New Jersey Fishing Report for Raritan Bay to Manasquan Inlet.
It is a Red, White, and GO weekend!
Go and get some rods, grab some kids, don’t forget the ice and get your aft out on the water.
Starting offshore, the bite on small and medium-sized bluefin has developed nicely with sand eels showing up at the usual locations, as you will read in our network reports below. Trolling is still effective, but being prepared to switch over to a more directed approach when you find the bait and the fish is now mandatory. As you start chunking, you really have to be prepared to drop down in line class for your leaders as the fish have a tendency to be real finicky. This means you are going to have to make adjustments in your drag settings as well. A reel that is spooled with 80-pound-test (using the 30% rule) should be at 24 pounds of pressure at strike, while a reel with a 40-pound-test leader should not be set with more than 12 pounds of pressure at strike. There are two tools you can use to do this.
The first is your basic spring scale with a memory ring. Lots of companies make these and you will be totally familiar with their operation. The second is much more accurate – and much cooler – but more expensive. The Drag Checker threads the line under stress through a couple of rollers and has a display on the face.
Doing this properly is really not that difficult, and if you are a little unsure, check the video that our friends from Avet Reels put together:
OK, let’s get the straight dope from our guys up and down the coast. Where should you go, what should you use, and when should you be there?
Laurie up at Dow’s Boat rental in Lake Hoptacong starts with a sweet water heads up. Some nice fish were taken this week, fishing off the points and around Raccoon Island. Most guys are using live shiners, but fish are still hitting topwater at night. Largemouth, pickerel, some hybrid stripers and some decent smallies are all hitting. Crappie up to a pound-and-a-half are taking fathead minnows or small jigs. Perfect pan size!
Brandon at 46 Bait & Tackle has seen lots of bluefish action up near the Crab House with a few smaller stripers mixed in. The bigger fish seem to be hanging out closer to the Statue of Liberty and if you are looking to add some blue claws to the table, now would be a great time.
Down at Crabby’s in Keyport the fluking is making a real comeback. There are plenty of peanut bunker around to use (we love free peanuts!) and the bay is full of adults. Crabbing in the Keyport back channels is very good as well with bigger blue claws making it to the pots. It seems that the stripers and bigger bluefish have take a 4th of July vacation in the last couple of days, according to Bob, but with all that bait around they expect them to fold up their beach chairs and get back to work very soon.
In Atlantic Highlands, Kevin from Bait Your Hook is dialed in on the fluke in the bay. Nicer sized fish along with the usual throwbacks. There are lots of blues to be had, if you want to take the kids for some fun, out by the Mud Buoy and there are good-sized sea bass and ling coming in from the Mud Hole. Not a great deal of tuna action reported, but the sharking has been pretty good.
Where the stripers went is the running question at Giglio’s in Sea Bright. Erie reports that they have not weighed in a striper of significant size since June 22, but that does not mean there has not been plenty of action in the area. Guys out fluking have not only been doing well with flatties, but with some weakfish, lots of spot and blowfish, and plenty of porgies as well. Some anglers drifting sand worms up the river have hit the stripers, but that is about it. The crabbing has slowed a little in numbers but the sizes are way up. I like the bigger ones anyway. Ernie also mentioned that there is a huge school of bunker just off Sea Bright on Thursday morning.
The guys at Long Branch Bait & Tackle are also all about the fluke. The river is giving up some nice fish. No blues and no hits, no errors on the striper front.
Jack at Surf Side in Long Branch has guys doing pretty well with the fluke off the beach as well. Dragging a bucktail or a high-low rig tipped with killies or GULP has the keeper ratio in the suds up to about 3 out of 13. Still loads of fun with the potential of a fish fry afterward. Some of the locals are still waiting until after dark to skulk out and go plugging after stripers and blues. Mostly schoolie bass with a very occasional keeper mixed in.
Tom at the Bait Shop in Bradley Beach says hands down, the stripers are “Outta here!” Just like Ernie at Giglio’s, his last weigh in on a striper of any size was June 22, although there is still plenty of action in the area. Small tailor blues are running the beach from before first light until about 7 a.m., marauding anything you throw their way. It’s worth getting up for a little early morning light-tackle fun. The bird blitz that you are all looking for has gone underwater. Sea robins are just everywhere, and eating everything. Word from the Sea Girt reef is that the bite is still going on. Sea bass and fluke are chewing 4- to 6-ounce bucktails with Gulp-tipped teasers up the line. It’s a good time to hit the big blue crabs in the back bays too.
Chris at Harry’s Army Navy in Robbinsville is all about the yellowfin bite out at Lindenkohl Canyon. The reports are of much bigger fish than were running the last couple of weeks in the Spencer and south, although the bite count is way, way down. Sea bass fishing is real good out at the Sea Girt and Carlson reefs, and there have been reports of some decent bluefish hitting the bunker just off the beach. In the flukin’ department, Treebark Tony dropped one of the biggest fluke he had ever seen this week. It took a 6-inch Gulp, but not enough of the hook! In freshwater the warmer temperatures have slowed things down for just about everything except the catfish. Bounce some bottom for whiskers.
Wrapping up the region is Dave at The Reel Seat who always has the real deal on where it’s going on offshore. There is real good news and real bad news out at the Glory Hole. The real good is that the jig bite for medium-sized bluefin is underway. The bad news is that the big bluefish have invaded the same zone. It can be pretty frustrating dropping a $20 tuna jig into the mouth of a 12-pound chopper. Some bigger bluefin are reported to be working further offshore in the Texas Tower/Bacardi/Triple Wreck zones, and there have been some scattered reports of yellowfin at the Hudson. Not the same, blitz-like bite that was going off in the Southern Canyons, but a nice class of fish. The Mudhole is still giving up ling and cod and the fluking from Deal up to Monmouth Beach is also on the upswing.
The best bet for this upcoming weekend has got to be fluking, unless running long is your top choice. A bucktail bouncing the bottom with a Gulp teaser seems to be the best rig to go on the attack with, and you should expect some bigger fish. I never leave home without a livewell full of peanuts, and if you are going anywhere this weekend, you should do the same. A couple of handfuls of these baby bunker thrown at a pot or even a school of uncooperative tuna can do some amazing things.