Mickey's Guide Service Fishing Reports

Fishing was a bit slower today than it has been but we still did alright considering the circumstances–a hard North Wind had us drifting thru choppy seas at 1.6 knots. Bait was spread out at first and then it was balled up later in the day for miles and miles. Very few fish on them though, either that or they just weren’t aggressively feeding. We stuck it out though and ended up getting some takers later in the trip and then all was right in the world again. Drew traveled in from Pittsburgh to fish today and was rewarded for his patience.

We just had a last second cancellation for tomorrow. If anyone would like to fish please call me asap at 215-693-4215. We leave the dock at 5:15 am, $650 not including tip for the mate!

thanks,
Mickey

Our full-time chartering schedule started off today with a bang. Heather booked this trip as a surprise birthday present for her husband back in November of last year and today they got to experience New Jersey Striper fishing at it’s finest. We found bait immediately and caught fish all day on the Bunker Schools in tight to the beach and also in deeper water. It was tremendous fishing from start to finish and there were no boats around us all day. We found a school of bait with Bass blowing up on them and it just kept giving and giving and giving. A perfect day for Striper fishing with overcast grey skies,  no boat traffic, and moderate seas. We caught and filleted (and released) a ton of fish today. Yes siree!

Randy and I put the Archangel back in her slip this morning and had our goals set on catching our first Bass of the year, it’s a little earlier than usual to be thinking about Bass anywhere but the river. We could never have anticipated the bite we ran into. Adam and Mike caught a quick limit on jigs and Randy and I simply got out of the way and worked the cockpit. The screen lit up with fish stacked all thru the water column and most of the fish we landed had 3 or 4 following them to the boat. The fish were up North, down South, in tight to the beach, and out in deep water as well. There is bait everywhere. Today was a welcome start to our season to say the least. It’s mid-April in Jersey and we have June quality Bassing.

I wrote an article for the local paper (Bucks County Herald) which was published in today’s edition. It is about the American Shad, the fish we have been targeting for the past month with great success. They also ran a nice color photo of Mark Modoski with one of the many large Roe we landed and released that day. Check it out!

-Mickey

Dan and C.P. are fish buyers for the top restaurants in NYC and charter me every April with one thing in mind, Shad Roe (the eggs inside the females which are considered a delicacy). We caught a boat limit and they let me bring Michael along to help out. Even though the river is at drought levels right now the fish are still moving and biting.

Shad fishing is a great way to introduce children to the sport. There are a lot of fish, lots of action, and they fight hard on light tackle.

-Mickey

I’ll be posting pictures of Stripers next time hopefully. We’re at that point where Shad is fun and all but it’s time to move on.

4/3

Today was the day I’ve been waiting for with these Shad, it busted wide open for us. Wes and Vic drove down from upstate NY for their first Shad trip ever, although they are experienced Striped Bass fisherman. We started off with Wes landing the biggest Shad I’ve ever seen, and obviously the biggest fish I’ve ever had in my boat. She weighed over 7 lbs. and I have the drags on the reels dialed in from a month of fishing. This fish pulled as if the reel was in freespool. I couldn’t believe it when it hit the net. The pictures don’t begin to do this fish justice. Sometimes this is a bad sign, catching a fish in the first 2 minutes but that wasn’t the story tonight. As the sun started to set the fishing just got better and better and I kept raising the spoons higher into the water column and they just kept on coming. We fished right up until dark and they just kept burying the rods one after another. I had a slow trip on Sunday but this more than made up for it.

I’m putting the Archangel in the water this week because there are Stripers and Bunker everywhere. Expect to see reports every day from here on out, 2012 is going to be a banner year.

-Mickey

Rainy night on the river with lousy fishing. Today I had the Hawthornes on the boat (John and John Sr.) for an uncharacteristically slow fishing trip. We went two hours without a single hit and then all 4 rods went down at the same time and we lost all 4 fish. I figured this was the start of something special though, a quadruple header? No dice, another hour went by without a fish and we finally came tight to a nice Roe. And that was it! 1 for 5 and then it started raining really hard. Sometimes this gets those fish going but not tonight. So there it is, 1 for 5. Thankfully the guys were seasoned fishermen and know that sometimes it goes that way.

-Mickey

WEDNESDAY MARCH 28 LATE REPORT

It was my pleasure to host my friends Frank Cosner Jr. and Sr. on the boat tonight for some good fishing. We had a great time with some beautiful Roes coming to the net. So far the big female fish have outnumbered the small males about 4 to 1 this year which is a bonus on top of the fact that usually we haven’t even put the boat in the water by now. Good times with some nice folks. -Mickey

Tonight me and fellow Captains Dieter Scheel and Chris Gatley had a little summit/fun fishing trip form a couple of hours in New Hope. Chis brought his friend Bill along to
experience this bite and we had a good time with some quality fish coming to the net. It was pretty damn cold and windy for a change, but I think we’ve been spoiled and sometimes forget that it’s still March and we have been blessed with good fishing and weather.

I had my friend Mark Modoski on the boat tonight from 5-7pm. Mark is working on a project where he is fishing every day for one full calendar year. He’s in the home stretch with only a couple of months to go and along the way he’s caught some outstanding fish. People are always asking me secrets to this sport and my answer is always the same, put in the time. What Mark has accomplished is truly amazing with multiple fish of a lifetime including 51″ Muskie among other things. I actually called him to get in on this incredible bite we have going here in my backyard and the fish gods smiled upon us tonight. Every fish was big and we were fishing in t-shirts at night in mid-March with great success. Check out his blog to track his journey:

http://www.catfishonthelake.com/

It was my pleasure to host a small chapter on his wild year.

We are into Shad like it was the end of April. I haven’t run Shad charters in a few years but I’m gonna run a few if anyone wants to give it a try. These are short trips and super affordable. 5-7pm on weeknights. Drop me a line if you’re interested. This is Dan, Chang, and Mikey tonight–we smoked ‘em again.