I had a great three days of on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 

On Friday, I worked the reef sites for an afternoon trip and we did very well on Fluke and sea bass.  The largest Fluke was 22".

 

On Saturday, I captained the Reel Style out to the Tom's Canyon. We caught 4 nice dolphin, the largest around 20lbs and a 74lb yellowfin tuna.  The tuna, I am proud to announce, is the largest yellowfin to date this year at the Beach Haven Marlin and Tuna Club.  I knew it was a large fish by the way it was ripping the line off the reel.  The weather was perfect on Saturday with only a slight surface chop.

 

Sunday was one of those trips to remember.  I left the dock late, around 10a.m., with no high hopes setting the world on fire.  To my surprise, this is exactly what we did.  In 3 hours, we went home with 29 Fluke with 6 over 21".  We had steady action the entire trip.  When we decided to go home, the Fluke were still biting as good as they were when we arrived.  Everyone on board had enough catching and we all knew our work was cut (no pun intended) out for us when we got back to the dock. 

The ocean conditions have not been favorable the past couple of days.  The last ocean trip I have able to get in was Sunday, August 22nd.  This resulted in some nice fluke and sea bass catches.  I had to cancel three trips since then due to the poor ocean conditions.  The bay has been glassy like a mill pond with the east wind blowing but as soon as you make the turn around the end of the island the wind and waves it you like a wall.  The conditions are forcasted to improve which is good for me since I am taking the Reel Style offshore this weekend for some canyon fishing.

I had to cancel several trips this week due to the rough seas caused by our two latest hurricanes.  I had the Applebee group about a mile offshore on Wednesday before we decided to turn around.  The fish are out there if we could only get to them.  It looks like this upcomming week is going to be good one "calm after the storm".

Thursday, August 5

I had the Purzycki Family out for the day on thursday.  This was the type of day that can ruin your reputation.  The weather did not cooperate.  The forcast was for winds of 10-15 mph and seas of 3-4ft.  I would say it blew a steady 20mph and the seas were 4-6 feet with a cold rain added.  We tried the ocean but could not hold the bottom with 2 sea anchors and 8 ounces of weight.  We managed to put a couple of keepers in the box before deciding to spend the rest of the day in the bay.   

 

Saturday, August 7

Greg Pinciotti, the proud new owner of a 31' Fountain, hired me to captain his boat on her maiden voyage.  I took he and his crew out for a 1/2 of bottom fishing to some of my favorite spots and we did real well.  Despite a few set backs from his crew not being sea savy, I would say everyone had a great time.  I think it would be safe to say, however,  that I had the most fun out of everyone.  These were an enjoyable group of guys from start to finish.

 

Sunday, Aug 8

Steve Wietzke and his family were down for their annual fishing trip with Captain Dave.  Sunday was one of the best days on the water I have had all year.  The seas were calm and the air was crisp.  We had a fish on in the 1st 20 seconds of the trip and had steady action the rest of the day.  Last year they said they had fish for dinner for three days after their trip with me.  I think this year they will be eating fish for four days.  Great trip and the kids did very well.

The bottom fishing has finally come to life in a big way!  Bob and Bruce Denmark chartered me on Tuesday for an inshore trip and we had non-stop action all day.  The weather forcast was not good due to the fact that Hurricane Alex was churning offshore.  I was going to cancel the trip the night before but decided to wait and see what the conditions would be like in the morning.  It was a good thing I waited because in the morning the seas were flat calm with only a slight breeze.  The forcasters were wrong once again.  Alex stalled off N.C. then headed out to sea leaveing us a slow rolling "lazy" sea.

We fished the reefs 8 miles offshore and had steady action all day.  We had a cooler full of flounder and sea bass with two flounder over 23" and several bass in the 4 lb range.  The only problem with catching that many fish is spening two hours cleaning them when you get back to the dock.

I captained the Reel Style in the annual BHM&TC White Marlin Invitational this past weekend.  Although we had a nice catch of yellowfin tuna on both days of the tournament, our tuna was not large enough to win.  The fishing conditions were perfect for the first time in a long time since I have been fishing this tournament (1990).  The terrible weather we had just before the tournament started missed us by one day.  We have to get lucky once in a while.

 

Bottom fishing is finally starting to pick up on the local reef sites.  I have had excellent reports from local captains that they did real well over the weekend.  The warm water temperature is finally starting to pay off in a big way.