[davehunt]

Greetings all.

I decided to stick closer to home this past weekend so I stuck to the Wildwood Crest Beach. It was a chilly drizzly morning but I had fun anyway.

The weekend before I read a report in The Fisherman that stripers were being caught pre-dawn from Diamond Beach (I had no such luck).

This coupled with the fact that the beach seems to have much more contour lately (all the weather this year?) made me decide to give it a shot. I had been on the beach Saturday at low tide and found a big slough / hole right were we usually take the sun. I set up on the edge of the hole on Sunday morning about 5:30 AM.

Nothing doing until about 7:00 when I had one short run off.
I finally hooked something around 7:30. There was a quick hit, I gave a little slack, then set the hook. As soon as I did it felt like a load of bricks. I immediately thought "Skate". This isn't so bad since I like skate, but to people on the beach it must have looked like I was reeling in JAWS. The damn thing wouldn't budge. When I finally got him in I saw why, I had foul hooked him in one of his claspers (poor guy). I also caught a medium sized dog fish around 8:15. I let her go and headed home for breakfast.

I have to say between the kingfish and skate I've had a pretty good summer. In a year when the more desirable fish haven’t been around, I've been able to enjoy myself by fishing for what has been available.

There's probably some kind of life lesson in there somewhere but that would mean I'm thinking too much.

I'll be back down this weekend and if the hurricane doesn't affect the surf too badly I may fish the tournament in North Wildwood, will anyone else be there?

Let me know.

DH

 

[Manayunk Jake]

Greetings davehunt!

Have you ever tried the little public "pier" (actually looks more like an elevated dock) between Kurtz's and the Starlight/Twilight? Before slot limits there was a guy who fished that pier early in the mornings during the summer. He caught 51 stripers in three months before he finally nailed one 28.25 inches. Hot bait was squidheads (the mates from the partyboats clean the squid and throw the heads overboard.)

I also caught a nice fluke off the back of the Twilight while waiting to go out. A group of unruly patrons demanded that the mate "mark" the fish so I couldn't enter it in the pool.

When we come in late from seabass marathons there are usually fishermen in boats pitching Finn-S and bucktails at the neighboring docks (probably looking for weakies.)

You might want to give it a shot....

 

[davehunt]

Jake,

I haven’t actually fished from the "pier", but it's a great spot to snag some bait. A couple of weeks ago I was able to load up on spearing. It's definitely someplace I've always intended to fish (with that much bait something has to be there to eat it!) but just don't seem to get around to it.

I once saw a guy, about 5 or 6 years ago, catch a nice sized fluke off the back of the Royal Flush while it was docked there. The guy was on the back of the boat waiting between the morning and afternoon trips (he fished both). To kill time he started casting just off the stern when he nailed this nice fish. The funny thing was that a bunch of people had the same reaction, they wanted to make sure he couldn't use the fish in the pool.

I didn't particularly care, hell, he was on the boat when he caught it. But I think he took the fish off the boat and put it in a cooler in his car in order to preserve the peace. It's amazing how testy people can get over a 2 dollar pool.

My oldest son, when he was about 7 years old, landed a terrific sea bass (this also took place on the Royal Flush). When it came time for the weigh in it came down to his bass and some ladies fluke. It was close but the bass certainly won. The woman was upset and made the mate check the fish again. I was amazed that and adult would begrudge a 7 year old. It was a nice pot, 70 or 80 bucks, but it sure as hell wasn't going to change anyone’s life. You would have thought the kid was taking a winning Lotto ticket from her.

Anyway, the mate obliged and my son won. I got the biggest kick from the look on my son's face, it was a real accomplishment for him at the time. But I have to admit that I took some pleasure in the look on the face of Miss Runner-up. You'd have thought my son and the mate had conspired to cheat her out of the family fortune!