The Barnegat Light Heavers club had their "first chance" tournament on Saturday. A few fish were beached during the day, with Jesse Deker taking the 300 dollar prize with 2 blue-dogs at 24 and 18 inches apiece. Also, the "Simply bassin" tourney started Saturday. Nobody weighed fish in on the North end yet, but we got word that blues and bass were in the surf pretty heavy down the south end near Beach Haven, so a bass or 2 may have made their way to the scales down there.

The boaters out there are doing pretty good clam fishing, with some boats reporting 9 or 10 bass per trip. The ratio on keepers is still about 5 to 1, but that's about to take a turn for the better. Christian Quinn from Forked River had a 7 or 8 lb. weakfish in front of Oyster creek on Sunday, and Jesse Deker had a nice bass at 35 inches and 16 lbs. from the L.B.I.suds. So from boat to beach things are kicking off as planned. We also had a decent drum at 21 lbs. nailed by Kenny Coogan in front of the lighthouse. Those drum give up quite a fight in the inlet current, and are a ball to catch on any given day.

The blackfish season is over for a while, so nothing good is to be said there.

And lets all remember that those giant weakfish are the backbone of the spawning season, so any fish you can release unharmed is a noble act. It doesn't hurt to keep what you want to eat if you really like weakfish, but again, each fish carries a couple thousand eggs. Just a thought to ponder.
The blues can be found just about anywhere you go, and bunker will bring them right to you. The 15th St. bar in Barnegat Light gave up some good blues as well as Loveladies, and the bay is littered with cocktail blues.

So with that being said, we can expect Ol' moonphase to bring his first tournament fish to the scales soon. He said he's just waitin' for the right time to spring it on us. By the way, anybody seen Robbie Vallone? Good luck and great fishing.