The 2003
fishing season has passed us by. Hopefully, the new year finds
all of you well and ready to fish.
A look
back on the past season shows a slow start in the spring.
This was probably due to the extreme cold that we had over
the winter. Water temperatures remained cold for a long period
of time. Once the water started to warm, the action did pick
up.
Spring
stripers were not what I had hoped for, but the wreck fishing
was good, giving us plenty of seabass and some big togs. Captain
Doug's 19.75 pound tog was the highlight and the biggest ever
weighed in at South Jersey Marina. We also had some over 15
pounds the same day and other trips produced fish in the 10-14
LB range.
Drum fishing,
when the weather was good, produced fish. The biggest weighing
in as 83 pounds. Flounder fishing was not as good as previous
years. Again, water temperature hurt us here, although we did
catch larger fish. There were just not as many fish to catch
this year.
Tuna fishing
never really turned on. We would catch fish one day, then not
even a bite the next. All bluefins and very few yellowfins also
caused problems on the over night trips. I'm hoping this season
will return the tuna fishing back to normal. With a typical
winter, this should be the case.
Fall stripers
were another plus for the season. We caught more fish than in
other years, again, weather played a part in this. I think we
don't miss as many bites as we did in the past.
Many trips
have been booked for this year already. More groups are reserving
for the next year as they get off the Gallant Lady after their
trip. Dates go faster every year. Our weekends booked quickly
and were sold out in May. In November we were booked every
day, causing groups to miss out or fish days later in the
season. I suggest you get your group together and call for
a date now. You can contact me via email
or call 609-884-7754.
I'm looking
forward to the 2004 season and fishing together once again.
