Fishing Report

[ChileRelleno 7,071]

Saturday, May 2nd, 2nd to the last day of my vacation... Where'd it go?  Oh well, lets go fishing.

 

My son and I got a late start to the pier today, left out at 0500am instead of the usual 0330am.
I got a whole 1.5hrs of sleep after the Boston/Kansas concert last night... Man is my arse dragging the ground right now.
Anyways, no pity for the self inflicted.

Hit J&M, spool a reel, tackle & live skrimps and say hello to John G.
Hit the pier, bypassed the Tourney entry table and targeted Flounder & Pomps.
Lost several Flounder in the skinniest of the skinny, got fed up and moved to the backside of the bar for Pomps.
Saw a whopper 4# pushing 5# Pomp landed,and hooked under a skrimp on a float no less... He wasn't in the tourney.
Hooked up my Pomp, my first on the pier, and was told that no one had entered a Pomp yet.

OK, long story short.
I was told the rules were lax, go ahead and enter & weigh the pomp.
I did... caught the fish & then entered, didn't read the explicit rules.
Rules not lax, disqualified from 1st place on board, still in tourney.
My bad, no excuses, I knew it was kind'a sketchy.
My apologies.
Hooked another Pomp and was welcomed onto the board in 2nd Place.
Took 2nd Pomp at the end of the day, prize 25 Looney Jigs.

 

No Kings caught today.

Spanish, few sporadic bites of Spanish from just North of T and South.
Sometimes the bite was pretty good, and there were plenty of good sized Spanish.

Flounder, lots of smalls, not many keepers, but they were there for those willing to target them.

Pomps, besides the stud I saw caught and my two, I think I saw maybe 5-6 other Pomps caught

Jacks, had one big school come down the bar, out of boredom several of us chased them past the T where they vanished.
Skippies galore up and down the pier... Oh yay, but coolered a couple for shark bait.
Sharks, saw at least a dozen sharks, they weren't feeding much today, no stealing fish left & right... Cool!
Blues made a pretty good appearance later in the day.

Everything was kind'a sporadic & slow, but those who kept at it caught keepers and put fish in their coolers.

Later in the day I had an LY out tryng for a King and an Osprey took it.
Treble stuck in his feet, I was trying to kite him onto the Octi, but he didn't cooperate and he had to be hand lined up.
He was a very unhappy raptor, and he had a nasty beak and huge talons.
This was going to be tricky and dangerous, he could send someone to the ER very easily.
My thanks to those who helped me with this bird and for the successful release.

 

We took home two Pomps, several Blues, two Skips and some ray wings.
Pomps and three blues were today's lunch.
Other Blues, Skips and wings went into freezer for shark bait.

 

 

Money shots of lunch today.

 

 

 

[storm6490 2,768]

Awesome!

[David Mark 2,452]

You know I'll eat damn near anything that swims but I just can't seem to get myself to like bluefish.

 

Problem is that the little bit of surf fishing I get to do each year is in Cape May, NJ and all I ever seem to catch is blues.

 

Any secrets to preparing them you'd like to share Chile?

[ChileRelleno 7,071]

Part of your problem is what the North Eastern Blues are eating, all those oily baitfish and it makes them taste like oily crap.

Have you tried only eating the smaller ones, 10-12" and carefully trimming the bloodline out?

 

My preferred method is using a very well seasoned coating, whether it be flour, cornmeal, cracker or bread crumbs and deep frying.

Egg wash, dredge and fry.

 

Also very good is coating them in mayo or olive oil & sprinkle generously with Cavenders Greek Seasoning and grill them over the BBQ in a fish basket till crusty.

Or same way but broiled on high for about 15 minutes or until a nice crust forms.

 

Eat them hot, don't let them cool down.

The same goes for Spanish macks, I can't stand them cool/cold, taste nasty.

But fresh and hot they're delicious.  Its like some chemical reaction takes place when they cool after cooking.

Edited May 5, 2015 by ChileRelleno

[PFerris 76]

ChileRelleno,  Just love to read your fishing reports and see the photos of the fish.  Thanks for sharing them!!

[David Mark 2,452]

Thanks for the info Chile. Maybe I'll try some of the smaller ones like you suggest.

 

I remember one trip where that was all we were able to catch was the little guys. Kept getting my baits ripped off till I rigged a little stinger hook to the line just below the main hook. The little bastards didn't notice the little hook hidden in the bait till it was too late.

 

Ended up throwing them all back anyway.