First trip of the year Sunday with John Morley from Manahawkin and his 10 year old son Jack. Going into my fourteenth year of guiding I made a promise to myself to try some areas that I have not fished in a while and to target a new species (have to wait for summer to see if I keep that promise). Well out of the gate first cast Jack get a schoolie striper! Well that was the kiss of death on that bite, because during the next 40 minutes we landed only a 2 pound blue. We fished a spot I have not fished by boat since 1986. Even with that I think the change of spots paid off, and I plan on taking more of my clients there in the future. After that we were in search of gator bluefish and they did not let us down. Blues from 10-12.5 pounds on poppers and swimmers in shallow water. World class action folks. The bite was slower than normal but no complaints with the results. Here is a picture of Jack with the 12.5 lb. blue. I have Wednesday and Thursday (May 3rd & 4th) available for magic hour trips and then the next available date is one (1) spot for open boat Monday May 8th Magic hr trip . May dates are filling in fast so let me know if you want me to hold one for you. Remember I do offer fly-fishing as an option and with the monster blues in the shallows there is no better time than now to fly-fish the bay.

On the nature side of things: I am totally psyched for the World Series of Birding next Saturday, May 6th. Here is my teams page the LBIF Ospreys. To date I have raised over $1,000 for LBIF and Fisherman Headquarters was one of my pledges. Thanks again Greg! My team and I have been scouting breeding birds locations every available minute we have. For some, like myself, this competition is not just pick up a pair of binoculars and look for some birds. It takes countless hours of scouting out birds right before the big day. And if you know where a certain hard to find species of bird can be found it is not good enough. You need a backup location, and maybe a backup to your backup. This is serious stuff and I want to bring home the first place cup. Wish me luck come this Saturday.

Screaming drags and clear binoculars,

Capt. Alex
Barnegat Bay, NJ
609-548-2511