Jan 25, 2012.  Let me say that again, Jan 25, 2012 and the fishing is still HOT!  In this by now, oddly abnormal winter... we continue to score big.

It started out today wicked.  NE wind was kicking and had hard time getting set up.  Once we got on our spot, we scored pretty well the rest of the day.  Managed our limit and then some on keeper sized fish with many shorts in the mix.   The bite was very subtle today.  Had to be on your toes and was "swinging and missing" quite a bit too.   Big fish of the day was about 7lbs.  Fished in 72 ft of water.  Water temps 44.

I really just can't get enough of this stuff.  Mid-January and the weather continues to cooperate.  Ocean was like a lake most of the day yesterday.   Was delighted by the play of what must have been close to a dozen seals as I fueled up for the day.

Hit where we left em biting last time.  I think it was too nice out without any wind or current.  Only a few small Blackfish and constant harassment by the ever thick Bergals.   Headed to deeper water with same results. Changed tactics and headed back inshore (72 ft) and proceeded to bag six nice keepers in the next 90 minutes.

On much more serious note, there was a major disaster on Tuesday evening as one of the local Barnegat Light Fishing Boats went down and the Captain was killed.  We watched yesterday as the Coast Guard Helicopters and Cutters search through the debris fields from the wreck.  Strangely, all of the news reports only talk about a capsized vessel.  I heard from people "close to the source" that the fishing boat collided with a tanker.  I am quite interested in any additional news that comes out on this tragedy.

Great Day Today!  Any time you get to fish in January, it is a blessing.  Today was off the charts.   A bit windier than expected but warm temps, sun, and plenty of fish.  We got our limit of Tog with 3 or 4 really nice fish.  The only other fish caught the entire day was a Bergal.   No dogfish or anything else in sight.  Still hoping for some Cod but I till take what the fishing God's offer.

PS - Gus... stop messing with Zeus... he is gonna thunderbolt us one of these trips.  Nice FISH!

The only thing stopping the hot fishing in 2011 is the calendar, because the fish are still in place and cooperative.  Yesterday was just unbelievable weather wise for a late December day.  Moderate Wind, Sun, Warm Temps made it a pleasant day to be on the water despite the late calendar date.

Spent the first half of the day looking for Cod on wrecks but did not fair well.  And the Blackfish bite was slow as well.  Saved the day just a bit with a fairly nice afternoon Striper bite.  Nothing bigger than 26 inches, but still beats being on the couch.

I am thinking, but not positive the boat will come out next week.  Though, I really would like to get 1 more trip but taking a break.

Pretty Good Day on Saturday.  Started out Toggin' and did quite well and the fish on average were much bigger than last week.  Ran out of bait before we could limit though.  Note: last week were in about 90ft and the fish were small, this week in 55ft, fish were much better.

Switched to Jigging for Stripers.  At first things where dead but then when the sun started to decline, the bite turned on.  First some shorts, then keepers.  To my surprise we lost some really big fish (30's).  I would have thought that we would be into mostly "schoolies" by this point.  I would suspect that we have at least a few more weeks of good Striper Fishing.

Hoping to put some fine to eat fish in frozen captivity for the winter, so we skipped the white-hot striper bite for the sake of doing some wreck fishing.  While the catching was hot and heavy, the keeping was sparse.   Out of about 70 Seabass caught, only 7 made it to the cooler.  Tog was not great shakes either as we only caught 4 the entire day with only 1 big enough to keep.   On the way back in, decided to troll for a while and while we only hooked dogfish we were entertained by a Whale along the beach for a good half hour.  Here are a couple of pics.

It is always a sad day when I announce being done for the year.  But today is the day.  I will not be booking any more charters until the Spring.  Thanks to all those fisherman I had the liberty of joining on your trip.  Overall it has been a pretty good year and those 100+ Fluke days in the Ocean were great.  I expect I will be doing a few more "fun" trips with some friends before actually pulling the boat so I will post reports about how things go.  Suffice to say, current Striper Fishing off of Island Beach State Park (and to a lesser extent LBI) is "off the hook".

All have a great and happy holiday season and look forward to a great 2012.  For those interested I am offering a GREAT deal for Christmas.  Here goes, reserve a charter now for 2012 (you do not have to pick a date just yet unless you want to).  You will get a second Charter in 2012 for HALF-PRICE.  All you need is a $100 deposit to reserve this great deal.    This offer will expire the day after Christmas so don't delay.  Reserve Now!

I kind of like the fact that this time of year, you really don't need to bring bait.  Jigs are pretty much all you need.  Worked a few snags today and we had some good fishing.  Downers were that most of the seabass were too small to keep and the fog early made things VERY difficult.   Got to love NJ Fishing!

In baseball, if you get a hit 3 out of 10 you are considered a star.  How many "hits" do you think the weather forecasters have to have to keep their jobs?  Yesterday's forecast for light wsw winds was way off base.  Instead we had a moderate to strong ssw.  Big difference if you are a boater.  And it drives me nuts when the forecast does not change even though you are sitting in the middle of conditions that are all too different.   Still, not to be deterred from the weather and conditions I headed out to my favorite wreck (9 miles from Inlet).  Tried drift jigging diamonds, but drift speeds over 1.3 kts made things way tough.  Switched to anchor but just tiny seabass (largest 10") and large dogs.  Problem was, with 7 foot swells and 3 ft chop, did not have many options.  Headed in early.

After early last week's explosion of big bass, I thought we were in for a good run.  However, the last 3 days have been absolutely dreadful.  No bass, No bunker, No big bluefish.    And I mean from north of the "wheel" to south of Beach Haven... NADA.  Thank goodness we are less then a week away from black sea bass re-opening.  Tight Lines.