That hard west wind is doing it’s job today. Leveling out all the sea condition that the hard easterly brought the last few days. More westerly tomorrow (Sunday), at a nice moderate velocity, means a flat ocean and stripers on the feed.
Open Boat or Charter tomorrow, Sunday, November 11. 6:00 AM to 2 PM. $200 person. 4 people max. All fish are shared.
This is our last available November date. Starting to book December, Sat, Sun, and Mon’s only.
The stripers are finally within striking distance. 20 to 30 miles north of our inlet today the boats caught really well on 15 to 30 pound fish from the shoreline out to the three mile line. Casting, trolling, and bunker snagging are all putting fish in the boat. They could be closer by the time we set sail this weekend but even if they’re not, we’re headed to wherever the bite is.
Sailing Open Boat or Charter Sat, Sun, and Mon, Nov 3, 4, and 5, 7AM to 3PM on Sat, Nov 3 and 6AM to 2PM on Sun, Nov 4 and Mon, Nov 5. (Careful, the end of Daylight Savings Time will turn the clocks back one hour at midnight Saturday night, that’s why our sailing time is different from Sat to Sun).
$200 person, 4 people max, all fish are shared.
The only dates other than these that I have left in November are: 10, 11, 20. December is wide open and should have awesome striper fishing.
Heading out Sun, Oct 21 and Mon, Oct 22. Sailing Open Boat or Charter. 7AM to 3PM (or later). Making a left out of Barnegat Inlet and cruising the shoreline until we find life. Birds, readings, breaking fish. Good chance we could run into albies, bonita, or stripers. I will have spinning and jigging gear on board for anything that arises. I will also be packing the trolling gear in case we have to. Snagging rods in case the bunker show. I have no limit as to how far north we will run. If we don’t find them close, we could end up at the Shrewsbury Rocks, I get there at least a few times a season when I have to. $200 person, 4 person max, all fish are shared.
We are still chumming with live grass shrimp for weakfish. Every day the size changes, they range from 12 to 19 inches. Once they get to be 15 inches or bigger they zip some drag off of our six pound spinning outfits. In the mix, and dominating the slick, are a million snapper blues, some that are approaching the one pound mark now. Also, silver perch, sand sharks, out-of-season and short anyway fluke, and more. It is steady, sometimes constant action. A test of endurance to fish through the body of snapper blues. We are using little 1/16 oz jigs tipped with shrimp as our best weakie catcher right now.
Sailing Open Boat or Charter Sun, Oct 7 and Mon, Oct 8 Shrimping Trips 8AM to 1PM on Sun and 9AM to 2PM on Mon (it’s a tide thing). $125 person, 4 people max on Open Boats, all fish are shared. $500 for the whole boat if you charter.
From here in we will only be sailing on Sat, Sun, and Mon’s through the rest of 2018. I am launching the Philadelphia Fishing Show, Feb 22-24, 2019 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo center in Oaks, PA. I am committing all of my time to coordinating this event. If you are looking to book a striper date with us we will only have these three days available each week and some are already booked. Just a heads up.
We are sailing Open Boat or Charter Sun, Sept 30 and Monday, Oct 1. Leaving at 7AM and returning anywhere from 5 to 8 hours later. Fishing for….???? These trips are a work in progress according to whatever everyone wants to do and what the sea condition will allow. We could fish the inlet jetty for bluefish, shrimp the bay for weakfish and the ultralite mixed bag, anchor up on the west side of the bay for blowfish, cruise the shoreline outside for migrating albacore, run to Barnegat Ridge for bonita and albacore either on the troll or chum, Whatever you guys want to do. We could also combine any of these species.
Rates according to duration. My trips are $100 an hour and range from 5 to 8 hours. 4 people max on Open Boat trips. All fish are shared.
It looks like the ocean is going to be “CLOSED” for a stretch with all of the impending storms and the swells they will produce for a while. No worries! There’s still fish to catch. Blowfish are here in good numbers. Lots of small ones but a good amount of “whales” in the mix. Sure they won’t dump any line off of your reel but they are delicious and it never gets old watching them blow up. We all say we’re going for the kids but the truth is if you want to recapture some of your youth, rub a blowfish belly until he fully inflates and it will transport you there. This is really Plan B as we are going to start fishing with live grass shrimp starting ASAP. There are some weakfish in the bay and live shrimp and/or shedder crabs are the bait to use for weakies, kingfish, and about a dozen other species that you might encounter using these gourmet baits. We keep the tackle light, 6 and 10 pound spinning tackle.
Sailing Open Boat or Charter Monday, Sept 17, 7AM to 1PM, $150 person, 4 people max. Also, Wed and Thurs, Sept 19 and 20, 11AM to 5PM.
Pics: Capt Dave DeGennaro and Pete Bonnaci of Roselle Park, NJ all with recent obligatory puffy face blowfish pics.
It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks. Did not have time to post any reports. Been booked every day and the weather cooperated to let us keep running. Fished Barnegat Ridge mostly for king mackerel, bonita, spanish mackerel, and mahi.
The forecasted sea conditions look good for offshore fishing. Looking to run to the tuna grounds on Monday (Labor Day) and either run back there again or fish Barnegat Ridge on Tues, Sept 4.
Monday trip leaves at 2AM and returns around 4PM (usually later). $350 person, 4 people max.
Tuesday trip leaves at either 2AM if we run back to the tuna grounds or 6AM if we run to Barnegat Ridge. The Ridge trip returns at 1PM and is $175 person, 4 people max.
All fish are shared. You can call right up until our departure time to reserve a space.
The boat is also available for your private charter on these two days.
Pic: Hi Flier Capt. Nick DeGennaro with a nice little bull mahi that he pulled off of a floating crate on Monday.
We have been spending all of our time fishing in the ocean. Sunday we ran offshore about 60 miles to the southeast. We stumbled on a slick with chick birds hitting it. Great readings. Set up on the anchor and started chunking. Put out a few rods with bait and handed Matt Tebaldi a jigging rod with one of my favorite jigs. He and his wife Tess, from Manahawkin NJ were on their first ever offshore trip. After about 10 minutes of jigging, Matt said “I got something “. It was apparent to me that it wasn’t a tuna, but nonetheless, let’s see what you got. He reeled in a 16 inch Illex squid. Nasty looking creature. I stuck a hook in him and put him out at 50 feet under a balloon. Five minutes later the reel was screaming. After a long fight on medium light drag, as we only had him on 40 lb flouro leader, Matt and Tess tag teamed an 80 lb bluefin tuna. Put him in the box and got a call from Brian Ewan on the Dora Lee that the troll bite was going off only six miles from where we were. We ran over, put out the spread and trolled two nice 40 and 50 class yellowfins. Here’s a video clip of Matt on one of those trolled fish: youtu.be/5R7LLc_4Tyc
Returned the next day (Mon) and added a pair of yellowfin in the 20 to 30 lb class amongst a huge pod of whales and porpoise.
Fished the last two days trolling Barnegat Ridge and sharking. Both days we clobbered the sharks. Today (Thurs) I had Michael Fuhrman of Cherry Hill, Steve Karl of Loveladies, and Erin Foose of Altoona, PA on board. We had a bunch of sharks, mostly 3 to 4 foot Atlantic Sharpnose but Steve brought a 200 lb class Dusky Shark to the Boat and a little while later Erin bested a 120 pound Dusky just four miles off the beach. Here’s a video clip of Erin and her Dusky: youtu.be/hfRKiRQv52E The Ridge has been giving up bonita, spanish and king mackerel.
We are available for Open Boat or Charter this Sat, Sun, and Mon, August 11, 12, and 13. Inshore sharking and trolling for bonita and spanish mackeral at Barnegat Ridge. We can do both in the same trip. If they relax the thunderstorm predictions for any of these three days we can also make the 60 mile run to the tuna grounds. The Ridge/Shark combo trips are 6AM to 1PM, $175 person, 4 people max. The mid range tuna trips are 3AM to 5PM, $350 person, 4 people max. All fish are shared on all trips. Call me to book a spot on any of these trips. You can always try us right up until our departure time to see if we have a spot.
Pics: Matt Tebaldi with 50 lb Yellowfin Tuna and Tess Tebaldi with 80 lb Bluefin
Capt Dave DeGennaro Hi Flier Sportfishing 732.330.5674 cell
Looks like the weather is finally going to stabilize, for a few days, anyway. Sunday and Monday, July 29 and 30, are showing very little or no storm activity. The wind is coming around to an easterly direction with mild velocity. It looks like we could get out to Barnegat Ridge tomorrow (Sunday) at least, and maybe further in search of bonita and sharks. Sharks are mostly dusky, browns, spinner, Atlanic sharpnose, and browns. Anywhere from 20 to 150 pounds. All catch and release species. If we get into the bonita, they go in the cooler as they are delicious. Any way you prepare tuna, you can prepare bonita, including sashimi. Monday is even nicer, so I am looking to get out to the mid range 50/60 mile grounds in search of tuna. Open Boat or Charter either day. Sunday’s Barnegat Ridge bonita/shark trip 6AM to 1PM, $175 person. 4 people max. Monday’s Mid-Range tuna trip. 4AM to 4PM (usually later) $350 person. 4 people max. Reservations are required. All fish are shared on both trips.
If you want to Charter the boat on Monday to fish closer like Barnegat Ridge or inshore, you can do that, as well.When you charter the whole boat, you call the shots.Just know that you will be doing me a dis-service if I can’t get out to the bluewater once in a while!
We ran to Barnegat Ridge on Sunday. Two to three foot long swell, very fishable. Had John Post, his son-in-law Tim Smith, and grandson, 13 year old Timmy Smith all of Mountainside, NJ. Stopped about a mile and a half shy of the North Ridge as I usually do. This way the lines go out in the deep water and we troll towards the high ground. As Nick was setting out the fourth rod in the spread, a cedar plug, it went spooling off in his hand. He locked it up and Timmy boated a nice bonita. As we drew closer to the Ridge, there were slicks and chicks. This is best case scenario wherever you are fishing, but especially here. The slicks were so fresh that you could smell them 30 yards away and there were a dozen to twenty chick birds picking at them at any given time. I could here the rods going off in my head…….but it never happened. Killer fish and bait readings throughout the water column. I gave it two hours of tight turns and nothing. There were quite a few spinner sharks thrashing and crashing so this is the only thing I could suspect might have been putting off the species we were looking for. I brought a can of chum and some fresh bunker out with us so I asked our crew if they wanted to try sharking and they were game. It took about twenty minutes and the first rod went off, Timmy jumped on the rod and brought a 60 lb dusky to the boat. Then two rods went off at the same time, we lost one and Timmy finessed a 120 lb dusky to be released on the other. We were doing it all with 20 to 30 class gear so it was a lot of fun. Nick and I were watching the balloons and we both happen to see a fish jump over one of the balloons. I said “that was a mahi” and he said ‘Yeah, I know”. He had eaten a hunk of bunker on a 9/0 circle hook rigged on 200 lb mono. Once again, Timmy was on the rod and boated this 8 lb square head baby bull mahi. This kid was a true angler. Smooth on the rod. Here he his on one of those dusky sharks: www.youtube.com/watch?v=06cE7EZZ-VI
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If we had stayed on the troll, it might have been a one bonita day that was over in the first five minutes. That bucket of chum and fresh bait turned it into a decent catch with plenty of action. Thank God for Plan B!
Yesterday (Wed) I had Nick Honachefsky of the new series Saltwater Underground on board. He was hosting friends Sean Reilly and WWE pro wrestler Jake the Snake Roberts, along with Jake’s son Dustin. Jake caught a nice striper on light tackle at the Barnegat Inlet jetty. We moved back into the bay and hammered away at short fluke jigging leadheads and Gulp for a few hours.
Running Open Boat to Barnegat Ridge tomorrow, Friday July 20. Leaving at 11AM, returning at 6PM. Trolling for bonita, mahi, or any other high speed fish that are in that neighborhood. I’ll have the chum and bait on board if we want to try a few hours of light tackle sharking. $175 person. 4 people max. All fish are shared. You can call for a spot right up until we leave. I’m available to call until 9PM tonight (Thurs) or as early as 5AM tomorrow (Fri). Sat is booked. Sun and Monday, July 22 and 23 are potential bay/inlet charter days as the ocean will be a little rough from Saturday afternoon on through the next few days.
Looking to run offshore for tuna next week Open Boat or Charter Sat/Sun/Mon, Trolling and chunking. Probably running 80 miles plus each way unless things heat up closer. Leaving at 2AM, returning around 4 PM, sometimes later, so if you have to be back at a certain time, you won’t make it. $400 person. 4 people max. All fish are shared. Reservations required. Everything is provided. If you have a favorite rod and reel, and it’s appropriate, you can bring it. Hoping we get a nice stretch of weather, we are due.
Pics:
Timmy Smith of Mountainside, NJ with bonita and mahi.
Jake the Snake Roberts and Nick Honachefsky with striper
