After getting off to a slow start due to family obligations and poor weather, Captain Dave's Charters is up and running again for the 2006 fishing season. 

 

Striper fishings has been very spotty for the past couple of weeks.  We have had some very favorable fishing conditions but the stripers are spread thinly.  The stripers are feeding on huge schools of bunker which are a couple of hundered yards off the beach.  The bunker have really made a comeback in the past couple of years due to tighter regulations on the netting fleets.  We are snagging the bunker with weighted treble hooks and live lining them back out into the school where they appear injured.  The predator fish will then attack the injured bunker more readily over a non injured bunker because it is easier prey.  The trick is to try and find the bunker school which is holding a lot of predator fish.  Some of these large schools of bunker may only be holding a few large stripers.  There bellies are already full because there are thousands of bunker in these schools from which to choose.  You have to be very patient and lucky to try and get one of these trophy fish to bite.  It is real sport fishing and if you have the time and the patience you will eventually be rewarded but be prepared to put in a lot of time.

 

Luckely, the reef fishing has been very good so far this season.  If you are looking for steady action and a good time them the reefs are the place to fish.  We are off to an early start this season with excellant black sea bass and fluke fishing on the Garden State South Reef and Little Egg Reef.  Saturday proved to be a more productive day than Sunday because the South East winds really kicked up on Sunday by the time we made it out to the reef.  We put in a couple hours early on trying to get one of those trophy stripers to bite but had no luck.  We decided to make our way out to the reef to find very choppy and sloppy conditions.  10 ounce sinkers were needed to barely hold bottom in the 4-6 foot seas and it made for a tough fishing day.  Saturday was a much nicer fishing day.  We had 25 sea bass with a couple which made it to 5lbs and several fluke over 17 inches.  Same spot, spot on Sunday but very different fishing conditions.

 

Fishing will only be getting better in the next couple of weeks and I am looking forward to a great 2006 season.