I have been called over the top, crazy, and more by many people that do not share the passion for salt water fishing that I possess for it and other activates in life. Here are a few examples: I was called crazy last December for taking my skiff for a 5 mile ride at 2:00 am in a 30 kt. NW wind,10 degree wind chill and no compass. Crazy was replaced with wow when I returned to my dock with a cooler full of speckled trout. I was called nuts for talking a friend into flying me to Florida in his jet for fresh ballyhoo hours before the mid Atlantic. When Governor Florio tried to dismantle the fish and game council I use the same over the top, crazy whatever attitude to start a grass roots letter writing campaign that started in Cape May County and spread through the State of New Jersey all the way to High point in Sussex County, NJ. The thousands of individually written letters helped I am sure to change the Governors mind. I used the same crazy. Nuts, attitude to personally call over a thousand people to urge them to attend the federal fish and wildlife meeting in Cape May county co… So many of our people showed they over flowed into the parking lot. The meeting went our way to say the lest. I also started a grass roots letter writing campaign to keep the land open to hunting and salt water fishing. When the manager made the decision to keep the land open to hunting he reported that 98% of the letters he received were in favor of keeping the land open to hunting, this was reported in the Atlantic City press. When the Cape May county park purchased hundreds of acres of traditional hunting land and decided to post no trespassing signs on the land. I used the same attitude to start up the grass roots machine to urge all cape may co. hunters to attend the Cape May co. Freeholders meeting. When Ruth fisher took the podium she asked if there was a sale on flannel shirts! The meeting turned out a record crowd that I think still stands today. The freeholders reopened the traditional land to hunting.
Being over the top, crazy, nuts about a cause or activity is synonymous with being passionate. Being passionate about what you are involved in brings success.
The kind of push that it is required to bring the weakfish back has not been applied! The kind of campaign were every salt water angler on the east coast makes a phone call,writes a letter, sends a comment via email to a Congressman, Senator, Assemblymen, Governor and the ASMFC. We need letters in every News paper on the entire east coast to let all the people know about the poor condition of the weakfish. Only with this kind effort will the weakfish return to your favorite spot .
Make it happen,
I received an email from Nichola Meserve fisheries management plan coordinator for ASMFC. She will continue to accept comments for the August 19 weakfish meeting. The comments will be printed and hand delivered from this time forward.
Send your comment today. Remember there will be people at the meeting urging the ASMFC to continue to allow commercial and recreational fishing regardless of the fact that the weakfish are inches away from the endangered species list.
Send your comment to :
nmeserve@asmfc.org>
Today was filled with rain,thunder storms and downed trees. The water temperature was 67 degrees. I spoke with Bruce today, he said he has limited out on flounder in all but one trip. Bruce is an oldgrounds, Reef, ocean flounder sharp. He has made five trips so far this year. He likes to fish tight to the structure and expects to loose 8 to 10 rigs a trip. If you are planning a flounder trip in the back bay plan on not catching any fish to bring home.
Tim this is a very tough time of the season to catch keeper flounder in the back bay after about July 15 in our area the bite slows. The only area that has produced keeper flounder in the last couple of days is in and around Hereferds and Townsends Inlet. I would try fishing between Wildwood Blv. bridge and the toll bridge on nummy island or between the Yacht club and the toll bridge over Townsends inlet. The number one thing to have aboard is patients this time of the year. The rig I would use is a 1oz bucktail white with a trail hook st back about 18″. I would use white Gulp swimming minnow on both the bucktail and the trail hook.Check out the picture. As for crabbing invest in a commercial crab pot. Set the commercial pot before you start crabbing with the traps or hand lines. I would pick a spot off of what is called the foot ball field away from the main channel and current. Near the top of the tide move back to the stakes off the foot ball field. The football field is the stretch of channel markers that border the Great sound. I was out yesterday and caught and released one keeper flounder. The water temperature was 66.6 degrees. The water visibility was 6ft. the water had a green tint apposed to the blue tint that has been present all season. Dr. Gary and ED fished yesterday in the back bay and caugnht 5 keeper flounder to 22″. This is an excellent catch for back bay flounder fishing in August.
Today I hit a couple of spots in the back bay that can produce some big flounder this time of the year. Unfortunately I caught the skunk for the first time this season. The water visibility was good about 6ft.. The water temperature was 67.3. Today pretty much raps up my flounder season. I may take a trip to the cape may reef before the end of flounder season. This is the time of the year I start anticipating some great off shore big game trips. I know of at lest one crew from Stone Harbor that hooked into some real big blue fin. They did not have the gear to get the job done. The sure had some fish stories. They did not want their names put out on the internet. Do yourself a big favor do not go offshore without a Roffers report. The guy is the best on the planet. Check out the list of tournament winners that have used his expertise.
The over the top crew finishes a great day on the water. They are in the hunt with a 159 blue fin they caught today.
The crew of the Liquidity is all smiles after weighing in a 163 pound blue fin.
The crew from the South Jersey Marina does an world class job of running the weigh in. They have a nationally renowned marine scientist that is present through out the weigh in process. 
Ken's Dock 