Southern New Jersey Fishing Forecast
Gimme a break..
As appealing as it may sound to some, I regret to inform you that you are about to be surrounded by a hot, well formed young tempest named Andrea. She will have all the characteristics you may have fantasized about in word, but in reality she will have you sitting on the sofa shaking your head in disappointment. Yes, Andrea is our first tropical storm of the season, coming to a fishing hole near you with a great big dump of rain beginning on Friday. She will be laying it on heavy Friday night, and her backfat will keep seas in the 4- to 7-foot range right through until Sunday if current forecasts hold. Welcome to hurricane season, it began officially on June 1st.
So what is an angler to do when he already has made arrangements for his wife to be busy for a couple days so he could fish, and Andrea shows up? Make sure you are well wrapped in Gortex, and figure out a way to do what you wanted to anyway. My buddy is coming to town and we are going to cowboy up and go surf fishing, come hell or high water. Maybe we will use that dumb “the fish are already wet” line a few times while there are rivers running off our hat brims so we can’t see each other, but we are going. After all, we all know that there really is no such thing as “waterproof.”
Regardless of the storm clouds on the horizon, let’s at the very least take a look at what has been going on in the Southern section of our little slice of rainy heaven.
First of all, for you South Jersey shark guys, the tournament has been postponed until next week due to the weather conditions. Seriously, tip of the Captains hat to Bob Glover at SJ Marina, who runs a great tourney and put the safety of his anglers ahead of the inconvenience and expense of a postponement. I have fished in tournaments where we probably shouldn’t have thrown off the lines, but ran anyway because of the money involved and it really is no fun at all.
Chris at Better Bait & Ice in Tom’s River reports the bay is just busting with blowfish. Little bits of clam on little hooks will have you puffin and frying. There are some stripers taking clam near the bridges and bottom bouncing for fluke with squid on lead heads has been a good plan. Both bluefish and some stripers in the surf with those long, skinny, big headed blues running in and out of the inlet with the bait flushes.
Dennis skipped town and left the keys with Jeff at Murphy’s Hook House in Tom’s River. Ditto on the blowfish with some guys anchoring up and chumming by the BI buoy. There are some bunker pods off the beach but there does not seem to be much on them. Kind of slow for the last week although there are a few fluke in the wash. An occasional confused striper or bluefish that did not get the memo that Dennis went on vacation and they should too have hit the sand and deck.
Tony’s B&T in Manahawkin has reports of some fluke from the suds along with a few NJ semi-junk slams (no sea robins or oyster crackers). Anybody have a good skate wing recipe? There have been a few days this week when the shallows fired up in the back bay for fluke and there are runs of taylor blues coming in and out. These are the perfect bluefish to keep, by the way, either to bleed out and bar-b-q or fill the freezer with for later in the season baits.
A couple of the guys from Team Tackle Direct on Tilton Road in EHT were jetty jumping with their plug bags last week with some decent results on bluefish and a couple smaller stripers in the mix. Stripers seemed to be dialed into the white Sebile magic swimmers and the blues just chomped on anything… just like bluefish. Fluking in the back of Lakes Bay and Skulls Bay has gotten spotty, but there were some good catches from behind Brigantine on Gulp/Bucktail combos.
Connected with Dippy at Two Chums Bait and Tackle in Sea Isle. He had a 41-inch striper come in the shop this week taken on the front beach on clam. Regulars Tony & Craig were working hard in the back bay for flounder and had to cull through 20 to get 3 nice keepers, but at least they had the action. Couple of the commercial guys that came through were loaded up with shedder crabs, which is enough to make me start to salivate… love some soft shells anytime.
Mike at Sea Isle Bait & Tackle is totally dialed into what is going on in the back and seems to have a crew of stealth night fighters that feed him the scoop. Working bridge shadow lines is a smart tactic around now with mixed bait in the back. There are spot reported behind Sea Isle which is great news for all anglers. Mike had a couple stripers hit the scales this week along with a nice drum taken on the beach on clam.
Down in Cape May, Capt. Bob Cope from Full Ahead Sport Fishing is giving the fishing a 9 out of 10 right now. The drum bite has been nothing short of phenomenal with 11 for 14 on his last trip. Sea bass fishing has both numbers and size if you are willing to put in the time and the bay is just covered up in bunker. Call Capt. Bob to get in on it. 609-847-2304 or check him on line at fullaheadsportfishing.com.
Best bet for this weekend? You better duck and cover or get wrapped pretty tight if Saturday is in your sights. You will be land-bound until maybe late afternoon the way things look right now. Sunday could be kickin out front depending on how fast Andrea blows out of town, but I am terminally optimistic that if you are really dedicated, and maybe a little nuts, that you can connect this weekend.
Stay Tuna-ed!
Northeast Offshore Fishing Report