Established July 1st, 1985

2011 Fishing Reports

Welcome to the 2010 report page where I will try to keep up a running report of what I find during my fishing trips and what I see in the fishing world that affects all of us. If you have questions, comments and general observations or Private messages can be sent by E-Mail and I will try to answer. Please indicate if you would like them posted here.

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Fall Striper Season 2011 , Spring 2011

2011 Reports,  2009 Reports,  Fall 2010 Pictures , Summer 2010 Pictures,  Spring 2010 Picture
 

February 16th, 2012.  It seems that it is harder and harder to get this program fired up to update this page SO I absolutely have to get set up with a more modern system so I can keep you in touch with what is going on.  So if anyone knows of a real simple web site software please let me know.  Beyond that we are getting close to the opening of another Spring Striper Season and with the warm winter I expect it to start up right from the beginning.  As I have in the past I will be offering bounties for the first legal stripers of the season brought into the store.   Details are on the main page and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/abseconbay on my events section where you can JOIN the tournament and get a chance for an additional prize of a $100 gift certificate just for being on the Guest List.

This year there will not be any HERRING for bait due to new restrictions put into place by the State Of New Jersey as a result of orders from the Federal government.  There is lots of information about this on the web so I won't go farther here, except to state that I will be stocking Fresh Bunker as soon as possible and will make sure I have plenty of Bloodworms and Clams in stock.  As to live baits I probably won't be able to stock Spot until after May 1st when the Maryland Crabbers can set their traps. I'll be looking for more options because Live Bait is my favorite way of fishing. 

Because I won't have to go up to my Fyke Nets every day this March and April, I will be making a great effort to get my back bay charters going early this year.  There might be more chunking involved, but if this weather pattern continues I expect some active fish very early.  Last Spring was the best River Fishing I have ever heard of and I hope to get out and experience it this spring.  This is something you should be doing as well.  I will try and keep you updated on the fishing as much as possible. 

As far as my efforts in Guatemala go with my boat , the "Tijereta" everything is finally really underway and the fishing so far for 2012 has been sensational.  I made a very quick trip down about a week ago and unfortunately I did not get out on the water, but I did get to work out some details with Capt. Dennis and we are actively booking four boats on the Pacific, The Tijereta a 25' diesel cruiser, the Ballena a 30' Sportfisherman, and two 24' outboard Super Pangas.  All these boats will get you to the fish and at prices much more affordable than any others in Guatemala without skipping on any of the necessities.  Like our page at www.facebook.com/fishguatemala to get constant reports and all the information you need.

For now I'll keep plugging along restocking the store and getting ready for what I hope will be the best Fishing season since I started this business in 1985.

October 29th, 2011.  I can't believe Striper Season is already here!  It's been a busy month even if I haven't been fishing much.  the weather and the water have been warmer than normal so there hasn't been the striper action I've been hoping for.  I did make my first charter last Wednesday with Dave Morris.  He had been chomping at the bit to get on the bass but the conditions finally came together and I called the trip.  Unfortunately his crew backed out so he came down alone and we found a great day.  A bit windy and we were at the new moon in the middle of a "King Tide" that made conditions a little difficult but we did find the fish and I put the first keeper in the boat.  Dave stayed busy with a steady stream of fat "Shorts" that couldn't quite break the minimum.  Total was 13 bass to the boat with a dozen swimming for another day.      If you want to get in on this kind of fishing give me a call.  It will only get better thru November,  but the days are filling up.  I do have a couple holes next week and the weather report is good,  After that the calendar is pretty full so you will have to act soon.

Today we are in the middle of a classic "Blow Out" with North East winds and rain pounding the area.  That is the reason I've been able to find time to sit down and spend a couple minutes writing this report,  Another chance to push my Facebook Page now easy to find at www.facebook.com/abseconbay It is really easy for me to update the page and if you are my "Fan" you will get my updates right on your news feed and I'll make sure you know where the fish are.  But back to today.  Overall the fishing has been a little slow and I have to blame that on the weather, most important the water temperature which was at least 61 degrees everywhere Wednesday and the weather which has been a bit on the rough side and we haven't seen any real volume of bait in the back bay since Hurricane Irene.  There was a great mullet run and I filled my tanks with some fat fingers.  They were equal favorites with Wednesdays fish along with the Spot. 

I'm sure  by now you know that the Spot didn't leave their southern haunts for a summer vacation  on our coast so I've been forced to "Import" my supply, but I have great suppliers and I do have plenty and more on the way so if you want a couple, a dozen or a couple hundred to fill a pen, just stop by they are ready to go.  The same with eels.  I'm ready for the blitzes to come.  No need to order ahead just bring a bucket and take home all the slimy critters you want.  The surf clam supply looks good and I should keep the cooler filled up so there is no need to reserve them.  Fresh Bunker has been the one tough bait to come up with, the rough weather seems to have kept them outside pretty far off the beach out of reach of the small local netters and even the big bait boats haven't been consistent.  Hopefully after this blow there will be some northern schools on the way south and help out the availability.

Overall even though the fishing has been off to a little slower than normal start there have been some great catches. One of the best by Corky Higbee with this 46# Bass out of Little Egg Inlet last weekend on 10/23     The warmer than normal water has made for some good "Poppin" actually on the shallow flats at high tide.  If you try this you will have to put your bait right in the grass where the stripers are ambushing bait.  Most of these fish are short scoolies, but keepers are around just keep throwing your lure at the best targets you can find.

Whatever happens remember that the BEST IS YET TO COME so check out your cold weather gear and get ready for some fantastic fall fishing.

September 22, 2011, It still has been tough to get a decent report out since running a marina and bait and tackle shop has a lot of activity to keep up with even if the fishing is slow.  Wow I even got shut down on this report let's jump ahead to striper time.

September 5, 2011, It's Labor Day today the un-official last day of the summer season and I can already feel the transition starting to a Fall Fishing Feeling.  It might have a lot to do with all the hype last week with "Tropical Storm Irene" (I refuse to call 45 mph winds a Hurricane) since almost all the boats were pulled out of the Absecon Creek and most of coastal New Jersey.  Granted the storm was a serious rain event in the inland parts of the state, but all the activity and warning was for a "Hurricane Wind and Flood" that would wash anyone who stayed on the barrier islands out to sea. As always the summer season is extremely difficult for me to get sit down time to get adequate reports out, but the good news is that during the summer there is always some fantastic fishing to be had and this summer I did a lot of updating on the Absecon Bay Facebook Page, http://www.facebook.com/AbseconBay .  If you haven't signed up with Facebook and are not familiar with the format, it is a strange community, but I suggest that you do sign up and Like my page even if you can't fine any friends.  There is a lot of great information out there.

May 23, 2011, It's already getting hard to get a full report together, but in one sense it is a good thing because it means that it is getting Busy around the Marina.  Flounder Season opened early this year with the usual cold early May temperatures and things weren't quite as fantastic as many expected.  There was a good showing however and many nice fish were caught Including the lunker by Joe Lynch at 7.75# .  The very variable early spring weather has continued, but I have been getting out on several charters with good results.  Unfortunately no blitzes but great days.  Tim Wilbraham caught the first Keeper on the www.abseconbay.com on April 27th fishing with his brother Sam.  After that every day brought at least a couple fish and usually keepers.  The back bay Striped Bass seems to be on the upswing  and Sunday 5/22 was a great trip with Andrew Simonson and Crew Three 34" class keeper bass, that 7.6# Flounder a pair of matching 27" shorts and a 3# flounder made up Great day.  The Customers proved that the two Fluke we caught were not a fluke by weighing in a good number this weekend Including this 4# flattie by Vicky Piperato .  Vicky is also an aficionado of the LIVE SPOT as the top bait and thus the 28" keeper striper she has in her other hand.  It looks like the Chesapeake Bay is already giving up a good supply of SPOT  so I have my tanks full of good sized baits and can now offer them at good pricing. $3 each $30 a dozen and if you want to hold them on your own $225 per hundred. 

If you want to catch a Striper and you don't have a boat it has been an amazing year on the beaches and inlet jetties for the land based anglers.  Clams are still the desired bait and I  have been moving them fast so they are fresh and juicy to attract the Stripers and the Black Drum which have become very common place on the local beaches.  This is good because my supply of Fresh Bunker has been sporadic due to the weather and the ability for the boats to get out.  Actually it has been very unusual for any sportfishing boats to be able to breach the inlets due to this constant South East wind that has been keeping everything stirred up.  I am really hoping that we get in a calm summer like pattern before all the fish head north, but if the last few years are any indication we should have good striper fishing until at least the 4th of July.

May 3, 2011, Getting the store ready for Fluke Season, but I'll give a quick re-cap of the last week.   Of course the upcoming flounder season is most on everyone's minds, and as much as I love flounder fishing the Striped Bass are just starting to turn on in the local back bays and beach fronts and in my opinion that is the fish that you should be what you are really concentrating on.  I haven't seen many Giants in the back, but lots of good eating fish in the 34" like this one caught by Pete . I broke loose with a couple charters last week and we did take home fish for dinner, but with the good weather over the weekend I got a much improved Striper Report.  The Drum continue to improve, with the Hot Spot being Lakes Bay, an often overlooked fishery.  The Drum fishing has gotten so good that I've opened a division in the Grand Slam Customer Appreciation Tournament  so stop by and register, or LIKE, Absecon Bay Sportsman Center on Facebook and you will automatically be registered.  I hope to see some of these big ugly monsters weighed in here over the weekend.  Remember the tournament is FREE an there are Gift Certificates for 1st- $100, 2nd- $50, and 3rd- $25 for Flounder, Striped Bass, Bluefish and Black Drum. 

The Customer appreciation is going on STRONG right NOW and you can get at least 25% off almost everything in the store.  More information is available HERE at this Link  Remember the sale ends when the store closes on Friday and you can expect to pay my regular LOW prices thru the rest of the Flounder season, so stock up NOW.

The Tog season is history and the Sea Bass won't open until June so if you are an ocean rider you should start looking for the bunker schools and the big Bass that should start leaving their spawning rivers and heading up the coast. 

1st Stripers of the season recap:

• 1st Legal Striper of the year $200 gift certificate
  (Nick Nastasi 3/1/2011)

• 2nd Legal Striper $100 gift certificate
  (Eric Aubrey 3/2/2011 )  see report for details

• 3rd  Legal Striper $50 gift certificate
  (Jeff Normant 3/3/2011)

• 1st Striper over 20#, $100 gift certificate
  (Dan Large 3/20/2011 26.05#)
   

• 1st Striper over 30#, $100 gift certificate
  (Mary Solinski 4/12/2011, 31#)

April 21, 2011, The boat www.AbseconBay.com is floating and the new DF175 Suzuki is running like a top.  It also catches fish as my boy Kevin proved with this 34" Bass. That was Tuesday morning on a short shakedown cruise just across Absecon Bay we weren't fishing  more than ten minutes before Kevin hooked up and we only made a couple more very short drifts before I had to get back to work.  I have to admit that the broiled Striper is as good a fish plate as you can eat, and I did eat plenty.  The leftover pieces also make great fish salad sandwiches which were also enjoyed yesterday. 

That fish was not a lucky catch by any means.  The reports are really coming in and the demand for clams and HERRING have been going up every day.  Of Course the last weekend was a blow out, that seems to be the pattern that we are stuck in, but I looked at a full cooler of clams Monday morning and figured that they would easily last until Thursday or Friday when the next delivery would take place.  They practically flew out with the good weather on Tuesday leaving only one bushel for Wednesday morning that didn't last long. The truck pulled up with another load this morning so I'll be completely set for the Easter Weekend.

 It really is great to see a good clam bite which we have been missing the last couple years, but there is also a great Drum bit heating up all over the area.  Great Bay is really turning on with the bank fishermen at Graveling Point doing a great job of hauling them in especially after dark.  Lakes Bay is the other hot spot and I am trying to look into how the folks at the Bayport Development from cutting off access to the waterfront which is really state property.  Here's one that Booker Logan brought out of those backwaters.  

Now that we are in the last week of April the water has finally calmed down between storms and spring tides and the tog have decided to bite as shown by this nice one caught by Absecon Bay's own Capt. Tony Genovese.   If you want to catch em' you better hurry because the season ends on April 30 and that is too soon.  The 30th of April also is the day I have to pull my HERRING nets and the season has been the slowest that I have been catching them. The present price is $4.00 each and if I don't get a major catch in the next couple days I will have to save the rest for my charters.  I am looking forward to an early shipment of spot which should keep up the slack for live bait and I'll be stocking FRESH BUNKER as soon as the bait boats can get out, Maybe tomorrow.

Speaking of charters, now that the motor has been christened and I have blood on the fresh cleaned deck I am open for business and have a couple of trips booked for next week.  Beat the fluke fleets and get on the stripers before May 7th and once my tournament is over on opening weekend I'll be booking combo trips, but if they are a possibility Stripers are my prime target.

April 13, 2011, Yesterday the 1st 30# bass of the year came thru the door and Mary Solinski was the lucky angler.  That gives her Absecon Bay bragging rights for the next year and a $100 Gift Certificate which is by far the most valuable. That closes the book on the striper prizes for this year, but now that the flounder season has been confirmed for May 7th I will be running my Customer Appreciation Tournament on the opening weekend and I will be giving out prizes for the biggest fish weighed in by my customers.  Complete details to come up shortly.  To keep up with all the local fishing news, Tournaments and Sales here at Absecon Bay Sportsman Center go to my facebook page and Like Absecon Bay Sportsman Center to get daily reports and updates.

Something very important on the Flounder fishing front.  I was at the NJMFC meeting last week when the season was decided and much of the reason that we were successful in getting an extended season for the folunder was the results of the New Jersey Recreational Anglers Survey  It is a method that the biologists are using to get better catch information and to refute much of the bad data coming out of the Federal Studies.  Follow the link and put in your favorites to check in every time you go fishing, Especially the SKUNKS!

But more importantly back to the Striped Bass Fishing,  at the moment the Egg Harbor and the Mullica Rivers ate the place to be, if you can't get over to Delaware Bay.  The weather hasn't been great,  but it hasn't been bad and I am getting constant reports of not only numbers of fish, but great size.  Mary's 31# fish came out to the Egg Harbor River and I am getting word of mouth reports of lots more fish there.  The bite seems to be from the Beesley's Point Bridge all the way up to the bulkhead in Mays Landing.  I'm getting some particularly good feedback about the area by the old nudist camp.  The middle of the river seems to be the place andI'm getting reports of lots of double digit catches of fish of keeper size.  I even had second hand reports of fish over 40#, but I would have to see that on my scale to put much faith in that size.

The Mullica is giving up similar results and Bruce the Bartender has been hammering shorts in his Kayak, but was pleasantly surprised by this monster last Friday.  He had a tough time getting it into that little yellow log he was fishing out of, but mighty proud of the accomplishment.  That fish came from the middle area of the Mullica and consistent action seems to be coming around Swan Bay and Log Bay along with some fantastic White Perch action.  Curt Stout the resident Perch expert has been fishing with Tony Genovese in the same areas and they have had some good days on Grass Shrimp, but by putting out a dead stick with bunker chunks.  Fishing is really picking up from the mouth and the Graveling Point section of Great Bay thru the middle of the river, but I haven't heard many reports of bass in the upper Sweetwater section of the river, however the Herring have made several runs at the dam and have showed up at the Church but have not been available consistently.  The same back on the Egg Harbor River.  If you want to find HERRING you will have to keep checking because if you wait for a report you probably will be too late.

Now it's back to the physical parts of running a marina and bait and tackle shop and leave this keyboard alone until next time.  Remember we can save you time, effort and probably money on all your spring make-ready needs and get you in the water and fishing quick.  check out all spring prices here.

April 5, 2011, April Fools Day has come and gone, but the weatherman keeps trying to make fools of all of us.  Last weekend was sunny, but the wind didn't forget to blow.  Fortunately quite a few of you are tired of waiting and I did have some customers come thru the store picking up bait mostly to try for perch and stripers in the local rivers.  From the feed back I've gotten they did quite well.  The stripers caught off the bank have been primarily shorts, but there were quite a few white perch dinners hauled out on bloodworms and grass shrimp.  The new moon was Sunday and I thought the HERRING might have gotten a start before that, but I wasn't taking into account the frigid temperatures they faced.  Fortunately Sunday was sunny and warm enough up the rivers to get things started and I did get a decent haul in the very early morning on Monday  and a few more today.  So the tanks are in good shape and that is a good thing because Bill Granato picked up some HERRING from me in the very early yesterday morning and took them to one of his favorite holes in the mouth of an un named River either north or south of here.  He chopped those HERRING into pieces and fed them to a bunch of hungry stripers and caught them up to 26.3 pounds.  He had a busy morning to say the least.

Despite the weather everything is coming together here at Absecon Bay Sportsman Center.  My boat is getting close to ready to launch and Curt has been perfecting his bottom painting skills so if you want to take advantage of our great pricing and super fast turn around give me a call.  Bottom painting up to 20 foot boats is only $159 We pick it up and cover every inch.  It can be launched here for only another $20 and you are on your way to a great season.

Remember the Fresh Water Trout season opens Saturday and I have everything you need to get these colorful fish.  They might not be as big as stripers and won't give you the filets of a flounder, but they are good eating and fun to catch and are available right here in Absecon at the Heritage Park Pond right next to City Hall. 

The Press tide tables just arrived so if you don't get your tide info off the web, you can finally pick up a printed copy.

March 24, 2011, The fishing hasn't had a chance with this typical cold wet March weather.  Fortunately there is a cure, MAY!  and since that is more than a month away we will have to work thru this.  I have been working and the biggest job is that I made the big decision and since I want to give absolutely the best fishing experience possible on my guided fishing trips I am in the process of putting a brand new 175 hp Suzuki Outboard on my 20' Scout.  When I ad the new Lowrance HDS GPS, Depthfinder with side scan, I believe I will have the best back bay fishing machine in South Jersey and one that will hold its own fishing the bunker schools out front this spring and every spring for many years to come.

The outboard came from Chestnut Neck Marina with whom I have had a good partnership in the past with keeping each other supplied with bait and now I am putting my confidence in their boat and motor department to help me on the water.  I'm sure everything will work out so plan now to get on board probably starting about mid-April.

The fishing in Cape May on Delaware Bay must be turning on really well as Adam from the "Adam Bomb Sportfishing" just stopped by to pick up 4 bushels of clams for himself, the Stalker and a couple more boats that are loading up daily whenever the weather permits.  It won't be long now until they start moving up our coast and into out bays and rivers in those big schools we dream about.

March 20, 2011, Finally Spring begins today and even though it's a chilly 33 degrees as I write this it has been warming up for the last few days and there are lots of fish on the move.  A lot of them have been HERRING and white perch influenced by the full moon to get into spawning mode which is a good thing because you know that Mr. Striper will be on their tails and getting ready to do his thing on the full moon next month.  But he will be grubbing in the rivers fattening up for his mating rituals so there is some good catching to do.

Right now as the stripers come into the estuaries and the water is just starting to warm up probably the best way to intercept them is to put out bait and wait for them to find it.  Bloodworms are a first choice this time of year and will produce the most action, but they are expensive and they produce a lot of smaller bass and attention from perch and other bait stealers.  On the other hand if the perch are of good size they are a worthy opponent in their own right and even though they take a bit more time to clean they are just about the best eating fish in our local waters. 

Actually there is a big demand for white perch in the fish markets and there is a limited, but constant commercial net fishery in the tidal section of most of the local rivers.  These fishermen use Fyke nets which are large funnel nets with net leaders that corral the perch and other fish to the mouth of the net where they end up in a bag at the end.  When perch are moving up or down stream these nets can be amazingly effective and the commercial fisherman can take incredible amounts, which for him is good because to actually make a decent pay day it takes an incredible amount of fish in any commercial fishery.  However the trade off is that for a couple people to make a days pay the recreational fishermen in New Jersey are loosing thousands of pounds of potential perch dinners.  One good thing about the Fyke nets is that there is very little by-catch and the fact that any by-catch is usually alive in the bag end of the net it can be released alive.  This includes a large number of Striped Bass from yearlings to monsters. 

The Fyke nets are also the ones that I use to catch HERRING and have them alive, in fact it is the only legal commercial method that I can use and catch any number of HERRING and have them to sell for bait.  So to actually condemn the nets I would be somewhat of a hypocrite,  but I have to question the wisdom of allowing any large commercial operations in any of our estuary waters.  I hope to expound more on this in the future and will write more on the Fyke nets, but for now I'm going to try and keep my bait tanks full and will probably catch enough really fat perch for some fried fish dinners.

March 19, 2011, It's only been a couple weeks, but it seems like we've gone thru several eons of time since my last report.  The first three keepers came in in three days and since then I haven't seen any.  I do believe that the rewards have a lot to do with it because I have heard of plenty of good fish coming out of both the Mullica and Great Egg Harbor Rivers and none are showing up for pictures.  I know everyone is probably thinking that here we go again with slow reports, and it is hard to keep up, but I found a new way for quick updates.  Face Book will let me make quick reports and get them on my page and if you take the time to "LIKE" the Absecon Bay Sportsman Center page the reports will show up right on your news feed.    and just to be sure you don't miss anything stop by my personal page and I would love to have you as my "Friend"    David Showell,

What exactly have we missed? I spent the beginning of the week getting my HERRING nets set and they are working.  I do have a good supply of live ones in the tanks already and hopefully the run will be better than last year and I can keep them until the SPOT start showing up out of the Chesapeake Bay. 

On a sad note the store Mascot, no actually much more than a mascot, Truffle the big brown lovable Lab passed away last Tuesday and left a giant hole in my heart and I know he will be missed by everyone who ever met him. I put up an album with lots of pictures to share.

As you may or may know last fall my "Big Johnson" threw a rod and I finally made a decision to partner up with Chestnut Neck Boat Yard and Suzuki  to repower my 20' Scout with a new 175, 4 stroke.  This is my first new outboard since 2000 and it should be a great experience for anyone wanting to get out on the water with me this season.  I am currently doing some reconditioning of the steering and electrical systems and adding a Lowrance HDS unit with side scan so that the stripers have no where to hide.  Even with the increased gas prices I feel the increased range and the security of new power will expand my range and I hope to find the fishing better than ever.  I am starting to fill dates NOW and if this weather holds I expect really good fishing in the bays to start around the full moon in April which is the 17th so plan your schedule and give me a call.

March 4th, 2011, I thought the cold front that kept the temperature right around freezing yesterday might have put a chill on the shallow water fishery.  I put off the outside work and was pushing papers around and stocking shelves when Jeff Normant pulled up to the store in wet waders and had a flopping fish in his hands about 3 pm.  It wasn't a giant like the first two I saw this month, but it was a very shiny, healthy 29" fish that weighed in at 8.40 pounds.  This is one contest that size doesn't mater so Jeff pulled of gift certificate #3.  Evidently the sunny day and dropping tide had kept the water warm enough to get this bass in a feeding mood. 

Jeff like the first two winners was very evasive when asked where the fish was caught so there is no hot spot with this one either. All I could gather was that it was VERY SHALLOW AND WAY IN THE BACK, I have to guess pretty far up stream.  Like the first two fish this one was also active enough to take a lure which pretty much puts aside the myth that the only way to catch the cold water fish is to soak bait on the bottom. It is more work to cast all day or night, but you can cover more area and you cannot knock success. 

But I won't be quick to knock the bait soakers, it definitely works and besides it helps keep me in business.  I do have all the good stuff in the store.  Bloodworms, clams in the shell and even some live eels that I managed to winter over in the indoor pond.  If you do want to throw lures I do still have the biggest selection around so stop by and we will go over the possibilities.

March 3, 2011, #2 did come in yesterday, but I couldn't get it posted on here. There is already soooo... much to do. But I'm doing it and getting it together as fast as possible.  Just 24 hours later and here it is.  by Eric Aubrey which was actually caught about 9 pm on Tuesday night and Eric was at my door promptly at 7 in the morning.   This one did come locally, but the best I could get as a location was a sod bank in the Great Egg Harbor area.  Still it is great to see big fish in the area.  It was caught on a black Sluggo and Eric said that he bit so lightly he barely felt it even on super lightweight gear.  He did add that once he set the hook it did explode into a great fight. 

I really expected to see the third bass yesterday especially as warm as it was.  The bloodworm sales have picked up and there have been a few customers who have tried the clams.  The reports from the rivers is that there are already a good number of willing shorts so it is only a mater of time before some of the bigger fish get hungry.  The perch scene seems to be finally picking up but it still has been difficult for most of perch hunters to find the biggest fish.  One of my bait suppliers said that he is going to make an honest effort to catch live grass shrimp this spring.  that means I'll have to set up a special tank to keep them, but there is no better perch bait going.  It is just one thing that I haven't figured out and this late in the game I'm definitely not in a learn to catch grass shrimp state of mind.

  Saturday looks like it is going to be a good one and I'm going to sneak out of the store early Saturday and go give all this good news to Tom P. right in the studio of Rack and Fin Radio on ESPN 97.3 where I'll share some early season striper tips with all his listeners.  Rack and Fin is on Facebook so you can keep abreast of Tom's antics there.  Remember this report and lots of updates will also be posted on Facebook at the Absecon Bay Sportsman Center fan page and if you "LIKE" the page you will have them come right to your news feed.

March 1st, 2011, Opening day and it didn't take long to see the first striper of the year. Nick Nastasi brought this 18.2 pound whopper into the store about 10:30 this morning (3/1/2011) that he caught in the Waretown area before dawn this morning and claimed the prize.  It got him a new Shimano 5000 Stratic that he will use to throw lures tonight in search of #2. (more pictures)  .  Hopefully I will get updates and more fish today.  The weather is here...the fish is a' beauty.

February 28, 2011, On your Mark...

It starts tomorrow and the weather is almost cooperating.  I'm ready and the store is full of bait, the Bloodworms are wiggling I've already sold a flat and I have more backups on the way for tomorrow.  I got my first case of back strain carrying bushels of clams up to the refrigerator so all I really need is some customers. 

Speaking of clams they are heavy and a royal pain in the ass to handle.  I do my best to keep the best quality clams in stock for all my customers which can be quite a project when you have to calculate the weather, demand and how the clam boats are doing.  They are bait clams caught in North Jersey condemned waters.  No I am not allowed to buy clams from the AC clam boat fleet even though a lot of anglers do get some there by begging.  They are food clams and go to the commercial surf clam quota.  To all my clam customers I am posting here what I have had on my wall for the last couple years:

February 19, 2011, Winter started early this year and it looks like it finally is loosing it's grip.  In effect this isn't a fishing report as such  It is more of a non-fishing report since there has been almost no activity that I could ascertain.  Yesterday the thermometer went into shock as it rose to the seventy degree mark and  finally I had some visitors to the store and the phone started ringing.  Of course the majority were looking for bloodworms and since it is not so nice up in Maine where the diggers work the mud flats they still aren't in stock.  However "Dave the Worm Man" has promised that they will be here before March 1st, which is of course is the first day of striper season.  And they do bite on March 1st and to prove it, here is the picture of  Chris McIntee with the fish he weighed in before noon on the first last year. To show that this was not completely a "fluke" on March second I gave away the 2nd to Jeff Normant and 3rd for Ryan Harp.

Remember that as in years past all Rewards are in effect. 

• 1st Legal Striper of the year $200 gift certificate

• 2nd Legal Striper $100 gift certificate

• 3rd  Legal Striper $50 gift certificate

• 1st Striper over 20#, $100 gift certificate

• 1st Striper over 30#, $100 gift certificate

The rules couldn't be much simpler just get out on the water after 12 am/ March 1st and catch a striper over 28" long and be the first one to bring it to the shop during regular hours which will be 7 am. to 5 pm.

If you've been missing Absecon Bay reports , I've been spending my time trying to keep everyone up to date on the Guatemalan Adventure where my boat the "Tijereta" has been piling up the Sailfish releases and keeping the kitchens stocked with great tasting Dorado filets.  Jump directly to those reports here and see just how good it gets.  If that isn't enough here is the current weather down in Puerto San Jose, Guatemala where we leave out of the Pez Vela Marina.

The fishing is great year round down in Guatemala so any time you want to escape is the perfect time for a trip. 

As usual I'll promise to keep up more regularly with the reports and this year it will be easier to keep up with them with my FaceBook pages.  Go to my personal page Capt. Dave for a FRIEND request,  and LIKE the Absecon Bay Sportsman Center  page , and the Fish Guatemala page .  That way wherever I post you'll get info directly on your page, but stop by here anyway because you are sure to miss something.

Now back to putting it all together to continue to give the best bait , tackle and service possible.