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Why Do You Fish?

“We didn’t slam them but it was good fun fishing!” John Parzych reported he enjoyed fishing this weekend. He caught a new personal best brown trout on his new rod custom rod he recently built.

John’s new personal best brown trout.

Why do you fish?

I recently saw an article in an industry trade magazine about the various reason why people fish. From wanting to go have fun, to relaxing, to socialize with friends and things like a need for a challenge, escape from daily stress, experience nature and one of the most obvious going fishing to eat. There’s lots of reasons people fish.

Top Five Reasons Why People Fish (Credit: Rob Southwick, Southwick Associates – Fishing Tackle Retailer Jan/Feb 2018 Pg19)

For me it’s simple. Living on Long Beach Island fishing is just the way of life. I wouldn’t want to experiencing the change of seasons any place but on the water watching nature, the migration and time evolve. In this fast paced thing we call life, it’s really cool to see things change in slow motion. For me my love for fishing is all about the enjoyment of preparation, the hunt and thrill of the catch. It’s fun, relaxing, social and best of all when the time is right a tasty meal. All of these things caught me at a young age and keep me hooked.

Since I was curious about “Why People Fish?” I did a poll on our Instagram story. (Are you on Social Media? Do you follow us on Instagram? If you don’t you should for exclusive firsts… @fishermansheadquarters) I was happy to see our results were very close to the magazines poll (see below, too bad we could only do two options and not five). I thought “catch fish to eat” would be much higher.

Why do you fish? 

 

 

Fishing Report Update 1/24/2018

Nothing to report about locally here… Word from most of the boats fishing are it is a struggle to put together a catch. The tog fishing has been very slow. Most of the local tuna boyz are heading or are already staged up and ready to hit the winter time blue fin off of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. February and March are the time when the start popping.

We got a report from some friends fishing down in Florida.

The Comanche’s are down south and having fun. They got into some good snook fishing as well as sharks on poppers. More details on this in future posts.

Yesterday one inlet jetty on Florida’s east coast was on! Summertime store staffer Nick D is enjoying college in the sunshine state and reported, “The whole jetty was hooked up for over an hour with snook. My buddy Andy got one good red!”

Andy Weatherford caught this bull red fish while fishing from a popular inlet jetty in Florida.
Here’s Andy Weatherford with his bull red.

Unique Summer Program For Teenage Students

For 2018, the NJ Fish & Wildlife is offering Student Summer Programs at Sedge Island Natural Resource Education Center. These unique programs held at a beautiful location on the Barnegat Bay are educational and fun for teenage students.

For program details and application information visit www.njfishandwildlife.com/sedge_summer.htm.

Upcoming Dates

Tomorrow January 11, 2018, two important fisheries meetings at the same locations (Stafford Township Municipal Building. 260 East Bay Ave, Manahawkin, NJ). First 5pm NJ Marine Fisheries Council. Then 7:15PM Bureau of Marine Fisheries in conjunction with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries will have a public hearing pertaining to the Addendum XXX for black sea bass.

This Saturday, January 13th the Lacey Township High School Fishing Club hosts their Fisherman’s Flea Market from 9am to 2pm. The Lacey Township High School is at 73 Haines St. Lanoka Harbor, NJ 08734. This is the 9th Annual LTHS Fishing Club Fisherman’s Flea Market which benefits the student members of the club and funds all of their activities throughout the year. $3 Admission at the door. (Note Fisherman’s Headquarters will not be there.)

Happy New Year!

From all of us at Fisherman’s Headquarters, Happy New Year! Wishing everyone all the very best in 2018. May your lines be tight and rod tips heavy.

Thanks to all of our blog readers. 2017 was a year with a big transition for us making the jump from our old to the new current platform. We hope all enjoy much better now. Once again, thanks for reading. If you like our blog please share with a friend and be sure to send in your fishing reports this year.

Here’s our Instagram Page’s 9 Best From 2017…

The holidays came, winter really set in and the Arctic took over. Hope everyone is staying warm! With the local surf temp in the low 30’s and the ocean temp out at the Barnegat Ocean Buoy in the low 40’s there isn’t much going on other than bottom fishing. When weather conditions have allowed some boats have been into good tog fishing. For the rest of this month select boats will be fishing for blackfish, cod, porgies pollock, ling.

Some anglers that are immune to the cold are fishing locally. Here’s a photo from Dante at Magictail Lures a couple days ago, “Bass still chewing in the snow.”

Here’s a small snowy surf caught striped bass.

While home for the Holidays store staffer Nick Deg did some fishing in the cold. “Frigid weather but smiling through leaky waders with an unexpected successful striper bite. With out a doubt, the MVP lure was Yozuri Mag Darter. The fish were all over it. It has definitely earned a spot in my lure bag when back down at school in Florida.”

Some local anglers have or are soon to scoot out. Here’s some recent reports from local anglers…

Greg O’Connell recently reported, “Certainly not the best weather and fishing for our annual Christmas run to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But the kids fought through the cold searching for a decent bite from Rodanthe to Ocracoke. Small blues, dog sharks and skates was the story before finally stumbling onto a good jig bite with Brayden getting the pool fish.”

Joe Handley Jr was also down fishing the OBX for a week. He had fun catching jumbo sea mullet and a couple specked trout. “Came up empty on drum.”

Hunter Gutwein is loving life down in the Florida Keys. “I’m never coming home!”

Here’s Hunter down and tight on a good fish!

John Parzych is making the most out of the cold winter days. He shared a report from his recent fishing trip with Salmon River Guides, “Started at -16 degrees and ended at 6 degrees. Some quality fish on a cold ass day. What a way to end the year with great signs of things to come in 2018!

Fisheries News

Update 1/3/2018 @ 6:30 PM

The meeting has been rescheduled to Thursday January 11th. The Marine Fisheries Council Meeting begins at 5pm. The public hearing begins at 7:15 pm. Both will be held at the Stafford Twp Municipal Building at 260 East Bay Ave. Manahawkin, NJ 08050.

Thursday January 4th 7:15 PM at the Galloway Branch of the Atlantic County Library (306 East Jimmie Leeds Rd. Galloway, NJ 08205) the NJ Marine Fisheries Administration has a public hearing for the Draft Addendum XXX to the ASMFC Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan.

The addendum will establish recreational black sea bass management measures for the 2018 fishing season.