well, no I haven't winterized yet CaptPete. Looks like we are in a "warm" spell for awhile, may push it off until the holiday weekend. Saturday's busy and Sunday I am going to the Pats-Jets Game.

I went to tempest knob boat ramp, but they had already pulled the docks so I went to the marina by the maritime academy. Besides the closed ramp, a little problem with heart (svt - fast heartbeat thing), and not catching any keepers; I had a great day. It was nice and calm out there. When there was no wind and sunshine, it was actually pretty warm. I did catch 4 tautog besides nuisance fish (sea robin, perch etc). The first one I caught was probably close to the size limit, but I didn't measure thinking I will be catching more\bigger.

MJ, I would have been real easy to find. I was the only one out fishing.

What kind of crab do you use and whats the size limit in your area? Around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge I have only had good luck with fiddler crabs and little to no luck with anything else for tog.

I was using green crabs bought from a bait shop. I was having better luck cutting the big ones in half, taking the top shell off, taking the claws off. I had no bites from the small ones (fiddler crab size) that I left intact.

Tatougs have to be 16 inches long and there is a limit of 3 fish here in MA.

BS and I live like maybe 10 miles from that ramp, we both have resident stickers for Tempest, But have used the Bourne Marine ramp that you used for years, and we used it a few weeks back as the roads to Tempest has been all dug up.
Glad you had a great day, let me know if you head up this way again!

Captin No I have not winterized yet. Hell if I had a enclosure i wouln't bother, Thats next on the list!

well its official. I am definatly going fishing tomorrow. I will be heading out of Manasquan inlet and heading north. Probably up to Asbury Park, Long Branch and maybe even up to Shrewsbury rocks. With any luck I will get something. I will keep my vhf on channel 65 or 05 if you are heading out Rob or anyone else give me a shout.

will do....I'm pretty much loaded up for tomorrow too.... I'll try to let you know where we settle in...not sure as of yet, will wait and see what the wind feels like.

hey road, you refer to "perch" as a nuisance fish. what exactly are yu talking about? do you have a picture of these "perch"?

Well I didn't do too good today. My son and I get to the boat around 8 and promptly head out even though the flags at the marina are standing straight out. We get to the inlet and it looked a little rough. No problem I've had Spongebob out there in an honest 6-7' swells. We cleared the inlet and turn north right into a 5-6' heavy chop. We didn't even make it 1 mile north of the inlet and we already took 3 waves over the bow. Needless to say we turned around and tried fishing in the river. Unfortunatly so did every other small boat that was not able to fish outside. After about an hour or so of dodging boats and jetty fisherman we went back to the marina. I hope you had better luck Rob. Wednesday looks ok so maybe I could try again before work.

Well it was a little rough but not nearly that bad out of Atlantic Highlands and around the hook....Only managed to troll up a couple big blue fish but at least it was a little something to keep us entertained....the little one got sick and the 6 year old passed out from the dramamine and slept the whole time..... I will tell you though this was the first time I got to try out the canvas enclosure in some relatively cold weather and I got to say it is the cats ***. with the bright sun it was like a green house in there so everyone was toasty.....also seems to make it appear to be less rough than it is I guess because you feel separated from the water and of course not getting a face full of water every 30 seconds adds to the feeling of security....


All in all a good day on the water...

Yea, sorry I am not sure what the "perch" are officially called, looks kinda like a fresh water perch. We used to just call them bait robbers growing up.

I am glad I didn't have a good catch, otherwise I would be itch'n to go back out.