Well clamchucker, the fishing is at times pehenonemal, but it wasn't today. That's ok, we had a great time anyway.

There was a huge line this morning, both sides of the highway. Once we cleared the dogs and vehicle search, we could fish anywhere on the pier up to the "closed area" pylons. Lots of space, about 300 people total were fishing.

Conditions were perfect for a day of fishing. Slightly overcast, slight W wind. Unfortunately, there were no schools of bait around like there sometimes are, until we saw a few large schools of spearing near the end.

Bait was the ticket today. We had fresh clams and eels, porgy and sea bass on the clams, but caught nothing on the eels.

Not one striped bass was caught for the entire day. However, a few average bluefish were caught on bunker, and one alligator around 12 lbs. This big bluefish was edged out for the longest fish prize by a 36" weakfish, a beautiful catch.

As I said, most of the people were using bait, but there were some doing different things. A few of us started plugging after getting bored with the bottom fish. I threw topwater to mid-water presentations, and then metal, shads and bucktails, not one tap. One guy took a bunker head and drifted it out on the W wind with a balloon. No fish, but you gotta give him credit for trying.

At all times, it was clear that this was a Navy base. The soldiers were cool, but on alert. 9mms and automatic rifles were clearly visible, but everyone cooperated, no mishaps.

We were told they put this on to raise money for the seamen when they have a formal ball in Atlantic City? Some of them can't afford to go, so this helps them out.

They are also looking to reach out to the community. Master Chief Ippolito said if anyone knows of any community activity or organization that would like the involvement of the soldiers or the base, reach out to them and contact them to see if it's feasible.

Master Chief Ippolito and all the soldiers, and admin enlisted people, did a great job, especially Muriel, who coordinated all the registrations and was extremely helpful answering our questions.

The award ceremony at the end was cool, too. Prizes given for fish and raffle tickets. A young kid of about 6 won prize for longest youth bluefish. Julian's Tackle was one of the bigger contributors of the door prizes, along with some other local merchants.

In all, it was a great day, even though no bass were caught, and the bluefish were pretty scarce as well. Everyone did an outstanding job, we all got along, and I would return again.