As noted in last night’s blog, the ocean was calm today. Yet, the Ocean Explorer from Belmar reported a poor blackfish bite despite perfect conditions. Almost all of the tog caught were shorts as the high hook only had two keepers. That boat is cancelling for Sunday due to northeast winds, and looking at Tuesday as the next possibility.

Actually,  the marine forecast  improved since yesterday with only 5-10 knot NE winds predicted early Sunday before increasing to 10-15 with gusts to 20 in the afternoon. It’s pretty much the opposite for Monday with NE 15-20 early diminishing to 10-15 in the afternoon. There may be some light snow Sunday, especially in Ocean County.

The Garden State Outdoor Sports Show concludes Sunday at the N.J. Convention Center in Edison. Visit GSOSS.com for details.

Chuck Many often makes the long drive from northern N.J. to Virginia in mid-winter to wait out a striped bass bite that may not come — but if it does will be from a very big bass.

That was the case this week when Bob Bowden and Mike Greene joined him to fish with Neil Lessard on his Top Dog from Cape Charles. Many was hoping to get Bowden his first “50”, but it turned out that their only bite trolling a live eel off Chesapeake Bay was from a 54.5-incher that buried Many’s certified Boga Grip 60-pound scale. That area is closed to harvest at this time, though Many releases every striper caught anywhere in any case. Though quite a few 50-pounders have been caught on his Ty Man over the years, this was the first 60 on one of his trips.

Bob Bowden with his striper of a lifetime before release

The Garden State Outdoor Sports Show opened today at N.J. Convention Center in Edison. Capt. Jim Freda will be presenting a video of bluefin tuna being caught on poppers at the inshore grounds off Manasquan Inlet at 5 p.m. today in the main ballroom — and again at that time on Saturday. For info on the show visit GSOSS.com

Joe Melillo reports from Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant that he’s had some reports of small stripers in the Belmar surf, and of blackfish in Manasquan Inlet.

Gale warnings for NW winds up to 40 knots through today will come down as the winds diminish to 20-25 knots in the morning — and then to 15-20 by afternoon. Saturday continues to look good with NW at 5-10 knots. Sunday’s forecast is for NE at 10-15 knots, though light snow is possible.

Gale warnings for northwest winds up to 40 knots are up through Thursday afternoon, but Saturday looks great with just 5-10 knots northwest.

The Mimi VI from Point Pleasant is sold out for Friday’s Special blackfish trip which is limited to 12 anglers. Regular 7 a.m. blackfish trips at $75 resume Monday and through January. Call 732 370-8019 for reservations.

 

  Kurt Hoefig of Clinton, N.J. was casting a topwater plug in Puerto Rico when he caught this colorful fish. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to identify without sun on the fish. It looks a lot like a cubera snapper. However, while the Pacific cubera is very aggressive on lures and will even jump out of the water to crash on them, the Atlantic cubera is a bottom feeder that rarely hits lures. I did catch one many years ago while casting a MirrOlure at night in a river mouth for snook and tarpon along the coast of Honduras.  Any other opinions on what it might be? Contact me at cristori@aol.com.

Sorry about the first few letters of the Garden State Outdoor Show not coming out in the title of last night’s blog. That show opens tomorrow in Edison. Visit GSOS.com for details.

The Garden State Outdoor Sports Show will be running from Jan. 10-13 in the N.J.Convention Center, Edison. I didn’t get a press release from that show, but details are available at GSOSS.com.

Small craft advisories for west winds gusting to 30 knots will go up after midnight. Tomorrow morning the west winds are forecast to be west at 25-30 with gusts to 40. It goes to NW on Thursday at 20-25 with gusts to 35. Thus, the Big Mohawk at Belmar won’t be sailing for blackfish until Friday. The Ocean Explorer reported that the tog were very aggressive Monday and limits were common.

 

If you don’t like the weather now, just wait a while and it will change. There will be a complete shift from north winds to south in the morning at 10-15 knots with gusts to 20 — and likely rain. It wings to SW in the afternoon at 10-15 before gusting to 30. The clearing west wind Wednesday starts at 20-25 but gusts to 35.

Mimi VI from Point Pleasant will be looking for blackfish like this during Friday’s special trip that was noted in yesterday’s blog.

The Big Jamaica from Brielle will be making Saturday 2 a.m. trips to offshore wrecks filling up with jumbo porgies along with a shot at cod and pollock. Call 732 528-5014 for reservations.

The gale warning for NW winds is coming down at 1 a.m. and the forecast is for north winds around 15 knots by dawn. They will diminish to a light northeast by afternoon,

The Big Mohawk from Bejmar got in a blackfish trip as the hard NW held off to the afternoon, They picked away on a number of drops, and had some limits with tog up to 7 pounds — and will sail at 7 a.m.

The Mimi VI will run a special tog trip out of Pt. Pleasant o Friday. Whitelegger crabs will be provided in addition to greens on that $120 trip. Call 732 370-8019 for details and reservations.  Regular 7 a.m. trips at $75 will be run from Monday to Thursday and on Sunday.

Jerry Lasko tried the IBSP surf yesterday morning with no results, but Grumpy’s Tackle in IBSP had reports of some bass hitting shads and Tsunami eels.

Today was miserable, but there will be a big change tomorrow. The present small craft warnings will increase to a gale advisory for northwest winds. There may only be 15 knot winds in the morning, and the Big Mohawk from Belmar will be sailing for tog at 6:30.  It’s not until the afternoon that gusts to 35 are predicted.

That wind should calm the ocean and clean the surf to set up possible surf striper conditions on Monday.

 

Capt. Vinny Vetere passed along the sad news that one of his most skilled striper customers, Mark Wallace, has passed away after a stroke. He was a customer on Katfish from Great Kills right from the start, and was very popular with other anglers.

 

Dante Soriente has been trying to catch a huge blackfish on his Magictail jigs, and he did so on Jan. 2 while fishing with Paul Naertel of the JCAA on his boat out of Barnegat Inlet.  First he caught a 14 1/2-pounder which he released. Next was a much bigger tog that was weighed at Fisherman’s Headquarters in Ship Bottom at a massive 20.96 pounds. He was going to release that one also, but Haertel talked him into keeping the tog of a lifetime for mounting. It was taken on a Magictail Glow White Legger jig. Haertel caught an 11.5-pounder.

After another nice day, we’re in for a northeast blow tomorrow. The morning forecast is for NE 15-20 knots with gusts to 30. A clearing northwest on Sunday will blow at the same speeds.

Jerry Lasko and Maren Toleno fished dusk at Bay Head. They had some life there the previous evening as Maren caught a striper and there were herring flashing in the surf. However, there was no sign of anything this evening.

The following release details the victory by sportfishing groups after President Trump  signed the Modern Fish Act which they worked hard to get through Congress.

Please go down through the boxes I couldn’t delete before starting the release

Water temperatures are still good for blackfish, and some days they bite pretty well. The Big Mohawk from Belmar had some limits up to 8 pounds today and will be sailing at 7 a.m. tomorrow.

Jerry Lasko reports that Maren Toleno caught a school striper this morning at Belmar. He saw two others hooked, but they didn’t have any other hits from a very fishable surf.

The forecast is southeast 5-10 knots in the morning before it gusts to 20 knots in the afternoon when small craft advisories are posted .