Mickey's Guide Service Fishing Reports

I took my father in-law fishing today, we woke up at 4:30am because right now it is strictly a morning bite. This will all change shortly for sure. The good news is that we have massive schools of Menhaden (Bunker–bait fish) instead of the typical Fall sand Eels. Big bait (Bunker) means a better shot at big fish and today we landed 3 fish up to 35lbs. The boat is running great and I rewarded her by giving her a full detail after today’s bloodbath. We also lost 3 fish so there was lots of action and no Bluefish around so that made it even better. Again, this will change, but right now if you’re not out there before the sun comes up you might as well stay home. I actually ran aground today while running in the dark, the long awaited dredging project in our inlet is underway though and by deviating amere 20 feet out of the channel I got stuck but managed to get us out of there after a couple scary minutes. I am doing a lot of touring this Fall and Winter but I’m going to try and get out whenever I can. Please let me know if you’re interested in getting in on the action!

Every year around this time I look forward to dropping bucktails and fishing for my favorite fish to eat, Fluke, Sea Bass, Ling, etc. Yesterday was a perfect day on the water with Jim and his family and we had bites all day. in the end we boxed a combination of 20 Fluke, Sea Bass, and a lot of Ling, which are incredibly great tasting. This is always a welcome thing after 2 months of chasing Stripers around, especially for me and Randy, as well as my clients. they took home 3 nice fat sacks of filets.

We fished from noon to 5:30pm w/o a single bite. Bait was everywhere and we could see the Bass on the Sonar machine. Nothing, not even a tap on our live baits. Right around 6pm a good friend called me in on a blitz that was erupting right inshore of where we were set up— just as I was ready to give up until another day. It was as if someone hit a light switch, next thing we know it was total chaos. Giant Bluefish, Striped Bass, and who knows what else–the water was exploding and boiling. In no less than 10 minutes we boated two absolute monster Striped Bass and got our lines bitten off by Bluefish–and then it was over. We hung around a little while and poked around but that was it, as far as I know they never popped up again. For 10 minutes it was the best damn fishing NJ has to offer, an all out feeding frenzy. Jill and Jake were on the boat for the 2nd time and I guess they bring good luck with them. Jill’s fish was so heavy she couldn’t lift it for a photo so she just laid on the dock with it, I helped out for one though. Wild stuff today.

The last few days have seen slower fishing, the bunker boats have been around and the effect was felt immediately with bait very scattered and the fish MIA. so I set my goal today at one fish for the Schmidt family and that’s what we got, our one big fish and pulled the hook on a few more. we had a shark circling our boat that cost us 7 or 8 baits and as many rigs. that was fun for about 5 minutes before we had to move. we finished the day with this one nice Bass.

I love these pictures—look at the size of the fish that Christian and Steve caught today! The water was dirty, rough, and it was actually cold out there too. It’s still very good fishing in our parts and still an evening bite.

Amazing fishing tonight—caught our legal limit and then we had a feast. Killer trip today with Matt, Brian, and another Matt. They got the full NJ Striper experience today with Bass blowing up baits on the surface and crashing the baits seconds after we snagged them. National Geographic could have filmed on the boat today because the Bass put on a huge surface show for us. We got to see most of the bites as the Bass exploded on our baits from below—looked like bombs were falling out of the sky as they chased the bait to the surface. Great trip all around and great guys, real anglers that needed little instruction on how to fight big fish!

I never go near the Jersey Shore on Memorial Day, so instead I booked a charter on the Delaware River this afternoon. I had 2 little boys and their dad Craig along. I forgot how much fun it is fishing with 5 and 6 year olds—they were so into it, playing with the bait, splashing the water, touching the fish, asking me questions all the time while calling me “Captain Mickey”, as if I was a Senator or a Doctor. We lit ‘em up—caught the river slam of Stripers/Smallmouth/Catfish– and I think I had more fun with them than I’ve had in years. Meet Sam and Mike:

What a way to start the year! Randy and I caught 8 Bass in 40 minutes and left them while they were still  biting. All we wanted to do was shake the boat down and we ended up having an epic fishing trip instead. We couldn’t put our baits in the water for more than a second before a big Striper ate it up. I would have never in a million years predicted the action we stepped in tonight, but I’ll take it. I have no idea what the hell just happened actually.

Striper Cakes

This is one of the best recipes I know of, you can’t get this in any restaurant

5lb Striped Bass fillet
3 raw eggs
1/2 large green pepper
1 small white onion
3/4 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
3 cloves minced fresh garlic
3 tablespoons chopped Fresh basil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
3 tablespoons Dijon Mustard
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning

Cut all of the red meat out of the fish, I mean all of it, this is the part that tastes fishy.

Bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil, then boil the striped bass for about 8 minutes, and immediately transfer the fillets into an ice water bath to stop them from cooking. This will keep the fish from overcooking once you are finished boiling it, and helps it maintain a firm consistency. Hold the fillets in the ice water bath for approx. 10 minutes.

While the striper is chilling, finely mince the green pepper, onion, garlic and basil. Combine the vegetables and garlic with the rest of the ingredients, except the fish, in a large mixing bowl. Once the striper is finished chilling, cut it into small pieces (imagine pieces of crab in a crab cake, around the size of a cigarette filter), not giant chunks.

Make small hamburger sized patties out of the mixture, sprinkle them lightly with Old Bay, and then pan fry them in olive oil on medium high heat approx. 4 minutes per side or until nice and dark brown (don’t burn them!). When they are finished squeeze a little bit of fresh lemon over the top of them and serve them.

You can also take extra uncooked patties and give them away or wrap them in wax paper then in a Ziploc freezer bag.

When your fishing trip starts off with a quadruple header (4 fish on at once) you know it’s going to be a special day. On my final charter of 2013 I ran way to the North (think about fishing in the shadow of NYC) because I heard that there had been a massive body of fish up that way. This was an understatement. I was releasing fish faster than we could catch them, sometimes there were 4-6 fish on the deck at once and every boat around us seemed to be hooked up for the duration of our charter as well. There may have been a day in my past where more Stripers came over the rail of Archangel but if there is I can’t remember that trip. The boat is now out of the water and winterized, in hibernation until April. Thanks to everyone who fished with me this year, and anyone who still wants to get out there, I have a feeling that we’re going to have fish deep into the winter this year and maybe well into next year as well.

thanks,
Mickey