The Clock is Ticking!

Like most serious anglers… I can’t sleep late. I don’t know if it is the sound of the surf or the excitement of the next trip. One thing you can bet on the fact that at 5:00am, I am either awake cursing the wind while sipping steamy coffee in my house, walking across the sand in my waders, or already on the deck of a boat. Sure I work… but you have to do something on those windy days, don’t you?

The point I am trying to make, in a round-about way, is that this morning (Thursday) when I walked outside with my mug to check the wind, I was hit in the face with 58 degrees. It was my “wake-up, wake-up call”, and I am sharing it with you. It is still a couple of weeks until Labor day, there are still plenty of bow candy to observe on the bay on the way to your favorite fishing spot, and there is surely a heatwave or two in front of us…. but the clock has started to wind down on the Summer of ’13. So “Carpe Fishum”…. seize the fishing day!

Where and what are not such a problem when you have such a good network of guys all over South Jersey that feed us the scoop every Thursday. I just finished heating up the phone lines and email trail, and here is the deal on what went down this week, and what is up the the weekend.

In South Tom’s River there is a blowfish bonanza going on between the BB & the BI, according to Len at Capt. Hippo’s on Atlantic City Blvd. Clam chum (heavy) with little bits of clam on your hook can fill a bucket of tasty drumsticks. There are snappers in the river and some short fluke in the bay. Crabbing is kind of spotty but if you find the right spotty, you can fill up on nice blue claws.

Around the block on Fischer Boulevard, Chris from Better Bait & Ice adds in that one of his customers had 16 out of 20 keeper fluke out by the BB. There have also been keepers taken between the bridges and live-lining a couple of the million snapper blues that are in the surf have been landing meaty flatties as well.

Also in Tom’s River, on the East side Route 37, Dennis says the hot bait for the fluke is spearing. Off of Seaside in 45’ of water, on the tire reef or around the inlet, they seem to be catching the biggest fish with them. Lots of snappers and spot on worms and little pieces of clam near the 37 bridge, and the crabbing right in there has been very good both in size and numbers.

In Absecon I missed the famous Guatemala Dave, who was out doing a little minnowing for the weekend, but Curt was at the helm of the Absecon Bay Sportsman’s Center. The flounder bite has moved from the backwaters out to the inlet, beachfront, and nearby reefs with GULP, strip baits and live baits all turning the trick. BIG croakers are about 3 miles off the beach with local small boat guys taking advantage of some of the flat days this week to fill up the boat. If panfishing is your deal, there are all the kingfish, spot and croakers you want just about anywhere. Worms, Fish-bytes, little pieces of clam on top and bottom rigs or sabikis all work for them. A couple of puppy drum and weakies have turned up near the mouth of the river too.

You can’t buy live bait at TackleDirect, but with a few million dollars in inventory you can certainly find just about anything else there. The team from TD was out at the tuna grounds this week and boated a real nice bluefin and a couple mahi for the table. The Big Eye tuna bite that has been going on in the deep has got everybody smiling, knowing that every time you go long you have the chance of tangling with a 200-plus pound monster that simply does not know the word “quit”. I’m fishing with the crew tomorrow morning and will post some post trip info after we get back on where we connected… I promise it will be worth looking back at the report for before the weekend.

Got Pat for a minute from Fin-Atics in Ocean City. They are right on West Ave. Back bay reports are a little weak now that the keeper flounder seem to have moved out. There are still plenty of spot in the back, but most of the remaining flatties are small. Beach fisherman have had their action bumped up as the flounder movement worked in their favor and there are so many spot on the beach right now that catching a kingfish, even though we know they are there, is almost impossible. Live lining spot at dusk for brown sharks from the surf is turning into a fishery all by itself, much to the chagrin of those non-anglers that decide to take a walk in the late evening where they were swimming earlier in the day. No sweetheart, this is not the Infinity Pool at the Four Seasons, it is the ocean. Flounder action on the local reefs…OC, GE, and AC is somewhere between heating up and hot.

Mike at Sea Isle Bait & Tackle has got to be one of the most enthusiastic guys I get to talk to on a regular basis. First of all, he has tripled the space he had last year, and has added in all sorts of new gear and services to fill it up. He is also totally dialed in to the local anglers. This past week, there was an “unbelievable” bite going on out at the TI Reef, with guys literally throwing back 3# flounder trying to get bigger ones to fill out their limit. Rigs were a 4oz Spro bucktail with a long squid strip on a dropper with about an 18” teaser leader holding a big 7/0 Gammi and one of those monster 6” GULP Grubs in Chartreuse, White or Nuclear Chicken. One fish that hit Mike’s scale was over 10 pounds… that’s a one fish dinner for sure.

Down at the bottom of our Cape, Nick is holding down the fort at Hands Too Bait & Tackle in Cape May. The entire area down there is surrounded in spot and croakers and many of the local anglers are taking to the beaches to fill a bucket with them. Those a little more industrious are bringing some heavy striper gear with them and live-lining at dusk to get in on the shark action, which is really picking up.

Best Bet for the Weekend

PLENTY of options! I’m headed to the reefs to try and cash in on some of the hot flounder action. If Mother Nature decides to throw a wrench in the works and turns on the fans, it’s off to the beach for a little early morning plugging for stripers (yes, there is still some short striper action even though some of our guys overlook it) and then an evening of live-lining spot and wet wade Shaaaaarkin. Keep your eye on the forecast, and make the right move.