Flukezilla!

All you need is a minnow.  You can have all sorts of strategies, all sorts of high end gear, all sorts of tide tables, lunar cycle phone apps, and years and years of experience.    But all you need is a minnow.

That is what Phil Todd found out when he was just dunking one off the shoreline in Atlantic City after being convinced by his son, P.J., that a good thing to do on Father’s Day is take your son fishing.  The kid knew what he was talking about.

In the middle of the day, with as basic a rig as man can devise, Phil Todd landed a 17.5-pound summer flounder.  It did not break the Nappi world record of 22.4 pounds that goes back to Montauk in 1976, and it did not break the NJ state record of 19.75 pounds set back in 1953.  I do not care, because it happened in the company of his son and he caught it from the shoreline, and for me that is spectacular enough.  Oh, and let’s not forget that there is at least a 25-pounder out there with my name on it, that will never be  HYPERLINK “http://blog.nj.com/saltwaterfishing/2007/09/oswalds_fluke_disqualified_by.html” dragged away by a raccoon.

Fluking up and down the Northern section of our state has stepped up considerably over the last week since the wind laid down.  Just ask Bob from Crabby’s Bait & Tackle in Keyport who finally got out of the shop and on the water for his first day fluking since the season opened.  He and his two buddies “murdered” them!  All three on board took to the Raritan Bay and in 3.5 hours limited out on keepers, while tossing at least another 5 over the rail.  Not a bad start Bob.  The bay also has plenty of peanuts in it being crushed by nice sized bluefish.  Take the kid with a light rod and some metals out near the sailboats just off Keyport.  Don’t forget the camera.

Just up the Bay from where Bob spanked them, Roger at Zubacks has had his guys beating the Triangle pretty hard with good results.  Killies and Gulp are both on the menu.  Roger has a report while I was on the phone with him of a regular having a great hour off Shrewsbury bucktailing from land.  There is no question about it, the “slow fluking” that we have been reporting for the last month is over.

Day or night, beach or boat, plugs, bait or metal, it does not matter, the invasion of the “yellow-eyed devils” is in full swing.  Depending on the frame of mind of the angler, this is either good new or bad news.  It is the former for me, I love catching them.  If a bluefish grew as big as a tuna, the sharks would be wetting themselves (if that is … possible).  I’ve caught all sorts of fish from all around the world and although there are plenty of heavyweight contenders, our local bad boy is right up there.  Brandon from Efingers in Bound Brook is selling lots of AVA  27s and 17’s for a bite that is taking place up and down the beach.  Another vote for the Triangle (think you need a parking reservation for Saturday?) where he saw at least a 10-pound flattie pulled this week.  Since the striper fishing became hit or miss, I think there will be plenty of Panko crusted fillets in the Friday night dreams of anglers in this zone.  Sounds like a solid plan to me.  Switching to the sweet for a second, this was a really good week on both the North and South forks of the Raritan for smallies.  Think a wooly bugger and an 8wt is a good choice?  The channel cats have also been chowing so hit the old lady’s freezer and grab that bag of chicken livers that you don’t want to eat anyway.  Catfish definitely taste better.

My buddy Chris at Harry’s Army Navy was out fishing this Wednesday when I called so I got a few minutes with Tony instead.  Flattie fishing by Monmouth beach on bucktails and/or bait seem to be dragging quite a few keepers out of the suds.  You really do not have to be a tournament long caster to get in on this.  Just slowly drag through the near swells and keep it moving until you get the munch, then drop back.

There are bunker everywhere, but few of the schools seem to have bass still on them.  You can find unhappy bunker getting whacked by bluefish though.  When it is obvious that it is not bass on the harass, snag one of those swimming potato chips of the sea, cut it in half, and drop the noggin to the bottom on a fish finder rig.  If there are any big stripers around they are being lazy and slurping scraps on the bottom.  Why make a pizza when you can have one delivered?  The big blues are on the schools from Deal to Monmouth Beach.

Tony was also downwind of some bluefin action out at the Mudhole,, but it seems they are shrinking. When you can only keep one in the 40-pound class, it hardly seems worth it to me, but reports of some slightly larger fish are coming from more southern haunts.  Greg from Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City had bluefin on the troll at both ends of the Chicken Canyon, but again, not those 100-pound-plus babies that make you hoot when you hook them.

Tom P at The Sportsmen’s Center in Bordentown was just going wild over the freshwater bite that has been going on up at Brown valley.  Lakers, Browns and Rainbows are on the feed for guys dragging Big Weenie Meatheads and Sutton spoons on planers.  The Hybrid striper bite at Round Valley is also going off with the bass hitting anything that looks like a little herring.  Yozuri Crystal Minnows for example or anything that is chrome and bluish.  The smallies are chompin’ over at Union Lake too.

So the forecast for flatties for this weekend is very good.  Temperatures in the mid 80’s with a chance of t-storms on Saturday make planning some fluking a great idea.  For those looking for bigger game, I know for a fact that the yellowfin bite out at the Spencer and south is still hot but you really do have to leave the dock super early to get out there for the just past sunrise “wolf pack” bite.  As the sun gets higher up, the knockdown dwindle to singles.  We had a nice blue marlin in the neighborhood out there before the blow and had a bally stripped by a white while working the colder side of the break.  It is going to be an exceptional offshore couple of days, with Sunday really looking perfect as of right now.  We will be leaving at midnight.

We never really even got into the wreck fishing in this week’s report, but I can tell you that one of my buddies has been slinging big knuckleheads over the rail for weeks now.  Seabassing is great, and there are fluke on the nearshore structure as well..

Best bet for this weekend… pick you poison.  Beaches good, boats good.  Inshore stripers, blues and decent reports of makos, offshore tuna.  There are plenty of big fluke still in the back, but you are going to be battling the green heads to get them.  I did not name my boat the FmTuna for nothing, we are going long.  Look for what happens in next week’s recap.

Stay Tuna-ed!