The Women’s Surf Fishing Club of New Jersey took first place on Saturday in the second annual Nicole Born Surf Fishing Tournament on Long Beach Island as Reggie Vasta’s 33-inch black drum swept nearly every entry category.
Only three qualifying fish were entered in the April 28 tournament presented by RH Custom Rods, a pair of drum taken on clam baits and one 28-1/2-inch striper for 15-year old JT Hille with the Southern Regional High School Fishing Team who got his bass on bunker.
Vasta and the Women’s Surf Fishing Club of New Jersey snared largest, most and the first place team prize on Saturday in the tournament, the first of over a dozen surf tournaments presented statewide this season under the Association of Surf Angling Clubs (ASAC) banner.
Founded in 1915 by a dedicated group of surf anglers primarily interested in perfecting and improving the art of surfcasting, ASAC is the primary sanctioning body of surf fishing tournaments in the Garden State acts as arbiter when needed. Using a set of qualifying rules for tournaments, ASAC also reviews and calculates points at each tournament to determine the championship teams and individual champions with season-long awards held at the end of each tournament season.
The Women’s Surf Fishing Club of New Jersey will look to defend their week one title on Saturday, May 12 when the Delaware Valley Surf Anglers Association sponsor the 37th Annual Karl J. Boehret Surf Fishing Tournament in Sea Isle City.
This event will be a team (six persons) and individual tournament; teams register at $60 while individual anglers pay $10. Registration will take place at the Sea Isle City Community Lodge at 300 JFK Blvd in Sea Isle City from 5:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. First fishing position is 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. with second fishing position from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. with free lunch and awards ceremony (with door prizes) back at tournament headquarters at 1 p.m.
For more information on the Karl J. Boehret Surf Fishing Tournament contact Jane Jefferys 609-624-1427 or jandjjefferys@comcast.net. For the complete 2018 tournament and even schedule for ASAC visit www.asaconline.org.
Vasta’s 33-inch black drum is one of several black drum reported along the stretch between Absecon Inlet and Barnegat Inlet during the month of April. While Delaware Bay is often heralded as tops in the local drum world with catches sometimes eclipsing the 80- to 100-pound mark, many smaller “puppy” or “dinner” size drum make their way back behind Absecon, Wreck and Beach Haven Inlet each year where they’ll spread out through Little Bay, Great Bay and Little Egg Harbor looking for food.
As Hugh Carberry writes in the May, 2018 edition of The Fisherman Magazine (New Jersey, Delaware Bay edition), drum migrate inshore to New Jersey waters during April, May and June to spawn. “May usually marks the peak of spawning activity which is centered around periods of maximum current flow from full and new moons,” Carberry writes, detailing how most of the spawning occurs at dusk or evening hours. “Increased currents at these times better distribute the free floating fertilized eggs and newly hatched larvae up tidal creeks to their preferred nutrient rich, muddy water nursery habitats.”
