“Nice tog you have there”-Fishing report-07-19-10-by Bob Misak
The tog season opened up on Friday and much to my surprise there wasn’t a soul out on the jetty rocks trying to get their one keeper. I fished out there on Saturday and the togs were thick, but it seemed that they would only eat on the incoming tide. This is really out of the normal scheme of things as we always fish on the outgoing, and my guess is that the incredibly warm bay temps were shutting them down. As soon as the tide switched and cooler water started to roll in, the fishing was on, and I took a 17 inch white chin home. And speaking of cool water, the fluke fishing was off the hook in the inlet off the 6th st. dock on Saturday. There were anglers’ fluking up and down the dock and nailing keeper fluke left and right, with some jumbos coming over the rail at 6 to 8 lbs. I even tossed a couple killies out there and got a surprise when I hooked and lost a mega-flattie right in front of all my friends. I didn’t have my drag set tight enough and the fish scampered right to the bottom and got hung up. “No shirt bill” (I don’t know his last name) had 2 fluke at 24 and 28 inches in front of the lighthouse, and that’s a darn good day of fishin’ right there. The docks are also giving up some nice triggerfish, so now is the time to hit it over there, perhaps with a couple chum logs for those triggers. The blackfish haven’t been in that far as of yet, and I think the water temps being 90 in the bay might have something to do with that. The inlet is still full of cocktail blues and they were jumping out of the water chasing spearing all weekend. Again, anything shiny will get those fish a-hittin’ and they’re a load of fun for the youngsters.
Outside the inlet the fluking is improving as well and my son fished with Chris “cracker” Graham and they had a nice day with each guy on the boat taking home 3 or 4 fish apiece with some at 23 to 25 inches. There are plenty of small sharks all over the beaches, and this is no secret as they’ve been closing some of the beaches due to sightings that were a little close for comfort. Although most of these sharks are the typical brown sharks that show up in July, I did get a text of a good sized thresher taken off the sands on L.B.I. Because I didn’t witness the shark actually being caught, I can’t say for sure, but this fish was covered in what looked to be beach sand, so I think it was for real. It wasn’t small either, and looked to be 6 to 8 ft. long, tail excluded. These types of sharks really don’t pose any threats to anyone as they do have very small mouths, and aren’t known to be very aggressive. The warm water is without a doubt the cause of these fish coming in closer than usual, and mackerel tossed into the surf at night is getting them on the rod and reel. Kingfish are moving into the surf as well, and the finger jetties at high tide will get you some of those for the table. So the fishing and the weather has been great, and it’s time to fish! Good luck to everyone. Be safe.
