Earle Naval station fishing tournaments and News

[DarkSkies]

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.

[plugginpete]

DS, sorry I missed you there. We had a good time caught some small porgies but nothing else. First time we attended. Heard they had the pier opened twice before. Hope they do it again next year.

Wonder if clamchucker went?

[clamchucker]

I wasn't there Saturday, but have been there before as a guest.

The best time is at night. We fished the shadow lines, bass assassins and storm shads. Pulled a few nice bass out of there. The gentleman who invited me gets them 10 months out of the year, using strictly rubber baits, fish up to 30#.

[wish4fish]

^ what clamchucker said, fishin there is like being in an aquaruim, fish the shadows.

[bababooey]

Be careful out there this week! Earle harbor protection exercises, from the App.com
Navy Training
Fishermen in the Raritan and Sandy Hook bays are advised that Naval Weapons Station Earle will conduct harbor protection exercises during the afternoon hours of May 15, 22, 29 and June 5, 12 and 19 in the waters surrounding the Navy’s pier in the Leonardo section of Middletown.
The exercises will involve marked Navy harbor patrol boats and sentry towers firing blank ammunition in Sandy Hook Bay in the vicinity of the NWS Earle Waterfront Restricted Area.
The training is scheduled to end by 4:30 p.m. each day.