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Hooking Up Anglers Since 2011.
Chuck Many of Annandale won last weekend’s Hi-Mar Striper Tournament for the fourth time in the last five years on his Tyman from Highlands. Capt. Bryan Pieros of Lebanon and Matt Calabria from Hazlet joined Many as they chunked bunker in the Hudson River for their biggest bass of 28.8 and 30 pounds — a winning total of 58.8 pounds....
Chuck Many of Annandale won last weekend’s Hi-Mar Striper Tournament for the fourth time in the last five years on his Tyman from Highlands. Capt. Bryan Pieros of Lebanon and Matt Calabria from Hazlet joined Many as they chunked bunker in the Hudson River for their biggest bass of 28.8 and 30 pounds — a winning total of 58.8 pounds.
Though a couple of 40-pounders were caught just before the contest, no one in the 33-boat contest could find anything larger than Tyman’s 30-pound entry that also took the big bass Calcutta. Many had supplied the fresh bunker that Shaun De Vincenzo of Keansburg used from the Spy House Pier to land a bass that weighed 41 pounds at The Tackle Box in Hazlet. Capt. Ford Coles reported a 40.72-pounder for John Kinkard of Springfield. It hit a shad rig between the Channels that Capt. Mike Greco was trolling from his Westwind out of Leonardo. That bass was carrying a tag.
Al Dudas of Cliffwood was second with bass of 29.8 and 26.4 pounds taken off Staten Island for a 55.2-pound total on Nauti Boy. That barely edged Bobby Hughes of Eatontown, who had stripers of 28.6 and 26.4 pounds for 55 pounds on Prime Coat for third while fishing in Shrewsbury River. Rocco Casso of Roselle Park took fourth on Runoff IV with bass of 24 and 23 pounds for a 47-pound total in the Shrewsbury. Gene Graman of Middletown won fifth place with linesiders of 23.6 and 20 pounds after fishing the Shrewsbury, Hudson and Ambrose Channel for a 43.6-pound total on That’s It from Twin Lights Marina in Highlands. The Lady Angler award went to Kathie Hughes of Eatontown on Prime Coat for a 28.6-pound striper, and Jake Casabone of Mahwah was the youth winner for a 19.4-pounder on Top Gun.
Capt. Chris De Stefano of Wall caught a bass Monday morning that all those contestants were looking for. He was fishing aboard Crisdel from Brielle Yacht Club with owner Frank Criscola of Bedminster and his brother Tony as Capt. Paul Dalek trolled in bird action at Shrewsbury Rocks to catch stripers mostly in the 30-inch class before getting a call about a bunker school off Deal — where De Stefano boated a 36-pounder on a live bunker to complete their limit on the way home.
The Berkeley Striper Tournament is a catch-and-release contest running from 7 p.m. Nov. 4 to 7 p.m. Nov. 5. It’s restricted to shore fishing, and costs only $15. For information call (732) 456-1048 or (732) 456-1735.
Check my daily blog at nj.com/shore/blogs/fishing for the latest fishing information.
TOP CATCHES
On rare occasions, success can come too fast. I was trolling toward Monster Ledge when Joe Reap of Ramsey hooked up Saturday morning within 10 minutes of setting trolling lines from his Reaper out of Manasquan. The fish turned out to be a 30-inch bluefin that Bob Correll of Bay Head weighed at 20 pounds and then released so we’d be able to keep a larger schoolie for the one per private boat limit.
Of course, we never got another hit. The only other tuna we heard about that day was a doubleheader of 34-inch bluefins that hit feathers for Capt. Mike Copeman on his Renegade from Point Pleasant.
Capt. Arthur Stokes found only a few little tunny while trolling in the Monster Ledge area Sunday with his Fintastic from Clarks Landing in Point Pleasant, before one of his customers spotted a buddy with a banana — and flung it overboard to take that “jinx” off the boat. Stokes then tried drifting on a bait reading while chumming with scallop shells and guts given to him by a diver. I was free-lining scallop guts when a 32-inch bluefin tuna hit. With our limit of 27-to-47-inch bluefins aboard, I repeated the procedure in hope of adding the one over 47 inches allowed on a party/head boat permit. While reeling in to start another drift, I hooked-up to something fooled by guts “swimming” into the current. That turned out to be a 29¾-inch bluefin that received an NMFS tag and was released. Those were the only hits we had before Stokes worked wrecks for three keeper cod and a couple of shorts among spiny dogfish. I specialized in releasing tasty out-of-season fish — five large sea bass and even two fat winter flounder that were hooked on 6/0 circle hooks.
Stokes trolled a couple of small bluefin tuna in the 30-inch class Monday in the same area, but an attempt at chunking wasn’t successful. The Linda D. chunked nearby to boat a 55-incher — the first larger bluefin I’ve heard about recently. Stokes then fished deep Mud Hole wrecks for a catch of ling plus some cod.
Stripers seem to be turning on to eels as water temperatures drop. Gene Graman was reading just 55 degrees Wednesday as we sailed through Sandy Hook Bay and out to the channels. Despite strong new moon currents, we picked 10 stripers up to 21 pounds on That’s It. The largest eel proved to be most effective.
Capt. Rob Semkewyc had a good jigging catch of big blues plus stripers from his Sea Hunter out of Atlantic Highlands on Tuesday, but there was no repeat Wednesday before he was called in by the Little Hawk to an eeling bite that resulted in a catch just one bass short of a boat limit for 15 anglers. Capt. Pete Wagner has been both clamming and eeling from his Hyper Striper out of Twin Lights for limits of stripers before adding the one blackfish per person presently allowed. The Russ Schofield party from Wayside had bass up to 20 pounds Thursday morning, while Rich Gordon’s group from Middletown limited in the afternoon.
Capt. Ron Santee got into lots of jumbo blues plus bass up to a 31-pounder jigging from his Fishermen out of Atlantic Highlands on Tuesday.
At Brielle, Capt. Ryan Bogan reported over 200 cod caught during the latest cod special of Jamaica II, but almost all were schoolies. Bob Flasket of Philadelphia was high hook with 18 as the middle of the boat had more action than the usual preferred areas in the stern and bow.
The next cod special will be Sunday at 2 a.m. by reservation. Last Sunday’s Mud Hole wreck trip was very good in great depths for ling and some cod.
Capt. Howard Bogan Jr. said last Friday night’s canyon trip on his Jamaica was slow, but Saturday night worked out very well as many anglers limited on yellowfin tuna during a hot bite from 4 to 6 a.m.
At Point Pleasant, Capt. Bobby Bogan reported a boat limit of yellowfin tuna during his Friday to Saturday trip to Spencer Canyon with the Gambler. There were also some dolphin and skipjacks, but no albacore. The Saturday to Sunday trip produced the largest swordfish they’ve ever caught, though it was hardly an IGFA battle. John Sameth of Roselle only fought the sword briefly before it got wrapped in the props and was gaffed on the other side of the boat. Surprisingly, it didn’t put up a fuss until tail-roped. The crew was barely able to get the sword through the stern door as it was 9 feet from the lower jaw to the fork of the tail, with a 6-foot girth. By formula, that would come out to about 700 pounds. There were some limits of 30-pound yellowfins, plus a few larger ones. Cristyn Jones of Toms River had a limit up to a 65-pounder. The Gambler will continue canyon trips into November.
Capt. Jim O’Grady finally got his Mud Hole tuna trip on the Cock Robin in on Wednesday. He was all over Monster Ledge without finding much, though a large tuna was hooked before tangling in many lines and breaking off—and another was lost immediately after the hook-up. What they did catch was lots of big sea bass and a couple of fluke that had to be returned during the closed season. A legal cod was boated. Capt. Dave Riback of the Queen Mary got into hot jigging under birds not far from the inlet this week. Over 20 stripers were found among lots of blues from 10 to16 pounds on Tuesday. Poppers worked best Wednesday for stripers up to 38 inches. Limits of blues to 15 pounds were caught before bass turned on at 9 a.m. Joe Melillo, at Castaway’s Tackle had Sunday weigh-ins of a 10-pound bass on a teaser at Sea Girt by Tom Brown of Wall, and a 14 1/2-pounder on a teaser at Manasquan by Scott Albright. Roy Heartley of Point Pleasant caught a 29 1/2-inch bass Monday at Spring Lake on a teaser. Joseph Green of Manchester had a 13 /16-pounder on clam at Belmar on Tuesday. Jack Cook from Lakewood beached a 14 1/8-pounder Thursday at Normandy Beach, while Terry Martuscelli of Brick weighed surf bass of 12 and 22 pounds. Melillo says blackfishing is holding up in Point Pleasant Canal, and he has green crabs in stock.
Joe Julian reports from Julian’s Tackle in Atlantic Highlands that Mike Bijas of Middletown boated a 22-pound bass on clam in front of the Inlet Café on Shrewsbury River. Mike and Jim Soden of Middletown caught four stripers up to 30.33 pounds in the river on eels, and that bait produced a 25-pounder for Rudy Kastner of Middletown who fished there at night.
George Horvath of Trenton has tagged 7,400 fish with ALS tags in N.J. — and his 234 returns have come from 11 states. One of the most interesting was a 28-inch striper caught June 21 last year from the north jetty of Barnegat Inlet. It had six feet of mono sticking out of its mouth from a hook too deep to be removed. Horvath cut back the mono as far as he could while tagging it. That bass was recaptured near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on July 30 – proving that even released bass with deeply swallowed hooks can survive. Allen Riley of South Plainfield managed a small bass on a Deadly Dick in the Sandy Hook surf Monday morning, but the only other fish caught there was a sea robin snagged by his brother Ed, of Edison. Mike Mossa of Hillsborough caught a 20-inch striper on clam during his first surf attempt. The water temperature there has dropped to 59 degrees.
Chris Cowan and John Caffrey from Stirling trolled from Sandy Hook to Shrewsbury Rocks on Tuesday in good bait readings, but never had a hit before a 29-inch bass grabbed a chartreuse bunker spoon at the Rocks.
Cablevision subscribers will be happy to hear that World Fishing Network (WFN) is being added to provide around the clock fishing programming. Though 40 stripers have been entered so far in the Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic, there have been only four bluefish up to a 10.81-pounder. Gary Naylor of Mt. Holly has led almost from the start with a 41.56-pound striper.
This Fishing Report was submitted on 10/29/2011 4:17:44 AM by Seamus and last updated on 10/29/2011 4:17:44 AM.
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