01/28/2007 - Blackfishing Searcher II

01/28/2007 - Blackfishing Searcher II



Well this will be a short one...


The fishing actually sucked pretty bad. Super slow bite, we moved around a ton. Hit a spot about 20 minutes out...had some fish right off the bat, decent structure but slow bite...captain picked up and moved off to another spot close by, nada much...then rode down somewhere near Virginia...hit two spots, slow to nada...came back up to NJ...hit a few more spots, and uber slow.


Captain Wayne definitely works hard for the fish, possibly too hard. He gets a little antsy early and shifts the boat around and moves quite a bit. I think he's looking for that sick bite somewhere...but either couldn't the fish, or the bite just didn't exist down there today. The other issue was quite a bit of soft bottom...the wind against the tide did make anchoring tough today...but it was tough to find hard bottom for most of the trip. Either we are fishing very small spots, or just weren't hovering over them right due to the wind and current conflict. Just made for some tough fishing.


I did get to meet a real nice dude named Pete...I call him "Cinnamon Bun Pete" cuz he had that boat cabin smelling like Betty Crocker was up in the joint! Good dude, we BSed quite a bit...he was on the trip yesterday with BillH as well, had a rough time...I think they all did. Today was no different. Also met another dude Danny, we didn't get to fish much, but he was a cool dude...usually fishes his own boat, but came out today to give the Searcher a try.


So, in the end, I wound up with just 2 keepers (keeping 1) and 4 or 5 shorts...it was so far in between bites that I might have counted one twice as I was remembering what it felt like.  My buddy and his dad didn't have any keepers and just trying to get a bite today was rough. Pool fish was meager, probably only in the 4lb range and caught on the first stop within the first 10 minutes or so.


Oh well, definitely the slowest bite I've experienced other than my Captain Robbins experience...maybe things will turn around through the week and I'll hit them up again next Saturday, we'll see.


If you skipped all the reading...Doug and his dad will summarize in these two pictures...and no, the second one was not staged...just a natural picture...worked out funny as hell.  Look at Doug's face...hahahaha


BEFORE...





AFTER...






OK, so this was the staged smile!








Man that's classic!

01/13/2007 & 01/14/2007 - Blackfishing North Star and Searcher II

01/13/2007 & 01/14/2007 - Blackfishing North Star and Searcher II



Well this weekend was jam packed with blackfishing fun!

Amazingly, the weather held out, although threatening rain...we never saw more than a momentary light shower.


As relatively uneventful as the North Star has been, Doug wanted to check it out and give it a go.  As it turns out, there is a good chance he paid a diver to hook fish on the end of his line because he actually won the pool on Saturday aboard the North Star.  Let's roll through the trip...


My dad, Doug, his dad, and I all met up in the early Saturday morning to board the North Star.  Crowd was light, some of the same faces I've seen in the past couple weeks.  All in all, I think we sailed with just 13 guys.


The crabs...as usual...were horrendous.  Thanks to Doug for stopping and picking up some FRESH and LIVE greenies for us to fish with!  I felt it was a MUST and it worked out well since he comes from up North and passes a bunch of bait shops on his way down. Seriously, the boat crabs were like a rotten oatmeal crab mixture...totally rancid.  There were some lives ones...but it wasn't looking good...so I'm glad we brough out own.  Hell the crabs were SO bad, the MATE was picking crabs out of OUR bucket to fish with himself...WTF is that?


Here's a sample...


Some of our crabs...




Some of the boat's crabs...




Mmmmmmmmm smells like fresh strawberries!!!


The fishing was a little better compared to prior trips.  The captain ran wayyy out, SE of the inlet...but there was good life on the first spot.  The captain sat on the spot for some time, which was great...allowed us to work up the bite and catch a decent number of fish.  We hopped around a bit, but he was more patient than usual...which I think made it a bit more enjoyable and resulted in more fish being caught.


In the end, I had a limit of keepers but nothing big and only kept two, my dad also had his limit but nothing big and kept three, Doug's dad had a rough day but did manage to land a few, and Doug as previously mentioned...won the pool with a nice 9.00 lb blackfish (weighed on the NS digital scale) and had one other keeper he kept and a number of shorts.


Here's a few pics of the day...


Doug arriving on the scene...




My dad telling stories about how he caught a bigger fish than me on our prior trip...total BS, it's lies, all lies!!!




See...this is a standard Ronnie fish...nice size Ronnie!!!




Doug, hauling in the big boys!!!




Dad decided he'd do some quality control testing on the bait scissor blades...OUCH!

BTW, that's Ronnie "Macgyver" Mateyak to you!  Duct tape, possibly the greatest invention ever?




Doug thinking, "I'm a pretty, pretty bird...I want to fly away...fly, fly away..."




Doug's Dad, enjoying the day...




Our day's catch...




Doug with his diver-assisted pool winner!  Nice fish buddy!

BTW, for those that don't know, Doug is part Saskewatch...he's like 6'8"?  So scale this fish a bit picture doesn't exactly do it justice!




Another shot...




And Doug's best impression of the fish head on attacking his crab...





Some other shots of the day...i.e., my cheesey picturesque shots..


Quite a rip on the way out...




Sun breaking through the clouds a bit...




Nice sky out there late in the day...




Back at the dock that afternoon...







One other fortunate aspect of this recent North Star trip is that I got to meet a few more nice guys on board, one in particular I have to thank is "Bob".  It was his first trip on the NS, and his last.  He regularly fishing from Barnegat all the way up to Massachusetts, but figured he'd give it a shot down in Ocean City and he was utterly disappointed.  I asked him where he'd go tomorrow (Sunday) if he were going...he said the Searcher II...so that's where Doug and I headed today.


So here's the skinny...


First off, right off the bat, the mate Tom and captain Wayne are just straight up awesome guys.  Super, super nice...very friendly and great to talk to.  Some marked differences between this boat and the North Star.  The crabs for one...are ALIVE!  Imagine that.  As a matter of fact, the CAPTAIN was making it a point to weed out the dead ones once we were back at the dock.  He was down on his knees, getting his hands dirty, separating the good from the bad before putting them back in their holding cages for the night.  That's a mark of a respectable captain if you ask me...certainly shows me he has an interest in seeing his boat catch fish by maintaining his bait correctly.  Tom was Johnny on the Spot with the net, for every fish...up until the point where we just told him we'll call for it so he isn't busting his butt to get us a net for small fish. 


We only went with 13 fares I believe...so we hung close to the inlet and hit the small spots...but they held some real good fish.  It was definitely refreshing to see how they ran the boat.  Wayne works hard to get you on the spots, and shifts around the anchors to move over the structure to continue the pick when it slows down.


The morning bite was just awesome, good solid action for the first few hours with some good fish coming over the rail.  I actually won the pool today with an 8.5lb blackfish (handheld scale someone had, not sure how accurate, but it was a nice fish and my biggest blackfish to date).  I had 8 keepers or so on the day, but only kept 3 for myself...as well as a bunch of shorts, lost count.  Doug was really, REALLY off to a slow start...I straight up felt bad for him cuz I was bailing fish and had two keepers in the boat including my biggest before he had his first blackfish.  Eventually we discussed what was working, he made a small adjustment and started bailing fish himself...he ended up with 3 solid keepers and a bunch of shorts.  Both Tom and Wayne fished as well, and man these boys can fish...they both caught some solid blackfish...Tom had one that had to be 8-8.5 lbs and I'm pretty sure Wayne's biggest went close to 10 lbs...as well as a few other good ones.  Fishing was HOT up until about 12:30 or so..then the bite just DIED.  We moved around to several different spots, but the bite was just retarded dead.  Very, very slow and light scratches if anything...and very few fish coming over the rail.  The captain kept moving around, trying to position us over various structure...but the fish just weren't cooperating...no body was catching much.  We finished the day off slow, I did drop a nice fish about half way up on the last stop...no clue how...he stopped me on the reel two times before dropping, I'd say he was in the 4-5 lb range.


Overall, a really enjoyable trip...and I'll definitely be going back to the Searcher II again.  It's clean, comfortable, and has a great crew that knows how to fish...what more can you ask for!


Here's a few pics from today...


Da Searcher II...




Doug's first tog of the day?  No that's not camo...there's actually a fish in this picture!  Hahaha, NICE SIZE BUDDY!

Note the hand comparison...see now that's SKILL fishing right there...he actually hooked that fish in the mouth somehow!




Doug bailing another one...now ya got it!




Doug, also know as "Joe Cool" or "Smoove Schues"




My two biggest of the day...




Here's a shot of me with my pool winner...




Pic of our catch...

01/07/2007 - Round 2 Blackfishing on The North Star

01/07/2007 - Round 2 Blackfishing on The North Star



OK, Round 2 on the North Star yesterday was a much better experience, despite the slow fishing.


For those that read the last report, it was a disappointing first trip on the NS, rotten crabs in the cabin and out on the bow made for an inescapeable smell.  The mate was less than friendly and made some unnecessary comments throughout the day that also made the trip a lesser experience, but in the second trip I think I learned that he just has a dry sense of humor and likes to bust chops, even though you are unsure if he is serious half the time.


So this trip was highlighted by a respectably clean boat, the crabs were still a little funky, but they were kept in the bow...which made the cabin rides and cleaner air far more enjoyable.  The mate was actually quiet cool this trip, I swear he might have read my previous report.  He was actually quite helpful, cutting crabs for us and other customers, etc...that or he was just in a better mood...who knows, but yesterday was definitely more aligned with the way you'd expect a mate to be.


The boat wasn't packed by any means, I'm assuming from one of two things.

1) The Eagles were playing the Giants and diehard football fans refused to leave the couch or bar.

2) The weather was pretty snotty the day before, and the resulting stir in the ocean may have kept the sharpies at home.


Half those that did come out seemed like knowledgeable toggers.  They seemed to know what they were doing, and at least one of them was a year round mate...who again, seemed to talk to the talk...but I don't think anyone could really walk the walk yesterday given the bite...or lackthereof.


The captain moved around a TON...really too much.  We rode 1.5 hours out to the first spot, anchored up, and my very first drop I found a beauty of a ledge with a nice 10-15 foot drop into it.  BAM, keeper on the first drop into that hole.   I was like, OH BABY, today is gonna be GOOD!  Second drop, pick up a short just shy of 14".  Then the captain hits the horn to move...we are fishing for like 10 minutes on the spot. WTF?  Bite is decent, fish coming up...why the move?  We move, ride another 15 minutes back the way we cam...second spot also has a decent bite...some fish coming up, I had a few shorts but no keepers.  Again, decent life...but we move in about 10-15 minutes.  Eh?  Then we move 20 minuets inshore...another 10 minutes to get anchored...and we hit up the third spot and it's dead...dead, dead, dead.  Don't think I saw a fish come over the rail on the third or fourth spot...the fifth had a couple keepers around the boat and one foul hooked (Hole-E-O) pool winner at 7lbs.


Generally, we were driving 10-15 minutes, dropping anchor for 5-10 minutes, fishing for 10-15 minutes, picking up the anchor for 5-10 minutes and repeating.  The first two stops were the most productive, and most life...the rest of the day was very slow...maybe one of two shorts per stop for me and dad each.  The 2nd to last stop was a decent one...good life, dad picked up a nice 5 lber, I had another near keeper and several shorts.


The more experienced toggers were complaining about this being the worst trip of the year for them.  One group of 4 guys (one was the mate mentioned earlier) said they only had 2 keepers between 4 guys with about 3/4 of the trip over.  I think they picked up a couple more, but nothing major...altho one of those guys did win the pool with the aforementioned Hole-E-O snagged 7 lber.


Overall, the fishing was slow...but I have yet to have a truly slammer day (whether it's me or the boat) where guys are bailing slobs over the rail all day...so it seemed maybe slower than my average.  The boat and mate being in better condition today really made it more enjoyable.  Also due to the fewer anglers, we were able to move around the boat and search for hard/sticky bottom more than we would be able to if it were stacked...so that would have been good if we had some good fish around.


Oh well, I'll probably be hitting up the North Star, the Big Mohawk, or the Ocean Explorer this upcoming weekend...will be keeping my eye on the reports and weather to guide the decision.


Here's a couple pics from the day...


Shot of the ride out...




AC in the distance...




Some double hooks, ready to roll...




Dad with his a nice tog...I think it was third best for the boat that day.  I seriously think this fish was choking on water and accidently sucked his bait in...my dad will say otherwise, I call BS, I don't believe a word of it! :P