2008 Fishing Reports

11/9/08:  Open Boat Stripers.  Well this was the last open boat trip of the year.  We had only 4 guys on board and we only caught 4 stripers, but none were of keeper size.  We jigged up one short early and then trolled 3 more in the morning.  The afternoon we trolled for miles without a touch.  The water was 43 degrees and I was marking plenty of bait and fish, but the fish were not too interested.  My boat will be available for charter until the week of January 5th when we will be done for the season.  Thanks to everyone who fished with us this year.  I wish everyone a happy holiday and hope to see you aboard next year.

11/22/08: 15 Blues 25 Stripers.  The fish are still with us and plenty more to the north of us.  It was extremely rough and windy today, which made for some tough conditions.  We has sustained winds of 25 knotts with gusts over 35 knts!  Thank God it was out of the north west.  It was about 20 degrees, but the wind made it feel more like sub zero temps.  Frequent visits to our heated cabin was nice.  we had fish with us all morning jigging under bird action.  If you want bass and blues, now is the time!  We still have plenty of good dates available.  Capt. John

11/11/08: 75 Blues 28 Stripers.  Another amazing day of action!  Out today with with a great bunch of guys from PA.  We caught bass and blues until their arms were ready to fall off!  Come and get them now while it is this good.  There is so many fish out there right now.  We caught most jigging, but we also caught them just as well or even better on Tony Majas Bunker Spoons.  If you want to catch a lot of fish.  Go get some of these bunker spoons.  They have the best action out there of all bunker spoons I have ever tried.  Capt. John

11/9/08:  150 Blues 31 Stripers and even One 4 1/2 LB. FLUKE!!!!  We got them good today!  I was out today with a charter from PA.,  Levi Bonnice and friends.  We had non-stop jigging action all day long!  The best part was no other boats were even in sight for most of the day.  I was in 65' of water and 54 degree water.  We caught all fish jigging with diamond jigs, Storm shads, and Tony Majas Bunker spoons, my new sponsor.  We caught a total of about 150 bluefish ranging in size from 5 lbs to 14lbs.  Most were over 10 lbs however.  We also landed 31 bass, of which only 6 were keepers.  The biggest bass was 35 lbs and also caught one at 30 lbs.  All other keepers were about 28"-33"  All released bass were just under by a hair at 27.999"  PLUS we caught one 4.5 lb fluke on a diamond jig, which was of course also released.  We had non stop action ALL DAY LONG!  I only had about a half hour time that I switched over to wire line trolling, because of a slow down in action jigging at mid day.  But that didnt last long at all.  In fact we couldnt keep Tony's Bunker spoons in the water without big blues jumping on them!  Thanks Tony!  Capt. John

10/17/08:  STRIPERS AND BLUES!!!  Come and get em'!!  We caught them good today with Paul Yates and crew.  It was non stop action once we found them in 65' of water up off Seaside.  We only caught 3 stripers.  One just under 28", one at 29" and one nice fat one at 38".  The blues were hungry and we couldn't get the lures for a more than a minute without the rod bent over with another blue!  Come now.  As the water gets cooler there will be more stripers filtering in.  Good dates still available.    One last overnight tuna open boat trip is scheduled for November 1 & 2.  Call now to reserve your spot.  Capt. John

9/13/08 - 9/14/08:  OK, I didn't report in a while as there wasn't much to report.  Until Now!  I was out with Brian Little, Daniel Little, Michael Little, Walter Webster, Nathan Blevins, and Bobby Blevins all from Oxford, PA.  We first tried a spot out in the Glory Hole for some bluefin that were caught by a few boats we knew.  We just missed the bite, but did manage two false albacore tuna.  But we were rewarded with an incredible sighting of about 15 whales that were gorging on all the bait in the area.  So after a few hours there, we headed  offshore to look for yellowfin tuna.  On the way out we spotted a huge approximatel 15' shark.  not sure wehat kind, but possibly a great white.  It was a scene from jaws as I not sure if he was at all intimidated by us as he cruised around our boat.  Once out there, I had a nice temp break I found out in the Hudson Canyon.  We got our first fish right away and had consistent action throughout the night.  Action never really died until sunup.  We went 15 for 24 on yellowfin tuna.  The biggest weighing in at 65 lbs.  We also caught two smaller mahi and an 8 foot blue shark.  But probably the most unbelievable event was this dolphin that was swimming around in Barnegat bay we saw on our way back in!  It came right up to the boat and we fed it some left over butter fish.  What  a beautiful site!  I look foward to our next trip this coming weekend!  If you want tuna.  Come Now!!  Capt. John
8/22/08 - 8/23/08:
INSHORE REPORT:

I had a double header Friday. A half-day fluke trip in the morning from 7am-12pm and then I headed offshore for a 24-hour overnight canyon run. I fished in 50-60 feet out of Barnegat Inlet. We had great action on fresh squid I caught at the canyon the week before. For a short trip we did ok. We caught 24 fluke of which only two were keepers. One was 5 lbs and the other was 20". All other fish were 15"-17.9999999"! We also had one keeper sea bass and a few throwbacks as well. The biggest fluke was caught right as I was starting up the motors to head home. I wish I had the time to stay but just had to get the boat ready to go offshore. See my offshore report.

OFFSHORE REPORT:


We went to the Spencer Fri-Sat. We had a temperature break from 71.8 to 75 degrees. The water was a beautiful blue like we were in the Bahamas. We trolled with only a light tap on one rod in the afternoon from a small fish on the troll. It was a slow night with one 6' blue shark on the chunk. Then we trolled in the am and got one skipjack almost immediately. After trolling hard for a few hours I headed for another nice temperature break I saw down in the Wilmington Canyon on my Raymarine E-120's with Satellite weather. Just before arriving there we were blessed with a 70lb Yellowfin on a Seafood Custom Spreader Bar. It saved the day, as that is all the ocean would give us. I expect it to get much better any day. Four spots are available on an open-boat tuna trip Saturday to Sunday, September 6 to 7. The trip will troll the first afternoon, chunk at night and troll again in the morning. The cost is $550/Person. Call to reserve your spot today.

8/9/08 - 8/10/08: Open Boat Tuna Report:We had an ok trip this past weekend with some smaller yellowfins on the troll.  We fished south Toms Canyon.  We had a nice break of 73- 78 degrees water temp and good looking water. The night time bite was infested by a giant school with literally 100's of thousadns of squid.  We caught squid all night long.  Buckets full!!!  We netted them, we snagged them, we could almost reach over and grab pick them up!!  At night we also landed and released a small mako shark and a hammerhead shark.  The next morning produced a few knock downs, but no real hungry takers!  We trolled from the south Toms to the Lindenkohl andback again.  Then we had to time the major thunderstorms on the waty home.  Once again having the online weather really made our ride home not too bad.  Back at the dock in 2 1/2 hours or 84 miles later!!
8/5/08: A night trip with Rich Berger and his son and friends for a half day ofgood bay action.  We had consistant catch and release of smaller weakfish and two nice big fat fluke.  Everyone had a great time!  Capt. John

8/1/08 & 8/2/08: We fished the Beach Haven Marlin Tournament.  Biggest was weiged in at 78.1 Lbs.  It was caught on a rigged ballyhoo with a circle hook.  We had fish busting out of the water chasing flying fish in the afternoon.  we would of caught a lot more fish if hooks were allowed on spreader bars.  we took them off, but the tuna would not leave them alone as they just kept jumping on the hookless bars.  I even had a tuna keep attacking our large bird that was way back in our spread.  We caught Bonito as well that were mixed in with the yellows.  We fished in the deep south of the Toms canyon both Fri and Sat.  Sat resulted in no fish caught, as we spent most of the day dodging major storms.  Thank god for the satellite weather  to get us away from the heaviest stuff.  There were some cells with 50-70 mph winds!  We were in about 30-40 which was bad enough!  All in all a fun time and we werent too far out of third place as that fish was only 90 lbs caught by my fathers neighbor Bob Gerkins on Hot Tuna.  Capt. John

7/29/08: Mr and Mrs. James and Aprie Maffet from PA, newlyweds on their honeymoon decided to come out for a romantic night out on the ridge looking for blues.  Well the blues were there, but didnt want to cooperate like they did last week.  We did manage to catch some squid that was all over.  As the seas grew we decided it would be a bit more comfortable in the bay.  So, we caught a few weakfish in the bay.  Congrtulations Mr. and Mrs. Maffet!  Capt. John

7/22/08: Out with Ben Hurst of Marlton, NJ and friends. We had a great night bluefishing.  These were nice size choppers of 12-15 LBs.  The action was non stop!!  This was bluefishing like it should be.  We had them going fast and furious in our slick all night long.  I was a little worried as the fish have been spawning te last few weeks, but not these fish!  Looks like the spawn is don and there hungry!!  Come on down and lets load up!  Capt. John

7/19/08:  Today along with a few nice guys from Philadelphia we went targeting fluke.  We headed to a few nearshore humps.  The action was very consistant fishing in 55' of water.  We ended the day with several nice keeper fluke with the biggest weighing in at 4.8 Lbs and also a few sea bass as well.  Capt. John

7/18/08:  Went to the Toms canyon today with John Borenious and his crew from GFI, Group in NYC.  We again had everything going for us as far as perfect water conditions. We had lines in at 4:30 AM and had a fish on by 4:45 as we were putting out one of our Seafood purple and black tuna feather spreader bars.  Fish ON!!  Small yellowfin of maybe only 30 Lbs.  That proved to be the only action of the day other than 2 other knock downs later in the day.  The action sould only get better within the next few weeks.  Our first overnight open boat trip is scheduled for Aug 9th-10th.  Space is limited as we only have 2 spots left.  Capt. John

7/12/08:  Our first open boat day out looking for tuna.  We headed to the Hudson Canyon on the south end toward the Toms Canyon where I was reading a nice temperature break along the 100 fathom line.  We had beautiful ble water.  I was marking bait and fish all day long.  All the conditions were perfect, except the fish didnt want to cooperate.  We later moved up into the tip of the Hudson to see if we could get things going up there, but same result.  Fish are there but just not hungry.  Same report from all captains I spoke with tht day. 

7/4/08:I went out looking for sharks on Friday July 4th to the same spot we were during mako mania. We caught and released two big blue sharks and one dusky shark. The dusky shark had a commerical fishing net all wrapped around him and actually cutting into it in spots under its head area. Happy to say, we were able to get a tail rope on and cut him free of this netting that apparently has been with him for quite some time. we knew that, because it had sea weed growing from it. He gave us a smile and swam away. No makos or threshers this time out in 69 degree water out in the Glory Hole. This Saturday will be our first offshore tuna trip. Sounds like the canyons are on fire. I cant wait to get out there.


6/28/08:  Out today off Mantaloking in massive schools of bunker.  No bass today under the schools, bu we did troll up a nice size dusky shark on a large bunker spoon.  Book your tuna trip now as the tuna are here!!  We also have just added a open boat shark trip fo this friday July 4th. I have three spots left for this 12 hour trip.  Capt. John


6/27/08:  We went to the Barnegat Ridge North tonight and landed and realeased a 6 foot hammerhead shark with Mike and Chris Bodner and Gene Mancini from Philadelphia, PA.   Capt. John


6/21/08:  Today we went to the exact spot in the Glory Hole that we landed the Mako the day earlier.  We were entered for Mako fever as well as Mako Mania.   Not even 15 minutes went by and we were on for our almost hour-long battle with this creature from the deep.  We thought it was a mako as it almost jumped several times, but then we saw that familiar tail of a huge thresher.  This one even bigger than yesterday as it was just over 8' not counting its tail, which based on our charts of shark weights it was a whopping 425 lbs.  We set it free, as this was a tournament for Mako sharks only.  If anyone wants to catch a monster shark, book your trip today and we can get right back out there.   Capt. John



6/20/08:  We fished the Mako Fever Tournament today with Jack Rinkers and his co-workers from PA.  We went straight out to the east end of the Glory Hole.  If there was a prize for the first one out there we would of won it.  We set up in 240 feet of 65 degree water where I some nice marks on my sounder.  Within the first two hours we landed a 125 LB. mako.   As I was setting out our lines again I had a major run off.    So I set it in gear and set the hook and we were on for another battle before even getting all of our lines back in the water.  About a half an hour later we had a 300 Lb. plus thresher to the boat, which we released as this was a Mako only tournament.  We got one other fish that day, which turned out to be an 8' blue shark.  The guys were pumped with all of the action for the day.

Fishing Report 6/14/08:  Today we had two trips scheduled as well. 
Morning Trip:  Dwayne Holmes and his crew from PA wanted nothing to do with the big bass that have been around lately.  They wanted blues!  So I headed my boat to where I knew tons were being caught, just north of the North Barnegat Ridge in 80' of water.  We caught big blues all day ranging in size from 8 lbs to the biggest at around 14 Lbs.    
Afternoon Trip: In the afternoon we had Rob Graham and his wife, Sherri or "Buda"   as she likes to be called and friends out for bass and blues.  This is the second time back for Rob and gang from Deleware.  I promised him a big bass that he could be proud of so the pressure was on.  We went north and in about 40' of water off Seaside we found a nice bass for rob.  In fact it was so big he needed a little help from his friend to land it (See Picture - Sorry Rob, I had to put that in there)  The bass weighed in at 38 Lbs.  We watch a bass inhale a bunker before our eyes and lost another bass boatside as it was a large cow that bent the hook on a Storm shad.  Dropped another bass while we had Robs bass on as well.  Also caught a few blues and had to end the trip a bit early due to an approaching storm that I was monitoring on my Raymarine E-120 with Satellite weather.  Thank God for the electronics these days.  Capt. John



Fishing Report 6/13/08: Today we had two trips scheduled. 
Morning Trip:  I was out this morning with Gary Zepp, his wife Dawn and family.  We went looking for stripers and we found a big one! Just a tick over 40 Lbs !!  It was gary's biggest bass that he had ever caught.  They then wanted to switch it up a bit and look for fluke and sea bass.  So we went to a rough spot and found some nice sea bass and a few fluke.  I would of rather stayed on the hunt for bass, but the customer is always right! 
Afternoon Trip: In the afternoon we went in the same spot we caught the big one in the morning, but none where there.  The afternoon trip had John Spada of North Jersey and a few of his buddies. We went further north and found some scattere schools of bunker in the rough seas from the persistant south wind.  We were able to snag a few bunker, but there were no takers.  So we went on the troll and had a fish on but the guys were unable to land it.  Just couldnt turn them on again.  Capt. John

Fishing Report 6/9/08: Out this morning on a trip with some of my friends.  What a great day.  We caught 10 bass total from 25 Lbs. to the biggest one at  38Lbs.   Some huge monster size blues in the  mix as well.  Glad to see we still have bass around.  Bunker was a little lighter today so we were able to get enough for bait and drop them down to the bass.  Only trouble was getting them past the hungry gators.  I'll be back out this Friday looking for bass again and Sat will be searching for blues, which I am positive will not be a problem.  Still have good dates available.  Get them while they are still here.  Capt. John

Fishing Report 6/7/08: Today we had two trips scheduled. 
Morning Trip:  I was out this morning with Butch and Carol Palmer of PA. and their friends.  The fog was as thick as pea soup in the morning so we had to crawl out there.   We went looking for bunker and we found them a few miles north of the inlet.  Only trouble was that the water temp dropped and there were no bass under any of the schools.  This party didnty want bluefish, so we stuck it out with no luck.
Afternoon Trip: Was out with Jamie Sholl and friends from PA as well.  They just wanted to catch fish!  So I headed my boat right back to where I found them the day before and we bailed big blues from 12 LBS. plus.  Biggest was about 15 LBs.  Jamie and crew never caught such big aggressive fish before and were amazed at the battle of these bruisers.  Their last words to me tonight were, "We'll be back! - Definately!!"  Come and get em now.  If you want unbelieveable action then now is the time to target blues!  We are also still booking tuna dates.  Some good dates are still available, but you better hurry as they are going very fast!  Tuna will be ariving soon!  Capt. John

Fishing Report 6/6/08: We went out today with Nick and friends, which were another group from Romania looking for stripers and blues.  Well the bass were no where to be found, but the blues were a different story!  we caught all monsters of 13-15 lbs.!  We caught them all on bunker chunks. 



Fishing Report 5/30/08:

I was out with Wayne Salvi and his friends from work.  Too Much Bunker???They were a great bunch of guys that understood that sometimes its called catching and sometimes its called fishing. We got to the inlet by 7:30 AM and I think it was over by then. We had bunker so thick you could walk on them from the lighthouse to Brant Beach. It was one big school as far as I was concerned. we marked fish. We even saw fish gorging on bunker. We tried live bunker, bunker chunks, and even trolling with nothing doing. There was just too much bait for them to get excited about our baits. We will be out again this Wednesday, Friday, and two trips Sat to try again.
Check our website for open boat dates for bass and tuna as well! Capt. John

5/26/08: We had two back to back trips today for stripers.  We headed up the beach in only 18' of water and found bunker with huge bass crashing them.  We were out in the morning with Dave Engels Sr. and Jr., Ryan Engels, Alan Block, Stew Levy, And Tom Reynolds.  We caught bunker and the bass inhaled them.  We ended the day with plenty of fish and some big smiles.  Also caught 3 big blues in the morning.  We hit the dock at 3PM and my next charter was waiting for us.  The pressure was on for me to repeat the action we had in the morning.  So we went right back where we were and the fish were waiting for us!  The afternoon the wind was howling at about 20- 25 knots, but the fish dodnt seem to mind.  We limited out with bass from 30 - 40 lbs and only one big blue in this mix.  In the afternoon, we had Sorin Manta, Vasile Boicu, Mike Suiu, John Uncureachv, Giurgiu Valentin and Vasik all from Romaina.  They never caught so many bass before.   They told me they are definately coming back to fish aboard Seafood!  Come and get them now!  We also spotted a tresher shark on the morning trip gorging on bunker.  We will start bringing our shark gear with us.  More striper fishing is slated for later in the week. Seafood will keep sailing for stripers, and fluke fishing is also available. Shark trips are about to begin in June, and tuna charters are now starting to be booked, and reserving preferred dates is a good idea. Seafood’s boat makes it to the tuna grounds probably quicker than any other charter in the state. The 33-foot HydraSports features three 250 h.p. engines, cruises at 45 m.p.h., tops out at 60 m.p.h. and arrives at the canyons in 2 hours in fair seas. Anglers can spend more time fishing than traveling. Besides charters for all these species, a bunch of open-boat dates are available. One space remains on a two-day, open-boat trip that will compete in the Beach Haven Marlin and Tuna Club Tournament. Boats in the tournament are allowed to fish two days from July 30 to August 2. Last year’s purse was $365,000, Join Team Seafood! Capt. John

5/24/08: Today we went to a wreck site with some friends, Mark, Tom, and Harold and fished for some nice fat sea bass.  We caught about 50 fish and kept 23 of the nicest ones.  What a great day today.  Capt. John


5/18/08: We were out today with Kit Cheng, Danny Wong, Dennis Chung, Cheong Tsang, and Ko Man Wong of Deleware.  We were into a huge school of bunker and snagged a lot of baits, but the 23 lb. bass we caught prefered a metal bunker spoon instead.  We also trolled blues in the bay after the ocean got a bit too rough for my party.  Bass are starting to come our way! Come and Get em'!!   Capt. John


5/10/08: I had a double header today.  Rob and his friends from Philadelphia were hoping to get into some striper action.  Unfortunately, no stripers around willing to bite.  We do have stripers to our south and I anticipate getting into them any day now.  We did enjoy some bluefish and the guys had a fun time with unlimited dog shark fishing.  The afternoon trip had Steve Cortese and his son and two friends from Germany.  They just wanted to catch a lot of fish.  So after playing with the blues, we headed back into the ocean for an unbelievable bite of dog sharks.  We must of caught over 100 sharks.  We even broke out the light tackle rods to make it a little more challenging.  They were glad with the absolute non-stop action.  Again, unfortunately no stripers.  Any day now we are due!   Capt. John

5/3 -5/4: Both days great fishing if you like catching bluefish.  Iwas out with my three boys, Andrew, Jake, and Brandon.  It as consistant action trolling for bluefish.  Saturday had the challenge of fishing in pea soup fog, but the fish didnt seem to mind.  Sunday was a beautiful day and the fish came on a bit stronger.  This Saturday we will be fishing a double header with two back to back charters for bluefish.  Stay tuned!

Fishing Report 4/25-4/26:
A mess of mostly 6- to 7-pound blues were fought to the boat with Seafood Fishing Charters on Barnegat Bay on the troll on Saturday. We tested the waters for striped bass while clamming off Sedge Islands that day, but nothing was doing with stripers yet. We also started looking around for stripers to clam at the same place the previous evening with no takers.  So bluefish are certainly an option in the bay.  Striped bass fishing should come around in the bay and ocean any day now as there are fish to our north and south right now.
Dates are going fast for spring stripers.