July 14 -22 2007 – A Week in Review

Sat – Old Grounds, Seas were Flat, 1-Keeper Fluke and some Sea Bass

Tues – 9 and 10 Buoys, Foggy, Fished with Dave M. 3- Keeper Fluke, Skates and Sharks

Weds – Harbor, Fished with Anthony, Anthony had a few shorts

Thurs – 9 and 10 Buoys, Nice Weather,1-Keeper Fluke, Skates, Sharks, Bluefish. First Time out in the boat on my own.

Sat – 9 and 10 Buoys, Bay was rough to start but improved, Fished with Bill, 2 – Keeper Fluke.


I spent the week in Cape May aboard my palatial yacht, well that might be a slight exaggeration but it worked out and the price was right. For the most part the weather was good all week, and it never became unbearably hot. I thought I was going to knock my head on the head (a.k.a. toilet) when some idiots blew through the no wake zone at night a few times.

On Saturday, since the winds were right, Jim and I headed to the Old Grounds. It’s called the Old Grounds because that’s where all the restaurants dump their old coffee grinds, and the fluke are all jacked up on caffeine. Must have been Decaf because it was a slow day at the Old Grounds. We only had one keeper.

One of the days I replaced the thermostat on the boat. It had been running cool. The problem was that the thermostat wasn’t seated properly (it was sitting Indian Style in there.) I put in the new thermostat and that did the trick.


Monday was too windy.

Dave M. called on Tuesday morning and asked if I wanted to fish. I said yes and the fog was lifting in the marina. Dave got to the marina and the fog started rolling back in. Once it started lifting again we decide to go out on “The Tiramisu”. We headed in the direction of the 9 and 10 buoys. We fished from about 8 – 2 and then the fog started rolling back in, so we decided to make like a banana and split. We ended up with three keepers for the day. Luckily Dave has radar because we needed it on the way in. We were going slowly due to the conditions. Once we got to the inlet it cleared up.

Wednesday I fished with Anthony in the harbor right in front of the marina. We fished while the tide was going out, and we got some good drifts. Anthony was using extremely light tackle and picked up a few shorts. I got a sea robin.

The weather was perfect on Thursday so I decided to take “Offshore Bites” out on my own for the first time. I headed back to the 9 and 10 Buoys again. I actually saw two pelicans sitting on the number 9 buoy when I first got there. These are the first pelicans I’ve ever seen in NJ. There was no drift when I first got there and all I was catching were skates. My arm was getting tired from reeling them in. I also caught a 3-4 foot shark later in the day. I only ended up with one keeper for the day. When I got back to the marina I got the boat into the slip on my own on the first try and it was blowing at about 13 knots at the time.

Friday I helped Capt. Randy install his Sirius Satellite radio receiver in his boat. Bill came down Friday evening.

Bill and I headed out Saturday morning in some rough conditions; there was a strong wind from the North. It took us a while to get out to the 9 and 10 Buoys but we made it out there. We were drifting at 3-4 knots and using 16 oz sinkers. I didn’t think we had a chance of catching anything but Bill pulled one in that was just short of 17 inches on the first drift. Resetting the drift took a while because we had to head right back into the North wind. The seas calmed down once the tide started coming in. We ended the day with 2 keepers. Bill had one early and I had one later in the day.