April 25, 1997
Thanks Christie
Thank you Governor Christine Todd Whitman for your wisdom in
listening to a few concerned
anglers. She elected not to sign an agreement with the Russian fishing
fleet this season.
Mackerel
The spring
season of 1997 has produced the best Mackerel run since 1990. At the
time of printing this bulletin, the
Mackerel were about 4 miles outside Barnegat Inlet. The charter boats
out of Barnegat are running trips
about 5 hours long. Every angler has been catching as many fish as they
could possibly want.
Graveling Point
Graveling Point, Mystic Island Beach and Pebble Beach(off Ohio
drive) which are all down the end of
Radio road on the Great Bay near the mouth of the Mullica River are the
hot spots for catching fish. The
$100.00 contest winning bluefish was caught at 9:30pm on Tuesday April
22nd by Tom Puzino of Little
Egg Harbor. Tom's fish weighed 1 pound 14 ounces. He earned his fish
with consecutive evenings of
fishing Pebble Beach with fresh cut mackerel bait. Clint Debaun caught
the second bluefish we weighed
in our store, a 6 pound 14 ounce 29 1/2" whopper! I also weighed in
several more Weakfish caught from
Graveling Point that tipped the scale over three pounds. The Weakfish
were also caught on Mackerel
bait by anglers in search of the first bluefish.
Fluke
Fluke fishing has yet to turn on though. A few were caught, I
believe the total count now is four
around 15". Anglers in search of Fluke should try fishing in the Inland
Waterway from 136 to 139
markers. The old standard squid strip and minnow would probably entice
any hungry fluke. Many times
early larger Fluke will be caught on a nice thin cut Mackerel Belly
strip instead of the squid.
Bluefish
Its still to early to troll for the Bluefish in Great Bay. The
recommended method for catching the
Blues is to jig them with a 3/8 ounce bucktail and a long thin cut strip
of Mackerel. The early Blues show
up in the lower end (West End) of Grassy Channel. Many times the
schools of Blues can be spotted by
some laughing gulls or terns flying over or diving into the water.
Drifting the boat into areas of working
fish rather than driving the boat into the school doesn't spook the
fish. This will make angling much more
productive and pleasurable.
Bass
First Annual Striped Bass Tournament sponsored by the
Italian-American Club of Mystic Island is
next weekend. This spring tournament is going to be a fun one. Stop in
for flier on all the specifics or stop
in and see the folks over at the Italian-American Club behind the Texaco
gas station in Mystic Island.
Lymphocystis
Are you ready for this??? Can you say Lymphocystis? Several anglers
have reported this white foamy
gross stuff attached to some Stripers at Graveling Point. It is a virus
that fish catch triggered by warm
water/cold water shifts. It has been said that school fish can pack so
tight that they continually rub
against each other causing and spreading the virus. It has no effect on
the health or food value of the
fish. The fins and scales may become ragged, but pose no long term
threat. The white "stuff" will just
disappear without any apparent reason. For a much more detailed
explanation, look this virus up in a
marine biology book or in the Internet, but be prepared for many more
long unpronounceable words.
Clean Up After Yourself
Every year I hear about the few guys that are not so concerned
about their trash. Graveling Point
area has been unofficially declared a fisherman's easement zone by
Refuge Managers. Pebble Beach is
kinda like the front yards of the people living on Ohio drive so it is
necessary to keep these areas clean so
that we may continue to fish there. I thank all the anglers who take
extra effort to clean up after others
and ask the few to please take the trash with them.