Everyone has heard the saying “you sound like a broken record”, I’m sure. Well as much as I hate to say it, the weather last week once again did not do any anglers any good. A bunch of boats were out hunting the migratory stripers this past weekend off our coast and around the mouth of the Delaware Bay. Some boats made a trip up the Jersey coast to see if there were any fish around. We did not see any fish hit the table from our local waters but, we did have a couple of very nice stripers hit the table on Saturday afternoon. The anglers that caught those fish made a bee line to wildwood and found a couple fish that they caught jigging and trolling.
We heard that some big fish were caught down around Indian river inlet, and between Bethany & Sea colony. We also heard a faint rumor that some stripers were caught at the Hen & Chicken shoal. I don't know how reliable the info is, we did not see those fish. Boats are marking nice size bait balls with fish around them. Hopefully, if the weather allows, we will start seeing bigger groups of fish closer to us, and within range for all the anglers to catch their limits and curb that “striper fever”.
Black sea bass are still thick as thieves out on the deep-water wrecks. When the boats can get out to them, it’s not taking long for them to get their boat limit and head back to the docks with a boat load of sea bass. Tautog fishing however, is not cooperating with anglers this year. Some really nice big tog have been caught, but it seems that the legal size fish refuse to be caught this year. Anglers are having to struggle with endless catches of short fish. Now, if your’re just out to enjoy a day on the water, I can guarantee if conditions are right, you will have a great day catching throwbacks, with an outside chance of netting a keeper.
We have green crab, asian box crab, and we will be getting a fresh batch of whiteleggers, for those of you still tautog fishing. We also have live eels and bunker chunks for those anglers chasing down the stripers. We are working on getting fresh bunker in to the shop. We will post it on our FB page as soon as we get it. Don't forget to get signed up for our annual striper tournament that is going on right now. The cost is $5 per angler per day, or $30 per angler for the month. The tournament ends Dec 23rd, 2018 at 4pm. Also, remember Xmas is coming and we have some special deals going on, so stop by and get that special angler in your life an awesome gift from LHM.
Until next week, Tightlines Everyone. Tommy Serbin.