The weather pattern we have been in blows, literally. We get a day or two of fishable conditions only to welcome the next storm. Last time out pre-storm was on Friday with good friend Capt. Dan Siegel and Bob. We trolled bass to 22 pounds. Here is a picture of your truly with a nice bass.  Saw lots of scattered surface action but stayed on the troll hoping for a trophy which never made it to the shelf. Before that I had consistent action around the inlet and back on live bait.  When the bite is on it is almost drop n reel conditions. With that, the fall bass run is fully underway so get out there. We have the bait to keep the bass coming to the dinner plate for a while in the likes of: big bunker; sandeels; Boston mackerel, and who knows what else.  Atlantic herring should make a showing soon.  Water temperatures over ten miles offshore in the upper 50’s will surly push out the low to mid 50’s along the beach thanks to the latest nor’easter. So look for the bass bite to be spot on once the ocean calms midweek. Still got days open so contact me and book soon before the run runs out.

On the nature side of things: Has anyone thought why are we seeing whales every spring and fall along our beaches??? We are seeing them for two reasons. Number one is the Marine Mammal Protection Act on 1972 which stopped the killing of most whales.  Protected under this act their populations have been come back. It takes a long time for large mammals such as whales to repopulate and increase in numbers.  Large whales like the humpbacks and finbacks we have been seeing have an 11 month gestation period and may only give birth to one. But whales can only truly come back for reason number two, increased forage (what an animal feeds on) in the likes of bunker. Our management of bunker has definitely increased this most import fish of the sea population. Being on Barnegat Bay for some 40 years now I have witnessed a lot of change. First for the worse and now for the better. Two and a half decades ago I did not see the countless schools of juvenile bunker that is now see come late summer and early fall. I did not see massive schools of adult bunker off our beaches for many months of the year like I see now. Speaking of bunker, if you are an American and a fisherman you should be really pissed off about a foreign company, Omega Protein, coming into our waters, Chesapeake Bay to be specific, and overfishing their quota and acting like they don’t give a f**k. You can read the story here: Oemega Protein Breaking the Law

Screaming drags,

Capt. Alex

609-548-2511

Lighthouse Sportfishing

Youtube Channel: Fishing Barnegat Bay