Gambler Fishing, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ

Fluke fishing has been spurratic lately - some days are great, some days have been on the slow side. Pool winners are walking away with 4-5lb fish most days.

Our Friday and Saturday night bluefishing trips have been excellent - lots of fish being caught with pool winners between 8-12lbs. Unfortunately, we didn't make it out for our cod & ling trips this past weekend. We're looking forward to heading for our wreck trips again this Sunday and Monday night.

Our fluke trips have been slow these last few days. Drifting over some prime bottom but hard to induce bites. Most times I can see sea bass on my machines, swimming over the rough bottoms, but they too have lock jaw. Might just be a matter of the current easing off a bit for the fluke and sea bass to start biting again.

Last Monday night's Ling trip was awesome. Big, big hake and plenty of them. Some cod too. We run those trips every Sunday and Monday night from 7:30 til 12:30.

The Gambler has had good fishing, both day and night, this week.

Some really nice sized keepers have been landed lately. Still gettiing big sea bass on most trips. A 7+ lber was caught on the PM trip yesterday --still not big enough to beat Jeff Toth's almost 10lber landed last week. Very possible to see a double digit fish in these last few July days of our monthly fluke derby.

Chris S. won June's derby which was over $1100. July will be more $!

Our night bluefish trips were poor on Friday and Saturday night but there are signs that the bluefishing should get better soon.

The Gambler did not get out for Sunday night's ling trip but we did make it out last night with good results. I skippered the Gambler out about 20 miles and made several drops on wrecks and rocks in 130 ft. Started landing big ling right away, up to 4 lbs. We also caught a number of school sized cod. Some were throw-backs others were keeper sized. A few sea bass were taken, too. We did see some squid but did not catch any last night, probably due to the strong, moon current.

With just 20 passengers, the Gambler steamed out 20 miles to rocky bottom in 130 ft. With an annoying ground swell from the SE up against a hard, south-bound current the fishing was slow to start. We caught a few ling and saw some squid on our first stop.

Next drop in 100ft was better, with mixed sized ling and a few cod up to 24". Still, it wasn't easy to keep the lines on the bottom with the big roll and current.

During the last hour of the night, the squid got agressive. I worked a squid jig for about a 1/2 hour. Casting just outside the lights and retreiving medium speed. Sometimes 5 or 6 squid would fight to get the lure. I caught 6 between 5 and 8 inches.

I'll be at the helm again tonight

Fishing the last few days has been a bit on the slow side. Still catching some keeper fluke and keeper sea bass. Most days we're seeing plenty of short fluke

Friday and Saturday night blue fishing has been excellent with blues being caught between 8-12lbs Sunday night's Ling trip was slow, but Monday's trip was good with a lot of nice sized squid being caught near the surface and most pasengers catching beween 10-15 keeper ling. Passengers have also been catching cod on these trips.

Good fluke fishing this week. Nice percent of keepers along with some big sea bass. Pool winners most trips have been around 5 lbs. We're also catching a few husky ling on some drifts.

On yesterday AM's trip, Jim Custer landed 3 nice fluke and won the pool with a 5.5 lber. He had some sea bass too.

John and Linda Carrier caught 8 keeper fluke up to 4 lbs and 5 keeper sea bass, same trip.

Yest's PM trip and night trip were a bust because the wind came on strong and sloppy from the south.

This AM bounced back. Very slow drift but we still made out okay.

Tonight and tomorrow night the Gambler will make her Ling and Squid trips.

The Gambler was out both trips yesterday and one trip today for the opening day of sea bass. We caught a fair amount of mixed sizes up to 3lbs. There were also a few small cod mixed in. We'll fish for sea bass the rest of this week until memorial day weekend when we switch over to 1/2 day fluke.

On May 22, we'll begin fishing 1/2 day for sea bass. On May 29th (opening day of fluke season) we'll begin making our 1/2 day fluke trips twice daily for the rest of the summer. See you soon!

Action started out slow today, then kinda fizzled out. Choppy. Went out 25 miles to the first wreck. Not too much life.

Moved into the SW about 20 miles off Barnegat --just a few short taug.

Cods0410

Tried 2 wrecks in 65ft --few short taug and a keeper cod.
Was headed shallower, hoping to find nicer conditions and some taugs. But the waves were even steeper and I finally relented and took our victims home.

Weekend looks good and we'll try our best to haul some big cod. If not, we can shoot into some blackfish wrecks.

April 7 2010

Nice day today.
Most had one or 2 keeper cod and all, I think, had limit taugs.
Bob S caught 4 keeper cod.

April 5 2010

Captain Mike had the Gambler out blackfishing today. Sounds like a good day of keeper blackfish, short blackfish and cod 19 to 25inches. He fished just 3 wrecks today and all had life.

Capt Mike told me that a 15lber was landed, too.

blackfish0410
Good baits on board including live greens, whites, hermits and clams.

Our last couple cod trips cod trips have been spotty. Caught some nice ones, up to 15lbs, last Thursday, and a couple guys had 3 or 4 keepers. Most had 1 or 2, but others caught nadda. There were a few big ling caught and a couple keeper blackfish landed too.

As the water warms, the cod and pollock should start to migrate north and re-populate our local wrecks on the way. My log from last April showed pretty good action on cod pollock and ling, fishing the wrecks from 25 to 35 miles off.

The Gambler has not been out for blackfish in 2 weeks but we have seen signs of them starting to show on shallower wrecks. Just got a beautiful delievery of live greenies, white leggers, and clams for our taug trips.

All trips leave 7:AM and Return by 5 or 6PM. Cost for either trip is $85 adult, $75 senior, $50 child.

Capt Bob had to take the Gambler further offshore (about 55 miles) to find the fish on Sunday, but fishing was great overall. A lot of keeper cod, pollock, and ling. Winning the pool was a 23-pound pollock. Check out some customer feedback and pictures from the trip: http://www.njfishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19790

Real nice catch of cod today --up to 35lbs. 1st wreck started out with a bang. 5 to 7 fish on at a time --it looked like we were bluefishing. Heavy action lasted abour an hour then settled into a good pick. Most cod were in the 6 to 12 lb class.

Next couple wrecks had a blast of school sized cod. Made one last try in the deep for some ling but only caught a couple.

Great day on the ocean and Tara and John made a great fisherman's breakfast and a good lunch.

Headed for cod again tomrw and then taug Mon, Tues and Weds. The Gambler will look out to the South East for blackfish. Same wrecks should hold cod and possibly some big ling, too.

I think the weathermman got Saturday and Sundays weather mixed up. Saturday was nice, Sunday was snotty. Cod fishing on Sunday was not as good as Saturday. Couldn't get to where I wanted to go --the further we got the worse. Wound up the day with a few cod and some big ling but nothing like Satuday's trip. Good call, mom.

Yesterday was our taug trip. Gorgeous weather. Very few blacks. Turned into a cod and ling trip. 1st cpl wrecks were slow. Found 3 new spots, small wrecks, good fishing --ling, school cod and a few taugs.

We will be tied up tomorw for the DC march. Weather looks bad thru Friday, but we should be back in biz by Saturday.

Good blast of nice cod first thing this morning. Before I had shut down the Gambler's engines, there were 3 eight lb cod in the boat. Nice action for the first 1/2 hour, then settled into a pick. Every shift we caught 2 or 3 more. The cod were from just about keepers to 20+ lbs. I was surprised to see no ling at the first spot. Some of the cod had mackerel and butter fish in their stomachs.

Next wreck was deeper and I was sure we'd get a mess of big ling on it. But only caught a handful and a few more cod.

Jim Mulvey from Gillet was out with us and worked a jig the whole time. His persistance paid off with 4 cod, 5 to 20lbs and a hulker 35 lb pollock.

Too bad the weather report scared some away.

Tomorrow looks like good weather for our cod trip and I'm looking forward to steaming back off there.

Yesterdays' taug trip was good early --with a couple guys catching their limit before 9:30 in the AM. As the day went on, the current got strong and the bites died out but overall, it was a good catch with blackfish up to 7lbs. A few ling and a couple cod were landed also.

On our cod/ling trip today, the first couple wrecks were dull. A few ling and a few small cod and silver eels. The next wreck produced a nice shot of cod and a pollock. One guy even had a douple header, 12 and 8lber. I saw 2 nice blackfish come over the rail. Also a handful of big ling and plenty of pouts.

I found a couple other wrecks that I wanted to search for before they shut off the loran systems. One was so small that I didn't bother. The other didn't seem to be there. Always a bonus when you can find a new hang.

Tomorrows weather look like crap.

The Gambler will try for saturday.

Nice day on the water again. Taug, I didn't know that was you --thanks for coming out.

1st wreck of the day was not that good. Just a few jumbo lings. Next wreck, in a 155ft, had a good initial shot of cod 6 to 20lbs and a pollock, a few big ling and grey cod.

Last wreck was best, about 33 miles off in 150 ft. Caught some nice school cod, lots of mixed sized ling and even some big blackfish on our white leggers. Fun day with a good bunch of guys.

Can't wait for tomorrow.

Capt Bob

Started on a wreck about 40 miles off today, in about 130ft. Got a quick shot of cod and then it fizzled out. Biggest cod was about 18lbs.

Tried to find a new wreck that I had numbers for, a few miles further north; but with the chop, it was hard to locate and after a 20 minute search, I gave it up.

Next wreck a few more miles to the NW had very good ling action. Stayed an hour extra and we loaded up on those and also caught a big pollock. The ling were mixed sized, small to large.

Many wrecks still to try this winter.

Overall, good fishing. Some real nice cod up to 30+ lbs, pollock 12lbs, big ling and even some keeper blackfish. Just a handful of guys to enjoy the trip.

It was a little bouncy in the moring but the Gambler sat like a duck in it.

I tried jigging for pollock and cod but didn't catch.

Clams worked best.

Dog fish weren't too bad

Kip Tobish of PA won the pool with a brut 30 or 35lber and a 20+ lber and some fat ling.

Billy Byrne of Toms River caught a 10lb cod, 16 big ling, a keeper blackfish and a couple silver eels.

The Gambler set out for stripers this morning. The swells were big and the water was chocolate color. Ran up as far as the rocks, holding it just a mile off the beach, looking for birds and readings as we went. We saw very little life and had no bites.

Looked out to the west side of the mud hole to see if we could find some macks but that didn't pan out either.

On our way back, just 2 miles from the inlet, started to see gannets diving and put it on a drift on some bait readings.

Capt Mike and I cast out sabiki rigs and caught some blue back herring. Customers live lined the herrings. We had some good run offs on the herring but had trouble setting the hooks (the big swell didn't help.)

Finally, Perry Tessitore, Cranford, landed a 20lber. Just before it was gaffed, we saw 2 other bass, as big or bigger than Perry's, follow the fish right to the top.

We have a few live eels on board too.

I think we'll go right back to the same place tomorrow. It looked lifey. Swell should be laying down good over night.

Capt Bob
P.S. There will be a march on Washington on Feb 24 to protest the regulation situation - please join us! Visit this site for more info: http://ssfff.net/marchondc.html

Where was everyone today? Great weather, few fishermen to enjoy it with.

We saw gannets diving from our inlet all the way up the beach. Lots of bait readings but few bass readings. Tried a few drifts tight to the beach and caught a few short bass.

Finally looked off Shrewsbury a couple miles, saw a few birds, put it on a drift and the machine lit up. Started catching big blues and big bass. Very good action for about 45 minutes --every cast had a hit, caught a big bass or a big blue. Next drifted started out the same but then the tide changed, killed our drift and the bite as well. Big crocs, flash lures and AVAs all worked while the bite was on. Would have liked one more good drift but I was happy with what we caught.

Reel Seat Tackle, Brielle, has these Flash lures. I have some aboard, too. They imitate herring very closely and did the trick today. Get them in light colors. Crocs were hot too but they are hard to come by.

Not fast action, had to work for them, but it was okay fishing on some bigger bass and blues from Mantaloking-south. Early part of the day we were drifting over deep readings, catching one or 2 bass plus a couple blues per drift.

Slowed up, so we took a quick ride down the beach and found some birds working. Some nice top action. Didn't catch as many as I saw on the machine, but we picked a couple or a few on every drift. No dogs --just big blues, keeper and short bass.

Capt Bob
PS - Weather looks good thru Monday for striped bass fishing.

Today, not so hot as it's been. Caught some blues and some shorts, just a few keepers. Fished from Spring Lake to just south of Asbury. Many dogfish hitting jigs too. We saw good readings on the machine again, just didn't bite so good. Might've had something to do with all the boat traffic.

Next few days look good for striper fishing, with NW wind.

Capt Bob

Nice catch of Stripers and big blues today. We did best on readings near the bottom --not as good around the birds. Best method was to drop to the bottom, reel in slowly 10 cranks, then drop back down again. When the lure got too far out, just reeled back in and started over. Best lure seemed to be a plain A-47.

Our first drift was the best, lasted about an hour and we landed 8 or 10 keepers plus blues and shorts. The rest of the day was more of a steady pick, although I read marks very good on every drift.

Kieth Mulligan, Belmar, landed a total of 27 fish: 3 bass (29 to 35 inches up to 16lbs) 10 shorts and 14 blues (most of which he released).

The weather looks good for bassin' right thru Wednesday. Take a look at the pictures from the last few days by clicking the links in the blue box to the left. Or visit www.twitter.com/gamblerfishing

Capt Bob

Bass up to 20 lbs and blues up to 15lbs. Miles and miles of gulls and gannets diving on breaking and boiling fish. This is shaping up to be one of the best fall seasons in years, thanks to the abundance of sand eels.

The icing on the cake was a 150lb bluefin caught by John W. What a cool suprise! John also had his limit of 3 keeper stripers, plus he released 10 blues and 7 short bass.

Best jigs have been the A-47s with a tail --doesn't seem to matter which color. Just cast, or drop the jig to the bottom and reel at a medium-fast pace. Most guys had their limit of 2 keeper bass again today and some guys even had their bonus fish.

Bill Ruha, Whippany, won the pool today with a 19lber bass and had his limit of 3. Check out pictures of the tuna and stripers from the last couple of days by clicking the links in the blue "Twitter" box on the right.

It's been good and getting better everyday since Sunday. Lots of big bass today, some shorts and blues mixed in.

The fish are feeding on sandeels. We saw gulls and gannets working the surface for miles and the fish finder was lit-up like like a pinball machine.

The best lure the last few days has been the A-47 --or any other lure that minicks a sandeel. Best method was to hit the bottom and reel all the way back in at a medium-fast retrieve.

Pool winner, caught by Bud Tunnel, was about 20lbs.

Everyone on board had their limit of 2 keepers by 10AM, and by noon almost everyone had their bonus fish.

I think I usually keep my posts modest but this has been some of the best striper fishing in years.

The weather reports look good at least thru Saturday.

Capt Bob

The Gambler set up at the Hudson yesterday. During the dark, we had a total of 6 swordfish on. They are tough fish to land --they always seem to know where the running gear is.

Dan Piserry was targeting swords and he had a total of 4 on, landing one 70lber. He had another monster on, fought for 2 hours, broke at the swivel.

Also 3 big blue sharks caught in the dark.

Just before dawn, started to read fish on the scope, anywhere from 60 to 250ft below. Unfortunately, most of the guys were shot --a lot of dead-sticking. Capt Morgan, of the NKIII joined us and he caught a 40 lb yellowfin and a 50 lb longfin.

A few other tuna landed but it should have been better from what I saw on the finder.

Capt Mike has the boat out now. Hopefully they're not taking a beating. (wind came up earlier than expected.)

Capt Bob

The weather for our Cod trip for this Monday looks sweet. Still plenty of room. 6AM till 6PM. Hitting wrecks from 55 to 30 miles out. I've got a good game plan and a good feeling about this trip.

Call 732-295-7569

Capt Bob

Nice day on the water for our cod run today. 1st wreck we started out about 55 miles. Had a shot of cod between 10 and 20+ lbs and a couple pollock.

Next wreck was about the same with a few nicer ling.

3rd wreck was best, with a little flurry of cod up to 20+ lbs and a few nice pollock and some big ling with a few bluefish. Dave A, of the Reel Seat, had a huge cod or pollock on for a few minutes that pulled the hook (I would have loved to seen that fish.)

Final wreck was hit on our way home, a little shallower, like 120 ft, but not much home.

Marilyn Gold won the pool with a 21 lb cod.

I think we would have done better today but the clams delivered just the day before were kinda tired, to say the least. (I'll go back to my regular bait guy.)

We'll go again next Monday --same hours, 6AM till 6PM (or later). Same price: $120.00 --limited to 30 or less. Call 732-295-7569 to hold your spot.

Pictures from this trip were taken with the boat phone and sent from the water to our Twitter account - click on the links in the Twitter feed to the left.

Thanks Dave A for getting the guys together.

We were out thurs night returning fri for canyon tuna. It was good weather and good water. Saw fish on our sonar but they didn't bite well. Duffman caught a 70lb sword on a jig about 15 minutes after we stopped the boat. No more bites till just about dawn when we landed a 70lb yellowfin. Tried trolling for a while and then pot hopped for mahis --no luck. Headed out again tonight. Hope they bite.

The weather was pretty fresh on the Friday-Saturday canyon trip. Worked our way out to the bombs where we found a nice temp break - set anchor 600 ft and waited. No bites in the dark. Around sunrise we started pot hopping and had some very good action on BIG Mahi up to 25lbs. We landed about 60 Mahi to 20 guys.

This Saturday-Sunday trip was very nice weather. Went back around the same area on the Canyon. Put it on a drift this time and soon after caught a 25lb yellowfin on a jig. We landed 15 yellowfin during the dark to 17 passengers. Also landed a 250lb swordfish.

At day light some guys dropped down and had good bite of tile fish up to 12lbs - some double-headers even.

We then tried trolling for an hour - saw lots of life on top (including a whale and a whaleshark). Gave the trip an extra hour catching big mahi on some weed lines.

Overall a good trip!
15 yellowfin 20-30lbs
1 250lb sword
20 tilefish 5-12lbs
20 mahi 10-20 lbs

Going off again tomorrow. Next Friday's trip is booked, but we still have plenty of room left on our next Saturday trip. Give Mary Ann a call for reservations - 732-892-1746

Also, Tara will be posting lots of video footage from last nights trip online by next weekend, so look for that.

On Monday fluke fishing was pretty slow. Seems that the ocean bottom was churned up a bit from "Bill" and made the fish seasick. By yesterday and today, the swells had subsided and fishing began to pick up.

Captain Bob called from the Gambler this afternoon to report that some nice-sized fish were coming over the rail, up to 5 pounds. Bob Johnson of Matawan had 3 keepers up to 4.5lbs and a nice-sized seabass halfway through the trip.

Fluke season ends on September 3rd, so be sure to get your last trips in with us while you can!

Also, we are running two 10-hour "Exotics" trips for Bonito, Albacore, Mahi, and Bluefin on September 6th and 7th. These trips are limited to 30 passengers, so if you'd like to reserve or get more info, give us a call at 732-295-1020.

Yesterday was good fishing 40 keepers in the a.m an 15 in the p.m. Pool fish was around 6 pounds on both trips.

Today was even better. We had over 40 keepers in the a.m. So real nice quality fish. There was 4 or 5 fish over 5 pounds in the morning. Plenty of nice shorts to add. Pool fish was 6 pounds in the morning. No limits but a couple close ones.

Afternoon was a little tougher with the storm and weather but we got out an had a decent trip. For 21 fisherman there was 15 keepers. There was 6 fish over 4 pounds an pool fish was 5.5 pounds.

Had some decent sized fluke Friday and Saturday morning, along with some mixed sized sea bass. Not lots of fish but some quailty fluke up to 6lbs and sea bass up to 5 lbs. There are also a few small blues hitting our fluke baits now.

On Saturday morning, Glen Blakeslee from White haven PA landed 4 keeper fluke up to 5.5 lbs. He also had 5 keeper sea bass. He caught all his fish on a rental pole, using boat bait (spearing and squid strip).

Joe Hennessy, Islen caught a 5lber and a 4.1lb fluke and 3 keeper sea bass. His wife Pat landed a 4.7 lb fluke and had 6 keeper sea bass.

Yesterday afternoon's trip was slower because of a hard southerly but it seemed be bouncing back this morning.

Our night bluefsih trips were tuff this weekend.

7/22/2009

Fishing has been decent since the weekend. Lots of short action and nice sized sea bass up to 3lbs. On Monday Dave Arbeitman of the Reel Seat in Brielle caught an 8 lb fluke, plus 3 other keeper fluke and some sea bass. The fluking has been holding up nicely.

Bluefishing was slow this weekend, but we're expecting it to pick up by next weekend.
__________________________

Good action on short fluke, mixed sea bass up to 5 lbs, and even some nice hake on some trips. Still, hard to get good numbers of keeper fluke so far this month.

Our best chance of landing keeper fluke has been drifting through the deeper, rougher bottom --which is where the c-bass and ling happen to be hanging. So it kind of works out that at least our customers are going home with fillets.

Most days our pool winning fluke have been 4 to 6 lbs.

Spro set-ups have been working good on the days where there is poor drift conditions. Yes, we are losing some tackle.

I'm confident that the fluking will improve soon. In the meantime, I'm satisfied with the action.

Capt Bob

The fluke bite has been okay, plenty of short action and still getting some good keeper sea bass --and even some ling on some trips. Fluke over 18 inches have been a little hard to come by most days, but we're always catching at least a few.

Yestrerday there were some 4 and 5 lb fluke landed and Ed Min is holding July's monthly fluke derby so far with a 7.0 lb fish.

June's winner won well over $800.00 with a 7lb 12 ounces.

Our fluke fishing has been tough this week. I'm hoping, thinking, that this NNW wind will get the fluke back on the feed again.

The sea bass are still helping to put fillets in the coolers, thankfully.

I tried a lot of different spots the last few days but you can't make a fish eat when it doesn't want to eat. I believe fluke fishing will turn around and get real good one day soon --just need the right water to push through.

The Gambler did excellent on her bluefish trips this weekend. Lots of exciting action on 8 to 12 lb choppers.

Capt Bob

Yesterday's fluke fishing turned out to be mostly sea bass. Some nice sized blue-heads came over the rail along with short fluke. Not too many keeper fluke yesterday.

This morning started out similar: nice seabass with a few fluke. Moved into a different area and we started catching a nice mix of keeper fluke along with more big sea bass.

We had to deal with a few dogfish, but not too bad.

Bill Werking, Toms River, nearly landed his limit this morning with 5 keepers up to 5.5 lbs. He also put 12 keeper sea bass into his cooler.

Donny Joesph, Roselle Park, is now leading our monthly derby with a 6.0 fluke. In addition, he landed a 2lber and 11 keeper sea bass.

Our 1st night striper trip was this past Thursday. It was nasty weather but we still managed to catch some very big striped bass. All were between 20 and 30 lbs. We also saw a pair of 50 lbers at one point, swimming through the chunk slick.

Capt Bob

The Gambler is all geared up and ready to go for fluke. Our 1/2 day trips start this Saturday, the 23rd, leaving at 8:00 AM and returning by 12:30 PM and from 2:00 PM till 6:30 PM. This trips will sail every day. Cost is $40.00. Senior fare is $35 and child fare is $25. Rod and reel rental are available for $5.00.

Our night blue trips start this Friday and sail every Friday and saturday night, leaving at 7:30 and returning by 12:30. The fare for night blues is $55. Senior fare is $50 and child fare is $30. Rod and reel rental are available on board.

The Gambler is now at dry dock, being prepared for the upcoming season. We will begin cod, ling and pollock trips starting on April 4th. These trips will run Thursdays-Sundays from 7am - 5pm. Our 2009 tuna schedule is now available. Check it out!

Hope everyone had a nice holiday! The weather messed around with us for a while, but Captain Bob was out yesterday and had this to say:

We caught some stripers, but had to work for every one of them.

Similar to Friday, we searched our way up to the rocks. Saw plenty of herring in tight but not too much outside of a mile. Saw a couple big whales on the way.

1st drift I stopped on a little bait reading near the bottom. One guy snagged a herring, so I re-hooked it thru the lips and had him send it slow back down. Within a few minutes he hooked into a nice keeper.

I began to see huge schools of blue-back herring on the machine so I rigged a Sabiki and started catching them single to triple headers, repeating the same method for the 1st guy. It worked pretty well for a while, at one point fighting 4 fish hooked on live herring at once. Wound up with another 4 keepers and a couple dozen short fish.

Weather was very nice.

I got a call from one of my Barnegate friends. Reliable report. He said he had very good action all day off of Island Bch. Lots of shorts with some keepers up to 30". Which leaves us with another good option.

Gorgeous day on the ocean. Good fishing most of the day. Mostly shorts and a surpising amount of blues. Most guys had 6 to 12 stripers, 16 to 26 inches and 3 or 6 blues 3 to 10 lbs. Ed from Trenton won the pool with a 29" bass.

Piney Bill somehow managed to catch 2 big taug on a jig (can you give me some numbers for the lottery, Bill?)

Weather looks great for tomorrow, Saturday!

If you had thoughts about coming out on Sunday --don't let the weather forecast stop you. That's just the kinda weather that will make those stripers bite their heads-off.

Capt Bob

Capt Mike had the Gambler out for an excellent day today. Everyone on board took at least 2 keepers, stripers up to 25 lbs today. Some had a 3rd with the bonus tags that we keep aboard.

Customers released keeper bass throughout the day. They also had some big blues and a few short bass. The action lasted all day with very few breaks.

Unfortunately, the weatherman screwed-up again. Besides a left-over ground swell, it was a nice day on the water. We only had 10 customers and I believe the Gambler was the only boat out from Barnegat to the Highlands.

Looks like strong west winds for tomorrow --good conditions for bass fishing. rest of the week thru Saturday looks good too.
Capt Bob

Here's the latest from Captain Bob himself: Nice action today, especially the first couple drifts. Saw some high flying gull excitement and some readings on the machine. Stopped and let it go on a long drift, catching big stripers, big blues and a couple shorts. The fish were feeding on sand eels and rain fish. Held-up pretty good until about 10:AM. After that, we picked at mostly blues with an occasional bass.

We could still see lots of fish working the surface and saw mounds of readings coming under the boat at times, but they were hard to catch.

Still, it was a good (cold) day with a few guys catching their limit of bass and most guys catching a least one. Plus plenty of blues for anyone who wanted them.

The pool, about 15lbs, was caught by Bill from Matawan.

Best lure seemed to be 5oz Krocs retrieved through the depths.

I know that the weatherman is calling for heavy west winds the next cpl days but it will be no prob for the Gambler and I think it will be good for striper fishing. If you don't mind tuff conditions with good action, come on out.

We had a nice day for stripers and blues on Saturday. Lots of BIG blues were caught and many striped bass big and small were seen on board. Sunday was a little sloppy out because of the wind, but it sounds like tomorrow we'll have excellent weather. Captain Bob would like me to remind you guys: Don't be turned off by bigger party-boat crowds on the weekends because more lures in the water attracts more fish!

Captain Bob said that the Gambler's last Tuna trip was a bust. Hopefully next year we'll have better conditions!

On November 1st, we'll start Striper fishing. We hear that there's been a lot of stripers caught lately, so we're looking forward to having a good season and seeing every one on board again! Trips will be $59 for adults, $49 for seniors and $39 for children under 12. Rod and reel rentals are available free of charge, but you must bring your own lures and tackle, or purchase them behind the galley.

I joined the crew for the Saturday - Sunday trip this past week. The weather was absolutely perfect, but the tunas were missing in action. There was barely any life overnight of any sort (except for one shark a customer had on, but didn't land), despite the warm water and calm seas. We called around to the other boats and they reported similar conditions. At day break, we headed over to the pots and picked up a nice amount of mahi-mahi - some nice big ones were brought on board. Overall, it was tough fishing but the tasty mahi saved the day. Thanks Stan, Greg and Kevin for your hard work! - Tara

I thought it was just a rumor when I heard the news, but I called Captain Bob Sr. and it's true - Captain Mike took the Gambler out last night and the group of guys from the NJFishing.com charter caught 54 yellowfin tuna!! That's not a typo - FIFTY-FOUR YELLOW FIN TUNA! This is the kind of fishing we've been waiting for! Of course, some mahi were also landed on the trip. The tunas ranged from 25-75pounds. There are still spaces available for the 30-hour trip leaving on Thursday, October 9th, so book a spot on that trip soon! Call Mary Ann at 732-892-1746 for upcoming tuna trip booking information.

Check out some more pictures from last nights trip on our online photo album (compliments of the anglers on NJfishing.com - thank you for coming out with us!)

Captain Bob just gave me a report for the Friday-Saturday trip he ran: While the tuna fishing hasn't been wonderful, things are picking up steadily. Within 15 minutes of anchoring, they landed a large yellowfin and a 100-lb swordfish. After a little while, more yellowfin were caught - the smallest being 20lbs and the largest were up to 90lbs. MANY large swordfish were fought throughout the night, and 2 were brought on board.

After the tuna/sword bite died down, Captain Bob hopped over to some pots in search of Mahi - there were many Mahi in the area, but they didn't bite as good as they have been lately. Also saw lots of skipjacks and a 50-foot whale shark. The weather has been beautiful and there's tons of life out there! Now's the time to get on one of these trips!

Well, the weather messed us up for a few days and we were forced to cancel some trips. Captain Mike took boat to the Canyon on Monday and he's happy to report that fishing is getting better. They had some nice-sized tuna on board (one Bigeye), as well as a Wahoo and lots of Mahi. There were no swordfish caught this trip, but we have been getting some nice swords in the past couple weeks, as well as a few more Wahoo. I updated number of spots available on the upcoming tuna trips as of today, so if you would like to look at the availability on those trips, go on over to our Offshore Trips page!

Out of the 4 tuna trips the Gambler has made so far this year, only one has shown us an impressive catch. We have been seeing swordfish on every run, however. Captain Bob has been studying the water temperatures and says that he sees warm water from the gulf creeping up into the Canyon - very good news! We might finally be getting the temperatures we need. Captain Mike will be at the helm tonight into tomorrow, and if the weather holds up, Captain Bob will be taking the NJFishing.com charter on Sunday night. Hopefully they'll bring home excellent reports! Check back very soon!

Fishing Reports ...