Mighty Heron Charters

10/07/2024

Hey Gang,
We ran a very short sea bass prospect trip last Friday, only heading out to about 65-80 feet of water. Dirty water made for tough fihsing.

We talked to some buds who went out deeper and found good clean water and a lot of porgies.

All reports indicate that the stripers are still up North, mostly from Montauk to Martha's Vineyard. This makes sense considering the water is still 68 degrees.

A very encouraging signis all the bunker schools - and I mean alot - from Little Egg right up through Manasquan. Plenty of food to hold the stripers around.

09/30/2024

Hey Gang,
THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT FOR OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER STRIPER AND SEA BASS TRIPS.

For the second season, we will be moving to the Point Pleasant – Manasquan Inlet area for stripers and sea bass for October and November. We will be based out of the *marina* on route 70 at the foot of the bridge leading to Brielle and across the street from the Crystal Point Yacht Club. We will return to the Ocean City area in late November or the beginning of December, depending on the bite.

Our followers on this page will receive 10% off the first of these trips they book for this season.

Why do this? It’s simple –
1. The striper fishing begins about 4 -6 weeks earlier than in the Ocean City area and they are consistently found inside the 3-mile limit. It’s like what it used to be out of Ocean City when on most days all you had to do was roll out of the inlet and look for the birds right off the beach.

2. For sea bass, we only need to run about half the distance to get to quality sea bass grounds. 5 miles for 65-85 feet of water and 15 miles for 140 feet of water.

Is the travel worth it? You can think of it like this. For folks traveling from the Ocean City area, it is an easy 1 hour drive up the parkway in the comfort of your vehicle instead of running North on the boat for an hour and hoping you find stripers inside the 3 mile limit or a 25+ mile run to get to the deep where the largest sea bass hang out.

For folks traveling from Pennsylvania, the Point Pleasant location is equidistant to Ocean City.

We will start sea bass trips on October 5th. Striper trips will start “about” October 15th. We won’t offer these trips until we have run some prospecting trips. We will post reports here and at the page "Mighty Heron Charters Point Pleasant".

Some key information -
The published listing states we are only running one trip a day, Thursday – Sunday. For our followers, if you contact us direct and need a Tuesday or Wednesday trip, we can likely accommodate you.

The listing says that all trips will begin at 6:30am. In reality, we will try to start trips about ½ before official sunrise, which will be changing throughout the fall. If you need a later start, depending on the length of the trip, we can start as late as 11:00am.

If you need an afternoon trip, we can do that except for Sundays. Keep in mind that we will be limited to 4 or 5 hour trips in the afternoon with the earlier sunsets.

I would prefer to limit these trips to 5 anglers. However, the folks who follow us and fish this time of year tend to be more experienced so we will accommodate 6.

The marina is a 10-15 minute transit to Manasquan Inlet and this does not count against your trip time.

Soon we will post dates for open boat trips for sea bass and striped bass. There will be one of each for both October and November.

Let's go, gang.

Do you want the best fishing charter experience in New Jersey? Mighty Heron Charters Point Pleasant offers Striper, Sea Bass, and a mixed bag porgie trip. Perfect for the experienced angler join us at Mighty Heron Charters.

09/29/2024

25 years since the most iconic Dolfin Dock Fall Striper Tournament hoodie came out. It's still on the shelf but doesn't get worn anymore. Anyone who fished this tournament will remember some of the massive fish that were weighed in and the legendary (or infamous) end of tournament banquets held at the Elks lodge in Scullville, EHT.

I think I was over the 90's trend of wearing a ballcap backwards at that point but what the hey. 😊

Striper and sea bass are almost upon us. Watch this space for October and November plans.

09/21/2024

Hey Gang,
We have one last opportunity to fish before heading North.

We are offering a 4 hour "up the river" for stripers and white perch on Saturday, September 28th beginning at 4:30pm. We have an excellent tide that evening for this pursuit.

We will chum, troll and cast.

The waters of the Great Egg River is where I actually grew up. Heck, we might even end up off the campground where I was a lifeguard as a teenager.

This trip is 4 hour and $400.

09/16/2024

Hey Gang,
Well, the seas/weather prediction for the next ten days is frightful. It is highly unlikely that we will be getting any trips out before the end of the flounder season on the 25th. It is what it is. Hopefully this run of rough seas/storms is the big transition from Summer to Fall and things will settle down for October.

Announcement regarding our Autumn Striped Bass and Black Sea Bass plans will be made this week.

09/02/2024

Hey Gang,
Sorry it’s been awhile. I had a non-fishing related injury to my leg that took me out of the game for a little while. Like, I didn’t know the human body was capable of absorbing that many bags of IV antibiotics.

It’s Labor Day weekend! You know what that means!
SHOOBIES GO HOME! 😅 (a local tradition to shout that at least once this weekend).

For our Summer visitors a big THANK YOU from myself, Cappy Greg, and the rest of the crew for your patronage and generosity. Until next year. We’ve been at this long enough that we are actually watching some of the younger ones go from pip-squeaks to (almost) full-blown adults. Great to meet many new families and groups. Best of luck to all of you with your endeavors.

Croakers. Honestly I haven’t had that much fun watching the young ‘uns try to keep track of how many were coming over the side in a long time.

And who can possibly forget the run of the elusive, small red fish from Sweden that showed up in our waters this year?🤪

Special thanks to Booking Coordinator Kim for keeping all of us on track during the 100 days of zaniness.

The bay right now is what it is this time of year. Keepers are harder to come by. The schools of small blues and Spanish Mackerel that occasionally pop-up have been offering some nice sight-casting opportunities around the inlet.

Reef/wreck flounder has been pretty good. Some nice fish coming over the side and a lot of shorts and sea bass for action. Congrats to mate John. While fishing for himself on one of the reefs he got a 10pound flounder (pictured).

September reef fishing for flounder is going to be good but my spidey-sense says it’s going to be out of reach for all but speciality deep trips early this year. Just a hunch. Weekends are full through the end of flounder season. We do have some mid-week availability.

For our more serious anglers or the more seriously interested, we will start our 3rd act “about” October 1st and run up til a week before Christmas if the bite is good. Striped Bass, sea bass, albies, bonita and porgy. Going to pay more attention to bluefin cruising by on their way south.

When and where we will start this will be announced in the next ten days. I’m talking to marinas up in the Point Pleasant area this week.

Again, thank all very much for another successful summer.

09/01/2024

*FLASH REPORT*
Cappy Greg and Mate John are back to dock soon with 36 - yup - 36 MAHI!

Dang I'm proud of these lads.

08/19/2024

Colten brought the rest of his family along today and helped his dad with this 22.5”, 4 # flounder, caught in the bay this morning.

Not an easy thing to find in the backwater this time of year.

Congrats!

08/18/2024

Hey Gang,

WEEKEND AVAILABILITY til the flounder season ends on September 25th.

Sat. September 7th - Afternoon
Sun. September 8th morning and afternoon
Sun.September 15th morning and afternoon

And that’s it. The vast majority of large flounder are out front so you want a 4 or 5 hour ocean trip for your best shot at a keeper or true doormat.

08/18/2024

Hey Gang,
The mother - daughter team of Cathy Young and Carrie Anne Neskie joined us for an afternoon near-shore reef trip.

Two keeper flounder, one of which was 3 pounds.
Both caught on peanut bunker. Several small flounder and sea bass.

The water is currently warm and clear. Now is the time for hitting the reefs and wrecks.

08/15/2024

Some random guy at dock - “Yeh, this rod is $500”

Me:

08/15/2024

08/13/2024

Hey gang,
Linda strikes again!
I can’t remember if this is Linda’s 3rd or 4th keeper this year over 3 or 4 trips.

Fishing alongside her husband, Tony, she caught this 22.5”, 4.5 # flattie on one of the near-coast reef sites.

Congrats Linda!

08/12/2024

A good cause and event.

Hip-Hip, Hooray! COA's Fall Beach Sweeps planning is underway!

Mark your calendars! Fall Beach Sweeps is right around the corner. Join thousands of like-minded individuals statewide on Saturday, October 19th.

Registration will open September 3rd at 12pm! Let's SHELL-o-brate the ocean and keep our beaches debris-free!

08/12/2024

Some years we see them and some years we don’t. This year our crews have caught about a half dozen.

http://www.scottsbt.com/fishids/idrare/grunt_pigfish.htm

08/09/2024

Not fishing related.

Just wow. Writing on the wall is that this has been coming for the past few years…

But still. A lifetime of memories and talking about our favorite rides while fishing.

08/08/2024

Hey Gang,

Here is an early August update on fishing and what to expect through the end of the flounder season on September 25th.

First, thanks to all for coming out with us. It’s been another busy Summer season and we are thankful for old and new faces alike.

The “croaker-fest” in the bay and inlet is winding down. Thousands have come over the side since July 2nd. Each new crew worked to best the previous crew. The Macek family visiting from the Pittsburg area were the undisputed champs with 212 fish coming over the side in 3 hours. Until next year, Henry.

Dan Parks sent us a photo of of his croaker tacos. They look awesome.

The flounder bite in the bay has not been great with the wild fluctuations in water temps due to the upwelling events. Temps seem to be stabilizing and the bite is a bit better. Typical of August, we have to wade through many smaller fish to find the keepers.

Ocean flounder and sea bass bite has been getting better by the day. We’ve had nice flounder and sea bass catches on near-shore wrecks and reefs.

NOW IS THE TIME TO BOOK FOR SEPTEMBER OCEAN FLOUNDER!

September is the best month to be in the Ocean City area and can truly be the best month to find large flounder on the near-coastal reefs and wrecks. There is also a shot at false albacore, small mahi, etc.

We are also already thinking about Autumn Black Sea Bass, Porgies, and Stripers.

Thanks,
Capt. Mike

07/30/2024

Some times it all comes together. A fun family, beautiful seas, and biting fish.

Saturday we hosted the Helms crew. Delco proud.

The first line wasn’t even set yet when it was hit by an 8 # bluefish.

For the next several hours it was a steady pick of Bonita.

Music, good sandwiches (thank you) and fish on a great day to be out there.

It was a Mighty Heron Charters kinda day😎

07/27/2024

I did something I rarely do today. I opened up the throttles and hit about 44mph.

Full report on the past few days tomorrow.

We are having some mighty heron charters kinda days.

Thanks to Capt. Rob at

Mooverfishing.com

For the vid.

Moover Fishing Adventures Best Fishing Charters in New Jersey Call Us Today! Boat Location Book a Trip Now! 2024 BOOKING NOW: Call, Text or Book Online open Year Round. 609-515-6161 Bay Trips: 2Hr (Sunset), 3 or 4Hrs Bottom Fishing, Jigging, casting, live bait. Calm relaxing and fun

07/24/2024

Greenheads for croaker bait?
We had a

Mightyheroncharters.com

kinda day 🤪

07/22/2024

Yup. 3 hours.

07/21/2024

Hey Gang!
2024 is in the books.

For a second year, we carried “Queen Infanta” (Queen of the OC baby parade). She and her family were great.

We also carried Craig D. Schenck of the Ocean City Sentinel, for pix and article for the paper.

With the “Jimmy Buffett Vibes” theme, I opted to wear my seer sucker suit, with a light blue shirt, and pink tie, topped off with my straw hat from Zihwa, Mexico. And yes, saddle shoes.

Our new addition this year is battery operated, suction cup, ability to time to music, disco balls.
Available for your sunset cruise. Seemed to be a hit.

See ya’ll

07/17/2024

YO GANG!
An epic mightyheronchartes.com kinda day!

NEW SINGLE TRIP BAY RECORD!

NEW SINGLE DAY BAY TOTAL RECORD!

So we started with the Jackson family crew of Leidy, Rick, Ezra, Gray, Larry (Cluck Cluck), and Mark.

135 croakers, baby Black Sea Bass and smaller flounder. 135 in 180 minutes!

For the afternoon we had back (for the third year) the Wadsworth Family crew of John, Dylan, Brady, Regan and Rowan.

100 croakers, baby Black Sea Bass and the capper was a 3 foot wing-span cow nosed ray all in 180 minutes.

These families killed it today.

We love it. Congrats to both crews. Cappy Greg and I will never forget this day.

Ezra. Our SALAH fan. Liverpool! You will never walk alone my friend.

https://youtu.be/Go-jJlGd1so?si=qaHwz52n9PokDcfl