April, 2010 Fishing Report -

Friday, April 30th

A 49° F. start for Jeff Hayes' trip this morning. Joining Jeff were Gabriel, Jeff, Phil and Ron. Skies were sunny and the winds were light to start the day. It was a beautiful morning on the ocean for anglers, just a gentle roll with about 5 knots of Southerly wind. The air temp. quickly climbed into the 60's, and held there as a breeze of about 10 knots out of the South-Southwest built. Seas were chops of less than 2' all day, and the ocean surface temp. was 52° F.

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It was a better start to the day for the fishermen than the captain. The light wind out of the South was opposing a bit of current running down the beach making for the worst kind of anchoring conditions. Once things got straightened out, we had good catching through the day. The group went home with their limit of tog, with many nice 3-6 lb. fish. Pretty good considering we had 3 neophyte toggers aboard!

Ron wound up high hook for keepers on the day accounting for a half dozen himself, quite the result for his first attempt at tog fishing. Phil and Jeff also had their limits. A photo of the group with some of their nicer fish on the day appears above.

Capt. Adam

Saturday, April 24th

I hosted the Preis charter today with Alan, Anthony, Dan, Michael, Rick and Steve. 40° F. this morning with a clear sky. The sun held all day until clouds took over as I was leaving the dock; the air temp. made it into the comfortable 60's. Winds were out of the Northeast around 10 knots most of the day, and seas were a chop of a foot or two. The ocean surface temp. was near 51° F., and a hard current was running both down and into the beach during the day.

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We had ok tog catching today, not great, but ok. We did see the best quality fish of the spring today with 3 fish between 6 and 8 pounds. We put 20 legal sized tog in the box (only measuring two of those) out of about 50 taken. There were no other species that came over the rail today other than tog. Michael was high hook out of the group today landing 5 keepers himself, but coming up short of high hook for the boat. Anthony got his personal best tog of 8 pounds on the day, his photo appears above.

The weather isn't looking good for tomorrow with rain and wind for the last weekend day of the spring tog season.

Capt. Adam

Thursday, April 22nd (Earth Day)

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Had a little different job tonite than the typical fishing trip. The New Jersey Chapter of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA-NJ, www.rfanj.org) sponsored Earth Day clean-ups of some popular fishing locations, including Graveling Point and Pebble Beach right here in Mystic Island. My thanks to everyone that showed up, we managed to fill the back of a pickup with trash (photo at left). Mother Nature tried to scare us away with some storms right before we started and another thunderstorm that would have made the Mid-West proud with the dark clouds and lightning show right after we finished, but we had just enough window to get done.

Capt. Adam

Tuesday, April 20th

Ran the boat back up to Great Bay Marina from Atlantic City tonite. Great Bay was alive with slicks and bird plays from the bluefish that are all over the bay. My thanks to Kammerman's Marina for the winter and early spring slip!

Capt. Adam

Sunday, April 18th

The Sutphen clan was down today for their first trip of the year with Bill, Buck, Jim, John, Sam and Tom. 38° F. to start the morning with crystal clear skies. Winds were out of the Northwest at around 15 knots early, falling off to 6-7 knots through the day. Seas were chops of a couple foot, and the surface temp. dropped a bit to 47.2° F.

It was another tough day for finding keeper tog, but not for lack of bites. Like yesterday, we went through some bait, but catching was tough and catching keepers even tougher. We had a strong current start running down the beach mid-day that seemed to bring a significant drop in bottom temp. We ended the day with 11 keeper tog out of about 40 total fish landed again. Probably half the fish caught were under 12", quite a few in the 8"-10" range, very small for tog. High hook on the day was 5 keepers, with John the highest hook out of the gang.

Capt. Adam

Saturday, April 17th

The Dennis Doriety charter fished with me today with Bob, Bob, Gene, Lloyd and Tom. 55° F. to start the morning with thick fog leaving the house but clear at the dock. With a mid-morning cold front passage, the temp. never rose on the day, even with a mostly sunny sky. The wind could not make up it's mind on the day. We started with 7-8 knots of wind, which came on to near 20 knots for a bit before backing off to around 5 knots, then coming on to 12-13 knots and holding there the rest of the day. Seas were a bit of a confused 4' swell/chop, and surface temp. was over 48° F.

After the catching last weekend, I had hopes for continued good fishing today. I was right in that the fishing would be like it was last weekend, but it more resembled Saturday's trip than Sunday's. We got off to a good start, but then it was just a scratch and sniff kind of day, working hard for bites and then working harder for hook ups. High hook on the day landed a half dozen keepers (Bob caught his limit out of the group, as well) on the way to a total of 18 tog in the box out of about 40 total fish landed. Respectable, but certainly not the catching for which we had hoped considering we made 7 stops on the day. Thanks for fishing hard today, guys, and Gene, as always, thanks for the brownies!

Capt. Adam

Sunday, April 11th

Aboard today were Bill, Bob, Dave, James, Mike and Rob. 46° F. to start the morning with a bright, sunny sky. Winds were out of the Southwest at 7-8 knots to start, building to 12-13 knots for the ride home. Seas were wind driven chops of 2'-3'. The ocean surface temp. was 45.2° F.

As the saying goes, what a difference a day makes. Whereas the catching was work in every sense yesterday, the tog seemed to be jumping on the hook today. We had our first triple digit catching day of the spring with 100 tog clearing the rail. We had our limit of tog by around noon, and finished the day playing catch and release. The tog bit just fine on crabs, and we didn't land a dogfish today. Go figure.

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James (photo at left) was high hook with 9 keepers on the day, there were 4 other would-be (if we hadn't reached our limit) limits on the boat, as well. Just an overall excellent day for fishing, catching and keeping, thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam

Saturday, April 10th

I hosted the Greg Vongas charter today including Andy, Bob, Doug, Jason and Pete. 41° F. start to the morning with the threat of a fair amount of Northwest wind following a frontal passage that ended our heat wave earlier this week. The wind but not prohibitively, holding in the 18-20 knot range most of the morning with a 3' chop. The wind fell out through the day, ending in the 10-12 knot range, comfortable. Even under sunny skies it felt like November on the water much of the day with the chilly wind, the air temp. not making it out of the 50's. The ocean surface temp. on the grounds was 45.3° F.

We got off to a good start in both the catching and keeping of tog today, then the keeping turned in to a bit of a chore. Save for one stop, we had a fair amount of life everywhere today, but the throwbacks mostly outnumbered the keeper tog. We ended the day with 22 tog in the box, along with a pair of cod (and throwing back nearly double digits in cod, as well). We also had our first (dozen) dogfish of the year which made use of the spring softer baits less productive on the day.

Greg and Doug tied for high hook in keepers for the day, 5 apiece. Doug tried to sew up the angler of the day award before 8 am by catching his 4 fish limit of tog and a keeper cod; with only another keeper tog the rest of the day, he certainly didn't win the slow and steady award. Andy had the other keeper cod with son Jason catching his first Jersey cod.

Capt. Adam

Tuesday, April 6th

88° F. at the AC Airport today! Where did spring go???

Capt. Adam

Sunday, April 4th (Easter Sunday)

A shortened Easter Sunday trip today with Dave, Dick, Haig, John, Mark and Mike to give everyone a chance to get home for dinner The air temp. was near 50° this morning with patchy fog on land and thick fog at the inlet and offshore. Seas were a confused 3'- 4' sea with a light breeze out of the west. We held the fog and the seas until mid-morning when the sea and wind fell out and the fog gave way to clear, sunny skies. It was a gorgeous ride back to the dock over a slick calm ocean with an air temp. in the 70's on land. The ocean surface temp. was 44.7° F.

Catching was about the same today as the previous days, a few less fish with less fishing time. Some spots produce bites, others don't. 40 tog landed today with 16 keepers, some better size than yesterday but not as good as Friday. John and Dave led the way in landings of legal sized tog; we also saw another pair of sub-legal cod landed on the day, good to see them around.

Capt. Adam

Saturday, April 3rd

Aboard today were the Bingler brothers and friends, Dave, John and Ted. Another morning in the low 40's for an air temp. but with thick fog. The fog held all day, mostly keeping visibility around a couple hundred yards, occasionally giving way to a ¼ - ½ mile of viz. Winds were mostly light out of the Southeast at 3-4 knots, picking up to 13-14 knots closer to the beach by day's end. The air temp. remained cool on the water, never getting out of the 40's. Seas were chops of a couple of foot, and the surface temp. on the grounds was 45° F.

Catching today was about the same as yesterday, total numbers of fish and keepers up with more anglers. Total fish landed were in the 60's today, with 23 keeper tog. None of the fish today were bigger than 16" except for the sub-legal cod we landed (and released) of about 19". Dave was fisherman of the day, landing 9 legal-sized tog himself.

Capt. Adam

Friday, April 2nd (Good Friday)

First day of spring togging, 2010 today! Aboard today to give the togging a go were Bob, Dennis, Keith and Kyle. 41° F. to start the morning under a clear sky. Skies were clear all day with a bright sun shining down on us. Winds were non-existent on the day, seas were slick calm with a couple of foot swell out of the east. There was a strong current running down the beach for anchoring, at least. The air warmed to near 60° F., perfect for a long sleeve t-shirt on the water. The ocean surface temp. was 43°.

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Considering we had a historic winter with 5' of snow falling locally, it was a good start to the fishing today. Landings on the day were approx. 50 tog, with a 4-person limit going in the box. Many of the fish were in the 14"-15" range that we kept, but we need see a handful of 4-7 lb. fish. Cigar Bob gets the nod for fisherman of the day today landing the first tog of the day (a keeper) and the day's biggest, his photo with his better fish appears above. Keith was high hook for total keepers landed, finally getting a leg up on his son, Kyle. Dennis gets a nod for landing a pair of cod fish. There were no dogfish landed, which tells you that the bottom is still cold; fish bit on both hard (crabs) and soft (clams) baits. Good start to the season!

Capt. Adam