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Lighthouse Sportfishing Report August 2

Been crazy busy the last four days with seven trips during that time. Spending that much time on the bay, during many tide cycles, you kind of get the pulse of the ebb and the flood. So much, that you don’t even need to look at a tide app. All you need to do is to pay attention to nature’s subtle cues and sync your clock to hers. Having fished in Florida many times years ago I started subscribing the to the Florida Sportsman magazine. Even though it was geared to fishing another State, dah that’s obvious, you glean information from the articles and apply them to your area. One resonating theme was the benefits of live bait. Sometimes in Florida, you do not even start fishing until you “make bait”. Now, having long subscribed to that theme, I do what it takes to make bait. And sometimes the rewards from those benefits are reaped to the extreme. Case in point Tuesday’s magic hour trip with Michael Petruzziello. Before we started fishing I had him and his friend Dianne make bait in the form of snappers for the last part of the trip when the tide would be perfect. Coming across what was literally and acre + of snappers blitzing we quickly put a good dozen in the Debbie M’s live well. After messing around with some adult bluefish around the inlet we switched over to fluke fishing. In doing so, and I kid you not, I said to Michael “I just have this weird feeling we are going to be able to catch a really nice fluke tonight”. With two live snappers unhappily sent to the bottom, I positioned the boat so that the lines were in the correct drift. Shortly thereafter, Michael, “I think I have a fish or I am stuck on bottom”. To which I replied, “you have a FISH”. With the St Croix rod doing double duty, I knew immediately he was battling flukezilla. When we got first glimpse of the denizen from the deep I instructed Michael, not the take the fishes’ head out of the water and work with me to get it to the net. I’m not sure if my first try with the net was a big miss or fluekzilla saw the net and dove down 10 feet. None the less, on the second pass the beast was in the net and we welcomed it aboard the Debbie M. Taped out at 30” and coming in at 10 lbs. 2 oz. it was a true doormat. This is the second doormat I have put a client on in the last three years. The last one was 11.5 pounds and fell to a live 8” peanut bunker. There’s something to be said about making bait.

Screaming drags, Capt Alex 609-548-2511

Lighthouse-Sportfishing

Author: Lighthouse-Sportfishing

Fishing Barnegat Bay for close to 40 years, Capt. Alex runs Barnegat Bay's premier light tackle and fly fishing service with his custom 203 Dusky Center Console (Debbie M). He knows the back bay, inlet or inshore like no other. 609-548-2511

2 thoughts on “Lighthouse Sportfishing Report August 2”

  1. Capt. Alex: Nice fish. Now I want to catch one that big. Maybe we can get out one day this month perhaps the week of the 14th. I’ll call you to set it up.

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