Gratitude
2025 Log
39.7680° N, 74.2136° W
May 8
Recommissioned and return to home port. Starting the season at 316 engine hours with 122 gallons fuel on board.
May 20
Drifted Barnegat Light Reef. One short Black Sea Bass. Whale & dolphin sightings.
May 26
Pleasure cruise to High Bar Harbor. Rough water, low tide in Double Creek channel. Touched bottom nearly running aground across from High Bar channel.
May 27
Trolled Clark spoons with planers to Cedar Lump area and bottom fished on wrecks with killies and gulp. One fat 11” Sea Bass on killies. One pod of dolphin.
June 2
Fished wrecks near inlet and South of Barnegat Light Reef, then drifted the reef. Skunked.
June 4
Quick afternoon trip. Heavy wind, stayed in the bay. Drifted BI buoy and upper Oyster Creek channel. Nothing.
June 6
Quick bay trip. One short fluke, one fluke rig stolen.
June 11
Short afternoon bay trip. Skunked. Lost a fluke rig snagged on the bottom.
June 12
Mimi & Tim go on a cocktail cruise to Loveladies cove. Beautiful evening.
June 22
Mimi & Tim try fishing in the bay but it's crazy hot. Instead, go outside and drift to watch a large pod of dolphin play and feed about a half-mile off of Island Beach State park.
June 23
Short morning drifting out front. Three rays.
June 29
Nice morning cruise to Ship Bottom with Mimi.
July 2
Set three crab pots off of Barnegat.
July 3
Picked and reset pots. 21 keepers. Photos by Dennis!
July 5
Anchored and floated off Barnegat with Mimi, Adam, Kayla, Dennis, Ben and Kyle. Matt & Lexi rafted up. Later in the day retrieved pots: 13 keepers. Photo by Mimi.
July 6
Pleasure cruise with Mimi to Loveladies and over to the mouth of Double Creek.
July 8
Five drifts along Oyster Creek channel islands. Five fluke at 17” and under on Gulp.
July 11
One drift in Oyster Creek channel, drifted out front and then out to Barnegat Light Reef. One ray.
July 14
Trolled teaser rig with metal to wreck north of Barnegat Light Reef, found schools of blues. Caught five, brought home three (limit), largest 17 inches. Drifted reef for fluke, nothing but small sea robins.
July 20
Out for fun pleasure cruise to Myers Hole to anchor and swim with Mimi, Andrew & Joyce.
July 21
Fishing with Andrew (warmly dubbed the Brother-In-Law Trip : ). Drifted wreck North of Barnegat Light Reef, then steamed out to Ralph’s Lump and Cedar Lump. One blue, one sea bass, many sea robins.
Photo and video by Andrew!
July 29
Beautiful cruise to Barnegat Ridge. Trolled and bottom fished wrecks on the way there and back. Hammerhead shark encounter on return trip about 10 miles out, 8-10 feet in length. One short fluke. Anchored and swam at the dike before heading back across the bay. Fantastic day. Terrible fishing.
August 2
Sarah, Megan, Adam, Kayla, Mark, Mel, Abby, Ellie, Declan, Mimi & Tim anchored in Myers Hole and enjoyed the beach.
August 4
Cruised to The Boatyard in Ship Bottom for lunch - Mimi, Tim, Sarah & Megan. Threw some cornhole while we were there. Also set crab pots in the afternoon.
August 5
Fished in the bay with Sarah and Megan. Lots of short fluke and crabs on the line.
August 6
Picked crab pots, got a couple dozen.
August 10
Took boat to Key Harbor in the evening for diagnostics on starboard engine. It was intermittently shutting down when slowed to idle. Picture perfect backing into service slip.
August 13
Boat diagnosed with faulty idle air control valve. Brought boat home. New IAC on order.
August 15
Fishing with Dennis. Tried the ocean, swells as big as 5 feet. Fun but difficult to fish. Drifted the sand bank inside the inlet with killies. Dennis: three fluke, one sea robin. Tim: one fluke, one baby shark. No keepers.
August 24
Still feeling the side effects of Hurricane Erin, so took some time to update the chartplotter software. Went from the originally installed 2018 version 8 to the current version 24. Nicer UI, snappier navigation and includes apps like Active Captain. Now have the ability to plot courses while laying in bed.
August 27
Spent the day on the ocean. Fished a couple of interesting shoal areas out front then trolled to the Barnegat Light Reef. Drifted the reef for a couple of hours, one short fluke and several flocks of pelicans searching for their next snack. How rough was it? The entire boat was crusted with salt.
August 28
A simple hour and a half of low-key drifting along a gentle bay South of Oyster Creek Channel in front of Waretown. Sparkling morning. One short, as usual.
August 29
Another quickie. Hour and a half jigging Gulp and Procut squid along the shoal South of the mouth of Oyster Creek Channel near the BI. No drift. Bait splashing around. Skunk on the boat. Pleasant time on the water.
September 1
Mimi and Tim did a late day run across the bay and cruised High Bar Harbor. Nice punctuation mark on the holiday weekend and unofficial Summer season.
September 3
Drifted between BI & BB for a few hours. Beautiful morning. Same results... 1 short fluke.
October 6
Finally went fishing after having the boat at Key Harbor for four weeks for the starboard engine idle problem. New IAC, plugs and wires. Big Kev followed up with a couple of tweaks and suggested controls/cables are too loose.
In the meantime, ran out of the inlet on a beautiful day. Trolled out to wrecks South and North of the Barnegat Light Reef looking for Black Sea Bass, and drifted the reef in between. Trolled on the return trip. Croakers and sea robins.
Big seas coming due to another storm offshore. Be back out there sometime next week. Hopefully.
October 20
Nor'easter lasted for days, with water a couple of inches above the fixed dock. Still lots of winds and big seas, so maintenance continues.
Pulled the chartplotter with a delaminating display and shipped it to Garmin for a new replacement. Then removed aft bolsters and took them to Gioia Sails for recovering. I suspect that they actually built the original interior for Scout. They uncannily had the exact same fabric and had the resource for branding the transom cushion.
Going to Florida next week for FLIBS. Hopefully, early November will bring fair weather and Striped Bass!
November 14
John & Tim were on the hunt for Stripers. Lots of life everywhere we went. Worked our way North to Lavalette. A lot of boats were hanging around Ortley Beach. Something big jumped straight out of the water (I'm thinking small whale), dolphin surrounded us feeding on bunker, and a seal swam alongside us. Beautiful day. John managed to snag a bunker, but that was it.
October 15
Did a solo trip North in search of the elusive Striper. Not as much bait in the water as the day before. Another beautiful day on the water with fishing poles. And horses on IBSP.
December 3
The inevitable end of season. Took a beautiful ride to Cedar Creek. I had the whole bay to myself, except for the dredging operation. I saw one boat wake, not even sure where that came from. Navigated to Ocean Beach Marine Center, found a slip, and removed canvas and remaining gear.
We added 68 engine hours this year, hour meters are currently at 384, and ended the year with 111 gallons of fuel on board. Another chapter completed.
Gratitude
2018 Scout Dorado 255
25' 6" LOA
8' 11" Beam
19" Draft
21½ Degree Deadrise
Twin 150 HP
