November, 2009 Fishing Report -

Monday, November 30th

One thing about late season tog fishing, if you are waiting for the good weather days to leave the dock, you may never go, and this year it has never been more true. We didn't wait today with a good group for a shared charter. 51° F. to start the morning with overcast skies and rain in the forecast. Seas were lumpy to start the morning, 4'-6' leftover from 20 knots of wind overnite. A continued 15 knots of wind out of the Southwest didn't help matters any. As some light rain showers moved in later in the morning, the wind and seas did lay down a bit. Just as I finished cleaning up, a colder steady rain settled in that lasted well into the night. The ocean surface temp. is holding at 52.5° F., but with some cooler nites forecast this week, I expect to see a drop shortly.

The tog catching was excellent, even if the actual "fishing" left a bit to be desired due to conditions. We did not, however, see the quality tog bite like they have the past few days. We had no problems boxing every angler's limit of tog, but the vast majority were 14"-15" fish. A few 4 pound fish hit the deck, but it wasn't like it has been, not surprising considering the conditions.

Jack, Jerry and Tony all landed their share of keepers, with Dwight and Mike fairing ok for the amount of togging they've done. But they paled in comparison to the performance Dave put on today, accounting for nearly 20 legal sized fish himself, it was a pretty darn good show. You reading this, Keith?

Capt. Adam

Sunday, November 29th

After "stealing" a trip from Mother Nature on Friday, we made the right choice sitting yesterday out as the 30+ knots of sustained winds forecasted came true, resulting in blow out tides, as well. Back offshore we went today with the Reyburn charter again, Dean, Haig, John, Mike and Paul. The air temp. hovered around freezing this morning, but warmed through the day under sunny skies to near 50° F. Winds were out of the South-Southwest at 10-15 knots with seas in the 2'-3' range, maybe a bit more by day's end. The ocean surface temp. is down to 52.5° F.

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The day got off to a very good start today with Mike landing the first keeper of the day at over 7 pounds. It was quite a fire drill as a the first couple of "pumps" from the fish snapped his rod off, if you've never heard a rod snap it's like a rifle going off and gets your attention. Mike did a good job getting the fish to the boat. We saw continued good quality again through the day, with Haig busting off a very good fish late in the day. I think he's finally getting the message that "going light" for tog isn't the ticket. Mike led the way in keepers with Paul and Dean having good days, as well, as the group took home their limit of tog. A group photo appears above with some of the day's better fish.

Thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam

Friday, November 27th (Black Friday)

Despite a less than encouraging weather forecast, today's gang of Al, Bob, Danny, Dennis, Matt and Wayne made it clear that they preferred tog fishing to shopping, so off we went to see how long we could hang on. It was raining quite steady at 5 am with an air temp. in the low 40's. Winds were already in the 20+ knot range and moving the leafless tree branches around pretty well. The saving grace was the wind direction, out of the Northwest, allowing the land to buffer the sea building effects closer to shore. Winds remained in the 20-25 knot range all morning, with gusts in the 30-35 knot range. The wind fell off just a couple of knots before coming on harder with the late morning tide change, a harbinger of the sustained 30-35 knots with gusts to 45 knots forecast through Saturday. The steady rain gave us a break, with the sky just occasionally spitting at us. Seas were steep chops of 4'. The ocean surface temp. was 54.5° F.

We saw continued good tog catching today with a continuation of good quality, lots of 4-7 lb. fish came over the rails again on the way to another limit tally. And it's a good thing these fish had some weight, because the smaller ones would've taken off like a kite with the wind! Matt and Al led the way again, with a slight edge to Matt. Watching these two duke it out is like watching the Yankees and Red Sox of earlier this decade, you knew it was going to be a close tally every time out. And the rivalry may be just as intense. Wayne had a good day on the tog, as well, with some nice fish, as well as leading the way with keeping the dogfish away from the rest of the group. No tunas to distract Dennis today, it seemed he was trying to get "tuned in" to get some help from above. "Beepbeepbeep!!!"

Thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II, you guys did a heck of a job out there today.

Capt. Adam

Thursday, November 26th (Thanksgiving)

Back to the fishing grounds this morning for some Thanksgiving Day tog with Daryl, Jeremiah, John, Jon, Keith and Tim. I had 50° F. for an air temperature with thick fog when I walked out my front door this morning. The fog cleared a bit by the time I got to the dock, and we held overcast conditions with some sporadic drizzle through the day. Winds started out of the North-Northeast and continued to veer to the East through the day, building from 7-8 knots to 13-14 knots. It was cool and damp, but not uncomfortable at 50°. The ocean conditions were mostly a swell in the 4' range which became chops of a bit less. The ocean surface temp. remains at 55° F.

The tog catching was excellent today with some better quality fish than what we'd been seeing, a good portion of the fish we kept were nice 4-7 lb. tog. We had no problem keeping a limit before the morning was out. Jon had a super hot hand early on his way well into the teens for total keepers caught. Everyone else had good catching mornings as well, and Tim also had a very good morning for dogfish landings. Tim also made it very clear that he "wasn't down" with Christmas music on Thanksgiving. Oh, well, can't please everyone all the time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Capt. Adam

Sunday, November 22nd

The Paul Reyburn charter was aboard today with, in addition to Paul himself, Allen, Drew, Haig, Mike and Mike. It was another 37° F. morning, but cooler and more damp than yesterday with mostly overcast conditions and a freshening breeze out of the Northeast. The wind held under 15 knots most of the morning, but built to 20+ by the time we made for the dock. Seas were chops in the 3' range early, building to over 6'. The ocean surface temp. was 55° F.

The tog bite remains very good. It was another day of landing between 150 and 200 total tog with the group taking home their 6 per person limit. With the building seas, the better sized tog didn't much want to play today, with the catch dominated by keepers in the 14"-16" range. Mike, Paul and Allen all had good catching and keeping days. Haig was playing catch up most of the day, snagging whatever he could through the day. Lots of laughs and lots of fish, another good day of fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam

Saturday, November 21st

The Sutphen family and friends were aboard today for their first togging trip of the fall. It was a 37° F. start to the morning, and under sunny skies, the air temp. made it to the 50's today. Winds in the morning were out of the Northwest at around 15 knots, falling out to under 10 knots as we made our way home. Seas were a bit of a swell in the 3' range with some chop early on, falling out with the wind. The ocean surface temp. is now 54.5° F.

The tog bite was very good today. Just about all aboard caught their legal limit of keeper sized tog, and with a better than average effort from Jack, the gang went home with their limit of tog. Nothing particularly noteworthy in the size department, just plenty of nice fish to fill the fish box.

Thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam

Monday, November 16th

After losing yet another fall weekend of fishing due to weather, it was off to the tog grounds today for the opening of the 6 tog/person season here in NJ. Aboard for today's charter were Al, Bob, Dennis, Gene and Matt. 47° F. to start the day, and under a partly sunny sky, we saw air temps rise into the 60's today. Winds were light out of the Northeast at 6-7 knots to start the day, building a bit to over 10 knots by the time we quit. Seas were mostly leftover swells in the 6'+ range. The ocean surface temp. was 56° F.

The bite was about what you would expect for the size of the seas recently. The water was still churned up and very dirty. We fished 5 different spots today, and 4 of the spots didn't provide much, only a handful of fish with a few keeper sized tog. The 5th stop wasn't looking much better, until we found the "honey hole". Not unexpectedly, the fish seemed to be buried down inside the structure, but if you could find your way in, it was instant life. The problem, of course, was getting out again with the fish and tackle intact. We lost a lot of tackle, but it was good enough to get the group their limit of tog.

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Matt and Al had the best days of the gang, each getting into double digits for keepers. We'll give the nod to Matt for fisherman of the day as I believe he was a couple of keepers ahead of Al at day's end, and also had the day's best fish of around 8 pounds. A photo of Matt with the day's best tog appears at left. Bob managed his limit, while Dennis seemed distracted much of the day by the tuna fish we had busting water around the boat.

Capt. Adam

Wednesday, November 11th (Veteran's Day)

Thank you to all the men and women that have and continue to honorably serve and protect the citizens of the United States by being members of our armed forces.

It's not often I write about tropical systems affecting the Atlantic coast in November (hurricane season officially lasts until Nov. 30th), but I shouldn't be surprised since we had tropcial cyclone activity in May this year. Hurricane Ida made landfall in the northern Gulf earlier this week, and is now making its way Northeast. A strong ridge of high pressure to our North is blocking it from continuing on a typical path of ejection over the North Atlantic. As a result, we will be under the influence of the stalled systems through the weekend, resulting in a prolonged period of winds out of the Northeast of between 20 and 40 (or more knots) with seas forecast to build to near 20'.

Capt. Adam

Sunday, November 8th

Jason Chang chartered the Karen Ann II for his trip today. A warmer start, 42° F. Under a mostly sunny sky, the air temp. made it well into the 60's inland, only into the 50's on the water. Winds began the day at 10-11 knots out of the West-Southwest, and seas were a confused 4', leftover from the winds of late yesterday into the overnite. Both the wind and seas fell out by mid-morning, and we sailed home with just a gently 2' roll under us with a less than 5 knot breeze. The ocean surface temp. was 55° F.

The tog bite early on today was not as good as yesterday, I believe the South-Southwest shook the fish up a bit as it typically does. As the sea conditions improved (much to the delight of Peter), so did the togging, and we ended the day without having to wait for a bite once you dropped down a baited hook. Quality was down from yesterday, although we didn't have any problem keeping the 1 per person limit of tog, all about 18" nice males.

For those that want them, there are stripers continuing to be caught in Little Egg Inlet and up into the back bays. Catching is better during the week than on weekdays, less hooks in the water. Jigging is very good for blues and stripers 20+ miles north of Little Egg Inlet, as well, with a few fish taken not quite as far. Get out and enjoy the finest fishing of the fall!

Capt. Adam

Saturday, November 7th

After nearly 3 weeks off the fishing grounds due to a combination of weather and regulations (the latter more than the former), it was back out the inlet today. Aboard I had a shared group of Dave, Mark, Jack, Keith and Keith's 10-year old son, Kyle. 27° F. to start the morning under a clear sky, the coolest of the fall so far. We had a light breeze to start the day under sunny skies, building to 13-14 knots out of the Southwest. The air temp. made it to just above 50° F. Seas built to about 3' for the ride back to the dock, and the ocean surface temp. was 56° F.

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I looked over a number of spots today to see what the inshore bottom fishing grounds held at this point, and didn't find much of a surprise. The open bottom areas that had held the likes of scup and croakers were now covered with dogfish, jumping on baits as soon as they hit the bottom. Inshore areas that had held some numbers of keeper-sized sea bass now held only sub-legal sea bass. And the tog bite from 40'-70' is very good. So we focused our efforts on tog with total tog landings well into the triple digits on the day, all released save for the 1 per person legal limit. Dave got big fish honors with an 8 pound tog, the day's 2nd biggest was 7+. Plenty of other legal sized tog were landed (and released), as well. Kyle (pictured above) had a very good day for his first day of togging, catching one of the day's top 5 tog and also landing the day's only triggerfish.

Thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam