Absecon Inlet Finally Turns on !

[Guatemala Dave]

November 16, 2010, Finally the Absecon Inlet lit up this morning like somebody turned on the fish switch! Carole and Tom Smarsh were lucky this morning even if they weren't so much at their stay at the Tropicana last night. The first drift as the casinos still shed most of the light on the inlet brought the first hit and fish for Tom . It then took a couple drifts to get things situated, but I saw a few fish start to be caught on the Red Can Drift and we settled into the middle of a wide open bite from about 7 to 8 o'clock. There were about a dozen boats involved at the peak and just about everyone boated at least one fish each drift. Carole, Tom and myself culled a limit of six fish out of eight legal keepers and we had almost as many shorts. Despite the mayhem everyone kept their composure and made good drifts thru the rips and returned well outside so that there was very little interference, even as the number of boats swelled as the morning went on.

The best bite occurred at the peak of the ebbing tide and when the tide slowed so did the interest of the stripers. On my boat Spot were the food of choice though I saw eels accounting for a some good catches, probably because the fish I cleaned were full of sand eels and to a striper an eel is an eel. I only got one bass on the GULP, but I was too busy netting and unhooking fish to catch much of my own. The Jig bite should really turn on if they push the sand eels inside.

Bill Scull was fishing with Sonny Conover in the inlet after they got word of the hot bite. They had 3 keepers in the boat when Bill drifted out of the rips and kept his line into the deep while he answered a phone call. This hungry 36# lunker bit and is the biggest fish Bill has managed out of the Absecon Inlet
Today looks like a blow out, but the wind will be from the west so if you are hard core there will probably be fish to be caught. Thursday with light west wind should really turn on and if the weatherman is correct with his weekend forecast this should be the big one especially if you want to get out front and find schooling fish. If you are ready to get in on the action I currently have an open day Thursday and Friday so I may be able to squeeze you in.