowing the pain of the drive, I tell myself I won't come back down to try to replicate this trip, I already got what I wanted and theres no way I could be lucky enough to do it again. That Sunday we wake up and fish IRI, but its beat. We release about 40 green crabs and call it a trip.


At this point I have Drum Fever. The fever spreads to my friend Romo, the same guy who said it was a bad idea to go down there in the first place. The following Thursday, guess who drives by himself 5 hours to camp for 2 days in his kayak to fish for Bull Reds? Thats right, Mr. Romo himself. He goes down, kayaks out into the mouth of the bay, fighting the wind and current, and doesn't catch any redfish! Not on day 1 at least, and on day 2 he wakes up in his tut-hut and decides to just drive home. Im texting him the whole time, anything? anything? any action? oh, no reds? aww man the bunker you bought isn't any good? aww Im sorry dude. Thats what I told him... but in my mind all Im thinking is (in Eric Cartmans voice) yeeeeessssss, yeeeeeeesssssssssss!

               

Part II

The following weekend.... Saturday.. Oct 11th. I was not planning on going to VA to fish for Reds, but when my boss sent me home at 10am, I quickly realized I had a window which would give the insane fishing junky reason enough in his mind that he could get down to VA beach by 4pm with just barely enough time to make the trip worth it.... barely. Fish all night, sleep at some point, and then be back home in Philadelphia at a reasonable hour Sunday night to get to bed and wake up for work on Monday morning. I don't have anyone to go with when I get out of work at 10am Saturday, I wasn't planning on going, it was a random occurrence that I got out early.. I call around, and I find my boy James is into the idea enough that he's able to put everything aside for a couple days and make the trip south. So by about noon on Saturday, we're out, we're driving south, get down to the CBBT at exactly 4:16pm. This time we stop at a shop called Master Baiters in Delaware, and pick up 16 semi fresh bunker. So we are once again on a Suicide Nomadic Drum Trip, this time armed with 16 baits, still with intention of catching bait while we're there. The wind forecast says 10-15 MPH NW wind, and once again, we step out of the car and are greeted with the same 22-28mph wind, and once again, it intensifies to around 30+mph for a period of time before slowing down slightly to 15-20 after midnight. Well we fish all over the pier, we catch lots of skates and Juvenille Brown Sharks, and meet a few dudes who are very hardcore into fishing the VA beach area. It was about 3 am, we're talking to a guy named Bryan who really opened up to all the tricks and spots he has for the local fisheries... James and I are both tired and worn from not catching anything. Bryan understands our situation, driving down from Philly to fish and then drive back and go to work. Its about 4am and hes telling us to drive 45 minutes to this spot that would be real good........... Im thinking.... yea right. No way. Haha. Well hes talking about it and we're drinking tequila and we conclude; fuck it. We are nomads and this is a suicide trip, so right after 4am we pack up and hit the road. This pier that Bryan suggests opens at 5am, maybe it was 5:30, but we get there right before it opens and theres at least 6 other trucks there waiting for the gate to open. It opens. We drive into the lot, gear up and walk out the pier to find out that it's incredible short, only taking us to where the breakers start on the deep side of the sandbar. This is an ocean pier... and the ocean is rough. The wind here is Blowing NNE and literally as soon as we get out there someone is hooked up. The pier is narrow, maybe 15' side to side, and only about 50' of it is extended into the water... so the end of the pier is where its at. Its lined up with about 7 rods, all 11'-13' custom hatteras heavers, these guys are all using 10oz+ weight with leaders no more than a couple inches in length. I can hang with this type of fishing, I have an 11' rod with a 6000 size Shimano Baitrunner, so I bait up some fresh cob mullet, given to me by bryan, and bomb one out, a little off to the right to not tangle the guys who are set up. 5 minutes later my 6oz pyramid has drifted far to the right, parallel to shore, even though I had casted straight out .... so I reel in, I put 2 6oz pyramids on, and again, launch it out, this time off to the left. The current is moving left to right, and its pretty wicked with the big ocean. Over the coarse of the next 20-30 minutes, I let my rod sit in the same place as more and more fishermen arrive and cast out at the end of the pier. A line of fishermen forms behind me, all waiting to bomb baits out with their 12', 1000$ setups. They all have conventional tackle with MONO on their reels. We see a total of 4 Drum landed before I go to check on my rig and make sure Im not tangled with one of the now 15-20 rods that are lined up along the end of the pier.... backup a minute. 4 Bull Reds, all sluts in the 25-35lb range, big sluttly bellies, big slutty mouths.... it would be one of the best bites of the season Im sure. James and I watch in sleep deprived delusion as to whats going on... we don't say a word. James only has an 8' rod so its pitched out along the side of the pier to surely get washed into the pilings and be useless, but also to avoid an epic tangle. I took care of the epic tangle part. Im reeling in my rig and notice as Im reeling that its tangled with 2 other rods... so I stop reeling, and the 3 of us work together to try to untangle it. It takes awhile... it's pretty bad. There is still a line of people waiting to cast... and they can't cast for as long as we are tangled, meanwhile, someone is fighting a drum. Finally we get untangled and I continue to reel in, and as Im reeling I feel an unsettling feeling... the feeling of tension and odd weight... I bring my rig up the pier and see exactly what I didn't want to see, a complex birdsnest of intertwined hooks, weights, baits and lines of different colors. Nobody notices..... then one guy says "what do ya got there" and quickly all eyes turn to the shit show that is in my hands and before you know it Im being told that my braided line is no good here and that I have to leave. Lots of people are pissed off. Lots of people had to retie their rigs. Lots of people couldn't cast out for at least 10 minutes while I stood there and fumbled with sleep deprivation, drum fever, and 2 6oz pyramid sinkers on my fishfinder rig. I walk back a little ways and say to james we need to get the fuck out of here. And we do. Real quick. We are completely dumbfounded as to what just happened, dozen of guys casting out off a 15' wide pier, during a red hot Drum bite. 45 minutes at this pier and I am humbled and we are back on the road. This would not be our last Nomadic Suicide Drum Trip. There are no pictures from this trip.

Part III

This past weekend I was off Saturday, got out of work at 1 on Friday, which would give us enough time to justify driving to the OBX in search of our Bull Reds. Weather Forecast looks meh. West winds 5-15 mph all weekend. Thats great weather for comfort, but not for putting Bulls on the bank. We hit the road just after 3pm on Friday and get to VA beach a little after dark. We Stop at the Seagull Pier, just to look into the dark water and see if anything is going on. Nothing is going on, so we go 10 minutes south to Lynnehaven Inlet. We Stop here to try to catch bait, for on this trip we had none. We checked out a few spots around the inlet and were able to net a dozen fish, however not one was designed for Drum Bait. It was mostly small Sand Perch, not nearly big enough to be put on a 9/0 hook. We also net 3 baby Fluke and some killies. We push south. Check out another bait spot 15 minutes away, nothing, keep heading south. Get gas, get a Hardees burger, and arrive in the OBX at about 10pm.

We go right to the Manteo Causeway Bridge, which is a small bridge going over the sound, a great fishing spot. I quickly see movement on the surface of the water and I think I've found the baitfish Im looking for. I get my net, throw, and get nothing. I throw a bunch of times at schools of fish that I think are Mullet, but after a dozen throws I realize these fish are actually large Peanut Bunker. After a few hours we have lots and lots of bunker and are dropping chunks into the water to hopefully catch trout, bass or drum. Instead we get chewed up by crabs, so bad that its good. We end up with 7 or 8 nice keeper size crabs which were to stupid to let go of our bait, allowing us to swing them up onto shore.

We drove down to the OBX expecting the piers to be open 24/7, at least I did, but we found out on the way down that they all close between 12am and 5am. It was a bummer but it allowed us to take some time to catch fresh bait, and by 430 we were in the pier parking lot rigging up. We get out to the end of the pier at about quarter after 5, cast out some bunker chunks, and then rig up to catch bait, which on this day, would be spot. It turns out there was a whole dense population of spot hanging out at this pier. All the spot you want, nice for our bait cooler. We fish in the dark, and watch the sunrise with 3 pier people, all hatteras heaver mono conventional guys, all of us get nothing. Right after dawn we see a Mola Mola slowly floating by with its tail fin sticking up out of the water. It looked like a pretty sickly fish, and is only the 2nd Mola Ive ever seen while standing on shore. Shortly after, one of the pier people tied into a pelican which would make it up onto the pier and into my grips. First time handling a pelican, got a good dose of hate-love for a new bird species wrapped in fishing line. The angler snapchatted the bird and then released it.

 This sunrise would put me past my 24 hour mark for being awake, for it is after 24 hours of being awake that the hallucinations begin. The sun came up and it turned into daytime and the pier filled up with a ridiculous amount of people, all fishing off the north side (every single person, on the north side), all bailing Spot and Spike Trout. These Trout were the winter variety, the spotted, or speckled trout, and 99.5% are under the 14" size limit. We're getting some runs on the drum rods but they are mostly sharks, the toothy kind, that bite your hook off and fray your leader. Sharks are a cool fish in NJ, because there is nothing better to catch on your fresh chunk in the summertime, but south of NJ, where there are true finfish which can attain sizes of 80+lbs, a shark is a nuisance.

Our plan originally is to drum fish until about 9 or 10am, then go crabbing/sleep for the rest of the day to rest up for an evening session on the pier. Noon comes around and we're still on the pier... we are breaking off sharks ever 15 minutes or so, only getting one 5' Sandtiger up to the side of the pier. We can see Albie Blitzes half a mile out, all the while jigging the shit out of 11" specks. It was feeling really good to be in a place where there was so much life in the water. I don't know about James but I was incredibly delirious, finally we decide it's time to leave and on our way out I stop and tell James we have to take 2 casts right here in the wash. I throw out the pink zoom fluke and 2nd cast get bit, it would turn out to be a 17" Speck. Specks have a special place in my heart, for years I would fish the backbays of NJ hoping to catch a speck, but never did, never one over 12" at least. Their silver flesh covered in black spots, with a blue-green hue that glistens in the sunlight makes them one of the prettier inshore fish. That one fish gave me a renewed energy, and after that it was off to the grocery store and the tackle shop. We spent some money on some bullshit and hit the bridge to try to catch crabs. 

2 crabs and a Seagull I had to
get a picture with

We crabbed for way too long, and only got a dozen keepers.. 4pm and we are both painfully sleep deprived. We lay down in the shade to try to get some sleep and the sleep doesn't come... we are so far into the deep end that we can't turn our brains off and sleep.... it's a problem. We end up going back to the pier at about 6pm and pick up where we left off. There is still over a hundred people fishing off the north side of the pier, and still not 1 on the south side. Only about 4 or 5 guys at the end fishing for drum. We take our time getting baited up and casted out, I catch a single spot and put its head on a hook and bomb it out, luckily without fear of getting my braid tangled with 2 dozen drum-raveged locals. 10 minutes later it gets a run, I set the hook and immediately it hits the surface. Shark. I fight the shark for about 10 minutes and get a visual on a Sandtiger about 6-7 feet in length. I fight it for another 10 minutes alongside the pier before I am able to break it off. I put all my remaining energy into that fight and about 10 minutes after that I was asleep. I was asleep on the bench at the end of the pier for about 3 hours before making it back to the car for more sleep. That would be the last of our 3rd Drum trip. We shouldn't have crabbed for so long, instead, we should have slept, and fished all night. Live and learn.

In Closing

I am in back Philadelphia with no desire to do any type of fishing at all, locally speaking. I want to go south. Our Striper run is a bunch of hype any more, tackle shops profiting off bunker and clams bought by people who won't catch a keeper fish all fall. Less fish and more fishermen. The hunt still continues though, for the biggest and baddest fish.
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