December 15, 2009

The Striper fishing has significantly tapered off and we have DISCONTINUED OUR DAILY STRIPED BASS TRIPS.

We have added a couple more ALL DAY BLACKFISH TRIPS to our schedule.   This week, the VOYAGER will be fishing for Blackfish on the following dates:

7:00 AM to 3:00 PM Wednesday DECEMBER 16
7:00 AM to 3:00 PM Friday DECEMBER 18
7:00 AM to 3:00 PM Saturday DECEMBER 19
7:00 AM to 3:00 PM Sunday DECEMBER 20

The fares are $60 Adults, $55 Seniors, $30 Children, and $5 Rod rental
Open boat - NO reservations required


December 6, 2009

We've added some NEW HOLIDAY TRIPS to our fishing schedule...

ALL DAY BLACKFISH TRIPS
7:00 AM to 3:00 PM Saturday DECEMBER 19 and Sunday DECEMBER 20
The fares are $60 Adults, $55 Seniors, $30 Children, and $5 Rod rental
Open boat - NO reservations required

12-HOUR COD, POLLOCK & LING TRIPS
6:00 AM to 6:00 PM Saturday DECEMBER 26, Sunday DECEMBER 27 and Wednesday DECEMBER 30
The fare is $100
Open boat - NO reservations required

SPECIAL OFFSHORE WRECKS TRIPS - COD, POLLOCK, LING, PORGIES and HAKE

11:30 PM Friday night JANUARY 1
11:30 PM Saturday night JANUARY 2
11:30 PM Saturday night JANUARY 9
11:30 PM Friday night JANUARY 15
11:30 PM Saturday night JANUARY 16
11:30 PM Friday night JANUARY 22
11:30 PM Saturday night JANUARY 23

(All trips return between 6-7:00 PM the on the following evening)
The trips are limited to 30 anglers and the fare is $170.  RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED.


December 1, 2009

We will be running a special OFFSHORE COD AND POLLOCK TRIP departing at 1:00 AM FRIDAY DECEMBER 11 and returning between 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM Friday evening.  Bunks are included and the galley will be open for food.   The trip will be limited to 30 anglers and the fare is $150.   All payments will be taken in cash at the time of sailing.  Since the trip is being planned on relatively short notice you can just e-mail us to put you on the boarding list.   Please e-mail ONLY WHEN YOU ARE 100% SURE THAT YOU WANT TO GO since spots are limited.   As always, boarding will be one hour prior to sailing and in the order that you booked.

IT'S OFFICIAL!   The IGFA has announced that the whopping 63.5 pound Golden Tilefish caught by Dennis Muhlenforth of Hockessin, Delaware is a new IGFA WORLD RECORD.   Dennis caught the record fish on our August 17 Tilefish trip. Congratulations Dennis!


November 30, 2009

After a number of bad weather days over the holiday weekend, we managed to get a Striper trip in on Sunday.  Fishing was not as good as it was during the week, which was probably due to the insane amount of boat traffic.   We read fish on the finder most of the day, but they were picky.  The boat traffic made the fish spooky and when we did find a bunch that wanted to eat, we would get overrun by small boats.

We ended up with a handful of keepers and about 25 shorts.   The high hook angler had 7 or 8 shorts and a keeper.   The pool fish was a beautiful 27 pound Striper caught by A.D. Mitchell from Trenton, NJ.

We are STRIPER FISHING EVERY DAY at 7:30 AM.   At the moment, the Wednesday weather looks like the best of the week.




November 26, 2009

I just spoke with Captain John on the VOYAGER and the Striped Bass and Blues are biting again today.   STARTING THIS SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, we will be STRIPED BASS FISHING EVERY DAY from 7:30 AM to 2:30 PM.



We will not be running any trips this Friday or Saturday since the winds are supposed to blow over 40 knots at times.
The next nice day looks like Sunday so come on down and get in the hot Striper and Blues action!

Please note we will not sailing Friday December 25.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!


November 25, 2009

We made our first Striper trip today and fishing was HOT. Several fares had limits along with all the Slammer Blues you could reel in.   Today's pool fish was in the 20 pound class!  Since the fishing is so great, the Voyager will be sailing tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day from 6:30 AM to 12:30 PM.



November 23, 2009

We were out blackfishing this past weekend on both Saturday and Sunday.  The Blackfish were a bit picky and were scratching and pushing the baits around before biting.   We still managed a few limit catches around the boat each day with others landing one or two keepers.   I fished yesterday and had seven keepers and 13 shorts with the biggest one around 4 pounds.  We are fishing every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.   For our full schedule, see our Trip Calendar page.

We also made our first Magic Hours Ling trip this past Saturday.  The Ling fishing started out okay, but fizzled out after a little while.  Things should improve as the water cools down.






November 11, 2009

We made a Tuna trip this past weekend and it was a tough one.  The weather was bad, particularly on the ride out, and we had slow fishing throughout the trip.   Water temperatures were 63.1 degrees, which is fine for tuna at this time of year, but they didn't cooperate at all.  We ended up with a couple of tuna and lost 4 or 5.   We also had a number of large blue sharks which may also have hurt the tuna bite.   We have a trip this coming Saturday night (November 14) if weather permits and we still have room.  It is our last scheduled tuna trip of the season.  There is some beautiful 68-71 degree moving our way from the east.  The water is already up on the 100 fathom curve and should be within our reach in a week or two.  If the water gets to the Hudson canyon, we will add one more tuna trip to check it out.


















This past weekend we made a 'short notice' Tilefish trip due to the great weather forecast for Sunday night.   The weatherman was dead on this time and the fishing was very good.  We had a mix of Tilefish, Barrel fish, and Wreckfish.  Mike DeSimone of Long Branch, NJ won the pool with a 46 pound Tilefish which beat out a 38 pounder caught by Dennis Muhlenforth of Hockessin, DE.   We will probably do one more of these 'short notice' trips in the next few weeks, so keep checking your e-mail.  We may even combine one with a tuna trip.

We are very happy to announce that we have added Captain John Chiavarini Jr. to the crew of the VOYAGER.   Some of you may know John from running and working deck on other local party boats or from the old Sea Pigeon in Perth Amboy.  Captain John brings years of skill and experience and will be a great asset to the Voyager team.   Captain John will be running Magic Hour Ling Trips for us this fall.

We are still fighting the government to get the Sea Bass closure overturned.   Hopefully, we can get back to the offshore Sea Bass grounds after January 1, but it still anyone's guess.   If anything changes before that, we will shift into full Sea Bass mode and let you know immediately.

Unless something changes, here is our trip schedule for November and December.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 16 - OPENING DAY BLACKFISH MARATHON 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM  (Adults $75, Seniors $70, Children $40)

STARTING FRIDAY NOVEMBER 20...

FRIDAYS - BLACKFISH MARATHON 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM  (Adults $75, Seniors $70, Children $40)

SATURDAYS and SUNDAYS - BLACKFISH TRIP 7:30 AM to 3:00 PM  (Adults $60, Seniors $55, Children $30)

SATURDAY and SUNDAY AFTERNOONS - MAGIC HOUR LING TRIP with Captain John Cheverini Jr. 4:00 PM to 10:00 PM  (Adults $55, Seniors $50, Children $30)

SPECIAL LING TRIP Friday night November 27 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM  (Adults $55, Seniors $50, Children $30)

Not sailing Friday December 25.


November 5, 2009

A number of people have been asking about going Tilefishing lately, especially with the Sea Bass closure in effect.    The weather forecast for Sunday/Monday looks great.  I am taking an interest list for a short notice TILEFISH TRIP leaving 10:00 PM Sunday night and returning 8:00 PM Monday.   The fare will be the normal $300.   Please send us a message if you are interested.  If we can get 15 people together, we'll go.

For the tuna guys, we still have a few open spots for the Saturday night TUNA TRIP on November 7, as well as for the Friday, November 13 and Saturday night, November 14 trips.   The warm water is still at the 100 fathom curve, so the tuna should still be there.


October 23, 2009


















TUNA FISHING HAS PICKED UP over the last week with a mix of Yellowfin and Longfin as well as some Swordfish.   A warm water eddy in the Hudson canyon has stayed in the same area for a number of days and is holding fish.   It looks like we should have good fishing on the upcoming trips as more bait and tuna bunch up on the temperature break.

We have trips coming up on Sunday night 10/25, Tuesday night 10/27, Thursday night 10/29, Friday night 10/30, and Saturday night 10/31 this week.  The fishing has switched over to a DAYTIME BITE so we will be LEAVING AT 8:00 PM and returning at 6:00 PM for the remainder of the year.  This will give us more time at the rail during the prime fishing hours.

All of our trips have availability and at the moment, the Sunday/Monday weather looks pretty good.   If you are interested, please send us a message.


October 18, 2009

Unfortunately, we don't have much to report since the whole fleet has been sidelined for a week due to bad offshore weather conditions.  The last clear sea temperature shot showed warm water moving into the Hudson and Toms Canyon areas.   This is the same warm water eddy that the Rhode Island boats did well in a month ago.

It looks as though we are going to get a break with beautiful weather for the middle this week.  We have three spots left on this Tuesday's 30-hour trip and quite a few spots on Sunday evening the October 25.   If you are interested please send us a message.

IMPORTANT  NEWS!!!



This closure is just the first step in an effort by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to arbitrarily regulate all of our fisheries and PREVENT YOU FROM FISHING.   Today it is Sea Bass, and tomorrow it will be Fluke and Stripers.

Below is a copy of a letter from the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) which states their plan to file a court injunction to overturn the closure.  Please take the time to read it carefully and hopefully make a donation.   Many party boat captains including myself have already donated thousands of dollars.  We'll let the RFA letter explain the rest.


Recreational Fishing Alliance Action Alert (www.joinrfa.org)
 
RFA & ALLIES WILL SUE TO REOPEN SEA BASS FISHERY

"Unprecedented" Federal Closure Forces Recreational Fishermen Into Legal Action
 
October 9, 2009 - In the midst of the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, our federal government has chosen to shut down the recreational fishery for black sea bass for the next six months (effective Monday, October 5, 2009) based on survey data that's been described as "fatally flawed" by the National Academy of Sciences (read "Fatally Flawed" Science is Killing America's Number One Outdoor Pastime special report at www.joinrfa.org.)
 
The Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) and our local industry allies from New York to the Carolinas are fighting back against this unprecedented and unwarranted shutdown of the black sea bass fishery by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).   RFA members throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic believe this is a battle that must be fought, regardless of the outcome and have demanded that we take action.   What is at stake is nothing less than our very future as recreational fishermen, and the future of our recreational fishing industry.
 
During the first days of the closure, a grassroots effort within the recreational fishing community resulted in a successful pledge drive of support for legal action.  At the same time, a team of qualified fisheries attorneys and industry professionals was reviewing NMFS' federal ruling and poring through pages of legal documentation to develop a proper legal strategy.   Tackle shop owners and party/charter captains up and down the East Coast, along with scores of individual anglers and RFA members who've had enough of these arbitrary federal decisions, have been making donations to the RFA Legal Defense Fund, established specifically for issues like this.
 
Our legal team is currently working on our plan of attack; now it's time that we ask individual anglers to come together and support this effort!
 
According to the scientists' own data, black sea bass is a healthy stock - they are not overfished, no overfishing is occurring, and the most recent stock assessment places the spawning stock biomass (SSB) at 103% of their target.  In fact, the SSB has been at or above this level for the past decade.   Yet, despite this scientific information, the recreational angling community is being denied access to this vitally important fishery due to "fatally flawed" information coming from the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistical Survey, or MRFSS.
 
What's worse is that there seems to be no end in sight to the MRFSS assault.   Today it's the complete shutdown of a healthy sea bass fishery.  Next, we can expect an impact on the summer flounder limits for 2010, and scup soon after that.  Could striped bass be next?  How about tog?   If "fatally flawed" data has not impacted your favorite fishery, rest assured it will happen soon enough if we don't take a stand today.   Where does it end if we allow the federal government to continue to use a broken system to deny recreational anglers access to healthy fisheries?
 
The RFA has assembled an experienced legal team to take on the case to overturn the federal shutdown of the recreational black sea bass fishery.  The attorneys involved are fishermen themselves who have fought these battles before so they know this specialized area of the law and there's no learning curve to be climbed.   They've already begun working on the case and have formulated a preliminary strategy to challenge this closure under existing federal law.
 
Litigation is inherently uncertain, and there's no way to guarantee a successful outcome. However, you can guarantee that if NMFS gets away with this closure, there will be more recreational closures to come. In the coming days, we will be drafting an official complaint which demands that the improper closure of sea bass be set aside.
 
Now it's time we unite and show the federal government that recreational anglers will not tolerate arbitrary and capricious regulatory actions that inhibit our ability to utilize a healthy resource, thus violating the very laws set forth by the Magnuson Stevens Act.
 
If you're a member of the recreational fishing industry who has already committed to the fight with a pledge, you can support this effort by sending a check today made payable to the "RFA Legal Defense Fund" as follows:
 
RFA Legal Defense Fund
PO Box 3080
New Gretna, NJ 08224
 
Please be sure to write "Sea Bass" in the memo of the check and make a notation on the outside of the envelope to the same effect.   Your timely response is to the benefit of us all.   The Recreational Fishing Alliance will be dedicating all checks made payable to the RFA Legal Defense Fund directly towards these legal efforts outlined above.  All donations will be tracked individually, from all groups and individual anglers. 
 
The RFA has also set up a special online account through PayPal in which individual anglers can also make a donation.  Many of the tackle shops and captains who rely on your valued service have pledged up to $500 apiece towards the fight.  As an individual angler trying to make an honest stand in a tough economy, whatever donation you can offer towards the RFA Legal Defense Fund will be much appreciated.


September 27, 2009

Our past few tuna trips have been fair with some Yellowfin tuna, swordfish, and Mahi-Mahi on most every trip.  The trips where we do better are the ones with more people jigging.  I realize it's hard to jig for long periods of time, but it is usually pretty effective.  Over the last week, we have been reading more and more fish coming under the boat each night, but for some reason, they are not hanging around for very long.  We hook one, two, or three at a time and then they are gone for a while.   We suspect that the bite will get better as we get closer to the upcoming full moon.  Most of the fish have been 20-25 pounds, but there have been a few 40 pounders and 70 pounders too.   We'll keep you posted if things start to get really hot on the tuna grounds.

On a different note, the bad weather this weekend gave us the time to work on the winter Sea Bass schedule.  We should have it posted on the web site shortly.


September 19, 2009

Sorry about the long time between fishing reports.   If we were not offshore, we were busy rescheduling folks from blown out trips.  The past few trips have all been about the same.   We have been catching a hand full of Yellowfin and Albacore tuna, as well as a couple of keeper Swordfish each night.  On our last trip, Kevin Tunney of Mays Landing, NJ had a beautiful 175 pound Swordfish.   We also had excellent Mahi-Mahi fishing on the past few trips with fish ranging from 5 to 20 pounds.

There is a new body of warm water moving into our canyons which should spark up the fishing.   There is also a larger body of warm water further east, which looks good for October.  We think we may have a more "normal" tuna season with good October and November fishing.




We have a few spots left on the Tuesday (September 22) 30-hour TUNA-MAHI TRIP, and our next availability is the TUNA TRIP on Sunday September 27.   You can view our full schedule on our Trip Calendar page.   If you are interested in going on any trips, please send us a message.


September 11, 2009 - Today marks the eighth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Please take a moment of silence to remember the 2,752 folks that lost their lives on that tragic day.  We also pay tribute to the men and women of our police, firefighters, first aid and all first responders for their bravery and spirit.  May God bless all of the Americans who gave their lives for our freedom and God Bless America.


August 20, 2009





We made our final Tilefish Trip of the year last Sunday into Monday.   This trip turned out to be one of the best of the year.

Dennis Muhlenforth of Hockessin, Delaware caught what turned out to be a potential new WORLD RECORD TILEFISH and NEW JERSEY STATE RECORD TILEFISH!   The monster Tilefish weighed in at a whopping 63.5 pounds.   Congratulations again Dennis!

We also had a great shot at Wreckfish on this trip along with a couple of Barrelfish mixed in, but we'll let the trip photos on our Photo Gallery do the rest of the talking.

The VOYAGER starts TUNA FISHING as soon as Hurricane Bill passes by, but for those Tilefish lovers out there, we have a number of TUNA AND TILEFISH COMBO TRIPS.  All of the info is on our Trip Calendar page.












August 14, 2009

The VOYAGER made its first tuna trip last Monday.  The trip was a trolling/jigging combo trip with no chunking planned.  After arriving at the Canyon, we found a temperature break where the water went from 75.6 to 78.0 degrees.  We started trolling just after sunrise and had tuna on within 15 minutes.   The fish were Yellowfin up to about 20 pounds.  Once we hooked some troll fish, the rest of the boat started jigging with diamond jigs.   At times, we had as many as six tuna on at one time on the jigs.

The fishing slowed down around 10:30 in the morning, so after an hour with no bites, we tried pot hopping for Mahi.  We tried several pots with only a couple of Mahi sightings, but no takers.   We then moved to the inshore lumps to try for some Bluefin.   Soon after arriving at the lumps, we started to get some Bluefin bites on jigs.   A couple fish were landed in the 50-65 pound range and a number were lost.

All in all, it was a good trip with a total of 21 Yellowfin and 2 Bluefin tuna boated.   We hope this is the start of a good tuna season.

THE VOYAGER STARTS SAILING DAILY TO THE CANYONS FOR TUNA 4:00 PM THURSDAY AFTERNOON AUGUST 20.


August 5, 2009

We sailed on two TILEFISH TRIPS during the last few days. One trip was a one-day charter and the other was our two-day southern canyons special.

On the first trip, we had a group from 46 BAIT AND TACKLE.   We had good drifting conditions for the entire trip and fishing was good from the start.   This was the first Tilefish trip for one of the guys on board and he landed a dozen fish.  All-in-all, the group combined for 80 Tilefish up to 23 pounds.

Our 2-day trip started with a bouncy ride to the southern grounds.   We arrived at about 6:30 in morning and were greeted by a large swell, but there was little wind.  We poked around for the first few hours catching an odd Tilefish here and there.   By mid morning, we stopped on a spot that was alive with fish.   We caught a true cornucopia of species.   They included Tilefish, Wreckfish, White Hake, Squirrel Hake, Cusk, Streamer Bass, and lots of Rose Fish.

As the trip progressed, we caught a number of Tilefish up to 20 pounds as well as some Mahi-Mahi that swam by the boat.  We drifted at night and a few anglers tried some deep rigs for Swordfish and Tuna, but only a couple of Blue Sharks were hooked.  On the morning of the second day, we started out catching some Tilefish.   While fishing, we saw a Mako Shark jump by the side of the boat and soon realized that someone had it hooked.   He actually had it snagged in the back.  After about a 20 minute fight, we got the Mako to the side of the boat.   We got one gaff in it, but the Mako broke the gaff before we could get a flying gaff into it.   Unfortunately, the Mako then broke the line.

After a few less-than-spectacular drifts, we moved to another area.  After fishing for about 15 minutes, we started hooking some fish.   These were much bigger Tilefish than we had been catching and definitely the ones we were looking for.  Most of the fish were over 20 pounds and some were over 30 and 40.  We made a number of drifts throughout the afternoon catching some monster Tilefish up to 48.5 pounds.  On one of our last drifts, we had half of the anglers hook up with what appeared to be big Tilefish.   When we started getting the fish to the surface, they were all large Wreckfish up to 23.5 pounds and there were many double-headers.  We also landed one nice Barrelfish.   Unfortunately, we were running out of time and the wind was supposed to kick up, so we headed for home.

Our pool fish was caught by Dennis Muhlenforth of Hockessin, DE and weighed 48.5 pounds.   Todd Hooper of Whiting, NJ had ten Tilefish with his biggest fish weighing over 40 pounds.  Honorable mention goes to Pete Bardes of Newark, NJ with seven Tilefish, two Wreckfish and seven Rose Fish.   We're not sure of the exact fish count for a lot of the guys but most anglers had 6 to 14 Rose Fish, along with varying numbers of Tilefish and Wreckfish.   It was an exciting trip fishing new areas and catching such a wide variety of fish.  The best thing was that you never really knew what was going to bite next.   We're sure we'll being doing more of these trips in the future.

You can see few trip pictures on our Photo Gallery page.

Our LAST TILEFISH TRIP of the year is a 24-hour trip leaving 10:00 PM Sunday night August 16.  If you are interested, please call 732-295-3019 or send us an e-mail.

We have some exciting fall trips sponsored by various rod and reel manufacturers that include demo equipment and giveaways.  Check our Special Trips page for details.


July 18, 2009

Fluking was just a pick today with a mix of Fluke and Sea Bass.  A fast drift in the morning hurt the guys who were bucktailing.  Frank Clemente of Toms River, NJ won the pool with a 5 1/2 pound Fluke and wound up with a couple of keeper Fluke and a couple of Sea Bass.   Bill Stabile of Lavalette, NJ had three keeper Fluke up to 4 pounds plus a few Ling and Sea Bass.  Light winds forecast for Sunday should make bucktailing the ticket tomorrow.


July 17, 2009

Fluking was pretty good today with plenty of action for those who used bucktail jigs.  Some anglers had as many as 30 fish.  Frank Morris of Brick, NJ won the pool with a 4 pound Fluke and also had another keeper plus a few Sea Bass.   High hook went to Pat Farley of Pt. Pleasant Beach, NJ with four keeper Fluke and a couple of Sea Bass.  We are sailing for Fluke every day except Monday from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

















Our past two Tilefish trips were a battle of conditions.   At times we drifted close to 2 knots and anglers had to use a lot of weight to keep their bait on the bottom.   At other times, we were at a virtual standstill and covered no ground at all on the drift.   We managed to scratch together catches of both Blueline and Golden Tilefish.

Mel Deak of Perth Amboy, NJ and Tony Puzzo of Middlesex, NJ each had eight Tilefish to share high hook honors.   Emil Jaskot had six tilefish and two Yellowfin tuna (both caught on Tilefish rigs) for the trip.  The Tilefish varied in size from small fish to pool winners in the high twenties.


July 12, 2009


















We had a light crowd on both days this weekend and Fluke fishing was much better.  We had a good showing of both keepers and shorts.  A number of anglers had 2-4 keeper Fluke with fish up to 5 pounds.   We were fishing hard bottom most of the time and added a few Sea Bass to the catch.

We normally sail for Fluke every day except Monday from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM, but we have a charter this coming Wednesday, so we won't be Fluke fishing.   The Wednesday July 15 trip is an OFFSHORE TILEFISH TRIP and there are still some spots available.


June 30, 2009


















We were out fishing yesterday on our regular Sunday-Monday Tilefish trip.  The weather forecast was for 10-15 knot winds, so in order for anglers to be able to hold bottom, we fished in an area where we catch tiles in 'shallow' depths of 350-600 feet.  In an ironic turn of events we had current directly opposite the wind and, in effect, neutralized each other.  For the entire morning, we barely drifted at all and as you would expect, we only caught a few Tilefish.   We tried a lot of spots, but without a drift we struggled.

In the afternoon, the drift picked up and we caught some fish, but nothing great.  T.J. McNally of High Bridge, NJ was high hook with 3 1/2 Tilefish (one fish was eaten in half by a shark) and 12 year old Art Spatafore Jr. of Browns Mills, NJ won the pool with a 24 pound Tilefish.   Good job Art Jr.!

We are fishing for TILEFISH EVERY SUNDAY NIGHT at 10:00 PM for the remainder of the summer.  You can check availability on our Trip Calendar page.   We have been kicking around the idea of offering a 2-DAY TILEFISH TRIP, so keep checking our schedule for an announcement.

We have been out FLUKE fishing during the past week fishing snags and other rough bottom spots.  We have been catching more shorts than keepers along with some nice Sea Bass.   High hooks have been 2-3 keepers weighing up to 5 pounds.  Crowds have been light even on weekends, so you should have plenty of room at the rail no matter which day you choose.

In case you haven't heard, we have a couple of SPECIAL TRIPS coming up with giveaways, etc.  Visit our Special Trips page for more information.


June 25, 2009

















We were out Tilefishing yesterday with a semi-private, last minute group.   We had fair drifting conditions for most of the trip and fishing was better than on our last trip.   The Tilefish ranged from 10 to 20 pounds, with a few in the high 20s and low 30s.

High hook honors went to Dennis Muhlenforth of Hockessin, DE with six Tilefish.   And Noel Otto of Manasquan, NJ had five.  Everyone else had two, three, or four in their coolers.   We also saw our first Blueline Tilefish of the year.

We are fishing for TILEFISH EVERY SUNDAY NIGHT at 10:00 PM for the remainder of the summer.  You can check availability on our Trip Calendar page.

We have been Fluke fishing during the past week with mixed results.  We have been catching more shorts than keepers plus some nice Sea Bass.   The winds have been blowing out of the east and creating a swell that has hampered the Fluke bite.  This weekend, we are expecting westerly winds and no swell, so the Fluke should start to bite.

In case you haven't heard, we have a couple of SPECIAL TRIPS coming up with giveaways etc.   Click here for more information.


June 17, 2009


















This past Sunday night's Tilefish trip was not nearly as good as last week's.  The trip schedule was designed to allow us time to fish a few wrecks for Hake and Pollock before Tilefishing in the morning.  We stopped on a few wrecks of varying depths, but only caught a few Pollock, White Hake and some Ling.   It was certainly much slower fishing than we expected.

When dawn arrived, we were greeted with fog, a strong current, and a steady 15 knots of wind (the forecast was for 5 to 10 knots).   The current and the wind were both out of the E/NE making the drift exceptionally fast.   At times, we were drifting at 2 knots which was 5 to 10 times faster than we had drifted the previous week on the full moon.   Everyone did their best trying to hold bottom with weights approaching 5 pounds.  I have to say that given the terrible conditions, I didn't hear any complaining from the anglers.

Needless to say, fishing was slow.   We tried depths from 375 to 700 feet; drifting from shallow to deep; and deep to shallow, but with the same poor results.   By mid morning, the wind actually picked up a bit so we tried to get out of the current just so we could fish.   After riding too many miles, we escaped the current and drifted with the by now diminishing breeze.  We picked a few fish, but not nearly enough.   A couple of guys had two or three Tilefish apiece, but many anglers had one or none.

We had two nice Tilefish that appeared to be tied for the pool when we put them on the balance scale.   Since it was so close and the boat was rolling a bit, we decided to weigh the pool fish when we docked.   Back at the dock, we put each fish on our new Berkley 100-pound digital scale for the final determination.   Both fish weighed in at exactly 35 pounds for a tie and Roy Bess of East Orange, NJ and Tom Vogel of Middletown, NJ shared the honors.  We should have trip photos on the web site in a couple of days.

After our slow night of wreck fishing we have decided to change the schedule for the July 12 and August 16 Tile/Pollock/Hake trips.   These two trips will now be EXTENDED TILEFISH TRIPS with no wreck fishing.  We will leave at 10:00 PM and return at 10:00 PM the following night, and this will give us an extra two and a half to three hours of Tilefishing.  The fare will remain the same as the Tile/Pollock/Hake trips at $325.



We have been FLUKE FISHING over the past week with mixed results.  We have been catching more shorts than keepers, plus some nice Sea Bass.   The wind keeps blowing out of the east and creating a swell that that has hampered the Fluke bite.  Hopefully, we will get some nicer weather soon.


June 10, 2009

SPECIAL DAYS ABOARD THE VOYAGER

FRIDAY JULY 31 is PENN/BERKLEY GULP INSHORE DAY
Penn Reels, Berkley Gulp and Big Game, Spider Wire, and Shakespeare are sponsoring a
SPECIAL FLUKE TRIP aboard the VOYAGER.

The VOYAGER will sail on its usual schedule leaving at 8:00 AM FRIDAY, JULY 31 and returning around 2:00 PM and the fare will be the will be the standard daily fee of $50 per person.

All anglers will have the opportunity to demo different types of Berkley Gulp Baits, Penn and Shakespeare rod and reel combos, receive a free giveaway bag, and be eligible for door prizes.


THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 24 is PENN and BERKLEY BIG GAME/GULP OFFSHORE DAY
Penn Reels, Berkley Big Game and Berkley Gulp will be sponsoring a
SPECIAL 30-HOUR TUNA AND TILEFISH COMBINATION TRIP aboard the VOYAGER.

The VOYAGER will sail on its usual schedule leaving at 8:00 AM THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 and returning around 2:00 PM the following day.   The fare will be the standard 30-hour trip fee of $375 per person.

All anglers will have the opportunity to demo different types of Penn rod and reel combo outfits as well as an assortment of Berkley Gulp Baits for Tilefish.   A Penn Pro Staff representative will be on board to answer any of your questions.   All anglers will receive a free giveaway bag, and be eligible for door prizes such as a Penn TRQ 300 Combo rod and reel.


June 9, 2009


















After being blown out on every Tilefish fish trip we scheduled in May, we finally made it offshore last Sunday night.  Our trip started out uneventfully as we tried an area that produced for us last year, but got nothing for our efforts except a few Squirrel Hake.   Since nothing was biting where we were, we gambled on a spot about 45 minutes away.   Soon after the lines hit the bottom, the rods started to bend.  For more than an hour, we had between two and five Tilefish on at all times. We even had a few double headers mixed in.


















The Tilefish were a nice size, with most weighing between 10 and 20 pounds.  Our pool fish was caught by Noel Otto of Manasquan, NJ and weighed 39 pounds.  Noel also had two double-headers and six other fish, two of which were in the 30 pound class.   High hook honors went to Dennis Muhlenforth of Hockessin, DE with eleven Tilefish, and honorable mention goes to Tony Puzzo of Middlesex, NJ with ten Tilefish.   Many other anglers had five, six, and seven Tilefish in their coolers.

The VOYAGER is sailing for Tilefish every Sunday night.  For availability, please check our Trip Calendar page.


May 10, 2009

We were out on our 14-hour Offshore Sea Bass Trip this past Saturday and fishing was slow.   We fished varying depths from 65 to 130-feet with the same result on all drops.   We wound up with a handful of Sea Bass, some Ling and a couple of Cod.

We have decided to replace our SATURDAY MAY 23 14-hour Sea Bass trip with an OPEN BOAT 10-HOUR SEA BASS TRIP.  The Sea Bass should be closer inshore by that time.  Our fare is lowered to $75 per person and we depart at 7:00 AM and return at 5:00 PM.   Open boat - Reservations are NOT required.

IMPORTANT NOTE: For those anglers going on our MAY 16 TILEFISH TRIP departing 10:00 PM next Saturday night, Chef George will NOT be aboard for this trip.   We will be serving breakfast only on this trip.   Please bring along a cooler with all of the other food and snacks you need.   Coffee, soda and water will be available.   Chef George will be back in the Galley for our other offshore trips.


March 29, 2009

The 2009 VOYAGER fishing trips are posted.   See our Fishing Schedule page for trip descriptions and fares, and see our Trip Calendar page to check the dates and available spots.

We are currently accepting charter bookings, and will start accepting open trip bookings and payments on April 15, 2009.

We are sending out a newsletter about our 2009 fishing season.   If you aren’t already receiving them and would like to be on our mailing list, CLICK HERE to join.


March 10, 2009


















We were out on a couple of Offshore Sea Bass trips last week.  The fishing was excellent on our first trip with many anglers catching limits of Jumbo Sea Bass.   However, the trip on Saturday was slow.   We read fish on the wrecks, but they did not bite well.  There was a very large ground swell on Saturday which tends to slow down bottom fishing.   With a forecast for westerly winds, we expect the fishing to bounce back this weekend.

We have availability on two Offshore Sea Bass trips this coming weekend.   We have room on the trip leaving 11:30 PM Thursday night, as well as the trip leaving 11:30 PM Saturday night.   (Our Friday night trip is sold out.)  At the moment, the forecast for Thursday night's trip is really good with diminishing winds and temperatures in the mid-40s for Friday.   The Saturday night marine forecast has not been published yet.

If you are interested in one of these trips, please e-mail us or call our office at 732-295-3019 and leave a message.  If you have credit from a blown-out trip or have already paid for a trip in future and want to bump up your departure date to a trip this weekend please let us know.


February 17, 2009


















We made it out on three offshore trips this past weekend and the fishing was good to very good on all the trips. The catch on the Friday and Saturday night trips was mostly Sea Bass, along with a bunch of Ling and a few Porgies.  Most people on the Friday night trip made limit catches of Sea Bass.  On the Saturday night trip, the weatherman really blew the forecast, but despite the rough weather, most people who fished made limit Sea Bass catches.   On the Sunday night trip, we had more of a mix of Sea Bass, Ling and Porgies but there were still a number of limit catches around the boat.

Some of the anglers with limit catches this past weekend include Gregory Humbert of Staten Island; Rudy Fristachi of Maspeth, NY; Tony Puzzo of Middlesex, NJ; Andy, Skippy, and Evelyn of Jersey City, NJ; Archie Stewart of Nutley, NJ; Ivan Smith of Brooklyn, NY; Phil MacGregor and George Langschultz of Staten Island, NY; Mike Garone, Gus Bouikidis, Johnathan Lebendiger; and the Andy Grow group who filled three large coolers with fish.   Our apologies to those anglers we forgot to mention.

Offshore Sea Bass fishing is still going strong and we continue to see large schools of fish on all of the wrecks we stop on.  We expect the offshore fishing to remain good through February and March.  We are sailing every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night through March.


















February 3, 2009

We have added THURSDAY night Offshore Sea Bass Trips back to the schedule for February and March.  We are now offering Offshore Sea Bass Trips departing 11:30 PM EVERY THURSDAY, FRIDAY and SATURDAY.

We have canceled our Friday 12-hour Cod trips since the fishing reports on the local cod grounds have been poor.  We even spoke with a friend of ours that runs a party boat out of central Long Island and he said it has been pretty slow.  Given those reports, we think it is best to hold off on the cod trips for now.   We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.


January 31, 2009


















We made it out on a couple of OFFSHORE SEA BASS trips this past week in between the bad weather.  We had good fishing with many Sea Bass limits all around the boat.   The fish ranged from small to just over six pounds.   We also had a good showing of Porgies and Ling and even a couple of White Hake.

On Tuesday, Ivan Smith of Brooklyn, NY won the Sea Bass and edible bottom fish pools with a 6¼-pound Sea Bass and on Friday, Andy Variano of High Bridge, NJ won the Sea Bass pool with a 6½-pound monster.


















There was a lot of life on all of the wrecks we fished, so fishing should hold up for a while.   Next week, we have trips scheduled for Friday and Saturday night.   We do not have a Thursday night trip this week because we have a 12-HOUR COD TRIP at 6:00 AM Friday morning.

Depending on how Cod fishing goes, and with such good offshore fishing, we may add the Thursday night Sea Bass trips back to the schedule during February and March.  We'll keep you updated of any schedule changes.


January 22, 2009


















OFFSHORE SEA BASS fishing was good this past week.  On Tuesday, we had many limit catches of Sea Bass up to 6½-pounds.  On Saturday, we had good fishing with a mix of Sea Bass and Porgies as well as some Ling, Cod, and Pollock. On Sunday and Monday, we had a mix again, but with more Porgies showing up.

There was a lot of life on all of the wrecks, so fishing should hold up for a while.   We have added Thursday night trips for the remainder of January and there are still plenty of good spots left.






January 14, 2009

OFFSHORE SEA BASS fishing continues to be EXCELLENT with most people catching limits.  Last weekend, 16 year-old Cody Eastburn of Manahawkin, NJ won the Sea Bass pool with a 6 pound 13 ounce fish.   Cody also caught a 25 fish limit, not bad for his first offshore Sea Bass trip.  You can see additional trip photos on our 2009 Photo Gallery page.


















Captain Mark DeCabia of the "Canyon Runner" took a busman's holiday and caught an 'easy' limit catch of Sea Bass, as well as some Porgies and two nice Pollock.   Bill Sellers of Honey Brook, PA had a bunch of Sea Bass as well as seven Pollock up to 25 pounds.   (All of his Pollock were caught on clam bait using one of our boat rods and rig.)   We ended up with about 25 Pollock for the day and this was by far, the best showing of Pollock this year.

A few others with Sea Bass limits were Mel Deak of Perth Amboy, NJ, Mike Paras of Lakewood, NJ, Barry Kaplan of Brooklyn, NY, Chris Eastburn of Philadelphia, PA, John Schaia of Glen Burnie, MD, Kevin Kovach, Pete Gray, Jack McLaughlin, Pat Golden, and my Dad, Larry Gutman.

The migration of Sea Bass is in full swing so get in a fishing trip as soon as you can.  We have added Thursday night trips for the remainder of January, so there are still plenty of good spots left.


January 5, 2009

Best wishes for a Healthy and Happy New Year!

















Offshore Sea Bass fishing remains EXCELLENT!   Just about everyone on board on Saturday had limit catches of Sea Bass.   The fish were mixed sizes weighing from 2 to 7 pounds.  We also had a few Cod and Pollock, as well as some Porgies and Ling.

Kurt Hollyday of Marlton Lakes, NJ won the Sea Bass pool with a 7 pound monster, and Bill Tevlin of Rahway, NJ won the edible fish pool with a 20+ pound Pollock.   This is the second time this season that Bill has taken the edible fish pool with a nice Pollock.

Bill and his buddy Nick Caradonna of Ridgewood, NJ teamed to fill a cooler with limit catches of Sea Bass.  Many other anglers also caught limits including Brian Bakely, Charlie DeHart, Phil McGregor, Vinny Faiella and Tony Puzzo to name a few.   Fishing should remain good as the migration continues and more fish move onto the wrecks.

We are sold out for the upcoming weekend (except for Thursday night, but the weather looks bad.)   We have three open trips with available spots sailing the following weekend leaving FRIDAY NIGHT JANUARY 16, SATURDAY NIGHT JANUARY 17, and SUNDAY NIGHT JANUARY 18 (Monday is the Martin Luther King holiday.)

December 31, 2008

Due to popular demand and the excellent fishing, we have added another SPECIAL OFFSHORE SEA BASS TRIP
leaving on 11:30 PM THURSDAY JANUARY 8.

If you are interested in going, please call the office at 732-295-3019 and leave a message or send us an e-mail.

We will start our weekly 12-Hour COD FISHING TRIPS on FRIDAY JANUARY 16.


December 28, 2008


















Last weekend's OFFSHORE SEA BASS TRIP was EXCELLENT.    We had limit catches of Sea Bass for everyone on board.   Most of the fish were 2 to 5 pounds with a number of 6+ pound fish mixed in.   We also had a number of nice Pollock up to 30 pounds, some Ling, Cod, and Porgies.

The migration of big Sea Bass is in full swing.  Fishing has been getting better and better each week, and should continue to improve.  Due to this great fishing, we have added a trip for 11:30 PM THURSDAY NIGHT JANUARY 1 and we still have spots available.

SPECIAL OFFSHORE SEA BASS TRIPS

11:30 PM TUESDAY DECEMBER 30

NEW! - 11:30 PM THURSDAY, JANUARY 1

If you are interested in going on these special trips, please call our office at 732-295-3019 and leave a message or send us an e-mail.

Unfortunately, we have postponed the start of our weekly Cod fishing trips until 6:00 AM Friday January 9.

Just a reminder, you can call our office and confirm your trip is sailing.

You can confirm the VOYAGER is sailing on an OFFSHORE SEA BASS TRIP by calling 732-295-3019 (select menu option 4) any time after 6:00 PM on the day of the trip.

You can confirm the VOYAGER is sailing on a FRIDAY COD TRIP by calling 732-295-3019 (select menu option 4) any time after 6:00 PM on THURSDAYS.


December 22, 2008

OUR E-MAIL SYSTEM IS NOW AVAILABLE.   Sorry for any inconvenience during the last week.


December 20, 2008

Another easterly storm will develop later today followed by gale force winds on Sunday and we have CANCELED tonight's Offshore Sea Bass Trip.

11:30 PM SATURDAY DECEMBER 20 OFFSHORE SEA BASS TRIP - CANCELED

If you are on this Offshore Sea Bass Trip and want to reschedule, please call our office at 732-295-3019.


December 17, 2008

Heavy winds, big seas and rain are forecast for Friday, December 19 and we have CANCELED the following trips:

06:30 AM FRIDAY DECEMBER 19 BLACKFISH TRIP - CANCELED

11:30 PM FRIDAY DECEMBER 19 OFFSHORE SEA BASS TRIP - CANCELED

If you are on the Offshore Sea Bass Trip and want to reschedule, please call our office at 732-295-3019.


December 15, 2008

We have added a couple more OFFSHORE SEA BASS TRIPS during the week between Christmas and New Years. These 'Year-end' specials are 28-man limited trips for the same price as our regular 33-man trips.

11:30 PM SUNDAY DECEMBER 28 and 11:30 PM TUESDAY DECEMBER 30

If you are interested in going on either of these special trips, please call our office at 732-295-3019 and leave a message.


December 14, 2008


















Today's OFFSHORE SEA BASS TRIP was very good.  We had a number of limit catches on board with the biggest Sea Bass weighing about 6½-pounds.   Anglers that didn't have limits still had good catches of jumbo Sea Bass from 3 to 6 pounds, Porgies and Ling.   There were also a couple of Cod and Pollock caught.  Phil MacGregor from Staten Island, NY won the pool with a 22-pound Pollock.

Fishing has been getting better and better each week.  The migration of big Sea Bass has definitely begun and fishing should continue to improve.  We have spots available for both Friday and Saturday night offshore trips this coming weekend.  If you are interested, please call the office at 732-295-3019 and leave a message.   Unfortunately, we will not be able to answer e-mails this week, but we will be checking phone messages daily.

We will be doing a LING MARATHON trip 7:00 AM Wednesday, December 17 and a BLACKFISH MARATHON trip 6:30 AM Friday, December 19.   Both trips are sailing open boat.

SORRY, OUR E-MAIL SYSTEM IS TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE.


December 7, 2008




Yesterday's OFFSHORE SEA BASS TRIP was better than last week's.  Everyone on board had a good catch of jumbo Sea Bass and giant Porgies.   There were also a few Cod and Pollock caught.   Bill Tevlin of Rahway, NJ won the pool with one of his two Pollock, a 24-pound beauty.   Bill also had a full cooler of 3 to 6-pound Sea Bass, Porgies and Ling.  You can see trip photos on our Photo Gallery pages.

All of the wrecks we fished had good life on them and it appears that the migration of big Sea Bass has begun.  We have spots available for both Friday and Saturday night this coming weekend.  If you are interested, please call the office at 732-295-3019 and leave a message or you can e-mail us.

To view a customer's report of the trip click on
http://www.njfishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7239.


November 30, 2008


















Friday's BLACKFISH MARATHON was pretty good with decent action right off the bat.  We fished in about 40 feet of water off of Long Branch and Elberon and found Blackfish up to about 8 pounds. For some reason, maybe the current, the starboard side did the best with a number of people having limits or better and others close to limits.  The port side and stern had some action, but it was not as good.

We made our first OFFSHORE JUMBO SEA BASS TRIP of the year on Friday night.  We had a fair catch of sea bass but no limit catches.   We also had some jumbo Porgies, Cod, Pollock, and Ling mixed in.  While the numbers were not super, the quality of the fish was very good.   The Sea Bass as well as the Porgies ranged from large to super jumbo.   Chris Frka of Staten Island, NY was high hook with 11 Sea Bass, 15 Porgies and a couple of Ling.   Mark Bernstein of Jersey City, NJ won the pool with a 15-pound Pollock.  Even I got into the action, and caught a nice Cod, some giant Porgies, and a bunch of Sea Bass with the largest being a 7½-pound monster.

There are still spots open on our Offshore Jumbo Sea Bass Trip leaving 11:30 PM Friday night December 5. Reservations are required for the offshore trip, so please call the office at 732-295-3019 and leave a message or send us an e-mail.


November 25, 2008

We made our second BLACKFISH MARATHON trip on Sunday, November 23. Fishing was fair with some anglers making limit catches or better, and others with just a few.    Even those folks that didn't end up with limits had good action throughout the day with throwback size fish.

Tommy Salerno (photo on left) of Keyport, NJ made a limit catch and won the pool with a 7-pound 1-ounce Blackfish.   Vinny Faiella (photo on right) of Little Silver, NJ caught the second largest Blackfish that weighed in at 6-pounds 7-ounces.

We have ADDED A BLACKFISH MARATHON trip to the schedule.   The trip leaves 6:30 AM SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30 and returns at 4:30 PM.

Just a reminder, we also have a BLACKFISH MARATHON trip on the day after Thanksgiving,  6:30 AM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28.  All Blackfish Marathon trips are open boat.

There are still open spots on our OFFSHORE JUMBO SEA BASS trip leaving at 11:30 PM FRIDAY NIGHT, NOVEMBER 28.  Reservations are required for the offshore trip, so please call our office at 732-295-3019 or send us an e-mail message.


November 22, 2008

We made our first BLACKFISH MARATHON trip on Friday.  Fishing was good with everyone going home with a limit catch.  We canceled tonight's OFFSHORE SEA BASS trip due to high winds offshore, but the inshore weather forecast for Sunday is nice.

We have added a last minute BLACKFISH MARATHON to the schedule for tomorrow morning

6:30 AM SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23 and returning at 4:30 PM.   This is an open boat trip, so come on down.





November 11, 2008

Due to the continuing decrease in fuel prices, we are now REDUCING OUR FARE on the OVERNIGHT JUMBO SEA BASS TRIPS BY $10 PER PERSON.   The fare is now $175.   Anyone that already booked at the higher price will be refunded $10 at the boat on the day of the trip.


November 10, 2008

Our last tuna trip ended up okay.  We didn't read much on the scope during the night, but the tuna started to school under the boat around 6:00 AM.   We caught one tuna during the night and then another dozen during daylight.   The fish were caught on both bait and jigs.   All of the tuna were Longfin, but one of the other nearby boats had a couple of Yellowfin too.

We would like to do one more canyon trip if there is interest and the warm water stays around, but we'll take a wait-and-see approach before choosing a date.







On Sunday, we fished the 20-40 mile wrecks. Fishing was decent with a mixed bag of Cod, Pollock, Sea Bass, Ling and Porgies.   Tony Puzzo caught two Cod up to 22 pounds, half a dozen 2-4 pound Ling, as well as some Porgies and Sea Bass.  Bill Tevlin had a nice catch of Sea Bass and Ling with a few Sea Bass going between four and six pounds.  Rudy Fristachi had the biggest Pollock at 18 pounds.  All of the wrecks we fished had Sea Bass of mixed sizes from throwbacks to fish over six pounds.  This is a good sign for our upcoming Offshore Sea Bass Trips as it appears that the migration of the jumbo sea bass has started.



We will be sailing on a LING MARATHON on SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15 from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and a BLACKFISH MARATHON on SUNDAY NOVEMBER 16 from 6:30 AM to 4:30 PM.

Our fishing schedule starting Friday, November 21 will include BLACKFISH MARATHONS from 6:30 AM to 4:30 PM on FRIDAYS, and OFFSHORE SEA BASS TRIPS departing EVERY FRIDAY AND SATURDAY night at 11:30 PM.


November 4, 2008


















Here is the scoop everybody.   We made two canyon trips this past week.  The Thursday night trip was a bomb with only one swordfish hooked along with some blue sharks.  Our Saturday night trip was much better.   Shortly after arriving at the canyon, we hooked a small sword that was thrown back.  Then we hooked another small sword at the same time as a keeper sword.  We landed both and then had a number of other swords on as well as some mystery fish that we could not stop.  We ended up with three keepers and two throwbacks.   We also saw a decent amount of squid around the boat at night.   Around 6:00 AM, we started to read fish come under the boat and we started to get a few bites.  From then on, we would read fish come and go under the boat hooking as many as four at a time.  Some fish were on bait and others were on jigs.   Unfortunately, we had very poor conditions, 25+ knots of northeast wind, resulting in the boat swinging a lot and many fish were lost due to line tangles.   As much as everyone tried to work together, it was still very hard to get a fish up without fouling two or three other lines.  We ended up with seven Longfin and one Yellowfin, but probably lost 15 tuna (four where we could actually see the fish).   Overall, there seemed to be a decent spread of fish as the other two party boats in the area also had a number of bites. 

There is more warm water moving into our canyons which should hold the tuna within range.  We will be making our FINAL TUNA TRIP OF THE SEASON on 6:00 PM FRIDAY NOVEMBER 7 and we still have plenty of room.   We will only sail if the warm water that we had Saturday night is still there.  If it slides away we won't make the trip.  If you are interested, please send us an e-mail or leave a message at the office at 732-295-3019.


October 28, 2008

We were out fishing yesterday and the Tuna finally started to bite.  Soon after anchoring, we started catching a few Swordfish and getting spooled by some other very big fish.   We picked away at Swordfish over the next few hours.   At about 3:30 AM, we started reading tuna under the boat.   We started to get a few bites and we caught and lost a few Yellowfin, but did not get the number of bites we expected given the amount of tuna we were reading under the boat.   We continued to catch swordfish and a few more tuna.   We think the number of Swordfish around may have slowed the tuna bite or there may have been a very large Swordfish around that spooked the tuna.  We caught and lost some more tuna early in the morning before we went home.

We believe this is a new body of fish since some of the Yellowfin weighed over 80 pounds.  Another good sign was that a party boat fishing near to us had a good catch of Yellowfin and that indicates there were a decent amount of fish around.   This gives us a lot of hope for this coming weekend.   We have a trip leaving 6:00 PM Saturday November 1 and there is still plenty of room.   If you are interested in going, please leave a message at our office at 732-295-3019 or e-mail us.


October 25, 2008

We were out Tuna fishing yesterday and unfortunately, the warm water we mentioned last week is still just out of range.  Needless to say, yesterday was slow with just an Albacore and some Mahi.   We are still hoping that we have a shot at some fish before the season ends.  We have two more Tuna trips on the schedule: Saturday night November 1 at 6:00 PM and Friday night November 7 at 6:00 PM.   If you have money on credit from the Tuna season, you can use it on one of these trips, on one of our upcoming Offshore Jumbo Sea Bass trips, leave it on credit, or request a refund.  Refund requests can be made by leaving a message at our office at 732-295-3019, or by e-mailing us.

As tuna season is winding down earlier than expected, we have added a few special trips to the schedule.  On Sunday November 9, we will be running a 12-hour COD SPECIAL to the 20-40 mile wrecks.   The trip will be an open boat but we are suggesting call-in reservations.   The boat will be sailing at 6:00 AM and returning at 6:00 PM.   On the following weekend, we will be making a MUD HOLE LING MARATHON on Saturday, November 15 from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM.   Sunday, November 16 is opening day of the Blackfish season in New Jersey and we will be making a SPECIAL BLACKFISH MARATHON TRIP from 6:30 AM to 4:30 PM.  Both of these trips will be an open boat.

Please note that we have modified our OFFSHORE JUMBO SEA BASS trip schedule.   We will not be sailing on Thursday nights in December.  Instead, we will be making BLACKFISH MARATHONS every Friday morning from 6:30 AM to 4:30 PM starting November 21 through December 26.  And starting on January 2, 2009, we will be making 12-hour COD SPECIALS every Friday morning from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM.  You can check our trip calendar for all schedule updates.


October 17, 2008

The long range weather forecast does not look too good for this coming Saturday or Sunday night's tuna trips.  While it is a long way off and things can certainly change, the weather looks good for Thursday night and possibly Friday night.   If anyone on the Saturday or Sunday night trips would like to switch, please let us know.


October 17, 2008

A quick update on tuna fishing for the rest of the season.   Tuna fishing picked up a bit late last week but then slowed down again Sunday through Wednesday.  There were a few fish caught Wednesday evening and Thursday morning by the charter boats that trolled.  The party boats out of Rhode Island and Montauk have been doing better over the past week as a large body of warm water moved within their range.  The water seems to be holding Yellowfin, Longfin and lots of Mahi-Mahi.   Hopefully, this water will be within our range by next weekend.   With this in mind, we have modified our tuna schedule and will be sailing on the following trips: Thursday 10/23, Friday 10/24, Saturday 10/25, Sunday 10/26, Saturday 11/1, Sunday 11/2, Friday 11/7, Saturday 11/8, Friday 11/14, and Saturday 11/15.   All of these trips currently have space available.

For those of you that fish with us during the winter on our offshore Sea Bass trips, we have posted our trip schedule.





October 11, 2008

Just a quick note between trips… Tuna fishing has improved.  We caught a mix of Longfin and Yellowfin tuna during last night's offshore trip and we read lots of fish under the boat all night long.


October 6, 2008

Fishing this past weekend was better than it has been.   We caught Bluefin, Albacore and Swordfish.  We didn't have a trip on Sunday night, but the word is that Yellowfin tuna have finally started to bite.   We sail Tuesday morning on an extended trip and hopefully will have good things to report.

We are sold out on all of the tuna trips this week except for Sunday evening October 12.   If you are interested in going please send us an e-mail message or call the office at 732-295-3019.


October 2, 2008

We have been catching a few tuna and a couple of swordfish on the past few tuna trips.  We read a lot of tuna on the fish finder, but they have been reluctant to bite.  Hopefully the tuna will start biting like they should this weekend.

We have had super Mahi fishing recently.   On our last trip, we had about 200 Mahi up to 20+ pounds and lost quite a few more in the chaos.  While not the tuna we are looking for, they are still a lot of fun to catch and good to eat.

We still have room on our Sunday, October 5 departure at 5:00 PM.  Please call the office or send us an email if you are interested.





September 20, 2008


















Tuna fishing this past week has been up and down to say the least.   On Friday night September 12, we fished in pouring rain all night which reduced angler participation to almost nothing.   We can't blame anyone since the fishing was poor and didn't give anyone reason to stay at the rail.   We ended up with only one tuna and lost a few more.

On Saturday night, September 13, we fished a little further south in beautiful clear and calm conditions.  Roy Bess started out the evening with a nice swordfish shortly after we were anchored.  Roy also had another swordfish on later in the night.  At about 4:00 AM, we started to get some tuna bites.   Over the next hour and a half, we landed 15 Yellowfin and lost a couple.

On our Tuesday, September 16 30-hour trip, we started out catching and releasing Bluefin tuna during the day.  We fought about 35 tuna to 100 pounds.   We arrived at the Hudson Canyon shortly after dark and started chunking.  During the night, we had on a number of Swordfish.   The fish were all big.  After a 3-hour fight, we lost a Swordfish estimated at 350 pounds.  At 4:15 AM, we started to get some tuna bites.   They were Yellowfin from 30-50 pounds.  During the next two hours we had about 15 fish on.   Just after sunrise, we had three fish on.   We lost two, but the third fish turned out to be our first Longfin (Albacore) tuna of the season.   Reports have it that a large school of Longfin tuna are moving towards us from the far northeast canyons.  Hopefully these are the early scouts.

On our latest trip on Wednesday, September 17, we sailed with high hopes and went back to the same spot as the night before.  We caught and lost Swordfish, but we had no tuna bites.  After making a couple of moves we caught four tuna.  Maybe the week of northeast wind we had will push the tuna into our canyons.


September 17, 2008

We will post a new fishing report soon.  In the meantime, enjoy the new trip photos we just posted on our Photo Gallery page.


September 5, 2008

Fishing has been on the slow side this past week.  After catching 41 tuna on Wednesday night, Friday night was very, very slow.  From Saturday night through the Tuesday/Wednesday 30-hour trip, we only had between 7 and 12 tuna per trip.

We lost as many fish as we caught on the past few trips, probably because they were hooked on jigs, which have a tendency to shake free more easily.   We hope hurricane Hanna will move in some new water and fishing will improve to the level we expect for this time of year.











August 28, 2008

Sorry for the long gap between reports, but we have been offshore almost every night for the past couple of weeks.  Tuna fishing got off to a slow start for us with only a handful of tuna caught.   We chunked, trolled, jigged and did everything else we could think of with the same results.   In addition to tuna, we caught some Mahi-Mahi and Tilefish on most of the trips.

Fortunately, for us, fishing turned around on Wednesday night.   After a slow start with only a few tuna we got a call from Captain Kenny on the MIMI that he was catching fish about 10 miles away.  We steamed to the area and started to catch tuna almost immediately.  We ended up with our best catch of the season, 41 Yellowfin.   We hope fishing will get better from this point on.






August 3, 2008

Well, I hate to say it but we got "NOAA'ed" again.   The forecasted 10-15 knot northwest winds ended up more like 10+15!   We had between 20 and 25 knots of wind during the entire trip.  The wind, along with a very strong current, made fishing virtually impossible.   We were forced to anchor for most of the trip and that resulted in just a handful of fish.

Rudy Fristachi of Maspeth, NY won the pool with a 35-pound Golden Tilefish.  Joseph Lee of Moorestown, NJ had the largest fish on board with a 50-pound Warsaw Grouper.  Steve Yu also had a Warsaw Grouper of about 20 pounds.  We are sure we would have had a good catch if the NOAA weathermen had been correct.

Sunday night, August 10 will be our last pure Tilefish trip of the season and we still have a few spots left.  We will be starting our Tuna fishing season on Sunday night August 17 with the first of three 40-hour Tuna and Tilefish combination trips.  If you are interested in any of these trips or our Tuna only trips, please send Captain Jeff an e-mail message.


July 31, 2008

We arrived at the canyons shortly after sunrise and began fishing for Tilefish in an area that had produced very well in the past.  Although we had very little wind, we did have a good amount of current.   We made a few drifts with no bites at all.

We left this area and fished a number of other areas with only a handful of bites and Tilefish.  Towards the end of the day, we had our best drift of the trip.  We tried to repeat the drift, but only landed a couple more.   We ended up the day on some rough bottom where we caught a nice Pollock, some White Hake, and a couple of Wreck Fish.

During the trip, we fished spots that were over 25 miles apart with the same results.   Either the fish were not there or something was making them not bite.  As you can imagine, it was a very frustrating day for the crew and the anglers on deck. Next week, we will try some different areas and hope for better results.

Noel Otto (photo upper left) of Manasquan, NJ caught the largest Tilefish and it weighed 32 pounds.  Interestingly, it was part of a double-header with the other Tilefish weighing about 15 pounds.

Kevin Feaster (photo upper right) of Downingtown, PA won the pool with a 23-pound Tilefish, and Frank Messina (photo on left) of Little Silver, NJ had a nice Wreck Fish double-header.

On a more positive note, the canyons were alive with surface life on this trip.  We saw big pods of Sardines and small Mackerel as well schools of small Skipjack.  There were also whales and plenty of porpoises around.  We also saw some very large splashes but never saw what made them.   Overall, it looks as though there is plenty of bait offshore and that is very promising for the upcoming Tuna season.

We still have room on our Sunday, August 3 Tilefish trip leaving at 11:00 PM and the weather forecast is calling for light westerly winds.  If you are interested in going, send Captain Jeff an e-mail message.


July 15, 2008

After missing the last two weekends due to poor weather, we were anxious to get back out to the canyons this week.   The forecast was good with winds of "10-15 knots diminishing to 5-10 knots" predicted.   Well, they were sure wrong at NOAA.   When the sun came up, the wind was blowing at least 20 knots.  Fortunately, this trip was a charter and we had planned to do some tuna trolling to start the day.   We had our first fish after about 20 minutes of trolling, a small Yellowfin tuna.   About 15 minutes later, we had a triple on Yellowfin.  We continued to troll for the next few hours picking a few more fish and having a few other knockdowns.   Ryan Hickey (photo on right) of New York City caught the largest tuna and it weighed about 50 pounds.

By mid-morning, the wind still had not eased off, but since we had a bunch of hardcore fishermen on board, we decided to make a trial Tilefish drift.   As we started to drift, we remembered why we always cancel Tilefish trips when the forecast calls for 20 or more knots of wind.  The guys were using 4 to 5 pounds of weight and, while getting a few bites, were having trouble hooking the fish.  We had a number of baits come up cut in half and we think this was due to our too fast drifting speed.  We decided to troll a bit more, but we didn't get any more tuna bites.   The wind did ease by noon and we were able to lighten up and fish with 3-pound weights.  Fishing was not great, but we started to pick at some Tilefish.  There were some nice fish caught including a 33-pound 5-ounce fish caught by Mark Kaminski (photo lower right) of Plainview, NY and a 42-pound 7-ounce pool winner caught by Fred Eder (photo on left) of Long Island, NY.   We ended up with about 40 Tilefish because of the poor drifting conditions.

The Voyager will be sailing for Tilefish every Sunday night at 11:00 PM.   There are still spots available on our August Tilefish trips.  This year, we are also offering a few 40-hour Tuna and Tilefish combination trips to start the tuna season.  These trips will leave at 10:00 PM and start out with some tuna trolling in the morning, tilefishing during the day and then chunking tuna all night long.  We have a few spots left on these trips but they are filling up.

Check out our Trip Calendar and send us an email message if you are interested.  There is currently nice warm water at all of our canyons, and with the way the tuna fishing has started out for the charter fleet, it should be a good season.   We hope to see you on an upcoming trip.


July 8, 2008

Unfortunately, we have discontinued our daily Half-Day Fluke and weekend Half-Night Bluefish trips for the remainder of the season.  Our offshore Tilefish and Canyon Tuna trips will continue to sail as scheduled.

TILEFISH TRIP DEPARTURE TIME IS 11:00 PM.  The new departure time for our Tilefish trips is now one hour later at 11:00 PM.  The boat will return to the dock one hour later between 8:00 and 8:30 PM the following day.


June 25, 2008

This week's Tilefish trip was a charter put together by Dave Arbeitman from the REEL SEAT tackle shop at Brielle, NJ, which included many veteran Tilefish anglers as well as a few first timers.   After last week's disappointing trip, we were hoping that this week's drifting conditions would be more favorable.  When we arrived at the canyon, we had about 5 to 10 knots of wind that was moving in the same direction as the current.   This situation actually had us drifting a bit fast at a little over one knot.   We tried a few spots from last season with very poor results, only one 25-pound fish.   During a 10 minute move from spot to spot, we put a few trolling lures in the water and John Tzannes of New York City caught a 50-pound Yellowfin tuna.

We stopped at a proven area and we started a pick even though we were still moving at almost a knot.   We caught about a dozen nice Tilefish before we slid off into the abyss.  We went back for another drift and the current started to ease.   At that point, we figured we would have a good crack at the fish.  We actually had two very good drifts that lasted over an hour each, putting about 60 fish in the boat from 15 to just under 44 pounds.

The conditions started to deteriorate with the wind and current at a ninety-degree angle to each other, and the lines were streaming to the stern.   The guys fought through the tangles and caught another 15 or so Tilefish.  Mike Paras of Lakewood, NJ was high hook again with eight Tilefish up to about 28 pounds.   Allan Sherman of Toms River, NJ (with two double headers) and Tony Puzzo of Middlesex, NJ both ended up with seven Tilefish.  Quite a few anglers had four, five, and six Tilefish apiece and Mike Saulley of Bloomfield, NJ won the pool with a 43-pound 8½-ounce Tilefish.  Overall, it was a very good trip with a great bunch of guys.  We hope that we'll have another good report next week.

The VOYAGER is sailing for Tilefish every Sunday night at 10:00 PM.  Most trips still have spots available.


June 18, 2008

Our June 15 Tilefish trip was very frustrating.    After two weeks of very good fishing, we had a slow trip.   We went back to the area where we left them biting last week.  Despite the weather forecast for an increasing breeze during the day, we had very little or no wind.  We only had a little current and it was running in the opposite direction of the wind, in what we call a "wind against tide" condition.   The boat just stood still with no drift at all for the entire day, and we covered very little ground.

The folks fished hard all day long, but we only ended up with 25 Tilefish (the pool fish weighed 22-pounds 9-ounces.)   We think there are plenty Tilefish in the area and just the poor drifting conditions caused our slow day.

Fishing for Tilefish is like Fluke fishing in that you do not catch fish when you are drifting too quickly or too slowly.  The photo of our LORAN unit shows our speed over ground (SOG) at ".0" meaning we were at a dead stop.

We hope that we will have better conditions for the Tilefish trip this coming Sunday and have a better report.


June 10, 2008


We made our second Tilefish trip of the year on Sunday night, June 8.  We fished two areas on the trip, both with good results.   At the first area, we had fish from about 10 to 15 pounds with a few bigger ones mixed in.  Our only problem was that we had to fight through quite a few Dogfish to get to the tiles.  The guys did an excellent job sticking it out because it was tough to let your line back down when you had just reeled up 600 feet with a Dogfish double-header.

Although we were still picking away at fish we decided to try a different area.  At first, there was only a very slow drift and just a few fish.   After about 45 minutes, we made a short move in the same area hoping to find a hungrier bunch of fish.  For about 25 minutes, fishing was slow with just a few bites but as the current picked up and we started to drift, the fish started to bite.   As the drift continued, fishing got better and better.  The drift continued for over an hour and the crew was busy gaffing and storing angler's Tilefish.  The nice thing was that this was "clean" fishing with no Dogfish.  The Tilefish were bigger than the first spot with a number of 20-plus pound fish.  We had a few 30-plus pound fish mixed in as well as some double headers.

High Hook was Mike Paras of Lakewood, NJ with nine Tilefish and one Pollock.   The pool winner was Leroy Armes of Washington, DC with a 37-pound 4-ounce monster.  Leroy also had a 32-pound fish as well as four others.   Dave Arbeitman of the Reel Seat in Brielle, NJ, Tony Puzzo of Middlesex, NJ, Peter Christoforou of Port Washington, NY, and Kevin Feaster of Downingtown, PA all had seven Tilefish apiece.   Many other anglers had five or six.

We are sailing for Tilefish every Sunday night at 10:00 PM throughout the summer.  Our next two trips are sold out, but we have availability starting on Sunday night June 29.  If you are interested in going, you can send us an e-mail message.   See our Photo Gallery pages for trip photos.


June 3, 2008

After being blown-out by the weather on every Tilefish trip in May, we finally made it offshore Sunday night, June 1.   Our trip started out uneventfully as we tried several areas that produced for us last year, but with little or no success.   We finally found some hungry fish around mid-morning and started to pick away.  When we went up the slope for our second drift in the same area, we only caught a few.   We then moved a short distance and made a few drifts with nothing but Dogfish for our efforts.

With nothing biting where we were, we gambled on a spot about 40 minutes away.  Soon after the lines hit the bottom at the new spot, the rods started to bend.  For more than an hour, we had between three and six fish on at all times.  We even had a few double-headers mixed in.  The fish were nice sized with most weighing between 10 and 20 pounds.

Gregory Humbert from Staten Island, NY caught the pool fish and it weighed 40 pounds.   Gregory also had three other Tilefish.  High hook honors went to Ernest Collins of New York, NY with eight Tilefish.  Honorable mention goes to Whey Sung An of Plainview, NY with six Tilefish, and Cheol Min Park of Parsippany, NJ and George Hanakis of Perth Amboy, NJ with five apiece.  Many other anglers had three and four Tilefish.  See our Photo Gallery pages for trip photos.


April 27, 2008


















On Friday night, April 25, we sailed to offshore Cod and Pollock grounds.  Despite increasing easterly winds during the day, we wound up with a good catch of mostly Cod and Ling with some big Sea Bass and Pollock mixed in.

The 'endangered' Dogfish were a problem at times and we believe limited the Cod bites.   We caught most of our fish during the first 30 minutes at each stop and then the Dogfish took over and made productive fishing difficult.

Despite the Dogfish, we landed over 70 Cod up to 12 pounds, 100 Ling, 30+ Sea Bass up to 5 pounds, and 15 Pollock up to about 30 lbs.

Due to the good showing of Cod, we are going to do another SPECIAL OFFSHORE COD AND POLLOCK TRIP.   We are going to give the wrecks some time to rebuild and we will be departing at 10:00 PM THURSDAY NIGHT, MAY 15.
If you are interested in going, please call our office at 732-295-3019 and leave a message or send us an email.

NOTE:  Our GALLEY will be OPEN starting MAY 2.   Chef George will be back in action for our Tilefish Trips and 20-40 Mile Wreck Trips.

NOTE:  You can confirm the VOYAGER is sailing on our 20-40 MILE WRECK TRIPS by calling 732-295-3019 (select menu option 4) any time after 6:00 PM on the day before the trip.   Our 20-40 MILE WRECK TRIPS sail open boat and leave at 7:00 AM on MAY 2, 4, 9, 11 and 23.  The fare is $80.


March 24, 2008


















On our offshore trip this past weekend, we saw a good variety of fish.   We had a mixed catch of Sea bass, Ling, Cod, Pollock, Whiting, Porgies (which were thrown back because the season was closed) and even some Mackerel.

Rudy Fristachi of Queens had 16 Ling, 3 Cod, some Sea Bass and twenty jumbo Porgies which he tossed back.  Lee Stuckey had a good day with 8 Sea bass, 8 Ling, 3 Cod, and some Porgies and Mackerel.  Pat Hillas was high hook on Cod with five, as well as a bunch of Ling and Sea bass.

We will be sailing this coming FRIDAY, MARCH 28 at 6:00 AM for a 12-hour COD TRIP.   We expect fishing to be good since the inshore wrecks have had two weeks to rebuild.

We will also sail 11:30 PM FRIDAY, MARCH 28 and 11:30 PM SATURDAY, MARCH 29 to the offshore SEA BASS grounds.  This will be our last weekend of fishing for the next three weeks for annual maintenance and painting on the boat.

When we return, we will start off with an OFFSHORE COD AND POLLOCK SPECIAL 10:00 PM FRIDAY night, APRIL 25. We may offer a special offshore trip a week earlier depending on our painting and maintenance schedule.


March 8, 2008

Our Friday Cod trip on March 7 was slow with just a handful of Cod, Pollock, and Ling to show for the day's efforts.   Weather and sea conditions were poor to start with and got worse during the day and made fishing very difficult.   Next Friday, March 14, will be our last Cod trip and we will only sail if we have nice weather.

In lieu of our last Cod fishing trip on Friday March 21, we are adding an OFFSHORE SEA BASS TRIP that will depart 11:30 PM THURSDAY NIGHT MARCH 20.  Reservations are required.

We start our annual maintenance chores on March 23 and will not sail again until April 25.

Our 2008 spring, summer and fall trip schedule is posted.   See our Fishing Schedule page for Trip descriptions, fares and other information.  See our Fishing Calendar page for trip dates and available spots.


February 26, 2008

Our last fishing trips are on FRIDAY, MARCH 21.  We will be performing our annual maintenance chores on the VOYAGER between March 23 and the third week of April.   We will NOT be sailing during this time.

Our 2008 spring, summer and fall offshore trip schedule (Tuna, Tilefish and others) will be posted on or about March 8.

Going on one of our Friday 12-Hour COD Trips?

Call 732-295-3019 after 6:00 PM THURSDAYS and press menu option #4 to make sure that the weather is okay to sail.


February 25, 2008

















This past Saturday night the Voyager sailed offshore for Sea Bass.   After catching mostly Porgies and Ling last weekend, we decided to fish further south and in deeper water this weekend.   For most of the morning, a very strong current made fishing quite difficult and anglers needed between 20 to 24ounce sinkers to hold bottom.   We managed to catch a few nice fish as well as some small ones.   As the day progressed, the current eased up and the fish started to bite better.  The catch was mostly medium to jumbo Sea Bass with a few Ling, Porgies, Bluefish and even a Blueline Tilefish mixed in.

Braydon Niper had a limit catch of Sea Bass, Gary Pinel had 20 Sea Bass plus some Ling and a couple of Porgies, and Al Johnson had 18 Sea Bass with a couple of Ling and Porgies.  Many anglers ended up with between 8 and 15 fish.

The water temperature offshore was still 45 degrees, so we expect large sea bass to continue to bite for quite some time.  The VOYAGER will be sailing offshore for Sea Bass every Friday and Saturday night though Friday March 21.  Our Friday Cod Marathons will also continue through Friday March 21.


February 19, 2008

















On February 15, we sailed on the first of our 12-hour Friday Cod marathons.  The weather conditions were less than perfect and the winds were blowing at 20-25 knots out of the southwest.  Moments after anchoring on the first spot, we had our first Cod on, a 10-pound fish caught by Adam Kaye of Chatham, NJ.   We quickly caught a couple more and then picked a few more.

With the weather being so poor, we decided to work our way inshore a bit and we picked a couple of Cod on each drop along with some Ling.  We ended up with 25 keeper Cod and a couple of throwbacks.   Steve Yu was high hook with four Cod and some others had two or three.  We hope that the weather will be better this Friday so we can get further offshore.

















On Friday and Saturday night, we sailed offshore for Sea Bass.   We found good fishing overall with plenty of Porgies, Ling and even some Whiting mixed in with the Sea Bass.  Kevin Kovach of Hillsborough, NJ was high hook on Saturday with a combined 56 fish including five whiting and an 18-pound Pollock.

We will be running our Offshore Sea Bass trips every Friday and Saturday night through the third week of March.  You can see more photos from our recent trips on our 2008 Photo Gallery page.


February 4, 2008

















On our February 2 trip, we started fishing at a wreck about 75 miles to the south.   The weather was beautiful with virtually no wind at all.  We also had enough current to make anchoring conditions okay until the last part of the day.   Despite the decent fishing conditions, the fish did not bite well.   No matter how we adjusted the boat, anglers fishing in the bow did better than the rest.

Kevin Kovach had 14 Sea Bass and a Ling but also said he missed a good number of bites.  Bob Foppiano had 16 Sea Bass, 4 Ling and a Cod, but those were the exceptions.   Folks in the forward part of the boat wound up with 6 to 12 fish and those in the stern did not fare as well.   We did have a number of nice size fish, but not enough overall.  On our next trip, we will be fishing some deeper spots, hopefully with better results.












January 21, 2008

















Except for Friday night, we canceled all of our offshore trips this past weekend due to bad weather.   In spite of a marginal forecast for Friday/Saturday, the weather ended up nicer than originally predicted as you can see in the photos.   The fishing was good for most anglers on the boat; many caught from 10 to 20 Sea Bass and a few had more.  We caught mostly Sea Bass and they were generally medium to large/jumbo size.  There were also a few Pollock and Porgies mixed in the catch.   From what we understand, a couple of other boats will not be Sea Bass fishing in February, so this should give the wrecks more time to replenish and we should see more limit catches.

We will be Sea Bass fishing every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night at 11:30 PM through February and possibly into March.   For reservations, please call the office at 732-295-3019 and leave a message - we will get back to you.

















The VOYAGER is running full-day Ling trips every Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 AM with Captain George Bachert of the ANGLER running the boat.   Last week we had choppy conditions with a lot of current and fishing was slow, but Ling fishing is generally good throughout the entire winter.  Hopefully, it will bounce back after this week's full moon.



Just a reminder, The SAVE THE SUMMER FLOUNDER FISHERY FUND will be holding a
PUBLIC MEETING 7:00 PM MONDAY, JANUARY 21.   The meeting will take place at the

MANASQUAN ELKS LODGE #2534
17 STOCKTON LAKE BLVD
MANASQUAN, NJ

The VOYAGER supports the SAVE THE SUMMER FLOUNDER FISHERY FUND.  We encourage you to make a donation and attend this important public meeting.


January 13, 2008

















Fishing was not as good on our Saturday trip as it was a couple of nights earlier.   We fished the same area as Thursday, but the fish just wouldn't bite.   We read fish under the boat on all of our stops, but they were not in a feeding mood.

We picked away at Porgies and Sea Bass for a couple of hours on one spot, but a strong current suddenly developed and shut the bite off completely.  We also had some Cod, Pollock and Ling mixed in the catch.















January 11, 2008

















Our January 9 Sea Bass trip was much better than our last trip.  We fished a different area and found mostly Sea Bass along with some Ling.  The fish were a mix of small, medium and large fish with the pool winner going about 5½ pounds.  Many anglers made limit catches or near limit catches of Sea Bass.

Next weekend, we will be sailing at 11:30 PM on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night (Monday, January 21 is the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.)  We still have room on all of these trips.  If you are interested in going, you can call the office at 732-295-3019 and leave a message or you can e-mail us.


January 10, 2008

Starting January 15, Captain George Bachert from our sister vessel, the ANGLER, will be running the VOYAGER on bottom fishing trips for LING AND BLACKFISH EVERY TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY.   These are open boat trips departing at 7:30 AM and returning at 3:30 PM and will run through the end of March.   The fare is $55, $50 for seniors and $30 for children.


January 1, 2008

Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year!

Offshore Sea Bass fishing was good again on Sunday, December 30.   Many people had between 10 to 20 fish along with some limit catches.  We also had good Porgy action at times as well as some Cod and Pollock mixed in.   The Sea Bass were larger on Sunday and many of them weighed between 3 to 6 pounds.

The weather forecast for this coming weekend looks good and we still have spots left for the Offshore Sea Bass trips departing 11:30 PM Friday night and 11:30 PM Saturday night. If you are interested in going, please e-mail us.


December 29, 2007


















The Wednesday Ling Marathon trip on December 26 was only fair.   We picked away at Ling early in the day and then it was just a slow pick for the rest of the day.  The weather also deteriorated during the day which may have influenced fishing.
Our next Ling Marathon trip is 7:00 AM Wednesday January 2.

Thursday morning, December 27 we had a Blackfish charter.  We were greeted by a monstrous ground swell that had built up overnight.  Ground swells are usually bad for inshore bottom fishing and this was no exception.  We managed only about 40 keeper Blackfish and twice that many shorts, but one angler was lucky enough to catch a 13-pound 6-ounce fish.


















During the past couple of weekends, the offshore fishing was slow for Sea Bass and Porgies.  On Friday morning, December 28 we had good fishing for both.   While the fish were not all jumbos, some people had limits of Sea Bass.   For those who fished for Porgies, catches of 15 to 25 were common.   Chris Frka of Staten Island, NY had the biggest Porgies we've ever seen measuring over 19.5 inches and weighing about 4 pounds.   Hopefully, this is the beginning of the Sea Bass migration that we have all been waiting for.


December 20, 2007

Wednesday's LING MARATHON was good with almost everyone catching between 15-25 Ling and a high hook of about 35 Ling.  We also had some Sea Bass and a Cod mixed in with the catch.

We are adding a LING MARATHON trip on WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26 at 7:00 AM.


December 13, 2007

Our offshore trips during the past weekend saw very different fishing on each day.   On our Thursday night trip, we had good fishing for jumbo Sea Bass up to 6½-pounds as well as for giant Porgies and we had a few Pollock mixed in.   About a third of the boat had limit catches of Sea Bass or at least very close to limits.   Anglers who used smaller hooks and concentrated on Porgies had limit catches of 50 fish.

On the Friday night trip, we had excellent fishing for Porgies with many anglers making limit catches, but we had fewer sea bass.  The high hook for Sea Bass was probably in the mid to upper teens.   Again, we had some Pollock, Ling, and White Hake mixed in.

Saturday night's trip was the toughest fishing wise, but nicest weather wise.  We caught some Sea Bass with the high hook being around 15, but many anglers had only a handful.  The Porgies did not bite as well as they had during the prior two days.  We managed to catch a few nice Pollock and a bunch of Ling to fill the coolers for the trip.

It appears that the major migration of Sea Bass has not started yet, but we anticipate it starting any day.  The new moon was last Sunday and sometimes that helps to get the fish moving.

The VOYAGER is sailing to the offshore wrecks every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night at 11:30 PM.


December 10, 2007



Summer Flounder (Fluke) stocks are in good shape and the biomass is at the highest levels ever recorded.   However, we cannot say the same thing for the fishery.   In spite of great progress in rebuilding Summer Flounder stocks, another round of federal quota cuts are on the way for 2008 and the National Marine Fisheries Service has threatened to ban fishing for Summer Flounder in 2009.

In 2005, the federal Summer Flounder quota was 30.3 million pounds; for 2006, the National Marine Fisheries Service cut the quota 22% to 23.6 million pounds and for 2007, they cut the quota 38% to 17.11 million pounds.    

The proposed 2008 federal quota for Summer Flounder is 15.77 million pounds, an 8% reduction from this year's 17.11 million pound quota.   This doesn't sound too bad, but when you consider that environmental zealots are urging the fisheries managers to reduce the Summer Flounder quota to 11.7 million pounds, it is a whopping 46% reduction!

We all want sustainable fisheries so that we can continue to enjoy fishing and ensure that our kids can do likewise when they grow up, but this situation is ridiculous and the time has come to stop it.

You can help by supporting the SAVE THE SUMMER FLOUNDER FISHERY FUND.   It is a non-profit organization made up of party and charter boat owners, tackle and bait shop owners, tackle distributors, bait wholesalers and others whose livelihoods are dependent on a healthy and vibrant recreational fishing industry.  For plenty of additional information, visit the organization's web site at www.SSFFF.net.

The SAVE THE SUMMER FLOUNDER FISHERY FUND has two important goals:

1. Support HR 4087, which is an emergency legislative intervention that will enable fisheries managers a reasonable level of regulatory flexibility.  The organization will work with existing angling lobbying organizations and public sport fishing advocacy groups such as the Recreational Fishing Alliance who have the structure and contacts already in place, along with the proven ability to get things done in Washington.

2. Generate private funds for a comprehensive scientific stock review.  The organization will hire independent marine scientists to generate the data needed to prove that the current summer flounder population targets and stock rebuilding deadlines, are dangerously punitive, ridiculous in their intention and truly unnecessary.

Right now, the organization needs your financial support to fund these political and scientific goals.  Please send a donation to:

SAVE THE SUMMER FLOUNDER FISHERY FUND
PO Box 86
Brielle, NJ  08730

The SAVE THE SUMMER FLOUNDER FISHERY FUND will be holding a
PUBLIC MEETING 7:00 PM MONDAY, JANUARY 21.   The meeting will take place at the MANASQUAN ELKS LODGE #2534
17 STOCKTON LAKE BLVD
MANASQUAN, NJ


The VOYAGER supports the SAVE THE SUMMER FLOUNDER FISHERY FUND.  We encourage you to make a donation and attend this important public meeting.


December 3, 2007

Fishing was good on our Saturday night offshore trip.  The catch was still mostly giant Porgies but we started to see better numbers of  larger Sea Bass mixed in.

We also found fish on some wrecks that did not have much life the week before.   This indicates that the fish are still migrating to the offshore wrecks and that the fishing should be getting better each week.

Along with Sea Bass and Porgies, we had a few Ling mixed in, a half-dozen Pollock between 15 and 25 pounds, and a monkfish.

























Mike Terry of Staten Island, NY won the Sea Bass pool with a 6-pound specimen.   Gary Kobstad of Matawan, NJ had two nice Pollock to go along with his catch of 30 Porgies and 10 Sea Bass.

There are still a few spots available for this coming Thursday and Saturday night trips.   The VOYAGER will be sailing to the offshore wrecks every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night at 11:30 PM from now through March 2008.


November 26, 2007




This past weekend marked the start of our OFFSHORE SEA BASS TRIPS.  Overall, the fishing was good.   We found a couple of spots that were holding large Porgies up to three pounds as well as Sea Bass.  Some people had limit catches of Porgies and some had limit catches of Sea Bass.  The Sea Bass were mixed in size from throwbacks to jumbos and averaged between 1 to 2 pounds.

It seems that the main body of the jumbo sea bass has not arrived yet.   We think they should be arriving in our area within the next couple of weeks.  Last year, we had big fish from the end of November onward, while the year before, they didn't show up until December 10.   We also had some nice Cod up to 22 pounds and Pollock up to 31½ pounds mixed in.

The VOYAGER will be sailing to the offshore wrecks every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night at 11:30 PM from now through March 2008.

On Saturday November 24, Daniel Knoefal from Williamsburg, Brooklyn had the pool winning Pollock at 31½ pounds.  13-year old Thomas Morgis from Stafford, VA caught the pool winning 6 pound 8 ounce Sea Bass.  See our Photo Gallery pages for more trip photos.



















November 19, 2007

Rising fuel costs are forcing us to increase the fare for ALL 33-MAN OFFSHORE SEA BASS TRIPS SAILING IN 2008.

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, THE NEW FARE FOR ALL 33-MAN SEA BASS TRIPS SAILING IN JANUARY, FEBRUARY AND MARCH 2008 IS $170 PER PERSON.

Rod rentals remain the same at $10 additional.   A sleeping bunk is included with your fare.   Our galley will be open on all Offshore Sea Bass trips.


October 13, 2007




It's Official!   On October 9, the New Jersey  DEP Division of Fish and Wildlife announced that the
18 POUND, 7 OUNCE GRAY TILEFISH
caught aboard the VOYAGER on September 9 by JOE SANZONE of Pompton Lakes, NJ is a NEW STATE RECORD fish.   Congratulations Joe!

Joe was using a St. Croix rod and Penn reel with 65-pound test braided line, and the bait was a butterfish and squid combo.   The fish taped out with a length of 35-inches and a girth of 24-inches.

The new State Record Gray Tilefish (Caulolatilus microps), also called a Blueline Tilefish, was caught offshore at Tom's Canyon. The old record of 10 pounds, 9 ounces was set in 2001.

The fish just missed being an IGFA World Record by three ounces!



Click here to see some photos of the NJ State Record Gray Tilefish.












October 2, 2007

Tuna fishing picked up quite a bit last night.   We caught both Yellowfin and Longfin, and many anglers had two or three fish.   We caught tuna throughout the night on both bait and jigs.   Anglers dropping down to the bottom in the morning also caught a few Tilefish.

Vinnie Faiella caught three Longfin and a 20-pound Tilefish and Andy Variano had three Longfin.  The water looks good and the fish seem to have settled down in one area, and we hope to see good catches in the next few weeks.





October 1, 2007

For the week ending September 30, the fishing has been, in a word, sporadic.  On some trips, we see fish on the sonar for hours, but they don't bite.  While on other trips, we don't see them often, but when they come under the boat they bite well.  On some trips, they don't come under the boat much and when they do, they still don't bite.   The result has been catches ranging from poor to 25 tuna on different days in the exact same spot.

The best trip of the week was last Wednesday night, where we had good tuna fishing during the night and good fishing for Tilefish in the morning.

Jimmy Kim (photo on left) had three Tilefish between 30 and 40 pounds.  Andy Dzikowicz (photo on right) combined with his friend, Steve Pietropaolo for six Longfin, two Yellowfin, and five Tilefish.  We hope that tuna fishing will be more consistent as we move away from the full moon.


September 12, 2007

Tuna fishing this past week was up and down.   We had one very good trip, a few fair trips and one slow trip.  The catch has been a mix of Yellowfin and Longfin tuna and swordfish. The Yellowfin have been larger this year, up to 80 pounds, so they have been tough to land.  Live squid baits as well as jigs have been working well.


We have also been catching some nice sized Tilefish on our Wednesday TUNA/TILE TRIPS.   We caught a Blueline or Grey Tilefish (Caulolatilus microps) that beats the current New Jersey state record (10 pounds 9 ounces set in 2001.)   Our Blueline weighed 18 pounds 7 ounces on the certified scale at Fishermen's Supply.   Unfortunately, a pending IGFA record beats our fish by three ounces.

Lots of squid and other bait are in all of the offshore canyons, so things look good for the upcoming trips.  We are sailing every day to the canyons.   If you want to check out what dates we have available, please visit our Trip Calendar page.












August 26, 2007

Fluking was a bit slow on Saturday August 25.  We caught a few Fluke wherever we went, but not enough.  We fished the reef and some other rocks, hills and offshore lumps.   However, we did have quite a few nice Sea Bass mixed in with the Fluke.

Doug Kay (photo on left) of Union Beach won the pool on August 25 with this 8-pound 2½-ounce Fluke.   Doug also had one other keeper and four nice Sea Bass.   On our August 19 charter trip, David Kwiecinski (photo on right) won the pool with a 8-pound 10½-ounce Fluke.








August 25, 2007


















We started our 2007 tuna season on the VOYAGER with a BANG!

We headed out Thursday evening and arrived at the canyon around 10:00 PM.  After anchoring up on small marks of squid, we waited about 1½ hours for our first bite and then landed a nice 65-pound Yellowfin.

We had a few other bites over the next two hours and landed a few more tuna as well as a nice swordfish weighing around 125-pounds.  At about 2:00 AM, the fishing really turned on and for the next 3 1/2 hours, we had a steady pick with one to six tuna on at all times.  Many people made limit catches.

We spoke with some friends on a private boat in a canyon about 20 miles to the south and they had good tuna fishing too.   There appears to be a nice spread of quality fish around, so it looks good for our upcoming trips.   Starting on September 4, we will be sailing for tuna every day.   To check availability on our tuna trips, see our Trip Calendar page.


August 16, 2007

Just a reminder... We have several charters and offshore trips scheduled for the remainder of August and this will affect our normal daily routine as follows:

We have a morning charter on SATURDAY, AUGUST 18.
There will be NO 8:00 AM FLUKE trip, but the 2:00 PM trip will sail as scheduled.

We have a morning charter on SUNDAY, AUGUST 19.
There will be NO 8:00 AM FLUKE trip, but the 2:00 PM trip will sail as scheduled.

There will be NO 8 AM or 2 PM FLUKE trips on MONDAY, AUGUST 20.
The VOYAGER will be offshore on our last Tilefish trip of the season.

We have an afternoon charter on WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22.
The 8:00 AM FLUKE trip will sail as scheduled, but there will be NO 2 PM afternoon trip.

There will be NO 2 PM FLUKE trip on THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, but the 8 AM morning trip will sail as scheduled.

There will be NO 8 AM or 2 PM FLUKE trips on FRIDAY, AUGUST 24.
The VOYAGER will be offshore on our first tuna trip of the season.

We have a full day charter on TUESDAY, AUGUST 28.
There will be NO 8:00 AM FLUKE trip and NO 2:00 PM FLUKE trip.

There will be NO 2 PM FLUKE trip on THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, but the 8 AM morning trip will sail as scheduled.

There will be NO 8 AM or 2 PM FLUKE trips on FRIDAY, AUGUST 31.
The VOYAGER will be offshore on our second tuna trip of the season.


August 13, 2007

















The Voyager was out on the Tilefish grounds again this past Monday and Tuesday.   The fishing started out slowly as many spots proved unproductive.  This may have been due to spot selection but more likely to the lack of any drift.   After a couple of hours of searching, we started to catch some fish.   Most anglers averaged between two and five Tilefish with the average fish weighing about 15 pounds.  We boated about 20 fish over 20 pounds.  Of the fish over 20 pounds, seven were over 30 pounds and three were over 40 pounds.  The high hook on the trip was Mike Paras of Lakewood, NJ with eight Tilefish from 12 to 39 pounds and the pool winner was a 46 pound 1.5 ounce monster caught by Jake Rypkema of Montville, NJ.   Dave Arbeitman of the Reel Seat in Brielle, NJ also deserves honorable mention for his 43 pound 1 ounce Tilefish.  We will be making one final Tilefish trip before the end of the summer on 10:30 PM Sunday August 19.   Unfortunately, the August 19 trip is already sold out.

Fluke fishing has been up and down depending on weather and drifting conditions.  After a good week, the storm on Friday sidelined us and killed the fishing for Saturday. Fluke fishing bounced back Sunday morning with many keepers caught around wrecks and reefs.   Pool fish have been in the 4 to 6 pound range.  The fishing close to the beach is just starting to come back from the weekend swell, but there have been smaller fish biting in the shallows with just an odd keeper mixed in.

Night Bluefishing has been consistently good.   We have been fishing only about an hour from the dock.  The Bluefish have ranged in size from 3 to 12 pounds and many limit catches have been made.  We will be night bluefishing on Friday and Saturday nights through the Labor Day weekend.

We start tuna fishing on August 23 with the first of our annual Thursday night early season tuna trips.   The August 23 trip is sold out, but there are still spots on the August 30 trip.  After Labor Day, we will be tuna fishing daily.


August 4, 2007

We did some maintenance on the VOYAGER earlier this week and installed new convertible seats in the cabin.   These aluminum framed and cushioned seats are the same type you see on offshore crew boats and are very comfortable.


The neat part is that the seatback flips up and you get two sleeping bunks.  We have enough bunks for everyone on our overnight trips including our offshore Sea Bass trips.



August 3, 2007

Captain Tracy reported very good Fluke fishing this morning.   Anglers aboard the VOYAGER caught loads of shorts with quite a few nice-sized keeper Fluke mixed in.  The pool fish was around 5½ pounds and there were a decent number of other Fluke between 2½ to 4½ pounds.  We fished north of the Manasquan Inlet in water depths from 30 to 70 feet.   All depths produced Fluke and some rough bottom spots yielded nice Sea Bass up to 3½ pounds.

Earlier in the week, Fluke fishing was okay most of the time and very good when we had decent drifting conditions.   On August 2, Al Thomas from Mantoloking, NJ won the pool with a nice 6¾-pound Fluke.

Our August 5 Tilefish Trip is sold out, but we still have a few open spots on our August 19 trip.

Good reports about tuna fishing at the canyons have been coming in and our tuna trips will be starting soon.   Our first Canyon Tuna Trip of the season on August 23 is filled, but we have open spots on our August 30 trip.


August 1, 2007

Attention Tuna anglers - Due to the continued increase in fuel prices, we must raise the fare for our 22-hour/24-person tuna trips by $10.   The new price will be $295 per person.  We will honor our current fare of $285 throughout the month of August, but starting September 1, anyone booking a trip will pay the new fare of $295.

The fare for our 30-hour trips and our Wednesday night Tuna/Tilefish trips are not affected.

If we cancel your tuna trip because of poor offshore weather, we will honor the original price you paid on any rescheduled trip.


July 29, 2007

Fluking was okay this week with a good ratio of keepers to shorts.   We have been fishing off the beach on the reefs with decent catches of quality fish.

During the past week, Gary Kobstead (photo on left) from Aberdeen, NJ caught a 7¼-pound Fluke on Wednesday July 25 and Mike Martyn (photo on right) from Bronx, NY caught a 8¼-pound Fluke on Thursday July 26.






July 28, 2007

Our AUGUST 5 TILEFISH TRIP is SOLD OUT, but...

We still have OPEN SPOTS on our 10:30 PM SUNDAY AUGUST 19 TILEFISH TRIP (the trip is 21-hours and is limited to 22 anglers.)   This is our FINAL Tilefish trip of 2007.

Because of the Tilefish trips on August 5 and 19, and a charter on August 7, we will NOT be running our morning and afternoon Fluke trips on Monday August 6, Tuesday August 7 and Monday August 20.

See our Trip Calendar page for details on our scheduled fishing trips.


July 24, 2007

We will be performing scheduled maintenance on the VOYAGER on Monday, July 30 and Tuesday, July 31 and will not be running our half-day Fluke trips on those days.

See our Trip Calendar page for complete details on our other scheduled fishing trips.


July 21, 2007

Chef George has a new Galley Special for those attending our 30-hour Extended Canyon Tuna Trips this fall.   With the special, you won't have to worry about the hassle of buying, preparing and packing food and drinks for the trip - Pay ONE PRICE and get ALL of your meals in our Galley.   See our Galley Page for details.


July 18, 2007

Our last offshore Tilefish trip was very good.   We had great weather, flat seas, good drifting conditions, and the Tilefish were chewing.  We posted about thirty trip photos and you can see them on our 2007 Photo Gallery page.

By popular demand, we added a NEW TILEFISH TRIP on SUNDAY NIGHT AUGUST 5 at 10:30 PM.   We only have 13 spots left, so make your reservation soon.


June 29, 2007

Fluke fishing has been very good lately.   Joe Burdge (photo on right) from Jackson, NJ caught a 5-pound 10-ounce Fluke on June 29.

We have been fishing both north and south of our inlet.  Throwbacks still outnumber keepers by about 15 to 1, but there are days when it is only 10 to 1.

The good thing is that anglers are catching 20 to 40 Fluke per trip so they are going home with a few fillets in the cooler.




Our DEEPWATER WRECK AND TILEFISH TRIP this past weekend was very good.   We had a number of nice Tilefish with a couple of Wreckfish and Barrelfish mixed in.   On this trip, we fished in especially deep water, which at times was over 900-feet.   Most of the Tilefish were large; more than 25 Tilefish weighed over 20-pounds and six of them were over 40-pounds.

The pool winning Tilefish was a 46-pound 9-ounce monster caught by T.J. McNally from High Bridge, NJ and he is on the left in the photo.   On the right in the photo is Frank Artiglere from High Bridge, NJ and his Tilefish weighed 40 pounds.

By popular demand, we are adding TWO MORE DEEPWATER TRIPS.   We will be sailing at 10:30 PM SUNDAY NIGHT JULY 8 AND JULY 22.

We will be making a FIREWORKS CRUISE on JULY 4TH from 8:00 PM to 10:30 PM.   After a sunset cruise, we will be viewing the fireworks off Long Branch.   It is BYO for food and beverages.  The fare is $30 for adults and $20 for children.   You can purchase tickets in advance at the Fishermen's Supply tackle shop, by mail/check, or at the boat.


June 24, 2007

Fluke fishing has been good to very good during the past few days.  We had a nice northwesterly breeze, which made for good drifting conditions.   Many folks have been catching upwards of 20 fluke on a 1/2 day trip and keeping anywhere from 1 to 5 fish.

On the Saturday afternoon trip, Tommy Salerno of Keyport, NJ made a limit catch and threw back more short fish than he could count.   We are also catching some nice Black Sea Bass mixed in with the Fluke when we fish over rough bottom.   Regular boat supplied squid and spearing baits worked very well along with 4-inch "Gulp" swimming mullets in pink or chartreuse and Spro bucktail jigs with squid strips.   Most of the Fluke fishing has been less than 20 minutes from the dock.


Night Bluefishing was super Saturday night with many people catching limits.  We fished about an hour from the dock and made only two drifts for the entire night.   We would have made only one drift, but our chum slick attracted a large Blue Shark that shut down the Blues.   We had a light crowd so there was plenty of elbowroom for adults as well as kids.   Captain Tracy's young son Joshua tried Bluefishing for the first time and ended up with eight nice blues from 3 to 8-pounds.   (Pretty good for a 10-year-old lad.)

Try to take advantage of the good fishing and light crowds next Friday and Saturday night.







June 15, 2007

The VOYAGER was out at the canyons on an overnight DEEPWATER WRECK AND TILEFISH TRIP this past Sunday night.

The trip started out slowly with the first fish being lost.  Bill Bushnell from North Haledon, NJ got the second bite, and it turned out to be a 48-inch Bluefin tuna (and he hooked it on a bottom fish rig 600 feet down.)

After a number of unsuccessful drifts, we managed to find some Tilefish.  While the numbers were not impressive but the size certainly was.







Tom Wardlaw from Hewitt, NJ landed a Tilefish that tipped the scales at 50 pounds when we weighed it back at Fishermen's Supply Co at the end of the trip.   We also got a 44-pound Tilefish and four others weighing between 25 and 35-pounds.

Later in the trip, we moved to a deepwater wreck where we caught a couple more Tilefish and one Gray Tilefish.   We also landed four rare Barrel Fish, a species of fish that we've never caught before.

The big attraction for everyone was the excellent fishing we had for Wreck Fish.   The Wreck Fish were all between 10 and 25 pounds and there were many times when we had as many fish on as we had lines in the water.   Mike Paras from Jackson, NJ was high hook with 13 Wreck Fish, a large Tilefish and a Barrel Fish.





The VOYAGER will be sailing on its next special DEEPWATER WRECK AND TILEFISH TRIP 7:30 PM SUNDAY NIGHT JUNE 24 and for the moment, there are still a few spots available.

On the inshore grounds, we have seen excellent Fluke fishing whenever we've had favorable drifting conditions.   Throwbacks are outnumbering keepers by at least 10 to 1, but some anglers have been lucky and landing 4, 5, 6 and even 7 keepers on our half-day trips.   While 6 or 7 keepers is not common, most anglers have been catching one or two for the dinner table.  Most of our Fluke fishing has been near to the beach and anywhere from Mantaloking to Long Branch in depths up to 35 feet.




June 9, 2007

Fluke fishing was about as good as it gets on both our morning and afternoon trips on June 9.   The action was continuous.

Lou Wines and George Gasparik (photo on left) did very good on the morning trip.  Lou was high hook with five keeper Fluke.











Alex Short of Ohio and Chip Glynn of Brooklyn, NY (photo on left) also got some nice keeper Fluke on the morning trip.

Doug Karkosza (photo upper right) caught a 7½-lb Fluke on the afternoon trip.

Will still have some room on our DEEPWATER WRECK AND TILEFISH TRIP on SUNDAY JUNE 10.  We expect to see Wreck Fish (Polyprion americanus) mixed in with Tilefish on this trip.







June 8, 2007

We were out on the morning trip with a light crowd and a heavy fog.  We fished the about three miles north of Manasquan Inlet and as predicted, the Fluke fishing continued to improve.  Most of the fishing is still in the shallow water in depths of less than 35 feet.   Even with a slow drift for part of the trip, we had more action and more keepers than yesterday.  Today's high hook honors went to Eileen Fishkin of Marlboro, NJ who out-fished her husband five keepers to two.   Eileen also won the pool with a 3½ pounder.   Fluke fishing is getting better and better by the day and should continue to do so as the water warms up.


June7, 2007

Fluke fishing today showed quite a bit of improvement.   We fished just a short ride to the north of the Manasquan Inlet.  The water temperature was about 63 degrees and was relatively clean.   We had decent activity with short fish throughout the morning trip with some keepers mixed in (a few guys had two or three keepers while others had one or none.)  It seemed that anglers caught anywhere from 6 to 15 shorts and the above mentioned keepers.   While not the greatest fishing, it is a good sign of things to come.  Hopefully, the fishing will continue to improve as the water warms up.


June 3, 2007

Fluke fishing is still slow because of the cool water temperature, but these hot summer-like days will eventually warm up the water (and the Fluke.)  We had a charter bottom fishing trip on Friday June 1 and the highlight catch of the day was a large Monkfish.

Will still have room on our DEEPWATER WRECK AND TILEFISH TRIP on JUNE 10.  Again, we expect to see Wreck Fish (Polyprion americanus) mixed in with Tilefish on this trip.

Just a reminder, our half-day FLUKE trips on JUNE 11 and JUNE 12 are canceled (because of the Tilefish trip and a private charter.)

Our OVERNIGHT CANYON TUNA trip on SEPTEMBER 7 is sold out.  Be sure to book early to get on board the trip you want.


May 26, 2007

Saturday morning was our first Fluke trip.   There were signs of fish but the water is still a bit cool.   There was also virtually no wind which translated to poor drifting conditions.   We managed some throwbacks and a handful of keepers for a light crowd.   The pool fish was caught by Andrew Morrissey (photo on left) of Beachwood, NJ and weighed in at 4¾-lbs.

We still have room on our upcoming DEEPWATER WRECK AND TILEFISH TRIP on June 10.   We expect to see some Wreck Fish mixed in with the Tilefish on this trip.









May 25, 2007

We just wanted to let everyone know that we start our summer schedule on the VOYAGER this weekend.   We will be NIGHT BLUEFISHING EVERY FRIDAY AND SATURDAY from 7:30 PM until 12:30 / 1:00 AM.   This weekend, we will also be BLUEFISHING SUNDAY NIGHT AT 7:30 PM.

WE START HALF-DAY FLUKE FISHING ON SATURDAY.   We will be sailing EVERY DAY from 8:00 AM until 12:30 PM and again at 2:00 PM until 6:30 PM.  Please note, we will not be Fluke fishing on Friday June 1st (we have a private charter.)  The weather looks great for the weekend, so come on down and enjoy the holiday with a fishing trip.

On May 24, we made a private offshore wreck trip and put together a decent catch of Cod, Pollock and Ling, and everyone on board had a great time.   Visit our Photo Gallery page to see the trip shots.


May 15, 2007

The VOYAGER was on an offshore WRECK & TILEFISH trip this past weekend.   We fished on some wrecks from 190-275 ft while it was still dark and managed only a few Pollock.  By sunrise, we were at the edge of the Hudson Canyon in an area where we usually catch Tilefish.  The weather was perfect with a flat ocean and virtually no wind.

The first drift saw only the "endangered" spiny dogfish, so after a half an hour, we moved a few miles south to another spot where we normally see Tiles.   After drifting for about 15 minutes we caught our first one mixed in with some more dogfish.  For the next hour and a half, we had a slow pick on Tilefish, but again, excellent dogfish action.  The wind started to pick up earlier than expected and it got tougher to hold bottom, but we kept catching dogs and an odd Tilefish.   We then tried to catch some Tilefish while anchored, but only caught a couple as we were again overrun by dogfish.


The edible bottom fish pool was won by Mel Deak of Perth Amboy with a 25 lb. Pollock and the Tilefish pool was won by Peter Christoforou of Port Washington, NY with an 18 lb. specimen.

We probably would have ended up with a decent catch of Tilefish, but it was almost impossible to keep a bait on the bottom for more than five minutes before you had to reel up and remove a dogfish (the ever increasing breeze didn't help much either).  It didn't seem to matter whether we fished in 400, 500 or 600+ foot depths, we found dogfish everywhere.   Hopefully, the dogs will have left the area by our next Tilefish trip on June 10.




On the way home, we stopped at a couple of wrecks and caught some nice Pollock, Cod and Ling.  We ended up the trip with about 20 Tilefish up to 20 lbs, 18 Pollock up to 29 lbs, a dozen or so Codfish up to 15 lbs and about 125 Ling.   Our next two offshore WRECK & TILEFISH trips are on JUNE 10 and JUNE 24.


The VOYAGER will start HALF-DAY FLUKE TRIPS daily on SATURDAY MAY 26 and will also run HALF-NIGHT BLUEFISH TRIPS at 7:30 PM every Friday and Saturday starting FRIDAY MAY 25.









NEW!   CLICK HERE to SIGN UP on our MAILING LIST.   We periodically email newsletters, fishing information and other goodies.   Get on board now!


May 2, 2007

Our LING & SEA BASS TRIP ON FRIDAY MAY 4 IS CANCELED.
Sorry for any inconvenience.


May 1, 2007

The April 27 DEEPWATER WRECK & TILEFISH trip was cancelled due to poor offshore weather conditions.  Our next scheduled WRECK & TILEFISH trip is 7:30 PM Friday May 11 and we still have some spots open.

Ling fishing was still slow this past weekend although there seemed to be a bit more activity up north.  By next weekend, we should start to catch some Sea Bass on our inshore Ling & Sea Bass trips.   We heard from divers that they spotted a bunch of Sea Bass over the weekend.  Ling fishing should also pick up as they move inshore to spawn.


April 23, 2007

We were out Ling fishing both days this weekend and the weather was beautiful.   You couldn't ask for nicer weather, but you could ask for more fish.   The Ling seemed to have lockjaw or were just not around at all.

On Saturday, April 21, we had a high hook of a dozen Ling, but Sunday, April 22 was worse with most people catching only a few.   There was plenty of Bergall life on most spots, but the Ling were tough to find.  We fished on the east and west sides of the Mud Hole in depths as shallow as 110 feet and in the middle in 200 feet, but to no avail.

Possibly, last week's storm screwed things up or the Ling are on the move inshore to spawn.  Hopefully next weekend will be better.

Just as a reminder, we will be Ling fishing next Friday, April 27 and Sunday, April 29, but not Saturday, April 28 as we have our first offshore DEEP WATER WRECK AND TILEFISH trip leaving Friday night.  There are still a couple of spots left for those interested in going.


April 7, 2007

We posted our 2007 fishing calendar early! You can see our open boat, tuna and offshore wreck trips on our Fishing Calendar page.   We are accepting reservations now.

Reports from other boats indicate that offshore wreck fishing for Black Sea Bass and Tilefish is decent now.   We have a few SPECIAL DEEPWATER WRECK & TILEFISH trips scheduled on April 27, May 11, June 10 and June 24.


March 19, 2007

Spring is here and its time to go fishin’.   The VOYAGER will start off the 2007 spring fishing season with LING & SEA BASS trips on APRIL 21, 22, 27, 29 and MAY 4, 5, 6, 11, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25.   These are open boat trips (no reservations needed) from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM and the fare is $50.   We look forward to seeing you at the dock.


March 10, 2007

We emailed our annual tuna newsletter today. If you didn't get a copy in your inbox, don't fret.  You can see a copy on our Newsletter page.

Our open boat tuna schedule for 2007 will be posted on Sunday April 15.

We are currently accepting tuna charter bookings ('entire boat' charters – not individual reservations).   If you are interested in chartering the VOYAGER for a tuna trip, we encourage you to book early to ensure getting the date you want.


February 26, 2007

We ended up getting a short weather window this weekend and got in one last offshore wreck trip, but the fish did not cooperate.   To start, we fished down to the south about 80 and found just a few sea bass on each wreck and quite a bit of current.   Another Point Pleasant party boat was there and found the same poor results as we both leap-frogged around on different wrecks.  By about 10:30 AM, it seemed as though the fish were not going to bite in that area, so we steamed an hour and a half to the northeast to try a different place.   However, we only found a few ling and a handful of sea bass.  Needless to say, it was a very difficult trip, and not the way we hoped to end our season.

We are going to the boat yard for some painting and other maintenance next week and should be back sometime in April.  We will probably start out our spring season making inshore ling and sea bass trips.


February 21, 2007

Sorry, but we are forced to CANCEL our Wednesday 2/21, Thursday 2/22 and Friday 2/23 inshore trips for ling and blackfish.

Weather permitting, our offshore wreck trips this weekend will sail as scheduled.  Anglers can check by calling 732-295-3019 after 5:00 PM Friday night.


February 19, 2007

We added another OFFSHORE WRECK TRIP on 1:00 AM SUNDAY FEBRUARY 25.
In addition, Kenny Namowitz will be running the VOYAGER during this week for ling and blackfish at 6:30 AM, but anglers should pick one of the nicer days forecast for later in the week.

If bad weather forces us to cancel our SATURDAY FEBRUARY 24 Offshore Wreck Trip, the VOYAGER will try to sail inshore for ling and blackfish on Saturday.  Anglers can check by calling 732-295-3019 after 5:00 PM Friday night.  These will be our last trips before going to the boatyard for the next month or so.



January 16, 2007

We got in two more offshore wreck trips during the holiday weekend.  The January 13 trip was about as good as it gets.  The offshore weather was flat calm and we fished some southern wrecks.   We only caught sea bass, but they were good sized and the action was non-stop.

We returned to the southern wrecks on January 15, but this time the offshore weather was against us.   The ride out was nice, but it got very windy as soon as the sun rose.   It was hard to feel the sea bass biting as the boat rode on the seas and we wound up with a slow pick throughout the day.


January 1, 2007

We had two offshore sea bass trips this past weekend and the weather finally cooperated.

On the first trip on Friday December 28, we had many limit catches of jumbo sea bass plus a few ling.

We had two fish that were close contenders for the pool, so the anglers decided to weigh their fish at our tackle shop, Fishermen's Supply, when we got back to the dock.  We weighed the fish on the shop's certified digital scale and the biggest one weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces, and the second place fish was only 1½-ounce less.  These really were jumbo sea bass.




On our second trip on Saturday December 30, we fished a different area, and found a mix of giant porgies up to three pounds and sea bass over six pounds.

We also had a few dozen ling and even a blackfish.

Many people had limits of sea bass and could easily have had limits of porgies if they used smaller hooks. 

The pool winner was Charlie DeHart of Staten Island with a 6 pound 8 ounce sea bass.







We took a bunch of nice photos on the last two offshore wreck trips.   Be sure to check them out in our Photo Gallery.

The VOYAGER is sailing offshore every Saturday morning at 1:00 AM (boarding at 11:30 PM Friday night) through January (and maybe February if the fishing holds up.)

WE STILL HAVE SOME SPOTS AVAILABLE ON OUR
JANUARY 6 TRIP.   If you are interested, please call our office at 732-295-3019.

Starting on JANUARY 5, the VOYAGER will be running LING MARATHON TRIPS EVERY FRIDAY from 6:30 AM to 4:30 PM.


December 28, 2006

Our SATURDAY DECEMBER 30 OFFSHORE WRECK TRIP is now SOLD OUT!

We still have AVAILABLE SPOTS on our

1/06, 1/13, 1/20 and 1/27 OFFSHORE WRECK TRIPS.


December 27, 2006

We had to cancel our last few OFFSHORE WRECK TRIPS because of bad weather conditions offshore and we added another trip on FRIDAY DECEMBER 29 at 1:00 AM to accommodate those folks that wanted to reschedule.  This trip is filled, but for those that are going, boarding will start 11:30 PM Thursday night.

We still have a few AVAILABLE SPOTS on our OFFSHORE WRECK TRIP boarding 11:30 PM Friday night and leaving SATURDAY DECEMBER 30 at 1:00 AM. If you are interested in going the 12/30 trip, call Captain Jeff at 732-757-5109.  (If you call on Friday, please call 732-892-2058.)

For those of you that BLACKFISH with us, on FRIDAY DECEMBER 29 Captain Kenny will be running his boat, the MIMI, for anyone who would normally sail on the VOYAGER.   He will be leaving from his normal dock by Spikes Fish Market at 6:30 AM and returning at 4:30 PM.

The VOYAGER will be sailing our NORMAL BLACKFISH SCHEDULE on NEW YEARS EVE DECEMBER 31 and again on NEW YEARS DAY JANUARY 1.
 
Starting on JANUARY 5, the VOYAGER will be running LING MARATHON TRIPS EVERY FRIDAY from 6:30 AM to 4:30 PM.


December 15, 2006

On Sunday December 10, Neil Socarras (photo on left) of Wanaque, NJ caught a monster 14-pound 1-ounce blackfish.  Along with winning the pool, Neil had a limit catch which included a 5-pound and 8-pound specimens (photo on right.)  Fishing was good with a number of limit catches and over twenty-five blackfish that weighed 5-pounds or better on board.









Blackfishing remained good all week and many 8 to 10-pound fish came over the rails. On Monday December 11, the pool winner weighed just over 12-pounds.

On Friday December 15, blackfishing was slower than during the past few days.  There was plenty of life on all the spots we tried, but we came up with mostly short fish.   However, we did get some bigger fish too, and Don Henriquez (photo on left) won the pool with a very nice 8-pound Tautog.   You can see larger photos of Don and Neil’s blackfish on our Photo Gallery pages.






December 3, 2006

The weather was chilly on our December 3 blackfish trip. The strong winds from yesterday were gone, and in its place we had a light and variable breeze that made for tough anchoring over our southern drops.

The blackfish only bit in spurts all day and the catches were not up to par.   Several nice sized fish came over the rails and today’s pool winner weighed 9-pounds.






November 26, 2006

Our first offshore wreck trip on November 25 started with a rougher ride out than expected, but the seas started to lie down just before we got to the grounds.

We anchored up on our first wreck and started to pick away at some porgies, jumbo sea bass and small bluefish.  Within a half-hour, the fishing improved and for the next 1½ hours, we caught giant sea bass and porgies all around the boat.   We shifted the VOYAGER a bit on the wreck and caught some more fish.











We then tried another wreck and found more sea bass and porgies, as well as some school cod and medium to large pollock.   Jack Decker (photo upper left) won the pool with a 30-pound pollock.

We then tried a couple of other spots that produced more sea bass than anything else, and for the day, many people made limit catches of porgies and sea bass.  The porgies we caught were very large, up to 3-pounds, and the sea bass weighed up to about 6-pounds.









You can see more photos from our November 25 offshore wreck trip on our Photo Gallery page.

Our next offshore wreck trip on December 2 is sold out, but there are still spots available from December 9 on.

On our Sunday November 26 blackfish trip, we had good action despite poor conditions.  We fished the southern blackfish grounds again, and found some good spots and some duds.  We did notice that more large fish are starting to show up.  We had a fair number of 3 to 5-pound blackfish fish as well as a few 6 to 8-pounders.  A couple of blackfish close to ten pounds also came over the rails.   It looks as though blackfishing down south is turning on as the sea cools down.  Look for better and better fishing as the season progresses.







November 21, 2006

The conditions were absolutely perfect for blackfishing on Monday November 20.   The swell we had during the weekend laid down and there was a nice 15-knot northwest breeze to keep the boat steady at anchor.  Unfortunately, the larger blackfish did not realize this.  There was plenty of action with small blackfish, but only a few nicer ones.  Some folks managed five or six keepers, and some had less.


November 20, 2006

Our weekend blackfish trips on November 18 and 19 were decent.   We had good anchoring conditions and the blackfish cooperated on most of the rocks, wrecks and artificial reefs we visited about an hour or so to the south of our inlet.

The action was very good, and many people had limit catches of nice 2 to 5-pound blackfish (and a few folks even had to toss back up to another eight keeper fish since they already had their limit.)  Pool winning fish on both days were about 8.5-pounds.  There were also plenty of small blackfish around on almost every spot, and there were times when your crab bait would last less than a minute before you got a bite.







November 16, 2006

Our first blackfish trip of the season on Wednesday November 15 was not as good as we had hoped.   Blackfish were biting on just about every spot we tried, but poor anchoring conditions made it difficult to stay directly over any one spot for long.  We should have better conditions this weekend and we think the fish will cooperate.


November 12, 2006

Our final tuna trip of the season on Friday November 10 was a success.   Despite our feeling that there are still plenty of fish at the Hudson Canyon, and having good weather in our favor, we decided to head further south.  We anchored up at about 2:00 AM on the northeast corner of the Baltimore Canyon.

At about 3:30 AM we caught and released a small swordfish.   At 4:30 AM, we hooked our first tuna and soon after that, we hooked a second.   We then lost a couple of fish and landed a longfin and a bluefin that taped out at 180-pounds.  We then had a lull until around daybreak, when large schools of tuna would come and go under the boat and we started to pick away at a mix of longfin and yellowfin, plus another bluefin.  We hooked up with a fish or two every ten minutes or so, but quite a few were lost due to the large size of the fish.   Even the longfins were exceptionally large and weighed in at over 60-pounds.   We caught fish on jigs, deep lines, and flat lines.   Sardines were the best bait, but butterfish and butterfish chunks worked well too.

Later in the trip, I decided to try my luck by flat lining a sardine.  After about 20 minutes, I got a bite.  About half way through fighting the fish, it suddenly got very easy.  I reeled in the last 100 feet of line to find that a shark had bitten off the tail of the longfin.   We then saw a brief glimpse of the shark, but it quickly sank down out of view.   About three minutes later, we heard our mate Joel yelling for another gaff.  Apparently, the shark had reappeared next to the boat and Joel free-gaffed the 150-pound mako.  We quickly got four gaffs in it and pulled it in through the transom door.   Back at the dock, we cleaned the mako and passed out steaks to everyone on board.  It was a real pleasure to end the season fishing in T-shirts in November, and with plenty of tuna bites to go around.

While we have finished tuna fishing for the year, there is still a beautiful body of warm water far to our east, and if it comes close enough, we might try to put together one more special trip for some Christmas tuna.   If you are interested, just e-mail me so we can put you on a call list in case this happens.

On behalf of the crew and myself, I want to thank everyone who joined us during this tuna season and helped make it a success.   We hope to see you again next season or possibly on one of our winter trips.  Captain Jeff


November 8, 2006

Fishing was slow overall during last weekend's tuna trips on November 4 and 5.   On Friday night, we had fish under the boat from 5:30 AM until we left, but the bite was not very good.   We caught a handful of albacore tuna and had a number of large bluefin tuna on.   We got our limit of bluefin tuna and then cut some off at the surface.   Other fish were lost before we got them to the boat.

Saturday night's trip featured perfect weather, but less tuna action.  Nice schools of albacore showed up under the boat, but they didn't stay long or bite well.  Only a couple of them were landed and a few were lost and/or missed.  There were also fewer bluefin tuna around and we only hooked into one.  The full moon, which was bright in the sky well into the morning hours, attributed to the finicky nature of the fish.  However, we did catch some nice tilefish as we drifted along.   The thumbnail photo shows Frank Artiglere with a decent tilefish.   This Friday, November 10, will likely be our last tuna trip of the season and we currently have nine spots open.




October 21, 2006

Saturday night's trip was a tale of two trips.   The ride out was supposed to be nice since the wind was supposed to lie down.   (The NOAA offshore forecast called for winds of 10 knots or less late.)   Well, 'late' turned out to be about 6:00 AM.  The ride out was not very nice even with the sea behind us and the fishing was just as bad as the weather.  We only managed to catch a single swordfish for the entire night, and it was a throwback.

At 7:15 AM, we were just getting set to move the boat when we got our first tuna hookup.   By this time, the wind and seas had finally calmed down and we stayed a bit longer, the tuna started to bite.   It was not a slaughter, but we steadily picked away and ended up with about 30 tuna in the fish box.  (A 55/45% mix of Yellowfin and albacore.)  We still read tuna on the fish finder around noon, but they were not biting that well and we called it quits and headed for the barn.  It was a lucky for us that we left when we did since the wind picked up from the SW during the last couple of hours of the ride home.   The thumbnail is Jay Benson holding one of his three tuna.

The tuna are here, so be sure to book your trip today!   The season will be over before you know it.


October 18, 2006

Fishing was slow overnight at the Hudson Canyon with just a few yellowfin and a couple of swordfish in the fish box.   At around 7:00 AM, we picked up the anchor and moved about four miles.   After fishing for about ten minutes at the new spot, the tuna started biting and we enjoyed a very good pick of 80% albacore and 20% yellowfin tuna.

Al Johnson made the highlight catch of the trip, a 120 pound bigeye tuna (Al also bagged two albacore.)   Many anglers caught three, four, five and up to seven tuna (Billy Rowan from the Canyon Runner) and some made limit catches of yellowfin.   The tuna responded to deep baits at first, then jigs and deep baits, and finally on flat lines where you could watch the tuna take the bait.  Many thanks to Captain Mike Rosenburgh of the charter boat ALLISON RAE for calling us in on the bite.







October 15, 2006

We went back to the Hudson yet again.  The wind from the previous day was gone, but the boat still swung at anchor and fishing lines were still running towards the bow.  We put about fifteen Yellowfin and Longfin tuna into the fish box during the night.   The highlight catches of the trip were three swordfish weighing 80, 125 and 150 pounds, and Frank Artiglere from High Bridge, NJ bagged two nice Yellowfin tuna.




October 14, 2006

We fished at the Hudson canyon again.  It was a breezy night and the boat was swinging at anchor, and the current was taking anglers lines towards the bow.   We caught about eighteen Yellowfin and Longfin tuna in the less than ideal fishing conditions.  A bunch of Mahi stayed around the boat for a couple of hours during the night and many of them wound up in the fish box.









October 13, 2006


Today we went to the Hudson canyon after getting reports that another body of warm water arrived.  Sure enough, the tuna are back at the Hudson and we enjoyed excellent fishing for Yellowfin and Longfin tuna.

Squid were plentiful and most tuna were caught using them for bait, but jigging worked well for those who tried.   Quite a few anglers got their limit of tuna and we wound up with a great big load of tuna.







The tuna season is still going strong and the new body of fish bodes well for continued good fishing through November!   We still have openings on our tuna trips during the rest of October and November, so call us and make your reservation.


October 12, 2006

We returned to the far south canyons along with the rest of the fleet.   We found the warm water again, but the tuna fishing was below expectations for everyone in the fleet.


October 10, 2006

Our last 30-hour tuna trip of the season started with very good weather for a change.  Last weekend's storm pushed the warm water we had been fishing in far to the south and we went after it.

After a long ride to a southern canyon, we found plenty of small Mahi and everyone loaded up.   We anchored up just before sundown and started chumming for tuna.   We caught Yellowfin in spurts of three to six fish every hour.   When a bright moon finally rose, the tuna fishing slowed down.  After midnight, the wind and current picked up dramatically and shut down the bite.  By dawn, the current finally slowed and we put another half dozen Yellowfin and Longfin into the boat.   We had a bumpy and rainy ride home, but there were over three dozen tuna in the fish box.




October 4, 5, 6 and 7, 2006

A nasty bout of weather offshore with winds up to 40 knots forced us to cancel four trips.   Rats!


October 3, 2006

We had bluebird skies and relatively gentle seas for this 30-hour trip.  We couldn’t find any Mahi, but we did locate some nice Tilefish before setting up for the night.  Our first Yellowfin tuna came into the boat shortly after dark and we steadily picked at them until dawn.  After sunrise, large Longfin tuna came into our slick and we boated several of them.  We wound up with a respectable catch of about three dozen tuna.


October 1, 2006

We canceled this trip because of problems with our anchor winch.






September 30, 2006

The offshore weather turned out poor on Friday night with pouring rain and 30-knot winds with higher gusts.  However, the tuna fishing was a different story!  We caught one fish shortly after we anchored, but had to wait until 1:00 AM for the second one.  From then until 4:00 AM, the bite was on, and we put 47 yellowfin tuna into the box.


September 29, 2006

Another nice night weather-wise with gentle winds and calm seas.   We read tuna under the boat all night long, but they generally weren't interested in our baits or jigs.   We picked at them all night long and wound up with 20 tuna in the boat.


September 28, 2006

The seas were calm on the way out and we fished the same southern canyon again.  The first Yellowfin came aboard only five minutes after we set anchor and started chumming.   The tuna bite lasted all night and everyone on board made a limit Yellowfin catch!   The ride home was a little snappy with an increasing breeze, but our fish boxes were full.


September 26, 2006

We enjoyed perfect weather on this extended 30-hour trip with cloudless blue skies and flat seas.  We decided to fish at a southern canyon and we spent the afternoon fishing for mahi-mahi at nearby lobster pot buoys.  While many of the mahi-mahi were small, the action was good fun and anglers boated some larger specimens too.

Before sundown, we dropped anchor for the night and started chumming.  The tuna fishing turned out to be slow compared to the last few trips, but we wound up with seventeen Yellowfin plus a few nice sized Longfin.   Mel Deak from Perth Amboy, NJ made a limit catch of Yellowfin, all caught on live squid and Frank Artiglere from High Bridge, NJ bagged a respectable 80-pound yellowfin.







The highlight of the night was swordfish.  We boated several keepers up to 120-pounds plus a handful of throwbacks.  After sunrise, we drifted for tuna and read them well under the boat.  We caught a few of them (all longfins), but they generally didn't seem interested in feeding.   While we were drifting, a few anglers tried going down to the bottom for tilefish and managed to get three nice specimens over the rail.  Overall, this was a very pleasant trip for all aboard.








September 23 and 24, 2006

We canceled these trips because of poor weather conditions offshore from the remnants of hurricane Gertrude.


September 22, 2006

We went out to the same place we fished on the previous day even though the forecast was less than great.  We hoped we could get out, catch a bunch of tuna and then get home early to beat the worsening weather.   Fishing was excellent and things worked out just as we had hoped.  The entire boat was limited out by 4:30 AM and by 5:00 AM, the anchor was on the way up and we were on our way home, barely beating the bad weather.   Our sharpies from Connecticut were aboard and they jigged all night in the bow along with Dave "The Mad Jigger", and Captain John Hawryluk (out on a busman's holiday.)   The boys in the bow jigged over forty tuna, although they could only keep three yellowfin tuna apiece.  The hot jigs that night were the Yo-Zuri Hydro Metal, AKA "The Squish", and the Shimano Butterfly.   Squid and sardine baits also worked well.


September 21, 2006

We had excellent fishing at a southern canyon on this trip with many anglers catching their limits of yellowfin.   We also had a large swordfish estimated at 200-pounds break off after an hour-long battle.   The hot baits were the live squid that the crew were catching.  We always urge our customers to help catch bait because when the bite is on, it is hard for one or two mates to catch enough for the entire boat.   Dave DeGenarro was high hook with ten tuna, all caught on squid.  Dave only kept his legal limit of three yellowfins and we passed around the rest to other anglers.


September 19, 2006

On this extended trip, we spent the afternoon trolling along the east wall of the Hudson canyon and put six yellowfin into the boat.   We anchored up for the night in snappy 20-knot SW winds and started fishing.   Heavy rain started after dark and persisted all night long.   In spite of the driving rain, the tuna bit our squid baits very well.   A cold front came through before dawn, and the wind swung around to the NW at thirty knots and the bite slowed down.   Peter Bardes from Newark, NJ caught the highlight of the trip in the worsening weather, a 47-pound Wahoo.  We boated over fifty tuna before heading home in the bumpy seas.








September 17, 2006

The weather was beautiful and because of it, the boat traffic at the Hudson canyon was excessive.  Consequently, we decided to fish at a more southern canyon.   We had a slow start, but a good bite started around 4:30 AM.  Many fish were lost due to the conditions and the size of the fish.   Most of the fish were bigger 65 to 80-pound yellowfins, and many were lost because of break offs.  We ended up with far fewer than we should have because of the lost fish.   In fact, Dave Schreckenstein, a regular on our sister ship, the ANGLER, actually managed to single-handedly loose eight tuna.  Let's see if he can redeem himself on his next trip.


September 16, 2006

Despite a marginal weather forecast and a left over ground swell, we caught twenty-two yellowfin tuna up to 75-pounds and a few mahi-mahi.   Lots of bait were around the boat all night with squid being the top producer.   Captain Barry Goldman got into a big Yellowfin, but after an hour fight, lost the fish along with his mojo.












September 14, 2006

We had only fair tuna fishing at the Hudson Canyon on this trip with about 18 fish.  The catch was mostly yellowfin, but also included a couple of albacore plus a small bigeye.


September 2, 2006

We canceled our second tuna trip of the season on Thursday, August 31 because of poor offshore weather conditions.   (We have been plagued with high northeast winds, rain and big seas all week.)  Our daily trips for Fluke and Bluefish concluded this weekend and were a washout because of the winds and rain from the remnants of hurricane Ernesto.

Our next tuna trip is Friday, September 8 and it, along with the following six tuna trips, is sold out.  We do have openings on the rest of the September trips, but they are going fast.   If you are interested in hooking up with a tuna, give us a shout.


August 26, 2006

Our first offshore tuna trip of the season on August 24 was a success.   We arrived at the Hudson Canyon around 10:30 PM and looked around for some bait to stop on.  After we anchored, we read squid and large balls of what looked like anchovies on the fish finder.  Throughout the night, large schools of squid came to the surface and we netted them ten at a time.  At times, we could fill a five-gallon bucket with squid in two or three scoops.

After about 35 minutes, we read a bunch of tuna under the boat and quickly hooked up with five or six of them.  We then had a few shots of multiple hookups over the next hour and a half.   The fish were nice yellowfin weighing between 50 to 70 pounds and many were lost.

After a bit of a lull, another school of yellowfin, this time 35 to 40 pound fish, came under the boat and stayed there.  We had slaughter fishing from 2:30 AM to 5:30 AM with many people catching limits and many fish released.  Mel Deak from Perth Amboy, NJ, Chris Hempstead from Fairhaven, NJ, Joe Prohaska from Union Beach, NJ, Steve Frka from Staten Island, NY, James Kim from Forest Hills, NY and Chang Lee from Forest Hills, NY all had limit catches of yellowfin tuna.   Rolando Torres dropped down for tilefish at first light and quickly caught a 20+ pounder before we headed home.





On the way home, we saw acres of surface feeding yellowfin and stopped for fifteen minutes to take some pictures and enjoy the sight of 40 to 50 pound tuna jumping out of the water only yards from the boat.  If all of our trips are just half as good as this one, we'll have a super tuna season.

We still have a few open spots for our next offshore tuna trip on Thursday, August 31.


The Friday, September 1 fluke trip is canceled.  Our last open boat fluke and bluefish trips of the season are Saturday, September 2.







August 12, 2006

The VOYAGER is fishing for FLUKE every THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY and SUNDAY and for BLUEFISH every FRIDAY and SATURDAY EVENING.   Captain Jeff Gutman is running the fluke trips and Captain John Hawryluk is running the night bluefish trips.  See our Fishing Schedule page for details.

Good fluke fishing again today with lots of shorts and some nice keepers mixed in.  Lou Wines (photo on left) from Freehold, NJ got a nice 3½-pounder and Ed Konkowski (photo on right) from Fords, NJ got five keepers including a 6¼-pound beauty.

For more photos including larger versions of the ones you see here, visit our Photo Gallery pages.











August 10, 2006

We had good-to-excellent fluking all week long.  The best day was Tuesday August 8 when we had perfect drifting conditions (a NW wind and an ebb tide.)   Many people had between five and eight keepers along with 20 to 40 shorts.

Yesterday and today were a bit tougher conditions (NE on Wednesday and wind against today), but some anglers still managed three or four plus many shorts.

Today, we had some nice fish in the 4 to 6½-pound range. Chris Seaman from Brick, NJ, John Spock from Bridgewater, NJ and Kurt Grimm from Raritan, NJ (photo upper left) caught a nice brace of fluke. Herb Johnson (photo upper right) from Boynton Beach, FL caught a nice fluke too.

August 5, 2006

Friday August 4 was our first day of fluking on the VOYAGER and the fishing was good.  We had a tremendous amount of action as well as some keepers.  We found plenty of fluke everywhere from Manasquan Inlet to south of Seaside Pier in 25 to 70 feet of water.   Lou Wines was high hook with four fluke up to 3¾-pounds plus about 30 shorts.   We also had plenty of big bluefish mixed in.

On Friday night, Captain John Hawryluk had slaughter bluefishing with fish up to 14-pounds.  Many people made limit catches.   Lots of squid came in to lights around the boat and stayed there all night.   Anglers also bagged two Mahi-Mahi weighing from 12 to 14-pounds.

June 23, 2006

The CAPTAIN JOHN is NOW the VOYAGER - A DIFFERENT NAME, but the SAME BOAT, the SAME CAPTAINS and CREW, and the SAME GREAT FISHING TRIPS!

We just finished installing NEW Lugger® turbocharged diesel engines, and NEW Northern Lights® power generators.  As part of this significant project, we renamed the boat the VOYAGER.  We are making some final touches now and will be ready to start fishing in early July.  Click here to see photos of us installing the new engines.

March 5, 2006

We packed it in after our last Blackfish trip on February 26.  We are now in the process of re-powering the CAPTAIN JOHN with new Lugger turbocharged diesel engines, and we expect the boat to cruise between 18 and 19 knots with the new engines.   Aside from the confidence of knowing we have new machinery, we will be saving an hour of riding time to the tuna fishing grounds each way!   Another change is the addition of both heat and air conditioning to the bunkroom.   Everyone will now get a comfortable rest while we travel to the fishing grounds.

We posted our 2006/2007 FISHING SCHEDULE, and you can see our TUNA and WRECK schedule pages for details.  

The CAPTAIN JOHN 2006 TUNA FISHING schedule includes sixty-one overnight canyon trips departing every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evening from September 8 through October 10.  From October 11 through November 19, we will be sailing seven nights a week.   The fare will be $275 and the trips will be strictly limited to 24 anglers.

We will be bringing back our special 30-hour extended offshore tuna trips.   We will only be making FIVE of these special trips in 2006 (Tuesday September 12, 19, 26 and October 3 and 10.)   These trips, limited to 22 anglers, will depart at 9:00 AM Tuesday mornings and return about 3:00 PM Wednesday afternoons.   The fare will remain the same as last year at $350.

The CAPTAIN JOHN 2006/2007 DEEP SEA FISHING schedule includes a number of offshore wreck trips plus marathon bottom fishing trips.

Our 18-Hour Offshore Giant Sea Bass, Cod and Pollock Trips leave 1:00 AM every Saturday from November 25 through January 27, 2007.  Trips are limited to 35 passengers and the fare is $150.

Our 10-Hour Giant Blackfish Trips leave 6:30 AM every day except Saturdays from November 27 through January 28, 2007.  Open boat, no reservations needed.

Our 10-Hour Blackfish, Ling and Cod Trips leave 6:30 AM every day from January 29, 2007 through the end of February.   Open boat, no reservations needed.

We will start accepting trip bookings on April 15, 2006.   You can call our office at 732-295-3019 on weekdays between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM, or you can e-mail us.  Leave a phone number and time when we can reach you.

We will start accepting trip bookings on April 15, 2006.   You can call our office at 732-295-3019 on weekdays between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM, or you can e-mail us.    Leave a phone number and time when we can reach you.

February 3, 2006

ATTENTION - THE 1:00 AM SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4 OFFSHORE WRECK TRIP IS CANCELED DUE TO POOR OFFSHORE WEATHER CONDITIONS.

WE WILL INSTEAD SAIL AN OPEN BOAT LING MARATHON TRIP AT 6:00 AM SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4.

We intend to fish through February 20, so check out our OFFSHORE, BLACKFISH and LING WRECK TRIP CALENDAR for details.

Just a reminder, the CAPTAIN JOHN Galley is open during ALL of our trips and we are serving up hot food as well as hot and cold beverages.


January 22, 2006

Note - The SATURDAY JANUARY 28 open boat Ling Marathon Trip is CANCELLED.

Gale weather offshore forced us to cancel Saturday’s 18-hour Offshore Wreck Trip for the second time in two weeks.   We are rescheduling the trip for 1:00 AM SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4.   Note – We are canceling our February 4 Ling Marathon Trip because of the rescheduled Offshore Wreck Trip.


January 13, 2006

A nasty offshore weather forecast forced us to reschedule our January 14 18-hour Offshore Wreck Trip to SATURDAY JANUARY 21.   Note – We have canceled the January 21 Ling Marathon Trip because of the rescheduled Offshore Wreck Trip.


January 10, 2006

Our Ling and Blackfish trips both suffered this weekend from the bad weather earlier last week.  The residual swell knocked them down and they just weren’t biting well.   Blackfishing in particular was tough and we only got bites on a couple of the many spots we fished.  However, we did get a few fish that weighed over five pounds.  Some nice weather this week should snap things back into shape.

Just a reminder, our Ling Marathon trips are open boat.  We do not limit the number of passengers on these trips.


December 30, 2005

The CAPTAIN JOHN will be sailing an abbreviated schedule on Saturday December 31.  The Ling and Cod Marathon trip will sail at 6:00 AM and return around 3:30 PM.   We reduced the fare for this trip to $55.

Captains Jeff and Kenny will be running another OFFSHORE SEA BASS, COD and POLLACK WRECK TRIP on SATURDAY JANUARY 14.   Boarding will start 11:30 PM Friday night and the boat will leave at 1:00 AM Saturday.

Call the office at 732-295-3019 to make your reservation.  The fare is $150 and payment in full is required.

Note – We have canceled the Saturday January 14 Ling Marathon Trip because of the added offshore trip.

Blackfishing this past week was a little slow.   While we are catching some quality fish in the eight to ten pound range, there hasn't been enough of them to go around. Similar reports have been coming in this week from all along the shore.  George Bachert captured a 12-pound Blackfish this week.


December 19, 2005

Our marathon Ling trip on December 17 was good.  Some anglers caught 15 to 25 jumbo Ling while others had a few less.   We fished the Mud Hole in depths ranging from 125 to 240 feet.   There were also a few Sea Bass and Cod mixed in with the Ling.  Spiny Dogfish were not as bad at the Mud Hole as they were on some of our offshore trips.  We will be sailing for Ling every Tuesday and Saturday, except Christmas Day.   You can see a few photos from the December 17 trip in the Photo Gallery.

We've had plenty of good fishing during the previous two weeks.  The marathon Blackfish trips have been very good with the entire boat limiting out each day that we fished.  Pool fish were in the 8 to 10-pound range with many keepers in the 3 to 5-pound range.  The December 10 offshore trip only produced a dozen or so Cod and Pollock up to 15-pounds.   The December 3 offshore trip was good and the catch was mostly jumbo Porgies and giant Sea Bass up to 6-pounds.  Our offshore trips are over for the remainder of the year and we will be focusing on our inshore trips for Blackfish, and Ling and Cod.   We may add one offshore trip to the schedule in early January.


November 29, 2005

OFFSHORE WRECK TRIP REPORT - We still have plenty of room on our upcoming offshore wreck trips and the fishing has been good.   The migration of Black Sea Bass to the offshore grounds is just starting and we expect the fishing to really pick up as the inshore waters cool.   The amount of Cod we found was also quite surprising.   We caught Cod on every wreck we fished during the two days we were out during the Thanksgiving holiday.  This too should hold up and get even better.

We will start our weekday, inshore Blackfishing trips ONE WEEK EARLY on the CAPTAIN JOHN.  On Monday December 5 through Friday December 9 we will be Blackfishing with Captain Kenny Namowitz at the helm.

On the offshore wrecks we fished Sunday, November 26, we found many more Cod, but slightly fewer Black Sea Bass than on Saturday’s trip.  We ended up with about 60 keeper Cod up to about 18-pounds.  High hooks were Don Babbit of Belford, NJ with seven Cod, and four Sea Bass, and Chris Frka of Staten Island, NY with eight cod and five Sea Bass.   Almost all of the Sea Bass weighed between 4 and 6-pounds.

Saturday’s fishing trip was good with a nice mix of large Black Sea Bass, jumbo Porgies, Pollock, and a good amount of Cod.  Frank Wagner from Avenel, NJ had a 25-pound pool-winning Pollock, as well as six Black Sea Bass from 4 to 6-pounds, three Ling, and ten giant Porgies from 2½ to 3½-pounds.  Chris Melton from Avenel, NJ was high hook on the Cod with eight keepers plus some throwbacks.
November 17, 2005

We have one more canyon tuna trip to go on Friday November 18 and we have ten spots remaining.   We have been catching Albacore, Yellowfin, and large Bluefin.   The results of our past few trips have been sporadic.   On some trips, we catch ten or fifteen tuna and the next night only one or two.  On our Friday November 11 trip, Frank Artiglere caught a 150-pound Bluefin tuna and a Yellowfin tuna, but the Saturday November 12 trip was poor with only a couple of fish on.  There may be some warmer water moving in from the East, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.


October 23, 2005

We had good fishing on our October 20 trip.  We fished around the Carteret canyon.  All tuna were caught after 7:00 AM and we left them biting at the end of the trip.  Chris Hempstead of Fair Haven, NJ was high hook with seven tuna (four Longfin and three Yellowfin).

The other star of the trip was Dave DeGennaro who fought a swordfish for over three hours during the night and followed the beast almost twenty times around the boat.   The fight was long because we later found out that the fish was snagged in its side fin. Its weight is estimated between 200 and 250 pounds and you can see a photo of it on our 2005 Photo Gallery page.

We sailed again on October 21 and went back to the same area, but the fishing was tough because of the worsening weather.   We got just a handful of tuna for those who braved the wind and rain.

We recently posted our 2005 Photo Gallery.  We have over forty photos from the tuna trips so far, and we will be adding more as the season progresses.

We are pleased to announce that George Gasparik will operate our galley for ALL of our Tuesday 32-hour trips.  George will offer a full menu of BREAKFAST, LUNCH and DINNER choices at reasonable prices during these extended trips (see the Galley Menu page.)


October 8, 2005

Our trip on October 6 was slow with only a handful of tuna boated.   The annoying thing was that tuna were jumping full body out of the water almost underneath angler's rod tips. (They were chasing squid and the squid were jumping up to two feet out of the water.)  They just didn't bite right and it was hard to catch squid because they were skittish from the many dolphins and tuna that had them pinned against the sides of boat.   We then spent some time fishing for Mahi-Mahi and caught about forty, but many of them just looked at us and didn't bite.

We caught twenty-one tuna and two swordfish on our October 4 trip.   We lost quite a few tuna due to their large size.   We had one tuna that weighed 111-pounds dressed (no head or guts), so that was probably a 130-pound fish.  We also lost three keeper swordfish anywhere from 5 to 20 feet from our gaffs.

On our October 2 trip, the weather was about as nice as you could ever want.   We fished south of the Spencer Canyon and had tuna under the boat all night long.  Many of the tuna bit funny and we lost quite a few of them, but we landed twenty-two Yellowfin tuna ranging from 60 to about 100 pounds.


September 24, 2005

We fished the southern canyons again on our September 21 trip.   We fished at the same spot we fished last Sunday, and like last Sunday, we caught another 18 Yellowfin and Albacore tuna plus a few Mahi-mahis.  We also got into something quite large, but lost it after a 25-minute battle (it might have been a swordfish.)  High hook was David Mackie (the Mad Jigger) of Hopewell NJ with two Yellowfin and two Albacore.  Dave only jigged and never even bothered to tie up a bait rig.   It just goes to show that if you can jig night and day for the whole trip, you will probably out fish everyone.  He also had a few other jig strikes that he missed.    As usual, sardines and live squid were the bait of choice for those that didn't feel like jigging.


September 22, 2005

On our September 20 trip to the southern canyons, the weather was lousy on the way out, but it improved slowly as the trip went on.  Frank Artiglere, Glenn Kauffman and Bob Knemoller all caught large Albacore tuna (Frank's weighed over 60-pounds.)  The trip total was 13 tuna and about 50 Mahi-Mahi.


September 19, 2005

The last two tuna trips on Saturday, September 17 and Sunday, September 18 were slow, probably because of the full moon.    As it turned out, we were high hook in the party boat fleet each night, which isn't saying much.  We had 8 Yellowfins on Saturday night and 18 Yellowfins Sunday night.   On Saturday's trip, anglers caught Yellowfin tuna weighing up to 100-pounds and Chris Hempstead of Fairhaven, NJ was high hook with 2 Yellowfins and 4 Mahi-Mahi up to 20 lbs.   On Sunday's trip, Dave Degennaro was the high hook with 4 Yellowfins (he caught two of them on a kite rig.)   Most fish were caught using live squid or sardine baits.  We were fishing in the southern canyons on both trips.


September 17, 2005

Exceptionally good weather and decent tuna fishing marked our first 32-hour trip of the season on September 13 and 14.   The CAPTAIN JOHN arrived at the Lindenkohl canyon in the early afternoon and we picked away at small Mahi-Mahi we found hanging around some pot buoys.   We also tried our luck at trolling, but didn't raise any fish except a couple more Mahi-Mahi.  Just before sunset, we anchored up in the southwest corner of the Lindenkohl and started our chum slick in the 78-degree water.   Before long, lots of porpoise, pilot whales, flying fish and other tropicals were swimming around the boat.   After dark, we tried to catch squid for live baits, but they were very scarce that night.  Except for a short lull around midnight, we caught tuna all night long.   No big bite, but just a fish or two every so often.   At daybreak, tuna were rolling on the surface, but the current died and we could not drift our baits out to the breaking fish.  We spent the rest of the morning hours fishing weed patches and caught several dozen additional Mahi-Mahi.

The trip total was 36 Yellowfin tuna for 17 anglers.   Bill Gamache, Tony Cavallaro and Bill McLaughlin got their limit of Yellowfins.  Frank Artiglere, Hank Arujo, Mel Deak, Bob Kneudler, Keith Walters and Don Drummey captured two tuna apiece.  (Don also hooked up with a 100-plus pound Alison.  He had it up to the boat twice, but the fish got the upper hand and escaped capture.)  Captain Barry Goldman was aboard for the trip (he operated the OL' SALTY from Belmar, NJ for many years.)  He was mumbling something about losing his mojo, but he captured one Yellowfin anyway.
September 10, 2005

Last night, the CAPTAIN JOHN fished between the Tom's and Carteret canyons and had good fishing in 77.4-degree water.    Many squid were milling around the boat at night and they were the tuna bait of choice, but sardines also worked well.   Our catch was mostly Yellowfin tuna with a few Longfin mixed in.

The trip total was 34 tuna plus some Mahi-Mahi for 16 anglers.   Joe Prohaska of Union Beach, NJ had his limit of Yellowfins, and Millie Arzuela of Connecticut and Carlos Elinon of NJ had two Yellowfins apiece.   Millie and Carlos also caught a bunch of valuable squid baits that resulted in fish for other customers.  Captain Tracy Rothenberg of Slidell, LA had two Yellowfins and a Longfin.   Captain Jeff also jigged a Longfin on his first cast!   (He should have stopped there since he had no other bites during the trip.)


July 24, 2005

Offshore fishing has slowed a bit because of the recent full moon.   There seems to be plenty of warm water around both inshore and offshore.  The water temperature this past week at 17 Fathoms and the Farms was in the low 80's, which is really warm for this time of the year.   There is also plenty of good tuna bait, including squid and anchovies, swimming around all the way from the inshore grounds out to the canyons.  A good number of Bluefin tuna are being trolled from the Oil Wreck out to Chicken Canyon and several good catches of Yellowfin tuna have been made.   Things are shaping up for a good fall run.

We are pleased to announce that George Gasparik will operate our galley for ALL of our Tuesday 32-hour trips.  George will offer a full menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner choices at reasonable prices during these extended trips (see the Galley Menu page.)  We will start posting his Tuesday night dinner menus in September.


June 27, 2005

Warm Gulf Stream water has finally started to move into our offshore canyons.  Local charter boats are now venturing offshore and making decent trolling catches of Bluefin tuna in the 20 to 40 pound range.   A few Yellowfin are also mixed in the catches.

We are pleased to announce that George Gasparik will operate our galley for ALL of our 32-hour trips.  George will offer a full menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner choices at reasonable prices during these extended trips.   We will post his menus for the upcoming week starting in late September.