On Board Ocean Explorer - 2/21/22 Belmar NJ

[Johnsfolly]

Going go try our luck today heading out of Belmar NJ. Targeting blackfish but it has been slow lately and a storm system came through Friday and Saturday. We are willing and hoping for any fish and especially some oddball fish to come over the rail. Yesterday pollock and cod were caught. Both would be lifers for Sue and Livie and some good eating. 

Certain going to be a nice day. Hope springs eternal on the fishing 😁

[Terrierman]

Great way to spend a holiday.  Good luck to the Folly Family!

 

 

[Johnsfolly]

@Terrierman didn't realize that it was a holiday. Explains the full boat. I was looking only at the weather, mostly sunny, light winds, 2 to 4 ft waves. It was a tough day but we caught a few but no blackfish. Will post later after we get home and I can download the photos.

[Johnsfolly]

Ok so here is the rest of the story. This was to be a blackfish trip and I will be honest based upon the last couple of reports felt that a legal blackfish was going to be rare. I made up rigs to go for possible cod and pollock which they caught the day before and shorter rigs for the plentiful "perch" or cunners/bergall. We kept a few on a trip last year and these are a tasty fish living up to that mis-identified monikor of "perch". Livie was rigged with a perch rig and got on the board first with a smallish bergall (Look Pete there's photos 😁). She caught another that went into the box.

I followed up with one of my own.

Now I didn't know this at the time, but this would be the first and last fish that I caught for almost 90 mins. I hung rocks, old line, etc. Seemed Like I lost over 3 lbs of lead at a rate of one 4 to 6 oz sinker at a time. Major frustration on my part. What was worse was that folks around me were catching ocean pout. This was a fish that Sue caught a year ago on this boat and that I wanted to catch ever since. So I got snappy with folks around me. I'm not proud. Then I got a heavy tug on the line and had a heavy weight coming up. I finally hooked and landed my first ocean pout. They are not a pretty fish but I think that this is a cool fish. Don't try and lip one or you might lose a finger in that big mouth of theirs due to their large teeth (look closely at the second photo 😉).

Now that was accomplished I caught four more just to make sure. Sue also caught three, but Livie didn't get one and still without that species on her list. She didn't care cuz he was busy filling the box with those bergalls. She caught 15 total and kept 10. I caught 6 bergall myself and put three in the box. Sue contributed with two bergall in the box and a nice red hake or ling.

Only three blackfish total were caught with about 30+ anglers and only two were keepers. The guy next to Sue landed one over 8 pounds and won the pool. If we weren't multispecies anglers and wanted to load the box with bergall we probably would have had a crappy day. Instead we enjoyed the nice weather and the pull on the line!

 

 

[Quillback]

Always fun to spend a day on a charter boat.  That is something I miss living in the midwest.   In the 90's it was $80 to go out on a bottom fish charter out of Westport WA.  Primarily you'd catch black sea bass and a ling cod or two.  Limit was 10 sea bass and 3 lings.  Pretty much a guarantee you'd get your limit of bass.  Catch your fish, the crew would fillet them on the boat ride back, and you'd step off the boat at the end of the day with 20 lbs. of tasty fillets.  

[snagged in outlet 3]

Nice, @Johnsfolly .   That pout looks prehistoric.   Love the photos.  Thx!!

[gotmuddy]

Looks like a great time with the family.  Kudo's to you!

[Johnsfolly]

21 minutes ago, gotmuddy said:

Looks like a great time with the family.  Kudo's to you!

It was fun, especially when we were all catching fish. Since we had a target to bring home those bergall, I dropped down our hook sizes and that helped us keep catching whereas many folks may have only landed a few fish if any.