Hit up the first annual Barnegat High School fishing flea market this past Saturday and had fun hawking garbage fish gear and chatting with attendees and vendors. Met Captain Alex Majewski of Lighthouse Sportfishing Charters, who was kind enough to come over and introduce himself. Captain Alex has been fishing the Barnegat Bay for 30 years and let us know that he's seen his fare share of garbage fish, including Sea Robin blitzes - which would be a first for me. Set up a trip with him and he'd be happy to put you on all the garbage you want, but he primarily does light tackle trips for striped bass, weakfish, fluke and bluefish in our beautiful back bay waters. Check out his site for details.

The frost is definately on the pumpkin and our beloved garbage fish have moved out of the bays and into deeper, warmer waters. There's still fishing opportunities for the hearty but most boats have been pulled and it's time to start thinking about the flea market season. Teaming up with friend of garbagefish.com Steve-O - and hitting one of the first fishing flea markets of the season at Southern Regional High School on Rt. 9 in Barnegat Township, NJ. Steve will be brooming some sweet custom made shark sticks - equipped with massive Penn Senators and I will be pushing garbage fish shirts, flags and stickers at the cheap'o flea market reduced rates. See you there.

On another note, now that the fishing is basically done for us for a while, I've been enjoying a website called Catalina Offshore Products. While we love to eat garbage fish - and love to eat pretty much all fish - my personal favorite is bluefin and salmon sashimi. I came upon this site advertising fresh, wild caught bluefin - sashimi grade for only $7.00 a pound (on sale at the time). Of course they overnight it but I was leary. I called and they reassured me that their packaging and shipping methods were top shelf. I plunked down and the next day - sure enough - there was my package. I quickly took care of the goods which looked and smelled amazingly fresh and later that night - it was sashimi galore. For years I've been trying to purchase top quality - sushi bar quality - raw fish and I've struck out almost every time - be it the fish monger, off the boat, or supermarkets. This place is a home run. The bluefin was not only sushi bar quality it was simply the best tuna sashimi I have ever had. For free - you can become a member and they'll alert you of other sales which they run weekly and last week it was sashimi quality salmon, my favorite. Gargabefish.com tournament pro staffer, Greg Poole and myself, plunked down for 7 pounds of the pink gold. But, I have to say, again I was leary. The salmon was farm raised and frozen - which they pointed out - and I don't always freeze my fish for sashimi. As you know, it's advised that you freeze to kill any parasites but I don't want to risk degrading the quality of the meat.

When I'm at the sushi bar and I've been to them from Oahu, Maui, Kaui, Cabo, Cozumel, San Diego, Los Angeles, NYC, Boston, Phila. etc. etc. etc. - I've been to a lot - I go for salmon sashimi. I find there is a lot of parity in the quality - even sometimes at top shelf restaurants. But, when it's on, it's on and there's nothing better. Once again, Catalina Offshore Products delivered. The salmon was vacuum packed and when thawed it was as fatty and fresh as I've ever had. There is simply nothing like being able to pull out a pound of sashimi grade salmon whenever you want and serve it up in the comfort of your own home. Now, the shipping is a bit steep as you would expect for overnighted perishable goods, but let me tell you this is worth it. Give them a try and treat yourself until you get the boat back in the water and can go catch your own.

Friend of garbagefish.com, Kevin Poole, a union electrician out of Bordentown NJ - suggested we make up some smaller stickers for hard hats. Union electricians, iron workers, etc. are required to wear safety gear on the job site - and they like to add some pieces of flair to their hard hats. What better flair than a garbage fish sticker? You can get these stickers at http://www.garbagefish.com/stickers.htm - or also order the bigger car ones. Also - large shirts are back in stock. Our supplier makes great shirts, but moves at the speed of smell so they took a while. Check out Bob Misak's hard hat below. He's got the right idea.

Also - the holidays are upon us and the garbagefish sale is almost over. Starting January, prices go back to normal so now is the time to get your fishing buddy and expert catcher of crap some cool garbagefish.com gear.

Been a while since the last update which is not to say there is nothing to report, but we've been so busy raking rocks back against the bulkheads that my arms are too tired to lift onto the keyboard. Every fall we are plagued with one maybe two very bad nor'easters which make garbagefish.com headquarters a not so pleasant place to be. Unlike tropical storms that move in like a mofo and then out just as fast, the nor'easters sit here for days like the thing that wouldn't go away. This fall, we've had 5 of them so far. As they pound and pound, the eastern wind plows sea water into the bay, making it hard for the outgoing tide to drain. Day after day, high tide after high tide, the landscape of your dock begins changing dramatically as brutally high tides carry off fish boxes, cleaning tables and small children. Just kidding about the small children, hopefully you have them tied down well. As the water rises to the top of the bulkhead, you can imagine what the 3-4 foot waves on the bay do to the land. Here's a look at what we've been dealing with. If you have a good rake, come down to garbagefish.com headquarters, push some rocks and we'll provide free beer and garbagefish merchandise.

Garbagefish.com tournament pro staff, Captain Pud, Greg Poole and myself fished the first annual Barnegat Fishin' Hole Striped Bass Tournament on November 7th and had a banner day. Stakes were high so we spent Friday night rigging up for the next day. Alarm was set for 4am - as we had to break the inlet before sunup. Alarm was apparently on pacific time because the crew didn't get up until 7am. That was my fault. Arrived at the boat, cranked her up, and low and behold, the steering didn't work. Drained and refilled the hydraulic fluid and two hours later, we broke the inlet at the crack of 9:30am. Birds and fish everywhere, but not for us. Must have been 500 boats out there and it's quite possible that we were the only ones not catching jack squat because every boat I saw was bailing fish. But, that's how we roll - so it was no surprise. Ended the day with one 7 pound blue and 1 24 inch striper, released. As we've said time and time again - we are not good fishermen which once again is why we enjoy fishing for garbage fish. Even we can catch them.

Got slammed by some untimely Nor'easters this fall - especially the 5 day long one we had that finally ended Sunday. I say untimely because the folks at reclamthebay.org are in the process of disbursing the clams they have been growing and those little guys are in for a rude awakening after being taken out from their protective screens and displaced into the wild and wooly bay. Had 4-5 footers out there, sideways rain, and noisy nights.

Not only does Bob Misak have a lot of luck catching tons of fish on the beach, but look what walked up to him and asked to have a picture taken with him. I have to go fishing with Bob. Obviously, she won't qualify for Ms. Garbage Fish of the Month.

Eel a Garbage fish, yes or no? It's a farely subjective debate. To Nate from NJstriper.com who was soaking a clam while looking for some night time striper action, this 36 inch eel was not the targeted species - therefor in some fishermen's opinion - it qualifies. But, if you ask my hair lipped Sicilian aunt, she'll tell you this is a delicacy and will put the maloyk on you if you say otherwise.

Speaking of njstriper.com - got a nice email from the webmaster - the aforementioned Nate - who is supportive of the garbagefish cause, and has offered to help spread the good word about our 2010 tournament - which runs July 1st-July31st. Nate has a great site, with lots of forums, tons of posts and a lot of fishermen looking to help each other out, share knowledge and have some fun. With all the forums out there that so often get people slamming on one another, this site's a welcome resource. Check it out.

There's two things that most red blooded fishermen think about while away from the water: fishing, and girls - not necessarily in that order. We like to think we bring you some interesting fishing related stuff to peruse or better yet, purchase on the site, but not until today have we brought you some content of the feminine persuasion. With that said, we'd like to introduce a new section to garbagefish.com: The Ms. Garbage Fish Babe Of The Month Page.

Each month we'll be bringing you a newly crowned Ms. Garbage Fish. These ladies will not only blow your doors off but the Babe Of The Month or the submitter wins a free t-shirt and flag of their choice. So click above to check out Ms. October and check back each month for more of these hotties. Also, if you can get a shot of a lovely gal who you think measures up to our standards and might have a chance at winning, go here and send us her picture.

END OF THE YEAR CLEARANCE SALE !!! We are brooming the 2009 merchandise to make room for the 2010 order. All shirts, which were regularly $15.99 are now only 10 BUCKS ! All flags - which were regularly $16.99 are now only 10 BUCKS ! At that price I'm thinking these are going to move pretty fast so get in on the savings and sport your garbagefish.com gear proud. I know it's a little early to think about Christmas - (Don't tell Macy's that) - but this stuff makes great Christmas presents for your favorite fishing partner, good friend, or worst enemy.

On other fronts, garbagefish.com mascots Oprah and Rush Limbaugh are doing very well in their new home and have yet to eat Frank. Rush Limbaugh, however, devoured a mantis shrimp the second it splashed into the tank. Friend of garbagefish.com, Marty Sedlacko, docked up at garbagefish.com headquarters with a jar full of critters, including a few angel clams, a hermit crab looking guy that we've named "Dead Man Walkin" because Oprah is all over him like Kiersty Alley on a pile of chicken wings. All these fish are perfect for the garbage tank. If you've ever seen or read about mantis shrimp, you know they are vicious, nasty predators that you wouldn't want to touch. Rush Limbaugh, however, ate it down as soon as I dropped it in. Pretty cool stuff. Going to have to look into a heater for the tank as it's starting to get a little cold at night as we push into October. Right about now, these puffers will be exiting the bay and heading to warmer points unknown until next year. They'll be leaving without their friends Rush and Oprah, who will be over-wintering in my garage next to a fridge filled with cheap beer, a 1 gallon container of Captain Pud's turkey salad from two months ago, something brownish green, and bait.

I had to get in on the blowfish action (Northern Pufferfish) that is pretty much the only game in town right now in terms of the bay. And as previously mentioned, they sometimes are thought of as garbage fish. The difference is, most people don't target garbage fish. My opinion of a garbage fish is something you catch while trying to catch something else. My point, however, is to try eating them anyway. Well, my buddy Marty and I went out in search of what is apparently a gi-normous blanket of blowfish - hovering on the bottom of the barnegat bay. We found them. It was a lot of fun and while not a huge fish, it is a very unique fish in that it doesn't have rib bones. You simply cut from behind the head and you can pull the skin and tail meat right out - in what ends up looking like a drum stick. I had a busy week and a lot of commitments so cooking fish wasn't on my agenda - and I just don't freeze fish. Marty, however, cheffed them up and said they were amazing. What I did do, was keep two little guys for my son's garage fish tank. I have grass shrimp, drill snails, and a lone killie fish named Frank - who pissed his pants when I dumped the big belly blowfish in there. I named them Oprah and Rush Limbaugh.

If you've fished the Barnegat Inlet, there's a very good chance you've seen Bob Misak. Bob is one of the more prolific Jetty Jockies, and has been kind enough to submit some reports, pics and an offer to take us out on the rocks and show us the ropes. Below is a huge tog that Bob bagged off the south jetty with his secret bait. Great pic - love the garbage can. Thanks Bob.

The New Jersey flounder fishery is officially closed until the genius powers that be decide it will open again next spring. It really started heating up and now it's closed, but guess what's still out there? That's right - lots of delicious crap. The dogfish actually start getting really thick as the temps drop a couple clicks and the Searobin and Skate will be here for a while as well. Can't bag fluke, but you can bag garbage - so until the stripers get here in mass, don't be afraid to get out there.

Another couple of great shots from Bob Misak. It's debatable as to whether Blowfish are garbagefish. Some people lump them into that category, but there's so many people that target them that I don't consider these cool looking fish garbage fish. They are targeted for their delicious tail meat which is said to taste like chicken. Where have you heard that before? Anyway, Bob caught 125 keeper blowfish in four hours. Wow.

More kudos to Bob for sending in this picture of a giant Monkfish. As we mentioned the on the site, these beasts used to be considered garbage fish but are now found in fish markets for $15 a pound. This "poor man's lobster" is a pending state record fish.

Sorry for lack of news lately. Thing is, there has been quite a bit of it, but we got slammed by lightning the other day. It took out the alarm system, two computers and several other neighbors got whacked too. Just getting back up and running now. Wanted to thank local sharpie and fishing author, Bob Misak for sending in this funny shot. Bob shot this first one of a man catching a cownose ray, on the jetty, in his socks. I guess those are a lot cheaper than corkers.

Holy Garbagefish, Batman. Check out the pic on the photo page. I think it's a "Batray". I wish I was around a couple hundred years ago cause I want to name me some fish. I'd have some good ones. Batray, though - nice name. Is it a comic...is it a diabolical flying rodent weapon of mass destruction...or is it just a very unfortunate looking fish?...you decide.

Thanks to the crew at the N Street Fishing Club out of Seaside Park, NJ. Captain Dan is pretty much the Garbagefish.com customer of the year with getting his crew in the tourny and buying a ton of garbage stuff, not to mention his hard core efforts in fishing it up for the outing. Congrats Captain Dan and thanks for your support as well as Gary's and the other guys from the N Street Fishing Club.

Honorable mention thanks goes to my friend and neighbor Steve - who took a crew out to the Barnegat Ridge and trolled up some huge bluefish including a 15 pounder caught by his son - and of course dropped off some very respectable skate to the house which I cleaned and actually froze for future use. My last two trips aboard the Fish Skunk with Captain Pud produced only one Searobin and a bunch of short fluke so thanks to Steve for saving the week.

Weather and reports have been spotty lately. Hot, humid kind of August weather you'd expect so it's the old "dog days of summer" kind of thing. From all reports coming to me, the dogfish, searobin and skate bite has dropped off. They aren't going anywhere, but their normal flapping lips have taken a break for some reason. There are guys targeting blowfish right now, but I'm still debating as to add this to my official garbage fish category. Much like our beloved crap fish, however, these taste great and are fun for the kids to catch - as well as adults.

Check out this site above. These guys and gals are some of the few remaining folks who remember what fishing is all about. Now, this club is all about fun and they all hope to go out and catch some great fish, but read their reports: If they don't, they keep in perspective and enjoy every day on the water. I was reading an article on targeting giant sword fish today. Electric reel, 1,800 feet of 80 pound braid that needs to find the bottom (think about that) 30 pound breakaway lead weight (at $30 a pop), bimini twists, your bait?...the belly of mahi mahi sewn shut onto a lure, etc. etc. and after all that - a serious skill set to be able to set the hook in one of these fish. Do you have any clue how long it takes you to get out to waters of 1,800 feet deep much less hook up with a big sword and reel it in? They say it takes an electric reel 10 minutes to reel in 1,500 feet of line with NO fish on it. And what about sewing the belly of a mahi around a lure/jig? I'm majorly impressed by all this and at the same time not remotely interested in wrapping my brain around the concept. I'm absolutely out of my head stoked if I catch a mahi and these guys are using it for bait? I'm not talking trash on these fishermen but I'm not spending $1,000 in gas and thousands more on tackle, ice, bait, etc. to go out and catch a fish that's going give my wife and children mercury poisoning. Here's a fun idea. Stay inshore, catch some tasty crap, laugh, spend little in gas and enjoy life for less. Or don't.

My neighbor Steve caught the crap out of some garbage this weekend. Too much family activity this weekend to fish so I was thankful Steve dropped off some skate. Put this one on your garbage fish heart check menu. Clean, skin and remove meat from cartiledge, dredge in flour, and saute a couple minutes on each side in 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Serve topped with homemade salsa. (diced peppers, jersey tomatoes, onion, grilled corn, and lemon juice). Doesn't get any healthier than that.

Even more important, Garbagefish.com t-shirts version 2.0 are in. Gone are the white, 50/50 blend and in are the 100% pure columbian cotton shirts, with a pocket, in heather gray. Get'em while they're hot.

Lastly, if you happened to be listening to 1160 am at 8:40 Saturday morning, you would have caught our interview with Bob Latorre on WOBM-AM. Bob does a weekly radio show covering the goings on in and around the Jersey Shore. They contacted us to find out more about garbagefish.com and we chatted on air about fishing, garbage, the tournament and more. Thanks Bob.

Hot, humid weather lately, bringing splinter cell storms in between - roughing up patio furniture and keeping a lot of boats off the water. But I saw these diamond back terrapin today catching some rays on their favorite spot behind garbagefish.com headquarters. These turtles are amazing. They'll basically bury themselves in the mud and shut their systems down for 7-8 months until the water temps rise at which point they'll come out, mate, get caught in crab pots and then do it all over again come late October. Doesn't sound fun.

I know a mussel isn't a crustacean.

 

Our first annual tournament ended yesterday with people signing up right through the last day. Thank you to all who remembered that fishing is supposed to be fun and didn't take themselves too seriously. That's one of our 70 mottos.

We ended up with a hair shy of 50 anglers, weighing fish on the mainland, LBI and IBSP. Thanks much to weighstations who participated, especially for those shops that really pushed it and got behind the idea. Santa garbage won't forget you this year. The weather was particularly rough going and I felt bad for folks who only had a day to fish it and caught a ton of the snot that was washing around in the surf and bay. Next year I'll have to open up another category - not just a garbage fish species but for catches of total and complete crap - as seen in the above video. What we are considering doing next year is make it a month long tournament, allowing for multiple opportunities to get out if mother nature doesn't cooperate. As I picked up weigh forms from all the shops today, I got some really good feedback from store owners on how to make next year even better. Many shops are in for prize donations so we will have even bigger booties and more chances to win.

Some very impressive dogfish weighed in this weekend. Sitting in first place is a 10 lb. 4 oz. doggy, and a 9.4 in second. Check out the leaderboard to see if you've placed so far.

Someone sent in a recipe for skate cakes last week and I had to give it a try. I had 4 skates which I winged, skinned and poached. After poaching them, the meat falls right off of the wing cartiledge. 4 average sized skate produced 3 pounds of meat as you can see being held by my future garbage fish master. Mixed it together with panko crumbs, old bay, a little worcester, red pepper and shredded parmesan and made patties. I decided to make them appetizer size and was able to fill 2 baking sheets with them. That's a lot of food. Broiled them up. In pic three you see the finished product, served with a creamy lemon pesto sauce. Shared this with some neighbors and the family and everyone loved them. You literally can't screw this up and you end up with a gourmet meal. Click here for recipe.

It's on !!! The first annual trash tourny has begun. I hit the beach with surf fishing sharpy Pete Rubino to scout out some trash on IBSP. The thick blanket of fog that you saw yesterday if you were out made it tough to fish by beach or boat. Nonetheless, expert trash guide - Captain Pud guided his clients, Greg Poole and Keith Trout right into the eye of the garbage storm, using some Fishbonz killies and squid combos. The two tourny contestants made it to the scales at the end of day 1 with a nice 1.3 pound Searobin and 2 fat skates that they were going to make into skate sliders using the Billy Mays (may he rest in peace) slider maker. Current searobin first place angler, Keith Trout, had this to say. "It's the proudest day of my life." Keep an eye on the leader board to see what you are shooting for and if you haven't registered, what are you waiting for ?

Only 3 days til the kickoff of the first annual Garbagefish.com Trash Tourny. Trying to put together a catch of any target species out there has been pretty futile lately. The fishing sucks but not the garbage fishing. The ocean floor is carpeted with skate and searobin right now, with the occasional dogfish finding its way onto your junk. Register for the tournament, go catch some garbage and win some dough because you're going to catch these things anyway.

On an unrelated note, there is a marsh behind garbagefish.com headquarters and we've had this mutant deer living there for a couple years. My neighbor Steve spotted him staking out his crib this past weekend, so he called us over to take a look. I'd never seen him up this close and wanted to get some shots. Here's the story:

A couple years back, I saw this guy limping around out in the marsh. He was obviously badly injured and all he could do was hop. Oh well, nature. What was I supposed to do. A week later a couple dogs got loose out there and the Humane Society came out to rescue them. This guy asked if he could come on to our property to get the dogs and I said sure - I think they must be in those thickets, no doubt munching on the wounded deer. He looked at me as if I just shot Bambi and gave me a lecture on how I should call him if I see hurt animals. So I told Christopher Robin it's just nature playing out, but I would surely call him next time I spot the little fellow. Sure enough, 1 week later I see bambi, call, and the woman on phone says, "What the heck do you expect us to do?" I told her I got a lecture last time I didn't call from a guy catching dogs out there and she said, yeah, he's new.

I thought no way this deer makes it through the winter, but here he is. His limp is better but he's still wounded. Notice the weird looking right antler. How this comes full circle is that Captain Pud shot a deer with a similar rack this year. He explained that if a deer has an injured limb, the antler on the side that is injured will grow all goofy. Bet ya didn't know that.

The first annual garbagefish.com trash tourny starts in just one week. Just a note to say we added a new weigh station today on the southern side of Long Beach Island, NJ. Jingles Bait and Tackle in Beach Haven will now be an official weigh site for those of you south side beach and boat fishermen. Thanks to Margaret for participating.

For those friends of garbagefish who plan on but haven't registered yet, sign on up. Folks have been asking about payouts and I have no clue until I get a better feel for total participants. Again, 90% of proceeds go to cash prizes and 10% goes to reclam the bay. Reclam the bay ultimately helps our fisheries as clams clean up our waters exponentially.

Happy Fourth of July. At garbagefish.com headquarters we are celebrating with some delicious Skate. Stopped my neighbor's house yesterday and took some footage of him cleaning skate and searobin. John has been catching and cleaning these for years and his wife was kind enough to give me some great recipes - one of which we'll be trying today. Check out John's beautiful cleaned skate wings and watch for his cleaning technique video early this week.

Newsworthy? I think so. Welcome the latest garbagefish.com pinup gal who stopped by our Bordentown office to sign up for the tournament. Notice the frustration on Captain Pud's face as he has once again been passed over as company spokesmodel. More pics in the photo section.

Got out with Captain Pud and garbagefish.com tournament pro staffer, Dave - and the skipper found the mother of all searobin honey holes. We had big bird after big bird, putting some nice ones in the box. These delicious fish ended up as sashimi, and fish bites. To give you an idea of how good these are, my 5 year old lives on a steady diet of chicken nuggets and more chicken nuggets. Talk about finicky, he drinks nothing but milk and water. He won't touch juice. Since I'm already going to hell, I gave him a searobin bite and told him it was chicken and he gobbled it right down, none the wiser. Give these a try.

We caught two huge dogfish on Saturday on our annual charter of Captain Billy Burge's Barvic out of Pt. Pleasant. The mates looked at us like we were mentally challenged when we kept telling them to put the garbage fish in the box. Only 2 big dogs made it to the cooler but in the confusion of packing up, they were left behind and I was bummed. My neighbor Steve and his son in law Brian were happy to salvage the weekend, however. They brought me 3 very nice Searobin - which I cleaned up and made into Searobin bites. Steve, his family, and myself all enjoyed some good eats. Thanks boys!

 

Several people have asked us how to fly the flags from their boats? You can easily rig something up as you can see from the 6.15.09 update on Captain Pud's boat, but I recently met a guy who is a metal fabricator and produced his own flag holder which mounts to your rails. They have spinning swivels so the flags will not wrap around themselves and it's made of all aluminum and stainless steel. These are extremely high quality and he made up close to 100 of them. If you are interested, shoot me an email at garbageman@garbagefish.com and I'll give you his contact info as he'd be happy to sell you one. I think he said they are either $40.00 or $49.00.

Captain Pud headed out in rough seas this weekend and piloted the fish skunk through turbulent waters to find his quary. As you can see by his shotgun skate flags, they had a succesful day, filling the boxes with delectable skate.

Fished with father and son team Hank and Hank Jr. last week, along with garbagefish.com tournament pro staff anglers, Captain Pud and Greg Poole. Went out in some roley 6-8 foot seas and Hank Sr. showed us how it was done, managing skate after skate after skate on his custom made skate assassin jigs. 6 men on board and nobody could catch one of these beauties but my buddy Hank. Then it turned bad when the fluke moved in, and we couldn't keep these annoying 8 pound doormats off our rigs. At this point, it was time to head home for the barn to talk about a great day of skate fishing.

Garbagefish.com crew has been warming up for the big trash tourny this year. Here's a nice shot of Captain Pud's brother, Kevin, displaying a meaty spiny dogfish, a.k.a. - fish and chips as well as a skate that was released to get fatter. The seas are fruitful.

This post is past due as I had trouble getting these shots off my wife's camera. There is no doubt she will be lobbying for a new one as the old one now smells like fish and is having issues. Joy. Nevertheless, me, Captain Pud and his nephew Dave - newest member of the garbagefish.com tournament pro staff, launched the fish skunk and went after the elusive species that are purported to be lurking in our local waters. Dave caught a channel marker and an oyster shell, I limited out on seaweed and Captain Pud remained faithfully at the helm as he navigated us through fruitless waters. We've been doing this way too long to give a crap so if I can give one bit of advice: set your expectations in life at the very lowest possible and everything from then on is gravy. Fish? We don't catch fish - but we have fun and that doesn't suck.

My buddy Bob took me out the other day for a recon mission and a shot at some big tiderunner weakies. Bob and his lovely wife spend their winters down on the west coast of Florida and one of their go-to baits is the Gotcha Plug. I don't see that many of them up here but they are apparently very popular down south. I just got back from a week in Sunset Beach North, NC where I naturally didn't catch jack snot, but the bait shops were packed with these plugs. Bob employed them up here in Jersey as we worked the flats of Barnegat Bay and he was slamming giant atlantic halibut, as you see pictured here. He had no trouble handling this huge door mat with just one hand. I, of course, got the skunk - and all of Bob's trophy fish were released to grow even larger. Bob's a heck of a fisherman and I'm always pleased when he takes pitty on me and invites me out. He runs a sweet boat, knows our waters, we always have fun and even with my jinx on board, we catch fish.

ON ANOTHER UNRELATED NOTE: The garbagefish.com first annual tourny is live and accepting sign ups. The prizes are going to be great and if you, like me, have low self esteem, this is the tournament for you. You can register here or at any of the participating registration/weigh stations. It starts July 17th, so don't be a dope and miss out on the one tournament that you have literally no chance of not bringing a fish to the weigh in. Don't forget, a portion of the proceeds go to reclamthebay.org and the rest can go in your pocket if you are skilled enough to catch a giant load of crap.

On a completely off subject note: My brother was out bar-b-queing last weekend when a nasty gust of wind took out what looks to be a huge and most likely ancient tree. The root ball was so big, it uprooted his entire garage. I guess he was in it at the time, but able to get out in time. It would seem their car was not as fortunate. On a positive note, my nephew's wheel barrow seemed to escape all damage.

While setting up weigh stations for the first annual Garbage Fish Trash Tourny, we met some cool guys over at Barnegat Light Bait and Tackle in Barnegat Light, NJ. I'd never been there but my cousin told me it's one of the nicer shops you'll see. The powers that be behind this neat shop, Basil and Nick, were two enlightened souls who can think outside of the box and appreciate the fact that fishing should be fun. Aside from having a sense of humor, they've also got a first rate shop right on the water just north of Viking Village at 1501 Bayview Avenue in Barnegat Light. The north end of the Island is one hottest surf fishing areas in the state - with total free access to the south Jetty of the Barnegat Inlet as well as beaches and bayside fishing opportunities. Those guys are always stocked with the best baits and they'll be happy to set you up with whatever will give you the best chance at a productive day of fishing. In addition, they'll be a weigh station for the tournament and now you can even purchase garbage fish brag flags there to show up your friends with your prestigious catches. Stop by and check them out.

This you have to see. Garbagefish.com regular, Dave from Alaska, went out on May 3rd - and boated 3 nice Halibut, a bunch of big Pacific Cod (which by the way they consider a garbage fish) and this 40 pound skate. That's right, 40 friggin pounds. This guy looks identical to our clearnose skate so I'm not sure what they are feeding those things out there, but that is huge. After cleaning one of those wings, and remember, I leave the meat on the cartiledge, there is no way it would fit in largest pan I own - so this bad boy would be going on the grill. If you, like me, love to eat skate, you might want to go fish with Dave. By the way, check out our new spokesmodel below:

Looks like Captain Pud lost his job !

GARBAGE FISH TOURNAMENT

Got all the details hashed out on the first annual Garbagefish.com trash tournament. Click here for details. This is going to be a lot of fun and thanks to some interest from some very major fishing publications who have agreed to do coverage, hopefully we can get a great turnout and help promote the garbage fish concept.

Received a nice email from the gentleman who runs the Sedge Island Natural Resource Education Center.

Technically, we are a global concept as this can apply anywhere, but this program, albeit local to our home waters, shares and fosters a similar concept: conservation. True, they do it by working in an amazing facility located in the Sedge Islands Wildlife Management Area and teaching hands on courses in marine and environmental conservation and we do it by trying to get you to eat garbage. Still, I like to think we are all on the same page. This assurance was confirmed to me by their program director who not only supports the garbagefish.com philosophy but has been enjoying garbage fish and encouraging others to do so for years.

Met with someone at a local show who told us, "I catch 'em all the time. I slit their necks and drop 'em down." While this gentleman's intention as a conservationist is loosely shrouded by his thoroughly classles methods, we can see that he is only half on board with the big picture. As always, we do not condone or promote the idea that these species can or should be irresponsibly killed, eviscerated, persecuted, drawn and quartered, tortured, abused or any other medieval vison you can dream up. We are simply asking you to try to keep one or two next time out and give them a try. By doing so, we think you can enjoy a fishery that you've overlooked, impress your homeless friends with a delicious meal, and help ours and your marine environment.

According to Mickey from Brownie Troop F.S. the Shad are starting to show up the Delaware River. They'll be followed by herring and even more importantly, the big cow striped bass that will be chasing them.

Herring and Shad, are incredibly important species as they serve as a food source to many sought after larger species. However, if you've ever tried to eat one, they taste like chum.

Thankfully, striped bass don't think so - which is why you'll find the garbage fish crew working the Delaware river in Trenton in just a couple short weeks. We'll begin anchored off the Trenton Thunder ballpark - home of the New York Yankees double AA affiliate minor league team. Nothing like watching the game from the river and jigging up a dozen or so herring to fill the livewell. From there, we'll move to just near the Trenton Makes bridge, and offer up some live lined baits for stalking Stripers. Fishing in beautiful, downtown Trenton, NJ rivals some of the most scenic fishing spots you'll ever get to visit. Picture yourself on a small metal boat, tractor trailers screaming overhead, crack deals going down only a short distance away, power plants spewing crap into the river, all the while - live lining for a chance at some truly huge fish. Man, that's fishing. Until the salt warms up, that's our gig, but garbage fishing is not that far off.

The garbagefish.com crew had a good time at the Fish Hawk's annual fishing fleamarket this past Saturday. There was a nice tournout of people and we got to meet a ton of people and hand out a lot of stickers. Hopefully, they'll wind up on trucks and boats and not on a 14 year old's skateboard. (Although, I guess any advertising helps.) We put stickers at a few stores that carry our flags and I'll never forget the kid who came up to our table and said, "Oh yeah garbagefish.com - I've heard of you guys." We asked him if he wanted a sticker and he said, "No thanks, I've got like a hundred of these already." "Where'd you get 100 of them from,?" we inquired. "From a bait shop...I just took a whole stack." Captain Pud stared at him as only Captain Pud can and he quickly moved on before things got ugly.

Met with Marty Sedlacko, who stopped by to introduce himself and determine what was wrong with us, and chatted with him for a while about garbage fish recipes. Marty is a volunteer for reclamthebay.org, a non profit group trying to reestablish a healthy clam population in our local waters. He was not only quite knowledgable on many topics near and dear to our hearts, but was kind enough to stop by garbage fish headquarters afterwards, have a beer and give me his recipe for sea robin ceviche. I'm a ceviche nut, however pretty much stick with shrimp and scallops as my main ingredient. Marty said that sea robin lends itself perfectly to ceviche so I'll be trying his recipe with my first big bird of the season. He also had a very interesting experience, recently. He thawed out filets he had frozen from blue fish, skate, striped bass, and I think he said dogfish. Marty mentioned that by far, the Skate tasted the best. How 'bout that? There's free food out there people, you just need to catch it. Check out Marty's recipe.

The water is still cold as a dogfish's tit, but with that very warm weekend we just had, the warm up can begin. It was slowed slightly by the melted snow run off but we still had about a 10 degree spike in the water temps. Heard from a couple bait shops who said the warm weekend weather really helped traffic in the stores, which is good news.

By now you may have heard the new regs. for 09 Fluke season. It doesn't effect us here at garbagefish.com much from last year, because even though the bag limit went from 6 to 4 fish, and remains an 18" minimum, we very rarely catch 2 keeper fluke per man - let alone 4 or 6. What does blow is that the season closes the day before Labor Day Weekend. I don't fish that weekend because the boat traffic is retarded but I feel for the charter guys who typically do very well that weekend, as you can imagine. But once again, since the government can't do it, garbagefish.com aims to teach the fishermen to manage our fisheries. You want to see more fluke? Eat more garbage fish. Currently, there's no regs. on dogfish, sea robin and skate, so that's three less things to whine about. (did I say wine ?)

Looks like we are shooting for the third weekend in July for our first Garbage Fish Tournament. Still trying to co-host the event with our friends at Brownie Troop F.S. and iron out details, but keep that weekend free if you can and stay tuned for details.

Another product that you must have; the Garbagefish.com wine bottle holder. It's a cantilever contraption made from solid scrap pine, custom cut in the dimensions of a searobin and a...white fish. Yeah...that's what we're calling it. Scroll down to see what the Alaska boys call a whitefish. Well, we've turned them both into a wine bottle holder that can hansomly display your favorite bottle of Boones Farm or a vintage bottle of Ripple. For you uppity types, use this holder to show off your favorite 40 oz. bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon. No joke, we make these and you can get them.

With regards to the garbage fish species we encounter here in the states, it's interesting to note that they sometimes go by different names in different regions. In Europe, a Sea Robin is a Gurnard. This is a good article to read. Basically, they prepared a Gurnard buffet with many different recipes and introduced it to restaurant owners and chefs. The results are a good read. They too are suffering from depleted stocks, most notably cod and are seeking other species as alternatives. Sounds a bit parasitic in some ways, in that we over consume until there's nothing left then move on to the next host. This is not the point. The point is to responsibly examine alternatives and the possible benefits of consuming them.

In an effort to spread the concept beyond just the Northeast, we hooked up with the guys who run the Trash Fish Classic down in Florida. These are fishermen after my own heart. Guys that know how to have fun with it, and not take themselves too seriously. Subsequently, we'll be a sponsor for the tourny this year. Check out their great website and see what's considered "garbage fish" down in the Gulf.

The wind is humming out of the west this morning and it's bitter cold. Perfect conditions for garbage fishing. Why? Because it's Friday; garbage day. And when the wind blows west on Tuesday or Friday, it ultimately means so will everyone's garbage cans. And when you live on the mainland, that means they'll work their way down the street to my house and out into the bay. I built this garbage caddy so hopefully our sanitation engineer will have the foresight to return my cans to the caddy and they won't blow into the bay. I don't think he got his engineering degree at one of the top schools, however, because he doesn't seem to grasp the functionality of my caddy. The cans sit on the street in the garbage caddy - he takes them out - empties them, and then hammer throws them in various patterns throughout my driveway.

As you can guess, my empty can ended up in the water and I got to do some unexpected garbage fishing in 30 mph winds and 20 degree weather. I fearlessly fished it out using Captain Pud's 30 foot telescoping shrimp net, and a new form of garbage fishing has been born. Let history tell the tale.

Not much going on down here but atleast the ice has cleared from most of the bay. A funny point brought up to me by someone. We are based in Forked River, NJ - home to the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant. (click on link for image reference) For those of you unfamiliar with the plant, it sits on Oyster Creek - a crescent shaped small river that cools the plant. As the water comes in and cools the plant's reactors, the return water is superheated and keeps the outflow fork of the creek warm enough to support a variety of fish, all throughout the winter. That warm water goes out into the bay and even when the bay freezes over like it did this year, that portion of the bay is still clear, thanks to nukes. People fish there throughout the year and when bass season opens, it's a great place to start because the fish have been there all along. (But for just posting this I'm probably going to get raided by Homeland Security.)

A lot of guys are getting the itch - and talking about splash dates for their boats - or asking if anything is showing on the beaches or back bays. Still early, but cabin fever is in place. It's pretty much fleamarket time for those of you that hit the shows. We are still set for the Lacey Elks show put on by the Fish Hawks on March 14th. That was a good one last year so we'll be there. Stop by and get a sticker, watch Cap. Pud tie custom garbage fish rigs, and pick up a flag for your boat or truck. Last year the show was on opening day of striper season, so we went and blew some coin, then hit the power plant because if you've never fished next to a nuclear reactor, you don't know what you are missing.

Our friends from Alaska have been educating me on the garbage fish species they run into. It seems that they have something called whitefish that you pick up when going for rainbow trout, and these fish are also considered by many to be garbage fish. Check out the link to see more.

Solicited a long time family friend for advice, recently. He was a high up executive at Cat Fancy Magazine. I figured he might have some contacts or insight into how I might go about getting garbage fish flags into one of the big catalog companies. His advice was don't bother, but it would be cool if you had a section with pictures of hot girls. Thanks, Herb. We'll see what we can do.

There are days when I look in the warehouse (my garage) at the very large stacks of garbage fish flags and think, what the hell are we doing? But when we hear from people like David, a fisherman from Alaska, who found the site and began organizing a trash fishing tournament in the beautiful waters of the Northern Pacific, we feel like this isn't so crazy. Check out this big nasty fish. It's a sculpin or the pacific cousin of our Sea Robin and is apparently good eating and uglier than Captain Pud. Read David's great points.

A great point by him: I have no doubt that these will never be the prime species targeted by anglers, but if anglers can fill their freezers with both target and trash species it will take some pressure off of the target species, while at the same time harvesting both predator and prey evenly. - David G.

Captain Pud has finally finished his first line of garbage fish rigs. Sadly, we won't be marketing these ingenious rigs on garbagefish.com but we will be providing tips to show you how to make your own in our technique's section.

Just when the ice finally melted off the bay, its starting to come back with very cold conditions but the next week looks like we'll have a nice warmup so hopefully no more piers get flattened. Just produced a second batch of flags as our first batch is just about gone. Hopefully you'll see a lot of garbage flying from people's boats and trucks this year.

We are currently gearing up for some shows. Not doing a ton of them, but will be atleast 2 or 3 to see how it goes. Currently booked at the fishhawks flea market at the Lacey Elks in Forked River, NJ. It's March 14th but go here for more info. http://www.fishhawksnj.com/flea.htm

Will be spending some time this weekend with Captain Pud, devising new garbage fish rigs which will be sure to make a splash in the garbage fishing community.

If you like the idea, make sure to give a heads up to your local bait shop and tell them about us. Ask them why they don't have garbage fish flags ?

Oh snap! The ice just cleared off of the Barnegat Bay in Forked River, anyway, but as it did, it cleared out a bunch of piers and boat lifts.

A nice email from a Sea Robin master! -

Hey!

just wanted to say that your site is a great idea. there are other people out there like you. my friend Jimmy and I actually LOOK FORWARD to a good sea robin "blitz" as we call it. This one day at IBSP we literally stocked my cooler with em' and had the most delicious dinner of 2008 at my house. They are simply amazing. Better then fluke, I'd say. We even caught one that day that was 18" and weighed 2 and a 1/2 lbs... yes that's right, we WEIGHED IN our sea robin! Haha!

keep up the good work -- p.s. I already got a sticker from Grumpy, and it's on my truck!! representing garbagefish.com !!

Steve Setnicky

Hadn't planned on placing flags in too many fishing/bait/tackle stores, because you should see the look I get when I try to explain this to proprietors of these institutions. But a major thank you to the fine people at Grumpy's and Grumpy himself for having the deranged insight and confidence in the Garbage Fish product to place a very nice order. You will now be able to purchase these very important and handsome flags at Grumpy's Bait in Tackle in Seaside Park, NJ.

A good story. I met a buddy down there so he could introduce me to the man himself in hopes he would consider letting me put a stack of stickers on his counter. He initially called me some choice names and told me that I was basically out of my mind. So, I offered him a free shirt and his choice of flags. (He went for the Sea Robin.) Grumpy then flashed a look at the Skate flag and pulled out his wallet and bought it out of pitty for me. He hung both of them on the peg board behind the counter and continued berating me. (In good fun.) If you've never been to Grumpy's, it's a big store with lots to look at, so it was very pleasing when two guys walked in to the store, were there 10 seconds, and the first things out of their mouth was, "I want a skate flag." The other guy goes: "I want a Sea Robin flag." The rest is history. Grumpy placed a nice order and will be an official retailer for Garbagefish.com. Thanks, Grumpy. Check out their great website for fishing reports and specials.