January, 2010 Fishing Report -

Sunday, January 31st

Mother Nature hit was with a pretty good snowfall here that was widely unexpected. A coastal storm that was supposed to pass to our South worked a bit further up the coast before heading offshore. The result was areas of 8"-10" of snow in areas in of Delaware and South Jersey. Combined with air temps only in the teens, it's shaping up as a reminder that winter is not over yet.

On a fishing news front, there are a few tog still being caught when the weather is good enough to sail. Offshore boats are picking at cod, pollock and scup in between releasing plenty of black sea bass.

In other news, "Pot off the Reefs" legislation has been re-introduced in the current legislative session in Trenton. This bill would prohibit the use of fixed gear at the two Artificial Reef sites in NJ waters and petition the government to remove do the same for the other 13 reefs in federal waters. A committee hearing will be held Monday in Trenton.

I am booking trips for 2010. It is requiring some flexiibilty right now with the current landscape of proposed changing sea bass regulations. Give a call!

Capt. Adam

Sunday, January 17th

36° F. with an overcast sky as I left the house this morning. Headed out the inlet, the ocean was slick calm with nary a breath of wind. Conditions remained the same for a couple hours before a light Easterly kicked in. It started to drizzle by 10 am with some heavier downpours. The wind steadily built, and by mid-afternoon, it was blowing 20+ knots with a steady rain falling. The air temperature rose into the mid-40's on the day with an ocean surface temperature between 37° and 40° F. depending on the distance offshore.

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Today's trip was a bit different in that as opposed to the goal of the trip being to bring fish home, today's trip was to return Winter Flounder to the ocean. I worked with staff from the Rutgers University Marine Field Station to release fish that had been tagged with acoustic transmitters. These fish had been captured during the NJ DEP Winter Trawl Survey earlier in the week at various locations between Manasquan and Little Egg Inlets. After being observed at the Field Station for a couple of days, we returned to the sites of their original capture today to release them.

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Upon arriving on station, a researcher checked the fish for good health, and also gathered water data such as temperature and salinity from each location. A photo of one of the Winter Flounder showing the acoustic transmitter appears above, and a photo of the sensing equipment appears at right. For more information about the project, visit The Winter Flounder Web site.

Capt. Adam

PS - On our way up the beach this morning, we encountered Weeks Marine's 4000 cubic yard hopper dredge B.E. Lindholm conducting operations South of Barnegat Inlet. Photos of the dredge and complementary pumping equipment appear in the Image Gallery. More info about hopper dredge operations along with a bunch of photos of Weeks' other hopper dredge, R.N. Weeks, appears on this site.

Saturday, January 16th

Back to the tog grounds today for another shot of January togging with another shared group. It was another 29° F. start to the day. While the air temp. cleared the 50° mark inland again today, it didn't feel like it on the water. With only a partly sunny sky today, it didn't make it out of the 30's. We had 7-8 knots of Southwest wind to start the morning, but by mid-morning, the breeze came around to Westerly and piped up to 15 knots (or more). Seas built to chops of 3', and the ocean surface temp., which started out the morning at 38.8°, dropped steadily, bottoming out at 36.9° F.

While the tog catching started out ok, the quality of the fishing dropped steadily with the water temps, our last stop of the day yielded only a single fish, and that might have been the only bite there, as well. The conditions didn't deter 11-year old Kyle one bit, as he landed 5 keepers himself, he put the "sleeper hold" on us all for the day. Keith, I'm sure you are very proud of your son, and you should be. Bob K. landed his limit, as well, with Bob C. coming up a fish short of his, with everyone else accounting for a keeper or two. Total catch was about 40 tog, with a box of 18.

The best of the tog fishing is definitely past until the spring. That said, I will continue to fish on good weather days as long as I feel everyone has the chance to go home with a couple of fish. One thing about tog fishing this time of the year is that there is definitely the shot at "The One" as the bigger fish certainly are not dealing with much competition for baits now.

Capt. Adam

Friday, January 15th

Back to the tog grounds for another fine January day with a shared group of (mostly) dedicated tog fishermen. 29° F. this morning with an overnite wind shift to the Southwest bringing us the moderating temperatures. It warmed to over 40° F. on the water today under a mostly sunny sky. High temps inland were in the 50's today, and it was still almost 49° F. at the dock when we returned later afternoon. Winds were out of the Southwest at 10-15 knots all day, and seas were chops of 2'-3'. The ocean surface temp. was 39.3° F.

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With a group of fishermen that knew the bite to wait for, we saw a significant jump in the number of tog caught and landed today. Total tog caught were about 75 on the day, coming home with a 6-person limit after having thrown back a number of legal-sized tog on the day; most everyone, with a couple of exceptions (Gary!), caught their 4 fish limit. We also saw a number of quality fish on the day, both in the box and released. Tim got the quality started with a 10½ lb. tog before Bob topped him with a personal best 11¼ lb. tog. Bob's photo appears above. Rich got his piece of the personal bests action as well with an 8 lb. tog. All of the above were weighed on the boat with a digital scale and subsequently released. Good fishing with a good group, thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam

Thursday, January 14th

After nearly two solid weeks of air temps barely breaking freezing and steady Northwest winds in the 15-30 knot range, Mother Nature finally gave us a break in the weather to get the Paul Zgalich charter out for some winter togging. 25° F. to start the morning, but a bright January sun quickly got the air temp. above freezing on the day, getting into the mid-40's inland, not quite as warm on the water. Winds were light and slight out of the west in the morning, falling out to completely calm, then picking up to a few knots out of the Southeast, a typical summer pattern actually of the land being cooled by an onshore sea breeze. The ocean was flat calm all day, about the nicest possible conditions you could have on the ocean anytime of the year. The ocean surface temp. on the fishing grounds was 39.2° F.

While the tog "fishing" was absolutely as good as it can get for this time of the year, the "catching" was more typical given the water temperature. We had bites on every stop, but you had to be patient as the tog are certainly not active enough now to want to rip the rod out of your hands. You have to let them chew, let them chew, let them chew, then swing when the time is right. Overall, we caught about 3 dozen tog on the boat, bringing home a box of 15. High hook on the boat did land 8 keepers himself; Frank put three in the box and Paul got a couple of keepers. Mike and Tom came up empty in the tog keeping department. However, Tom went home with plenty of laughs while Mike would have went home with just about anything and everything on the boat that wasn't bolted down. That Mike, you gotta be watching him!

Thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam

Sunday, January 3rd

Just a quick weather update. Winds today are sustained in the mid-30 knot range (near 40 mph) with gusts to near 50 knots (almost 60 mph). Ice is accumulating due to freezing spray at a rate of over 1/8" per hour. A local creek was ice free at dinner time last nite only to be completely frozen over this morning. While winds are forecast to "back off" some to the 20 knot range early this week, it will remain cold, and another storm system is forecast for later in the week with another round of cold and wind for next weekend. Mother Nature has picked right up in 2010 where she ended 2009 with plenty of wind, and for good measure has added plenty of cold, as well. Stay warm!

Capt. Adam

Friday, January 1st (New Year's Day)

Back to the tog grounds with another group of regulars (and a couple of their sons, including Keith's son, 11-year old Kyle) for some New Year's day togging. A balmy 32° F. leaving the dock this morning. Under overcast skies (which periodically spit some snow at us), the air didn't get much warmer, it was only in the mid-30's today. Winds were light out of the Northwest at 6-8 knots, then piped up a bit to near 15 knots mid-morning. Just as abruptly as the wind came on, it fell right back out to 6-8 knots, before building to near 15 knots again as we neared the inlet, holding out of the Northwest. Seas were a good sized swell this morning of near 6', courtesy of the system that passed by yesterday and will now remain stationary off the New England coast (more on that later). The swell did fall out through the day, and the ocean surface temp. on the fishing grounds remained in the 42° - 43° range.

Overall, the catching was better than what we had a couple of days ago, although the sum of the quality was not quite as good. Total fish landed today was over 100, with a limit catch for all to take home. While we did release a number of legal sized fish on the day, we saw many more sub-legal sized tog than on Wednesday. Our final box did have plenty of 3-6 pound fish in it.

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Bob got the day's best tog that hung the scales at 11 pounds even. Bob's photo with his fish appears at left prior to release. Bob's son Robbie put on a good showing, being up there for high hook for total keepers landed (near double digits) along with Mark.

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Keith's son Kyle was the first to get to a limit catch for the day and was sure to let us all know. He put on a good show on a long day, fishing right up to the end and was rewarded with his best tog of the day off of the last drop, his photo with his dad appears at right. I was glad he got it because he had lost an even better fish earlier in the day.

With that, I don't know when it will be back to the fishing grounds again. The nearly stationary storm system off of New England will have us in a cold Northwesterly flow through the weekend and well into next week; winds gusting to over 50 knots are in the forecast. Air temps will struggle to get above freezing, and this forecast of wind and cold is repeated now for the next 10 days. Until we get a break from the wind or the sub-freezing temps, the Karen Ann II will be remaining at the dock.

Thanks to everyone that fished with me in 2009, and I look forward to having you aboard again in 2010. Happy New Year!

Capt. Adam