Duke of Fluke
08-16-2005, 09:42 PM
My dad and I headed out on the Big Mohawk for some fluking Sun morning. I had high hopes but the were pretty quickly squashed when the capt and crew told me they had a really bad day on Sat. We cleared the inlet and the boat turned right. I looked at the guy next to me who was a regular and we both said "he's going the wrong way" at the same time. I have fished this boat for years and the capt almost always heads north toward the rough bottom spots off of Deal, Elberon, and Sea Bright. This time he headed south and steamed down the beach for a long time. Appartently with the big swell and wind against tide conditions his northern spots had been nearly unfishable with 12 plus ounces and braid necessary to hold. There were good reports of good fluke fishing to the south off of Seaside and LBI so that is where we headed. We reached the grounds about an hour later and there was already a large fleet gathered including most of the other boats from Belmar. The day provided constant action for most, but keepers were few and far between. I caught over 30 fluke but not one keeper. The guy next to me who is a regular and knows his stuff must have had 50 fish and the only one that went in the box was a barely legal seabass. I'd say the average guy probably had 1 keeper in the box. While the keeper ratio was horrible the action was constant and I managed at least a couple of fish on each drift. The frustrating thing for me was watching my dad who is a relative novice at fluking box four keepers. While the rest of the boat bailed shorts all day my dad only managed about 6-8 fish but four went in the box. Go figure! On the way back to the dock Capt Chris appologized repeatedly for the poor fishing, but it was unnceccessary. With poor conditions he made the best decision he could by running down the beach and altough it was not a great day in terms of meat in the box everyone had plenty of action and the capt and crew gave their best effort. I am off all of next week. I have a birthday fluke charter booked with the stalker out of Cape May on Sunday and I plan to spend the rest of the week fishing the Big Mohawk and maybe one of the Atlantic Highlands party boats for fluke. I'll be hunting my first 10 lber all week baby! :D