Location: Raritan Reach Channel
Tide: High 7:10am
Water Temp: 75.2 degrees
Wind: NNW 4kts
Moon Phase: 2% Waning

Conditions – We will have very good conditions to fish the Reach today with a NW wind and outgoing tide, but the bad news is that there are already two outbound ship that are coming through the channel. One just as we set up, and the other will be passing within half hour. It could shut the fluke down for some time. We will see. . .

First Drift
Time – 29 min
Distance – .68 miles
We waited for the Sand Master to clear and got set up in the channel. Hammerin Hank caught the first fluke of the day on a killie/Gulp combo and a couple of other keepers were caught as well. Slow start overall. . . I’m going to do something a little different today. I’m going to try and keep track of the time and distance of each drift. I might not be able to do it for each drift, but I am going to attempt it.

Second Drift
Time – 25 min
Distance – .46 miles
Not much caught on this one. It looks like the early ship traffic put the kabosh on this for a while. Going to head east a ways and see f we can get something going.

Third Drift
Time – 11 min.
Distance – .28 miles
This one was not good at all. We are going to head back to the west where we know the fish are. The conditions are good, and hopefully by now the bottom has settled.

Fourth Drift
Time – 1 hr 3 min
Distance – 1.68 miles
Conditions were a little fast on this one. We did super slow pick at the fluke, but it is not very good at the moment. Jerry “All I Do Is Win Pools” Henderson caught a 5 pounder at the start of the drift. Going to head further west for the next one.

Jerry Henderson won today’s pool with this 5 1/2 fluke.

Fifth Drift
Time – 1 hr 6 min
Distance – 1.15 miles
This one was better with some shining moment all around. Top moment, 3 keepers in one net up in the pulpit! That’s how you do it!! . . . We got in the lee of the wind and the conditions improved. You couldn’t lighten up on the sinkers, but it was much more managable. Running up for a redux!

Sixth Drift
Time – 27 min
Distance – .47 miles
We let this one go a little differently. We came up the channel edge and went into the flats. Caught some on the edge, but not much up out of the deep. There is another outbound ship coming through channel. We are going to jump back in and make a quick one.

Seventh Drift
Time – 16 min
Distance – .15 miles
Pulled up short off the channel, and let the ship clear. We did not see much. Going to jump back in. . . High hook so far has 5 keepers.

Eighth Drift
Time – 48 min
Distance – .57 miles
We caught some fish to end the day.

Summary
The ship traffic really got us today. We had the two outbound ships right off the bat, and when it looked like we were going to get things going by the fifth drift, there was another ship coming through. The wind didn’t help either. It increased to around 15 knots at one point making for a fast drift. With the ship traffic and wind being an issue the fishing was definitely a struggle at times, but also very good at others with some anglers putting together a nice catch of fish. Joe Mattis owned the stern of the boat by putting 5 keepers in his cooler while John Lipari ruled the bow by also throwing 5 in the box. As the wind increased through the morning it made for some difficult drifting conditions with 10 ounces becoming the norm, but those who battled through the tangles and heavy sinkers caught the fluke. Jerry “All I Do Is Win Pools” Henderson was one of those anglers. Jerry caught a 5 lb 7 oz fluke which ended up being the pool fish making his batting average 1000. 3 trips on the Captain John, 3 pools won. Quite impressive!

The Bow Guys get it done again!!

What they were eating
Once again today every fluke was loaded with grass shrimp. We read giant schools of them on the bottom, and the fluke are just engorging themselves with them. This is what is holding the fluke in the area that we have had such success over the past week. . . While I was filleting I did notice that a few fluke had hermit crabs in their stomachs which is something new in this area.

Grass shrimp from one stomach.

All these hermit crabs came from one fluke.

Check back tomorrow for more live updates.