REPORTS.MUSHINSPORTFISHING.COM

2011 Season Wrap-Up

Mushin Sportfishing — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:33:42 GMT

It's always with mixed feelings that we do our season wrap-up. On the one hand, we get to reflect on so many great and fun memories with our clients, and on the other hand it means a few more months before we start fishing again. So many memorable catches come to mind that we can only scratch the surface! Either way, the Mushin is winterized and we have already started plans for winter-time upgrades.

The season started for us by May with the EXCELLENT STRIPED BASS and COD fishing. We had another GREAT Spring livelining bunker to hungry cow-sized STRIPED BASS to 30+ pounds. Even first time anglers often had no problem filling their limit of STRIPERS! Anglers who prefer artificial baits cashed in on the STRIPED BASS bonanza casting a variety of soft-baits and jigs. Bottom fishermen sailed with us to some of the 20-30 mile wrecks and caught tasty COD - oftentimes by the dozens - as this old favorite has really made a great comeback along our coast. While it's nothing glorious, we had lots of "codfathers" on board who bent rods all day pulling 8 to 20 pound cod and filling coolers.

In June, we continued with the great STRIPER fishing with routine limit catches, and started catching BLUEFISH. However, our attention was divided with the start of MAKO SHARK season and OFFSHORE/CANYON TUNA. By the second week of June, there was warm waters in the canyons and we had banner TUNA/MARLIN trolling, including a very memorable "3-bagger" that included two white marlin (a first for each of the two guys) and a 105-pound YELLOWFIN at the same time. Again, we found alot of quality bruiser YELLOWFIN TUNA and WHITE MARLIN in the canyons during June. We also started targeting MAKO's in June, and had 3 MAKO's during our trip for the Mako Mania 2011 tournament, and took 3rd PLACE with a 219# MAKO.

June also gave us opportunities for BLUEFIN TUNA/MAKO combination trips when anglers trolled or baited BLUEFINS in the chicken canyons. This included trips when we driften "scallop guts" under scallop boats - this is incredible fishing with crazed BLUEFINS - we edge up close to the drifting scallop boat, bait up with scallop guts, strip out 50 feet of line and toss in - and HOLD ON! Often within seconds we had 100 pound BLUEFIN crashing on the bait. Other times gave us "good old fashioned" BLUEFIN trolling with lots of bent rods. After catching their limit and being fulfilled with the BLUEFIN, we would set up on drift in the same area for MAKO! These successful anglers had a dilemma when they got home...MAKO or BLUEFIN for dinner?

July through August kept us busy with more STRIPERS, CANYON TUNA/WHITE MARLIN, and MAKO fishing. How about some big BULL DOLPHIN? We boated over a half-dozen BULL MAHI over 30 pounds this season, including one that pushed 50 pounds featured in The Fisherman magazine. We had Joe Rossi out with his friends and film crew in early-August, and filmed an upcoming show for Joe's Wildside Adventure (FSN/Root Sports Network) where the guys landed BLUEFISH, YELLOWFIN, WHITE MARLIN, MAHI, SWORDFISH, and TILEFISH in one trip - how's that for a CANYON SAFARI?! Other trips that were closer to home put the more casual angler into FLUKE, SEABASS, AND BLUES for our clients and guests, many who were down at the Jersey Shore for vacation, including a family who was vacationing from Brazil who had non-stop FLUKE action!

We had undoubtedly the BEST FALL TUNA CHUNKING in several years! Consistent and solid catches of YELLOWFIN came in the different canyons at night, and we added tasty and colorful TILEFISH on these trips. The TILEFISHING was so consistent that guys requested dedicated trips targeting these deep-dwellers! SWORDFISH up to 150# were added consistently during the night bite. Many of these canyon trips were spiced up with MAKO shark and acrobating WHITE MARLIN and MAHI MAHI. We had back-to-back trips with BIGEYE TUNA, including the season best at 225# (which took 6 guys nearly 2 hours to land!). If the YELLOWFIN bite wasn't enough, we had a PHENOMENAL LONGFIN (ALBACORE) TUNA bite of fat fish up to 70#. How about one day troll trip when we went through 5 dozen ballyhoo along with getting our artificials bit? The guys boxed almost 30 longfin, and lost/released probably 45 more, and spent over an hour battling a 250+ pound BIGEYE, in barely 6 hours of fishing time.

We continued the Fall fishing with some GREAT COD trips to the 20-30 mile range, often averaging almost a dozen keepers (and probably releasing 3 times as many) per guy! We mixed in a couple killer SEA BASS trips and BLACKFISH limits trips, and had STRIPER BEATDOWNS with fast and furious STRIPER jigging off IBSP for 3+ straight weeks.

What a 2011 season! We owe some much to our many clients and friends who have fished with us, whether it was for the first time or the 50th time. We get to meet so many new clients every year, and cherish the relationships we build. As we do our season wrap-up, we look forward to a joyous Holiday Season and a very exciting 2012 season! For those looking for a holiday or other gift idea, consider a GIFT CERTIFICATE for an upcoming trip. Booking for 2012 has started, and we look foward to seeing you soon!

11/26 - Striper Beatdown - Limits ++

Mushin Sportfishing — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 23:09:42 GMT

11/26 - We made the run south towards the next inlet to cash in on the bassing bonanza. Getting there early definitely made a difference, with rods bent almost as soon as we got there and about 7 fish hooked in the first 5-10 minutes. The anglers continued to have a steady pick through the morning with fish hooked every few minutes on jigs and softbaits. By 9 am, we were in release mode as we had our 9-angler limit plus the only two bonus tags on board filled. Some of the fish we released were big fish pushing 38-40 inches! A beautiful day on the water with a super bunch!

11-19 Offshore Bottomfishing

Mushin Sportfishing — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:42:18 GMT

11-19 we had Dennis P's gang on board with a real cool request to run offshore after bottomfish. We ran past what has been a good striper bite which took a lot of guts by all to stick with a plan. Well you could have easily thought we were in the true north Atlantic! The forecast called for 10-15 kts increasing to 20-25 in the afternoon. Well that wasnt the case as the fan was turned on to high when we were 3/4 off. The guys hung tough through nasty conditions (to say the least) to put together a "fair" catch of seabass, ling, jumbo porgies, and a single cod (though it pushed 15 pounds). Setting up with anchor on our structure was tough and the guys to stay in constant touch with their baits was just as hard. We stuck it out longer than normal putting in an extra hour plus in effort to fill the box and endured a tough ride home. Nice to have a big, tough, heavy boat under you!!! Fun guys with all kinds of chops getting busted all day, great time despite the conditions, THANKS!

11/18 - Bass Jigging

Mushin Sportfishing — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:02:07 GMT

11/18 - We had Greg T's striper jigging trip. With high hopes, we set out to the South and stopped acres of sand eels. We picked a couple of stripers early, but had to work hard to add more. There was a good sized fleet of boats with some that did very well, some that did okay, and some that did little. However, the bass migration is going on, and it's time to jig bass!

11/17 - Tog Limits ++

Mushin Sportfishing — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:00:02 GMT

11/17 - Taking advantage of the "liberal" blackfish season opener, we ran to one of our favorite tog spots. We were rewarded with a good pick of tog for the five anglers. They picked and plucked on tog until lunchtime, but it was hard to put the rod down and miss out on the action. The guys kept their limit up to Lou D's 8 pounder, and released upwards to 70+ tog. Several 4 to 6 pounders mixed in too. Lou D added a striper that grabbed his crab bait on the way up! Time to catch tog!

11/7 - Bottomfishing Bonanza

Mushin Sportfishing — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 01:09:06 GMT

11/7 - With the nice forecast we were supposed to have, we shot back out to the cod wrecks to the East today. The time change didn't fool the fish, as they were there snapping shortly after we dropped on them. We had cod flying over the rails up to 15 pounds as we power drifted our pieces. Multiple hook ups around the boat! By 9 am, the seas just got too sloppy, so we dropped the anchor and picked at cod to 16 pounds, seabass to 4 pounds, porgies to 4 pounds, and ling to 5 pounds. By lunchtime the big cooler was filled, and we called it a day. We heard more good reports of striper fishing on jigs and trolling yesterday and today, but we opted to pass on it to cut lots of fish back at the dock. Some select November days still open for bass/blues or cod/bottomfish.

11/3 - Sea Bass Opens with a BANG!

Mushin Sportfishing — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 22:55:14 GMT

11/3 - Today was the first day we were able to get out after the re-opening of sea bass on 11/1. We had a bunch of hardcore bottom fish guys who wanted their bottomfish! Well, that's what they got! The first two stops in close gave up only a handful of fish, so we kept looking into the deeper water. That's where we fished two pieces, and the spots gave up lots of quality keeper seabass and filled the big cooler! Plenty of seabass flying over the rails up to 4 pounds. Sloppy seas today, but the guys were rewarded with plenty of tasty seabass fillets! Lots of good seabassing, togging, codding, as well as stripers and blues!

10/31-Cod Crushing!!!

Mushin Sportfishing — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:47:27 GMT

10/31 - A gentlemen's trip with only Alan and Capts. Jay Andrews and George Lewis on board this morning. A flat calm ride to the spots to the East to target cod with the cooling water temps. After trying two spots with little to show, we landed right on them with the third, fourth, and fifth spots. Lots of cod flying over the rails, with multiple-multiple hookups on the boat for the three guys, and even a double-header cod, boxed 30 cod to 15# for 3 guys in about 3 hours. Threw back about 3 shorts for every keeper! In between, we released about 40 seabass that were in the 2 to 4+ pound range (they would be dinner if it was tomorrow's re-opening day). Also landed huge porgies to 4 pounds and a king-sized ling over 5 pounds along with some blues. Lots of great Fall fishing action with cod, seabass, tog, bass, and blues!!! Some November dates still available!

10/22-23 - Southern Canyons Produce Limits

Mushin Sportfishing — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:17:50 GMT

10/22-23 - After some great reports from Capt. Jeff Gutman from the party boat Voyager, we steamed to the South to join the hot canyon bite "like old times". Within 15 minutes of setting up, we had already gone 2 for 4 on yellowfin, with equal jig and bait action. However, the bite died out and it was a pretty quiet night except for a 90# sword and a small mako that took the giant swordfish bait. As dawn approached, we got into a steady bite of yellowfin from 40 to 70 pounds, and the jiggers pulled ahead of the bait fishermen, and added a fat longfin at 65#. Multiple hookups at times! By 8:15, we were ready to take the 100+ mile ride back home. Seas were flat for a beautiful ride. Very promising conditions for more quality canyon fishing. Also, seabassing reopens soon, striper fishing ready to explode in coming weeks, and togging and codding to come.

10/8-10/9 - More Great CANYON Action

Mushin Sportfishing — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 01:58:01 GMT

10/8-9 - A quick report from our overnighter last night. Got out to area short of Spencer Canyon to join a few boats trolling. We missed the bite there but it looked promising. We continued out to the Spencer, knowing it would be crowded, and joined about 100+ boats. Set up on the edge and the guys picked away all night with tuna to 50#, and added 2 swords to 100#. Despite the boat traffic, some boats absolutely crushed the tuna with 25 to 30 fish per boat by 10 pm!!! Other boats got their shot with the classic daybreak mad-dog bite between 4 and 6 am, with reports of 16 - 20 fish landed in an hour! Now is the time to get into this old-time Fall Canyon bite!

EYEBALL!

Mushin Sportfishing — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:25:32 GMT

The fantastic tuna fishing continues. We debated all week about weather windows, go south and overnight to get in on the good yellowfin chunking or day-troll north and get in on the best longfin troll bite in years. After a lot of debate we were getting more reports of some bigeye showing up in the longfin to the north. Coupled with a sketchy (at best) weather window the strategic decision was made to scrap the overnight and run off for a troll trip. As luck would have it the longfin were not where we last had them and basically it was slow all over the canyon in the early morning. We pushed east and finally had a bite around 8:30 am. It was clearly a nice fish but it didnt dump line too quickly. 10 minutes into the fight we knew we were in for the long haul. Scott, Brian, Carl, Domenic, Domenic Jr., and Anthony passed the rod for two hours as this beast systematically kicked the whole boat's ass. We were not worried about IGFA rules or hero awards, the whole boat just wanted some beautiful fatty bigeye steaks - and lots of em. They passed the rod and steadily applied pressure. At just shy of two hours I hit him with a harpoon while Anthony and Jamie got gaffs in his head and it was all over. The fish weighed 177 dressed making it a beautiful 220-225 live weight fish. The day was made...period... but we pressed on and picked away catch some skippies, 4 mahi and 6 longfin. One of teh longfin was a mammoth close to 70. Despite the beating we took going out, coming in and the bigeye beating it was a fantastic day, topped off that it was Dom Jr's 22nd birthday - nice way to make a memory..fish of a lifetime for many! Thanks guys cant wait to have you again.

9/25 - Tuna Massacre

Mushin Sportfishing — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:54:47 GMT

9/25 - After a bunch of missed trips due to weather, we were back out in the canyons today. This was not a trip to miss! The group was treated to settling seas and a PHENOMENAL TUNA BITE! We set out for a day troll, and didn't even have all of our trolling lines set out at 6:30 am when we had 3 rods hook up. We struggled to get our troll lines out without another set of hookups! The guys had fish take their trolling bait as they were setting it out! We often couldn't troll more than a few hundred yards without another hookup. When the dust settled, the guys boxed up 25 longfin with 5 around a whopping 70 pounds in less than six hours of fishing time. And we spent about one of those six hours fighting a bigeye that smashed our long center rigger bait. Our hookup ratio wasn't the greatest yesterday, as we burned through 5 dozen ballyhoo, plus the fish were smashing our custom spreader bars, so that's well over 60 bites with tuna. We were on our way home in flat seas by lunchtime, and the GIANTS fans on board got to watch the whole game on satellite TV. NOW IS THE TIME TO GO! Call Ray to set up the next canyon tuna trip!

HOT Canyon Tuna Bite!

Mushin Sportfishing — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:08:17 GMT

If you're newer to canyon fishing, you might have never experienced what it was like to have yellowfin stacked behind the boat and hand-feeding your fish until you couldn't pull on another one. Well, here's your chance! This late-summer Canyon fishing has been off to a hot start - lots of limit catches on yellowfin, with longfin, bigeyes, and swords and makos to sweeten the catch! Right now we have a couple of spots open on overnight canyon trips targeting tuna on Mon 9/19 (11am) to Tues 9/20 (3 pm), and again on Sat 9/24 (11 am) to Sun 9/25 (3pm). If these dates don't work, get some guys and let's get a trip set up! Call Ray at 732 691 0949.

9/10-11 - Canyons Heat Up!!!

Mushin Sportfishing — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:46:07 GMT

9/10-11 - We had Brian C's group on board for an overnight canyon trip that was postponed by a day to take advantage of better weather - a good call! The seas were settling as we headed out, and as we pulled back the throttles at the Edge we found a nice temp break, lots of whales, and mats of sargasso weed. GAFFER MAHI were jumping on every time we put the baits in! We moved on down the line to check out where we'd be setting up for the night. During the overnight, we picked and ended up going 6 for 12 on nice yellowfin up to 65#. Around 3 am, Chris broke off what we thought was a blue shark, but this "blue shark" then bit Keith's bait. Thinking that it was a pesky blue shark, Keith put a hurtin on him and pulled him boatside. That's when we saw the tell-tale dark doll eyes and pointy snout of a 175# mako. A couple of gaffs and shotgun blasts later he was in the box. On the morning troll we put in a few more small tunas and added some more mahi, and pulled off a few more. As well as we did, some of our local party boats did even better with many limit catches on yellowfin and added some longfin! Canyon chunking is here! Some limited dates available, call Ray now.

9/2-9/3 - Canyon Safari

Mushin Sportfishing — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:04:11 GMT

9/2-9/3 - After the longest period all season of being tied to the dock, we made a "canyon safari" to work off the fever after Hurricane Irene. Leaving at noon, we pushed through some bumpy seas to set up on the troll with a couple of hours of light left. We found the nice water and signs well down and off the shelf with a 68 to 75 degree temperature break, and set up for the night. The overnight started with a hungry swordfish who decided he'd check out all of our baits and zipped through our slick before finally settling in on our deep bait, which landed him in the boat. More chunking towards daybreak produced 4 of 5 tunas for the guys as the seas settled. The morning troll started off with 1 for 4 yellowfins within the first half-mile of trolling. We joined some fellow boats in a small fleet futher offshore that was trolling more yellowfins, but we never got our number called in this line. With the flat seas, we decided to leave the blue 77 degree water to target some tilefish, and hit two spots to add over 2 dozen golden tile, a dozen grey tiles, and some spotted hake. At the day's end, lots of tasty species in the box. Lots more quality canyon fishing to come in September and October.

8/29 - Good Night Irene

Mushin Sportfishing — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:28:47 GMT

8/29 - We hope that this reading finds you and your loved ones safe and sound. Thank goodness that we were spared from worse destruction with Hurricane/TS Irene as it came right over Ocean County, NJ on Sunday morning. We realize that not everyone got through it unscathed, and we hope for your quick recovery. Essentially all of Point Pleasant Beach that is east of the railroad tracks was evacuated, but it was re-opened on Sunday by 4 pm after flooding receded and power lines were cleared. We kept the Mushin in the water in anticipation of the storm, lengthening and doubling/tripling lines, adding bumpers, cutting off electrical power, and, of course, saying a prayer. It looks like she got through it fine - and we are grateful for that. Not unexpectedly, we had to cancel our trips from Friday through Monday, but we are ready to fish again! Let's see what the Hurricane's churning did for the fishery (it usually does us good!). We anticipate the storm did some nice clearing up of some of the inshore and mid-range grounds that were plagued by the algae bloom and green water. Irene may have moved the blue canyon waters around to leave some nice temperate/color breaks for bait and tunas to congregate. You can bet that we are waiting for the first sea surface temperature charts (after the cloud cover clears) to show us where the fish should be. September should bring us into some inshore tunas like bonita and albies, as well as more bluefin chunking and jigging. Blues should continue to build, fluke will be moving out of the rivers onto ocean reef areas, and sea bass should be good. Offshore canyon fishing should be getting into full swing, especially on the night bite that many guys wait for. Nothing like hearing that Shimano clicker scream from an XL yellowfin, and going toe-to-toe with a hot tuna! We have a couple of open canyon charters that are looking to add a couple of guys. Give Ray a call to set up your trip!

8/20 - Ling is King

Mushin Sportfishing — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 01:19:51 GMT

8/20 - We were supposed to head offshore yesterday for an overnighter in the canyons, but with the big Tstorms rolling in, we postponed our trip in the interest of safety. We moved our guys onto some quality bottomfishing today. Even though seabassing has been good, we wanted to get these guys some ling...so off to the ling grounds. Had drop and reel ling fishing for much of the first hour in some tough anchoring conditions. Poked around for the next few hours on different pieces and got more ling, cod, seabass, fluke, and even bluefish.

8/15 - Great Day at the Dock!

Mushin Sportfishing — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:32:42 GMT

8/15 - Ray and I (Alan) get to make and write about alot of great fishing days on the water, doing alot of great and fun trips, whether inshore, offshore, or somewhere in between. We were supposed to take Alan's daughter Nina and her friends out today, but the lousy forecast put a crimp into that plan. We made some changes and spent some great quality time at the dock (just goes to show you don't have to go far to have a great time!) blasting AC/DC (remember them?), having lunch, netting spearing, and using our fresh spearing for snapper bait. Some outstanding snapper fishing and father-daughter time! All those snapper blues should be glad we weren't headed out fishing the next day, or else they'd be in our livewell.

8/11 Kochan Family Fluking

Mushin Sportfishing — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:15:40 GMT

Late report that I just discovered was in a draft folder, sorry!

Thursday we had the pleasure of hosting Hank and his new fiancee Jinks along with his son and daughter in law Maria and Mark. Its always a pleasure to have Hank and Thursday was no exception! Terrific people with fantastic weather and even some willing fish! With the seabass bite still slow we decided to make a day of fluke drifting. The results were good with many shorts and enough keepers for some solid family meals. A couple nice seabass were in the mix as well, giving us hope that they are rebounding.
Maria and Hank with one of many. No, its not her pool winner, this one went swimming away as it was short but was Maria's first so it was photo worthy.

8/13 - Bottomfishing Returns!

Mushin Sportfishing — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 11:44:40 GMT

8/13 - We had Bob T, son Jeff T, and nieces and nephew from Georgia for their family reunion. We are glad they included some time with us as part of their week! We had gorgeous weather, and we opted to target some seabass to the Southeast. Setting up on the pieces we read lots of life on the wrecks and started with a good bite. We jumped around to a few different pieces, and found good quality fish on all of them. They sifted through lots of bites all day on seabass, ling, cod, fluke, and blues. By day's end, the guys and gals put about 2 dozen quality keeper seabass to 5 pounds, cod to 8 pounds, ling, and even a keeper fluke to their fishfry. A great family we hope to see out again soon! Waiting on some pics of the day.