Obsession fishing, Forked River, 5-18

[jackdaniels]

Obsession Fishing 5/22 and 5/23
Sea Bass Season opens with a yawn, however the Stripers are mostly in the 30 to 40lb range!
Saturday 5/22/10
We fished Saturday with Harlan Smith and friends in beautiful conditions. We went off to an 85’ wreck for our first stop, where we picked a few keeper sea bass along with a variety of other fish including a few keeper Cod, Conger Eels, Ling and Blackfish. We reset on this wreck several times and we couldn’t get a good steady bite going. The fish we did catch were coming up very cold the bottom temp is just too cold right now about 48 degrees. We need that bottom temp to come up a little to get these Sea Bass to bite steady. After this stop we moved in to another wreck in the 75’ range with similar results, a few sea bass and blackfish. I was talking to a few friends and they were seeing the same fishing in other depths, this is not the Sea Bass fishing we were waiting for .Sea Bass fishing is pretty slow throughout the fleet and we didn’t see the number of boats I thought I would. We talked to the crew and discussed the options we decided to run up the beach and try for some Stripers. We ran 12 miles to the north and started trolling. The stripers were there we had five bites and landed 3 stripers from 30 to 35 lbs. Talked to a few friends when we got back to the dock, as always some boats had a decent day, a few boats to the south had a fair catch of Sea Bass and one local boat did well. The fish are there we just need the water to warm up a few degrees.
Thankfully the Stripers are responding well.



Sunday 5/23/10
We had Jack and Lisa Rosol and friends on today .We talked yesterday about the slow Sea Bass fishing however we were all were ready to go and we changed our strategy a little. The weather was not predicted as the best ESE wind with tight 3’ 4’ seas and a chance of rain. We pretty much saw all that during the day. On the way out we decided to stop on an inshore wreck in 65’ of water for a few reasons, to see how we lay on anchor , see how the conditions were and if the Sea Bass were in closer to the beach. Wouldn’t you know it, Lisa catches the first fish it’s a keeper!, as everyone else was getting ready. She continued to have some success putting a few keepers in the cooler. We worked this wreck for a while and caught some keepers and released a few blackfish. A better start than yesterday still not up to par. We reset on the wreck and caught a few more, no big ones just keeper size. We picked up and ran 5 miles to a local reef and set up on a wreck in 70 feet, same result not at all what we had in mind. There were a few stripers being caught we discussed running up the beach and looking for a few. The group I had on was more into jigging or live lining bunker we started out trolling and looked for bunker our bite down here has been mostly a troll bite. We don’t have the large bunker schools for snagging .There have been some Bass caught this way just not a many as by trolling. We managed 4 bites and caught 2 Stripers in the 30 lb range that along with 25 Sea Bass and a few released Blackfish we then called it a day.


The Sea Bass will only get better as the water warms up.
These photos are on the web site.
Tight Lines
Capt Keith
Capt Joe


Obsession Sportfishing
908-400-0761
http://www.obsessionfishing.com
http://www.swyachtsales.com
Forked River, NJ