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Hooking Up Anglers Since 2011.
I think I picked a pretty decent time to write a "season in review" article for us at Reel Class the day following the blizzard of 2013, which dumped about 15" of snow up here in Bergen County and as much as 3'+ to our north and east. With this nasty winter weather around, it's hard to NOT think about our upcoming season and what we've taken from the season prior.
May and June featured OK livelining for bigger bass, as we had many fish over 30# and a handful of 40#ers topped by a fish of 44# - a lot of our fish this season came snagging and dropping - which was tough but still productive.
Spring and summer seabass fishing was generally good when we did it, and the large number of triggerfish we took was very surprising.
Summer fluke fishing, like spring bass fishing, was GOOD. Partially due to a relaxing of our minimum size, partially due to our fluke stocks being in VERY GOOD SHAPE. We caught fish from the beginning to the end of the season, but didn't have any real monsters. Larry took our season pool with a fish over 7#, and the biggest on the boat was taken by Kenny which was a tad over 8#. Most trips between July 1 - September 1 resulted in limits or near-limits, with very few slow trips in the mix. I sincerely hope we see this again this year with the amount of fish we had, the more "fair" regulations, and the maintenance of a good stock of fluke.
Another pleasant surprise was deep water bottom fishing - ling fishing was excellent basically all year long but we didn't see near the amount of cod that we had in 2011 - we also had some pollock and big seabass in the 180-230' wrecks that we fish.
Once late August rolled around, we did some trips out in the deep targeting bluefish and albies, and crushed them every time - we also picked some mahi around pots on a couple of occasions despite strong offshore currents. September was tough for us, as we had some weather issues, and a couple of maintenance related issues. October, until the end, was very good to us with more good bluefish-albie action as well as some very good porgy-seabass fishing.
We did get 1 bass trip in just before Sandy with our good friend Shelby, and that trip will always be remembered as the trip before everything changed at the shore - we caught our limit of bass up north, and had some bluefish, but we knew what was coming...
Then, Sandy hit. Our ocean was changed, our beaches were changed, our landscape was changed. I had Reel Class hauled out on Sunday October 28th, the day the NE winds started screaming. We made final preparations at the house in Ortley, sandbagged our shed, and hoped for the best - we really had no idea what was to come next. Sandy was a storm that destroyed parts of our shore towns, created damage everywhere, but thankfully we survived, Reel Class survived, and we fared OK in Ortley with minor damage - our neighbors and friends were not so lucky :(
I took a ride to Pt. Pleasant that Thursday with my daughter Lauren, to check on the boat, and to just get a look see. When I got to Clark's all the guys were working, cleaning up water damaage, and Reel Class was perfectly fine - what wasn't fine were boats washed up on docks, across the river on the golf course and on private properties. Boats were on the train bridge, and on broadway itself. Pt. Pleasant beach was buried in sand - houses were flooded and residents were cleaning out destroyed belongings. We couldn't get to Ortley via route 35 or via any artery because the barrier island was closed - the breaches in Mantoloking basically destroyed small parts of Route 35. We wouldn't get to the house until 2 weeks after the storm, finding a huge mess but limited damage.
Reel Class didn't go back in the water until 11/14, and we did 2 more trips - wild weather limited us and poor to non-existent bass fishing basically killed our fall season. We did have 2 bass on our first trip, and a fair catch of tog our second trip, but we called it quits the first week of December.
For those that lost during Sandy - we will rebuild! We will be back around April 1st, and will be ready to get back to "normalcy" for us and for all!
Our 2012 season started early, we were in the water the first week of April and were on the bass as soon as we got out of the inlet on our first trip. Jig fishing at its finest, just like fall fishing, basically where we left them off in the fall of 2011. Every trip in April was limit fishing on jigs, with nice fish in the 12-20# range and very few shorts in our trips. Fishing was ridiculously good to say the least! Why? The WINTER of 2011-2012 was mild, the fish stuck nearby, and we had them when things warmed up. Will the same occur in the spring of 2013? Not sure yet - with a NORMAL winter (that we've had) things might be different in April.
This Fishing Report was submitted on 3/17/2013 2:50:26 AM by Seamus and last updated on 3/17/2013 2:50:26 AM.
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