June, 2010 Fishing Report -

Sunday, June 27th

Jason Chang and friends were aboard today including Christina, Craig, Denise and Peter. 77° F. to start the morning with plenty of humidity. The high dew point resulted in thick fog from the dock to the fishing grounds which held until near noon before burning off to a couple of mile haze. Air temps inland were in the mid-90's, cooler at the shore. Winds were light out of the South-Southwest most of the day before picking up to around 10 knots in a bit of a sea breeze. The ocean had a couple of foot swell early, becoming just a chop of a couple foot. The ocean surface temp. was 72° F.

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In a day similar catching-wise to yesterday, we had a mix of good and not so good stops. It seems better fish bit as the day wore on, however, and we finished with a nice box of 63 fish, mostly all sea bass. We had a number of fish between 2½ and 3 lbs. on the day, with Denise beating out Craig for the day's best fish. A nice photo of the group (along with my son Jacob who was on the deck today) appears above, a fun day and a good way to beat the heat inland by being on the water.

Capt. Adam

Saturday, June 26th

Aboard today for the start of another heatwave were Kevin, John, Rick, Terry, Tim and Tom. 64° F. to start the morning without much humidity under a mostly sunny sky allowing temps to around 90°. Winds were light out of the South-Southwest at around 5 knots to start the day, but were puffing 12-13 knots later in the day as the heat pump came on. Seas were a light chop, building to a couple of foot. The ocean surface temp. was 72° F.

We had an up and down day of good and not so good bottom fishing stops, catching a good number most of the time but struggling to catch the legal sized sea bass. We caught 250 sea bass on the day, with about the same 1 in 5 keeper ratio from yesterday, coming home with a box of 44 fish. Despite not seemingly having been on the passenger manifest this morning, "Bob" was everywhere, catching the most and the biggest, it was a good day to be "Bob" for sure. Thanks for fishing hard aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam

Friday, June 25th

Had Elan, Elias, Joe, and Rafi aboard this afternoon for a fishing trip to celebrate Rafi's upcoming "big day". 85° F. this afternoon under a bright sun with low humidity. Winds were out of the East-Southeast at 6-7 knots, and the ocean had just a light chop, a beautiful afternoon to be on the water. The ocean surface temp. on the fishing grounds was 71° F.

We made a couple of stops to do some inshore bottom fishing and caught about 75 sea bass in a couple of hours, with a keeper ratio of 1 out of 5, plenty of fish to take home for the group. Congrats to Rafi, and have a safe and fun weekend.

Capt. Adam

Thursday, June 24th

Record heat here to start off Summer 2010. 99° F. at the Atlantic City International Airport this afternoon before strong storms moved through ahead of a cold front to bring relief from the heat and humidity for a day or two. The past couple of days have set records locally for both high temperatures as well as low temperatures (as in the highest low temperature ever recorded in a given location on the given date). Looking forward to getting back to the fishing grounds with some improved conditions.

Capt. Adam

Sunday, June 20th (Father's Day)

A humid 72° F. morning for the last day of spring and Father's Day trip for John Bradwell and friends. We had thick fog from the dock to the fishing grounds today, which didn't clear to a couple of mile haze before noon. Seas were 3', building a bit more with a South wind of 12-14 knots through the day. Not ideal conditions, but with a reasonable enough period between wave crests to be more comfortable than it might sound. It was hot inland, 90° F. the ocean surface temp. on the grounds was above 68° F.

Overall, a fair to good catching and keeping day today, with 250 sea bass landed with near 50 coming home. Judy had a good day out of the group for keeper sea bass and ling, while Tom spent a good portion of his day making sure we stayed anchored. I told him the pair of 40 lb. anchors on the bow were doing the trick, but he insisted on using 6 oz. leads for added staying power, and stay on the bottom they often did! Happy Father's Day!

Capt. Adam

Saturday, June 19th

I hosted the Chang family today with brothers Jason and Jeff and their parents, Jean and Jack. A nice 58° F. morning under mostly sunny skies. Some clouds moved in, and winds built through the day out of the South-Southwest, starting out at 5-6 knots and building to 15 knots (or more). Seas were just a light chop to start, but built to around 3' for the ride back to the dock. The ocean surface temp. continues to climb, 67° F. on the grounds.

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In a seeming repeat of last Sunday, the better fish bit today. It was another 350 fish day (superb considering we had 4 anglers) with over 100 fish in the box again. (We were a few fish short of our sea bass limit, with some ling added to the catch today.) Everyone had an excellent day of catching, Jason and Jeff definitely led the way in numbers of keeper sea bass landed, but their mother had the most nice fish on the day, maybe filling out the top 3 or 4 top spots (save for one that Jeff had that was in the mix). Her picture appears above with one of her good ones with a smiling Jack looking on. (Well, they are all good, some are just bigger, and this was a BIGGER one!) Jack did well to boat (and release) a 6 pound tog on the day.

Always a good time with the Chang family, thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam

Friday, June 18th

Ed Beskin chartered the Karen Ann II today for a 6 hour trip for himself. It was about as perfect of a crystal clear, low humidity day you could ask for a couple of day's before the start of summer. 59° F. to start the morning with the mercury climbing into the upper 70's. Winds were out of the North at 5-10 knots, and seas were chops of just a couple of feet. The ocean surface temp. on the grounds is now 66° F.

With just Ed aboard, I got to fish for a few hours with him, and the 2 of us landed nearly 100 fish. The keeper ratio wasn't great, putting 15 total fish in the box, but it certainly wasn't for lack of catching. Having plenty of fish for just himself, we sailed home on one of the prettiest days of the spring.

Capt. Adam

Sunday, June 13th

The Sutphen family and friends were aboard for another spring bottom fishing trip with Buck, Eric, Jim, John, Sam and Tom. A humid 69° F. start to the day today, eventually reaching into the upper 80's inland. Skies were sunny until thunderstorms rolled through as we got back to the dock and into the evening. We carried a light Southwest breeze most of the day, with the same 3' or so swell still on the ocean. The surface temp. has now jumped to 64° F. on the grounds.

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We saw a very good catching day today as the bottom temp. was seemingly warmer today as evidenced by the feel of the fish that came up from the bottom. Over 350 sea bass came over the rails making for a box of over 100 legal fish on the day. Jim landed a pair of 3 lb. sea bass on the day; nice fish, but they weren't bigger than Eric's biceps. Tom had a good day for tog catching them up to 5 lbs., all of which were released. The best sea bass of the day was a whopping 4 lbs. 9 oz. on the digital scale, one of the best inshore sea bass taken aboard the Karen Ann II, a picture of the fish (which just doesn't do it justice) and lucky angler appears above.

Capt. Adam

Saturday, June 12th

Today's charter included Bob, Dennis, Jack, Joey, Mark and Nof. 61° F. to start the day, a mostly gorgeous day with plenty of sun, winds out of the South at around 10 knots (although falling out to hear nothing at times and piping up to around 15 knots at others), and a small chop on top of a couple of foot swell. Inland, the air temp. rose into the 80's, cooler on the ocean. The ocean surface temp. is now 61° F.

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Another day of steady if not stellar sea bass fishing. We landed near 250 total fish on the day today (we caught through the day today unlike yesterday's half day only bite) and finished with a box of over 50 fish on the day, including a couple of whoppers. Mark landed his personal best first at 3 lbs. 15 oz. on the digital scale. Not to be outdone, Bob landed his personal best at 4 lbs. 2 oz., a pair of beautiful black sea bass. It seems Bob was serving notice to Mark that he fully intends to challenge for the "Spring Tog King" crown next year. In addition to landing the day's best sea bass, he also landed the most keepers, earning him the title of fisherman of the day.

Capt. Adam

Friday, June 11th

I hosted members of the North Burgee Drive Fishing Club today along with some of their friends. 57° F. to start the morning today under mostly sunny to clear skies; the air temp. rose into the upper 70's on the day. Winds were out of the Northeast at 5-10 knots most of the day, and seas were swells of around 3' on the ocean, leftover from some wind yesterday. The ocean surface temp. was 59° F. on the grounds.

We started out on some small bluefish (under a pound) in the inlet and quickly put a dozen in the box before heading offshore for some bottom fishing. The first couple of stops saw an ok sea bass bite, about what we've had, 30 or so fish off a stop with 8-10 going in the box. The 2nd half of the day we did not see an ok sea bass bite, I'm not sure you could call it a bite at all, as we landed maybe another 20 fish the rest of the day with only a couple in the box. Thanks to the bluefish early in the day we came home with nearly 3 dozen fish out of about 100 caught in total, not what I would call a banner day of bottom fishing, but everyone had some fish to take home. Bill easily gets the nod for fisherman of the day putting in the most time fishing and being rewarded with some (and certainly most) of the day's best fish, while Joe gets a tip of the hat for landing yet another cod fish.

Thanks for fishing aboard the Karen Ann II.

Capt. Adam

Sunday, June 6th

The Holman Auto group was aboard today with Brian, Ed, Greg, Jerry and Scott. 74° F. to start the day with humidity galore and haze, along with a stormy afternoon/evening forecast to finally break the current weather pattern. We had 10-12 knots of wind out of the South-Southwest leaving the dock. More was forecast and more came, 20 knots by noon. Seas were 2'-3' to start, building to 4'-6'. The surface temp. is cold along the beach, in the mid-50's, in the mid 60's on the bottom fishing grounds.

The day got off to a plenty inauspicious start with the gang hitting stopped traffic on the parkway due to a 4:30 am accident, Ron having a run-in (literally) with a deer that kept him from getting to the dock, and Jerry announcing he'd spent part of the nite in the hospital. I was wondering about our prospects for a fishing trip! Thankfully, we got off to a good start finding a nice mess of bluefish in the inlet, and in short order, we had near 3 dozen in the box from a ½ up to 2 pounds. With the wind already starting to blow, we headed out to do some bottom fishing. We found a couple of spots with a fair bite, others with practically no bite, and at least one overrun with hyperactive tog. We caught close to 100 sea bass in the few hours Mother Nature gave us to fish on the ocean, with about one out of five going in the fish box. These guys don't seem to bring the good weather with them, but they stick it out.

Capt. Adam

Saturday, June 5th

After nearly a week of Southwest winds, the bottom fishing remains less productive than we would usually see the first week of June. You start to get a bite, then the fish shut down with the colder bottom temps, you can see them on the machine. We fished hard today and caught 200 sea bass, with a box of over 40 fish. As surprising as this may be to some that will read this, I have to give the nod to Buck for fisherman of the day.

Capt. Adam

Friday, June 4th

I hosted a group from UPenn today, including Jerome, Jerry, John, Mark, Ray and Steve. There was supposedly, according to Mark, an Andy on the boat today, too, but I never saw him. 68° F. and humid to start the day today. Under mostly sunny skies, the mercury climbed to near 90° F., cooler on the water with 5-10 knots of breeze from the Southwest. Seas were swells mostly of 3'-4' with a little chop, kept down with a roaring current running with the sea. The ocean surface temp. is 63° F., cooler near the beach with some upwelling effects from the Southwest wind direction.

It was a fair day for catching with a less than great day for sea bass keeping. Landings were around 175 fish, but less than 3 dozen sea bass went in the box along with a ling. Hard to single out anyone as having a better catching day than the rest. Thanks for coming down and fishing hard on the day.

Capt. Adam