Kayak Trips and Fishing Reports 2014

[seamonkey]

I met my fishing buddy Mikey at the bait store at 6am. High tide was 6:14 so we would catch the outgoing from outback. We bought Killies and squid to go fluking. after a brief stop at wawa we were at the bay to launch the kayaks. Water by the powerplant was 75 degrees. We drifted with the current and I caught a 14-1/2" sea robin. We continued drifting but nada. Chatter on the radio was no one was catching flounder.

I said to Mike we need to be by a drop off if we want a chance, so we moved closer to the flats while we were heading that way we saw a small boat with 2 guys and their rods were bent over. Turns out they were catching small blues in the 3-5 lb range. I had to relive myself anyway, so I anchored in the flats and hoped out and did my thing. The buys in the boat moved on. Maybe I scared them??? anyway, so I moved into their position and anchored up and through a SS popper and about my third cast I was in. I was using a very light action spinning rod and man that little 4lb blue was a ton of fun.

We moved around for awhile on the flats. I would stand up in my yak and can see the blues cruising. felt like I was in florida fishing the mosquito lagoon, lol! I could see channels cut through the flats and was able to guestimate where the fish were on a few occasions. Mike only hooked one blue , I got 4. they were all 3-5 pounds, lots of fun.

While we were on the flat Mike noticed a cloud of birds by the BI. Must have been a bass blitz- we heard a 47# bass and a 40# bass caught out front. Mike wanted to go there but I reminded him that he has a screw loose because there was no way we were ever gonna make it by kayak from where we were and we still would have had to go through the inlet- not a great idea.

I tried to catch blues on the fly rod but it was not gonna happen. I need to make some pencil poopers for the flyrod.

Here is a quick video- not promising it's good- but it is what it is.

Awesome report looks like you are having the best of times! thanks for sharing

[seamonkey]

One of my bluefish from yesterday...not really sure if this is from disease or a shark/dolphin bite. Marks were on both sides but much worse on this side.

that is the nastiest bluefish I have ever seen! I'm surprised it was still alive to hit your lure.

[J Barbosa]

John B- is that a trolling motor in your buddies hobie?

Yes, works really well allows us to cover many more miles of water and fast moving water that would normally tire you out quickly under human power.

that is the nastiest bluefish I have ever seen! I'm surprised it was still alive to hit your lure.

He put up a good fight and swam off quickly. That is one bad *** bluefish.

[robmedina]

Good to know DS- Sunday looks like better wind for the yak. I am gonna take my 2 cinder worms I tied today just incase.

[J Barbosa]

Fished with Rui yesterday off the kayaks. We changed it up for once and decided to target fluke instead of bluefish.

I ended up with one keeper and a bunch that would have been keepers based on last years size limits.

Rui caught three nice keeper fluke.

[J Barbosa]

The fluke I kept on Saturday had several shrimp in its stomach. I am seeing a lot more spearing the past two weeks.

[robmedina]

The fluke I kept on Saturday had several shrimp in its stomach. I am seeing a lot more spearing the past two weeks.

John - roughly what size were the shrimp?

[J Barbosa]

Slightly smaller than a quarter.

[robmedina]

ok cool. Thanks. I have been tying up some grass shrimp patterns- was curious what size the natural ones were so I could attempt to "match the hatch"

[J Barbosa]

Fished with my buddy Rui on Saturday.

Had to pick through a lot of shorts but we ended up with two keeper fluke each.

[surferman]

^^^^ Make some nice fluke sandwiches out of that, good job. About how deep water did you find them in?

[J Barbosa]

^^^^ Make some nice fluke sandwiches out of that, good job. About how deep water did you find them in?

About 10-18ft of water, water temps have warmed up and the fluke are aggressive.

Forgot to mention SHRIMP, SHRIMP, SHRIMP again!!!

Hope to get in a bluefish trip this week before they disappear for the offshore spawn.

Also...BLUE CLAWS are in thick and the waters have warmed so they are coming in close to shore making them easier to catch.

[J Barbosa]

Fished the surf last Thursday and came up empty. Definitely on the wrong beach...Fished on Saturday from the kayak and had to pick through a bunch of seaweed and shorts to get some keepers. 10-1 keeper ratio sounds about right.Crabbing this morning was pretty hot. Filled a 5 gallon bucket with big crabs in less than two hours. The guy next to us didn't catch one keeper in over two hours?

[J Barbosa]

Fished this morning off the kayaks - lots of rain, wind, seaweed, shorts...one keeper

[finchaser]

Nice going JB


Water in Manasquan inlet and ocean is 59 degrees just came back from boat ride in my friends boat and gave the inlet a quick drift completely void of life didn't even mark bait.

Beaches are opened to surfers only the 8 to 9 foots seas are and honest 3 to 5 if that they are sitting on boards waiting for a decent wave.

[seamonkey]

Thats not bad 8 shorts to one keeper nice going.

[J Barbosa]

This guy looks lonely in the sink all by himself...will have to catch a friend for him next time.


Water in the back is really starting to warm up and it looks like the fluke are heading for cooler waters. Peanuts are in very thick in the usual areas.

[storminsteve]

Water in the back is really starting to warm up and it looks like the fluke are heading for cooler waters. Peanuts are in very thick in the usual areas.

I think I ran into some of those fluke tonight JB. Fished nomoco 6-8:30 managed 9 of them on the gulp mullet. Not one keeper though. A little windy. Still a fun time and nice sunset.

[porgy75]

Nice catching steve and jb!

[J Barbosa]

I fished yesterday again and still no luck finding the elusive croaker. Its almost ironic because last year I felt like it was too hard to fish the bay for fluke because the croakers were like piranhas getting to the gulp before the fluke ever got a chance to see it.

I cast net some peanut bunker and snappers in the morning.

I fished two rods side by side most of the day. On the first rod I put a live or dead peanut bunker and placed it in the rod holder and let the wind and current drift me around.

On the second rod I fished gulp by casting it and jigging it back to the kayak.

Yesterdays results was all shorts on both the gulp and peanuts.

The gulp caught me a lot of tiny fluke all the way down to 6" or so and nothing over 15".

The peanut bunker caught less fish but they averaged out to a larger size up to 17.5".

The bad news is the dogfish have invaded the RB and really love live peanuts. My friend snapped his light fluke rod when a 5ft doggie tried to run under his kayak.