By the number of photos that are still coming in, there are a whole lot of folks out fishing.
The Stray Cat ran some open boat trips fishing for blackfish and had plenty of action. One day they had limits for all aboard. Pool winner Richard White from Maple Shade had a good size 8. 2-pounder. Captain Mike will be fishing all winter (391-9630) looking for cod, black fish, and sea bass. They have an open boat trip the 29th fishing jumbo sea bass on the 60-mile wrecks.
While the chunkers and live bait fishermen have been having pretty good trips, fly fishing has been tough. They are just not seeing the bait fish or the smaller school size bass in the normal numbers for this time of the year. Captain Ray says the back bay has been pretty dead, with the best fishing around the inlet rocks using sinking lines with pink/white clousers and chartreuse deceivers still producing the best.
This time of year with the cold weather fishing in a small open boat is a little tougher and you have to consider safety first. Even when most of the fish are shorts, it’s still lots of fun when caught on the fly.
Right before pulling his boat for the season, Captain Ray says he saw the best striper fly action of the fall run. On less windy days he was able to get out and catch some stripers on the fly.
The best fly fishing was around the inlet and close to the surf line. He caught keeper size bass on every trip. He used 350 grain sinking lines, and chartreuse deceivers, chartreuse/white clousers and jiggies all caught. Ray and company released all of the keepers to be caught another day.
Steve Croft fishing with Ray had an unusual catch, a 20 inch tog that hit a jiggie fly. The tog was not as lucky as the stripers, they kept him and made a nice meal.
NEWS: Hearings are scheduled to gather public comment on Draft Addendum VII to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Horseshoe Crabs. NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife meets Jan. 5, 2012, 7 p.m., Atlantic County Library, 306 East Jimmie Leeds Road, Galloway. Contact: Pete Himchak 748-2020.
The NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife has announced that hunting and fishing licenses for 2012 are now available at all license agents (http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/agentlst.htm) and online at http://www.nj.wildlifelicense.com/ ). All N. J. fishing and hunting licenses expire on Dec. 31.
Peace and prosperity to all in 2012. Make your New Year’s resolution to get out fishing more often and please make sure you keep aware of the NJ fishing regulations for 2012. Check out NJ DEP Web site for details and up-to-date information.
Send your fishing reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com. All pictures submitted, if they don’t make it in the print version, can be seen on the Herald’s Web site www.cmcherald.com, click on community, then fishing and boating.
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