August, 2009 Fishing Report -

Sunday, August 31st (PM Trip)

I had the Dreher family aboard for the afternoon trip today, with Bob, Carla, Dave, Eric, Joe and TJ. By the time we left the dock, the breeze had fallen out to about nothing, and the air temp. was well into the 80's under sunny skies. Offshore, the swells in the 5' range continued with no wind when we arrived on the grounds; it was hot in the sun. A welcome breeze did come up at 5-6 knots out of the Southeast, and we carried these conditions the rest of the afternoon. The ocean surface temp. remains in the mid-upper 70's.

The fishing was much the same as the morning. Overall, I'd say we had more bites, but the fish weren't exactly committing suicide on the hooks. Another couple dozen sea bass came over the rail with enough keepers for a bag of fillets. Joe was high hook for the afternoon.

Thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam

Sunday, August 31st (AM Trip)

Aboard the Karen Ann II this morning were Aaron, Bruce, Dominic, Jerry and Rhona. 70° F. to start the morning under a mostly cloudy sky following some strong thunderstorms in the overnight hours. Winds were light out of the West as we made our way to the fishing grounds. Shortly after arriving on the grounds, the sky cleared as the previously stalled frontal system pushed offshore. With the clearing skies came increasing winds out of the Northwest at 12-15 knots. The wind fell out about as quickly as it came, but it sure brought some comfortable, low humidity air with it. Seas on the ocean were leftover 4'-5' swells from the overnite offshore passage of the remnants of Danny. They were spaced far enough apart to make for a comfortable morning on the ocean, save for needing to take our time transiting the inlet. The air temp. made it to around 80° F., and the ocean surface temp. was 75° F.

The catching on the morning wasn't anything beyond ok as we targeted sea bass. We found more bites the further offshore we went, presumably with the deeper water lessening the impacts felt by the fish from the swells. Dominic was high hook, and we managed enough keepers for a couple of meals.

Capt. Adam

Saturday, August 30th

Another week, another tropical system, about par for the Mid-Atlantic during the late summer. This storm system, Tropical Storm Danny, is proving to be much weaker than last week's Hurricane Bill. Swells are beginning to affect the coast today. While we had strong thunderstorms much of the day yesterday along with another day of rains today (mostly right along and just off the coast), this rain wasn't from Danny, which will pass further offshore, but rather from another stalled frontal system. Seas on the ocean are expected to peak in the 8'-10' range this evening, and I'm hopeful that with light winds tomorrow, the ocean will be fishable.

Capt. Adam

Sunday, August 23rd

Having weakened to a Category 1 storm, Hurricane Bill passed off the NJ coast early this morning. Seas were in the 15'-20' range on the ocean late yesterday and into today, peaking in the early morning hours. While we did not directly have wind and rain from Bill, there was a lot of rain through the state yesterday from a stalled frontal system, stalled by the offshore hurricane. The front kept Bill from approaching the coast while Bill kept the front from clearing the coast. Given the choice, I'd take the stalled frontal passage over the hurricane every time.

There were a few people that navigated the dangerous inlets (from both seas and fog with the colder water) to try their hands at fishing. The ocean was mostly calm with little wind early today, although the swells were very large. As expected, the catching of bottom species was a shell of what it was prior to Bill's passage, but will hopefully rebound through the week. Keep your fingers crossed.

Capt. Adam

Friday, August 21st

I managed to get in one more day of fishing today with Eric, Howard, Mark, Mike, Ron and Wayne. 78° F. this morning, you can seemingly cut the humidity with a knife. The air temp. climbed into the mid-upper 80's under a mix of sun and clouds on the day. Thunderstorms moved in late afternoon and stayed through the dinner hour. Winds were out of the South at 13-15 knots in the bay this morning, significantly less on the ocean, only in the 7-8 knot range, and further died out as the morning wore on, before picking back up to 12-13 knots, more late in the afternoon. Seas were in the 4' range to start the day, falling out a bit (the chop did, the swells persisted) then building again for the ride back to the dock. The ocean suface temp. (and bottom temp.) dropped like a rock overnite, 71° F. when we got on the grounds today. It continued to drop through the day, 66° F. by the time we headed for home. At least it was "cooler at the beach" today for some relief from the heat.

Knowing that today would be a 50-50 day for both conditions and catching, we left the dock today with a "you can't catch them if you don't go" attitude. It was back to the fluke grounds, hoping to get a few more that were still on the feed. The catching started out pretty good, 3-4 fish per drift, but the size of the fish was drastically different from what we've seen the past week. While about 1 out of 10 fish have been sub-15" fish recently, it seemed like every other fish today was in the 12" range. And as the day progressed with the dropping water temps., the catching dropped out with it. We landed approx. 50 fish on the day, with Mike having the hot hand, landing 3 keepers himself (his first keeper fluke in 2 years he proclaimed). Those were the only keeper fluke on the day, we did add some pound and a half bluefish to the box at least. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad, you don't know if you don't go, thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

And that will be that until sometime next week. With seas forecasted to be in the 15' range as Bill passes by over the weekend, inlets will be treacherous to navigate and the bottom fish are going to take some time off from eating. Let's hope they get back on the feed to give us some continued good fishing prior to the shut down of the NJ fluke season on Friday, Sept. 4th.

Capt. Adam

Thursday, August 20th

Bill Bruner was back again today, accompanied by just Bubba and Ron today. The "3 H's" of summer have settled in for this week - hazy, hot and humid. 73° F. this morning with humid and hazy conditions. A mostly sunny sky (through the haze) got the air temp. above 90° today. The heat pump was on, winds were out of the South at 6-7 knots to start the day, building to 12-13 knots. We already were experiencing the effects of Category 4 Hurricane Bill, still Southeast of Bermuda, with a 3' long period swell. The ocean surface temp. was 76° F.

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With continued good fluke fishing reported this week, it was a no-brainer for today's target species. It took awhile to get the better sized fish biting (the first 12-15 fish were mostly all sub-legal; not small, sub-legal). But once they got going, it was the finest kind of fluke fishing for which one could hope. The gang boxed their limit before the morning was out with fish to 25". Despite having some difficulties adjusting to using a different reel from last week, Ron still managed quite a day, accounting for a double digit number of keepers himself. Bill held his own, accounting for his limit himself, while Bubba got one of the day's best before we quit. These fish are on the feed, likely sensing the deteriorating conditions they will experience as Hurricane Bill passes offshore this weekend.

Capt. Adam

Sunday, August 16th

The Hamilton Post Office group was aboard today with Brendan, Dennis, Gi, Ken, Mike and Pete. The weather was a near carbon copy of yesterday, 63° F. to start with low humidity, clear skies and a few light puffs of wind from the West. Another 6-7 knots of Southerly breeze filled in for the afternoon as the air temp. reached into the upper 80's. Seas were calm again with a slight chop by the time we headed home, the ocean surface temp. was 77° F.

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I made the switch back to the flounders (fluke) again today, and it paid off in spades. Landings were approx. 100 fluke on the day, with 16 keepers, including multiple 24"-27" fish. A few other species made their way into the box rounding out a haul of 20 fish. Gi (pictured, with Ken on the left) got us off to a quick start, but Pete gets fisherman of the day honors. He had the day's best fluke (a couple of them, in fact), and the most keepers. I didn't keep track of individual keepers, but he might have reached his limit. It was a good day to be Pete.

Capt. Adam

Saturday, August 15th (PM Trip)

Bryan Caruth brought down his 11-year old son Brandon this afternoon for a birthday fishing trip. Accompanying Bryan and his son were Ed, Helene and Scott. 86° F. leaving the dock at 1 PM under sunny skies. On the ocean, we did get 7-8 knots of a Southeast breeze to make for a very comfortable afternoon. Seas were chops of about 1' with a 78° F. surface temp., a great day to be on the water or at the beach.

Bryan just wanted his son to catch fish, so catch fish we did, a mix of sea bass, triggerfish, bluefish, fluke and scup (porgies). The majority of the landings were sub-legal, but we did have a box of almost 20 fish, very nice

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for a few hours of fishing. Brandon started out as the reeler-in-er, then the pole holder, then the bait man, finally graduating to putting all the pieces together to become a complete fisherman, nice job! Uncle Ed gets the big fish award for his 23" fluke. Happy birthday Brandon, hope you had as much fun as I did!

Capt. Adam

Saturday, August 15th (AM Trip)

This morning I hosted the Bujak Family aboard the Karen Ann II. The group included Donna, Harry, Harry Sr., Michael, Mike and Tracy. It was a gorgeous 63° F., low humidity morning with clear skies. The light Westerly breeze we had shortly fell out, leaving us becalmed; with no breeze, it was hot in the sun with an air temp. reaching into the upper 80's, even on the water. Ocean conditions were "light and slight", the surface temp. was 75°.

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Catching was about the same as what we saw yesterday. With less time, we still landed over 100 fish, bringing home 16 fish, mostly sea bass along with another fluke. The presence of the fluke I think are trying to tell me that it is time to switch over to that fishing. Tracy (pictured at left) angled for fisher-person of the day honors, landing a double header keeper catch of sea bass along with some of day's best sea bass in the 2+ lb. range. However, her father showed us who was boss before the day was out with a fat 20" fluke for the box. Mike kept me in good spirits with a fine hoagie and apple pie, much appreciated. And the pound cake was none too bad neither. As my 5-year old son concluded last week, the food is pretty good on these fishing trips.

Thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam

Friday, August 14th

Aboard today was the Bill Bruner charter with Bubba, George, Pete and Ron. 65° F. to start the morning with some light fog along with a few showers leaving the dock. The clouds yielded giving us partly sunny skies through the day, and the air temp. climbed into the 80's. Winds were light out of the Northeast to start, fell out completely, then filled in out of the Southeast at 7-8 knots. Seas were mostly calm over a 3' swell. The ocean surface temp. was 75° F.

The catching today was ok. Our total landings were in the 150 fish range, with a box of over 20 fish that were legal sized, mostly sea bass along with a fluke and a bluefish. The best of the catching was a bit further offshore than where we have been fishing recently, that was where we found some cooler water; the fish are actually warm to the touch inshore. Bill got the "pool" fish with the approx. 22" fluke, settling the debate about which of the multiple 2+ pound sea bass landed was the biggest. George had a successful day simply by minimizing his skate landings.

Capt. Adam

Wednesday, August 12th

Today's trip was scheduled to leave after noon for the Salisbury Behavioral Health group, inlcuding Bill, Jeff, Jeff, Mike, Ron and Valerie. The group dutifully arrived at the dock shortly after noon, only to be greeted by the sounds of thunder, dark skies, and a smattering of rain. Within the next few minutes, we had a steady rain with sporadic thunder and lightning, conditions that would delay our departure. Skies had been partly sunny earlier in the day with an air temp. around 85° F., but with the rain came a 10° drop in air temp. Hoping the rain would pass offshore, we waited for a bit, and after 45 minutes, it became apparent the rain wasn't going anywhere, and only reached half way across the bay. With the thunder and lightning having abated, I told the gang it wasn't raining offshore, but I didn't know for how long, and it was their choice whether or not to go. They said let's go, so we got loaded up in a lull in the rain and off we went. We had no rain half way across the bay with visibility clear to Atlantic City to the South; skies to the North were much darker. On the ocean, winds were out of the Northeast at 15 knots, but since they had just started blowing, we only had a 1'-2' chop. We stayed rain free the entire time we fished, encountering rain again just outside the inlet, a rain which stayed over the region until late into the evening, causing widespread flooding. The ocean surface temp. was 77° F.

The sea bass catching was good, we had pretty much non-stop bites from the time we dropped in lines until the gang decided to head for the beach. Valerie landed a double-header keeper catch, and everyone caught fish, especially enjoying Bill's sea robin landing. It was a fun group, thanks for coming down and giving it a go.

On a more sobering note, while monitoring the VHF back at the dock, I listened to a Mayday call unfold from a boat about 15 miles off of Atlantic City that was taking on water with 4 persons on board. Coast Guard, Sea Tow and other emergency assets (and good samaritans) responded, and within a relatively short time, the 4 persons were safely recovered from a liferaft. Great job by all.

Capt. Adam

Sunday, August 9th

The Holman Ford group was aboard today with Art, Brian, Ed, Greg, Ron and Scott. I met the gang at the dock this morning, and with a large area of rain moving towards the coast, I offered the gang the chance to reschedule. After a brief consultation amongst themselves, they opted to go, so off we went. The air temp. was in the low 70's leaving the dock, and that is where it stayed most of the day. It started to drizzle shortly after we arrived on the fishing grounds, and it rained in varying degrees of downpours most of the rest of the morning. Skies began to clear by noon, then we had another round of showers before I left the dock for the day. The day finished with another line of strong thunderstorms moving through at dusk. Winds were out of the South at 12-13 knots most of the day on the ocean, before becoming calm when the sun peeked out. Seas were 2'-3', and the ocean surface temp. was 75° F.

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Catching today was similar to Friday's trip with fair numbers of fish, but legal sized sea bass taking some work. After catching near 200 sea bass and putting 20 in the box, the gang wanted to try some fluke fishing to finish out the day. We caught a number of fluke again on clam baits while anchored, but despite trying a few drifts along with some bucktailing, we didn't find them in any numbers further offshore. So inshore we came, and despite lack of much drift, in a short period of time, we managed to find some fish, including a pair of keepers to over 20". A tip of the hat goes to Ed for catching the day's best sea bass with a few in the 3 pound range and to Ron for catching both of the keeper fluke. A photo of Ed and Ron appears at left.

Thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam

Saturday, August 8th

The Sutphen brothers and friends were aboard today with Bill, Buck, Jim, John, Sam and Tom. Also aboard today making his first trip as first mate was my 5-year old son, Jacob. Another gorgeous summer morning, 61° F. with low humidity and mostly sunny skies. The air temp. did make it to 70° today on the water, but not much above. Winds were out of the Northeast today at 12-13 knots, decreasing a bit by lunch time. Seas were chops of 2'-3', and the ocean surface temp. was 73° F.

With some reports of better fluke fishing on the ocean, the gang opted to give the flatties a try today. The catching did not disappoint for most of the morning, we landed over 60 fish in the first few hours of fishing. The bite slowed, and we picked away at a few more fish through the day. Keepers were hard to come by, not overly surprising when fish in excess of 18" comprise just 10% of the total fluke population. A few more than the pair of 19"-20" fish we landed would've been nice, but it wasn't for lack of catching.

As for Jake, he did a pretty good job in his first day on the job. He's taking credit for landing the keepers on the day. He had some help, but he certainly knew when he had a bite on his line when he wasn't busy helping out around the boat. You can read all about his trip here.

Capt. Adam

Friday, August 7th

The Nycz family, down on LBI for their summer vacation, was aboard today, including Chris, Matt, Tom and Tom. It was a gorgeous 59° F. morning today with low humidity and a bright sunny sky. The air temp. again did not clear 70° F. on the water. Winds were out of the Northwest at 13-15 knots, with gusts to near 20 knots. Seas were chops in the 3' range, and the ocean surface temp. was 74° F.

After a couple of good sea bass catching stops to start the day, we soon had the typical summer sea bass bite; a couple of good fish when you first stop followed by not much in the way of bites but plenty of fish showing on the machine. I expect hit and miss sea bassing for the next couple of weeks until we start to get a drop in water temp. (And with forecast high temperatures of near 100° early next week, it may be a bit.) We wound up with about 200 fish in total landings on the day, mostly black sea bass, although we did see a double digit number of sea robins. We also saw our first triggerfish of the summer, as well as catching a number of fluke while anchored, all consistent with warm water. 30 fish made it to the box making for a nice pile of fillets to take home.

Interestingly enough, the mahi was back again today. I say "the" mahi, because I am relatively confident it was the same fish. Although today's sighting was about 6 miles from yesterday's sighting, the coincidence of seeing the near same sized fish about the same distance offshore in consecutive days is just too great for me to discount. But hey, anything is possible. Well, except for hooking up with the mahi today, she seems to have learned a lesson yesterday. She ate chunks ok, but bucktails, metal and baits with hooks in them were all ignored.

Thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam

Thursday, August 6th

I hosted the Waste Management group today, including John, Jose, Kevin, Scott and Troain. It was raining at 5 AM this morning, thankfully, we had a later departure scheduled for this morning. It rained until around 8:30 AM, then we had periods of rain under overcast skies through the day. It was a chilly and wet 64° F. this morning, a nice break from the hot and humid conditions so far this week. The rain was cool, it never made it above 70° F. on the water today. Winds were out of the Northeast at 12-13 knots, seas were a solid 3' chop. The ocean surface temp. was 75° F.

We had a good numbers day on the sea bass again today, near 300 total fish were landed, with 40 going in the box. We landed a fair number of nice fish on the day, but also had a stop that was devoid of keeper sized sea bass that wanted to bite a hook. I suspect that the Northeast has mixed the warm surface right to the bottom, decreasing the activity of the better sea bass. Many of the fish actually felt warm to the touch today. While this doesn't bode well for continued good sea bass landings, it should bode well for the ocean fluke fishing.

The quality of the water inshore right now is phenomenal. It is a gorgeous blue and super clean. Thus, it wasn't altogether surprising when about a 40" mahi began cruising around behind the boat today. It was the biggest mahi I'd ever seen inshore of 10 miles, she was pretty to see cruising around the boat. We threw some clam chunks in the water, and after she got turned on to them, Scott managed to get her to take a hook bait. After a cool acrobatic display right off the transom, she spit the hook and was gone. As a result of seeing that, I put out some trolling gear between bottom fishing stops, and we did manage to land a nice spanish mackeral. The area was fairly devoid of bait, otherwise, I believe we'd have a very good showing of bonito, false albacore and skipjack tuna inshore. Something, hopefully, to which to look forward.

Capt. Adam

Sunday, August 2nd

Today's morning charter was for the Murphy family staying down on Long Beach Island. The group included Chris, Chris, Dylan, Paul, Ryan and Tyler. It was 71° F. to start the morning under a cloudy sky. Skies were overcast all morning with a fog bank hanging about 100' overhead for much of the day. Thunderstorms developed after we returned to the dock (more on that later), followed by sun, followed by another round of rain before dark. The air temp. made it to 80° with the late day sun that materialized. For the morning on the ocean, winds were out of the South at 7-8 knots, making a light chop over top of a 2'-3' swell. The surface temp. was much cooler in the inlet today (there was a huge temp. drop along the beach in the past 24 hours), in the mid-60's, but the surface temp. offshore remains in the mid-70's.

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It was another superb morning of catching, not quite as good as last Saturday's trip, but still fantastic for mid-summer sea bass fishing. I don't know how much longer it can hold up with the water temp. in the mid-70's, I suspect the shot of colder water along the beachfront is on the bottom offshore, keeping the fish biting. When the bottom warms offshore, I can't imagine this bite holding up. We'll just have to see. In any event, it was another day of landing 300+ sea bass, with near 50 going in the box. Many of the sea bass were big humpbacks, I weighed 5 fish around 3 pounds, a number of which were caught by Paul, he seemed to catch the best one at each stop. Paul's photo with one of his good fish on the day appears above.

I was supposed to run an afternoon charter today, but in looking at the radar, I could see a solid line of storms that ran from Washington, DC up the Delaware River and into NY State. I didn't see any way they were going to miss us, and I was right. The storms remained nearly stationary for most of the late morning period, then shortly after noon, they made a quick march across the state. (Eastern parts of PA received rain for near 2 hours while central towns in NJ saw only 15 minutes of rain as the line of storms moved eastward.) They hit the coast around 1:30 PM, right after I got everyone offloaded from the boat and into their vehicles. For the next 45 minutes we had the heaviest kind of rain imaginable, with thunder and lightning crashing all around. Once the heaviest rain abated, it continued to rain steadily for the next hour plus.

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Localized flooding was the result, including the marina parking lot, check out the water over the dock and nearly to the top of the parking stop in the photo at right. This type of rain has become an every other day event for the past week, having had similar storms last Wednesday and Friday. Thankfully, high winds accompanying the storms have been limited. Safe travels.

Capt. Adam

Saturday, August 1st

We got a mid-morning start today for the Kerwin family. It was 67° F. at 6 AM, 75°+ by the time we left the dock, rising to the mid-upper 80's by mid-afternoon. Humidity was high on the day, as well, thanks mostly to a fair amount of overnite rain. Winds were light out of the South at 5-7 knots, and that pesky 4' swell out of the South-Southeast continues to persist. Seas were otherwise calm. The ocean surface temp. is near 74° F.

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We did a little drifting and anchoring for the time we fished, with the majority of the landings coming on the hook. It was pretty much drop and reel sea bass catching for those that fished, with a keeper ratio of about 1 out of 5. We kept all they wanted and headed for home. A special thanks to youngsters Liam and Bram. Liam was a great help on the boat all day (as well as helping to fillet the catch) with his younger brother Bram (pictured above) doing a great job helping to offload the catch! A pleasure to have aboard, as always!

Capt. Adam