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Went down to NJ for a 3 day fishing binge starting last Thursday intent on catching weakfish, flounder and taking a shot at black drum. First morning got down at sunrise and jetty hopped only to find dirty water and bluefish everywhere. Gave up on that pretty quick and met up with my buddy and began hunting for clams to try drum fishing knowing full well it was about to start raining heavily. Found clams and got out into the bay near a small fleet of boats. Within minutes we started hearing big booms under the boats and it was on. First fish I hooked dragged me around for a good 5 minutes and I boated this healthy 30-40 lb fish.
Took some time to pedal back against the current to get back on my anchor but heard them drumming the whole way. Got back on the anchor and waited and waited. My buddy was having no action and I was getting some croaker bites when I suddenly got this real weird tap and felt my rig go weightless. I set the hook as hard as I could and knew I was into a different class of fish right away. This one actually took me upstream against the current first before beginning to circle, dog towards the bottom and eventually head about a mile downstream. When I finally saw it the first thing I saw was the tail and it was massive. I barely got my boga around its lip and barely got this thing in the boat. I estimate the weight to be around 60 lbs. An absolute beast!
After that the rain picked up, the tide died and the drum disappeared. We were soaked and freezing so we called it a day and went to rest up for flounder opening day. It was windy as hell when we woke up Friday but we went out anyway and tried to find a spot in the lee of the wind to pick at some flatties. I managed 2 keepers (18", 21") and a few shorts but didnt last long in that wind.
That night we rested. The next morning it was even windier! I was determined and found another spot where we'd at least have wind with tide to drift. The water was cold and the bite was slow and I only had one bite in 4 hours which was a fat 22" flounder. Didn't see any boats catch anything all weekend because most were drifting at 10 knots in the wind.
Went out again for drum saturday night but conditions were very tough with wind against tide and no marks on the fishfinder or drumming below us. Saw one boat get a nice striper and a couple skates that was about it. And then the binge was over. The fishing was actually very slow overall that weekend and if I didn't get extremely lucky with those drum I woulda been very disappointed with the fishing. Probably will not be able to get out for drum again before they move on given the wind forecast so I'm glad we tried when we did.
Took some time to pedal back against the current to get back on my anchor but heard them drumming the whole way. Got back on the anchor and waited and waited. My buddy was having no action and I was getting some croaker bites when I suddenly got this real weird tap and felt my rig go weightless. I set the hook as hard as I could and knew I was into a different class of fish right away. This one actually took me upstream against the current first before beginning to circle, dog towards the bottom and eventually head about a mile downstream. When I finally saw it the first thing I saw was the tail and it was massive. I barely got my boga around its lip and barely got this thing in the boat. I estimate the weight to be around 60 lbs. An absolute beast!
After that the rain picked up, the tide died and the drum disappeared. We were soaked and freezing so we called it a day and went to rest up for flounder opening day. It was windy as hell when we woke up Friday but we went out anyway and tried to find a spot in the lee of the wind to pick at some flatties. I managed 2 keepers (18", 21") and a few shorts but didnt last long in that wind.
That night we rested. The next morning it was even windier! I was determined and found another spot where we'd at least have wind with tide to drift. The water was cold and the bite was slow and I only had one bite in 4 hours which was a fat 22" flounder. Didn't see any boats catch anything all weekend because most were drifting at 10 knots in the wind.
Went out again for drum saturday night but conditions were very tough with wind against tide and no marks on the fishfinder or drumming below us. Saw one boat get a nice striper and a couple skates that was about it. And then the binge was over. The fishing was actually very slow overall that weekend and if I didn't get extremely lucky with those drum I woulda been very disappointed with the fishing. Probably will not be able to get out for drum again before they move on given the wind forecast so I'm glad we tried when we did.
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