It’s the end for some, but just the beginning for us!

There is something almost surreal about the day after Labor Day on a barrier Island community. The afternoon and evening before, an endless parade of vehicles with out of state tags line the causeway with bikes on their racks and back windows blocked with beach chairs stacked to the ceiling. There is the occasional fishing rod, and some of them even have trailer hitches, but by and large their season is over.

There goes the bow candy, the striped bikinis that adorned the bar stools at the restaurant at the nearby Mascara Marina. The guys that wear the Tour de France bike shorts to the Wawa in the morning even though they don’t own a bike. I’m not disrespecting these folks, they feed us with their dollars and provide us with variety for a full third of the year, but this past weekend was their end at the Jersey Shore, and for many of us that have been flat out sprinting since Memorial day,just the beginning.

From an angling standpoint, here is your weekly summary. Everything is biting, and I am not joking. There is some pre-mullet run rush of bait on the beaches that are starting to create a little real action. The spot, croakers and snappers are still there for you to take advantage of in the surf and in the back bays. Action on the near shore structure off the Northern NJ coast is excellent. Fluke of considerable size are still buried in the rubble and are taking larger profile baits.

Offshore, there is a rumor that an unusual number of blue marlin are being spotted all the way out at the edge while overnight boats are picking some smaller swords and a few yellowfin. OTW’s own Jimmy Fee (he is my editor so I have to make a big deal out of this) took a run out of Belmar on the XTC , a totally tricked out, 44’ Henriques out of Belmar. Capts. Jody and Scott took Jimmy mid-week and had a solid night of yellowfin, a nice sword and three longfin. Knowing Jimmy, I am sure he wore his korkers just in case the deck got slippery. You can never be too careful.

Let’s fire up the phone lines and see what a couple of the shops in the network have in store for us this week.

Mark up at Meltzers in Garfield reports the crabbing is strong and the fluking numbers are up. The quality flatties are deep in the junk and rock piles so if you want to do numbers, go hit Ambrose channel, if you want quality, you are going to have to lose some tackle. By the way, the area around the party boats are loaded with peanut bunker and snappers if you are looking for jumbo fluke baits.

STOP THE PRESSES!!!!!

You heard it here first! Tom from Giglio’s in Sea Bright just fired me up with the first reported major bluefish blitz of the season. This is legit… not your little rush of 3# cocktails. 10-12# choppers reported up and down from the end of Sandy Hook, Long Branch and Bradley Beach. It’s almost like they read about the Volvos headed out of town and decided to see if we were still paying attention!

I got Joe Sr. on the line from Joey’s Bait Shack in Belmar for a quick minute. The store was jumping! He said there has been great action off the Keyport bulkhead if you are looking to fill up on nice sized croakers and spot. Decent fluke action in Ambrose Channel and he heard rumblings of bluefish moving in… rumor confirmed!

One of my favorite offshore guys to talk to is Dave at The Reel Seat in Brielle. Not only is he wired in, but he is a tilefish nut like I am, and knows more about it than any three guys I know. He was out on the Voyager this past week when Rick Englesbe of Lakewood dropped one down into the deep-deep and cranked himself up a new pending State record Blue line tile… 18lbs 14oz… really nice Blue. Dave also reports spotty but impressive offshore action still going on with wahoo, mahi, a few respectable swords, and quite a few longfin. The Big Eye are still there, but the reports are getting a little more spread out.

Also with his fingers on the angling pulse is Tom Wolfe from Jersey Bait & Tackle in Brick… yeah, I know it is one of the more “southern” shops, but he had good info so I’m jackin his report this week. Tom’ files that there are tons of Longfin roaming the edges of the Hudson with Jet Strike Lures, his own Jersey Tackle and Sterling Tackle spreaders brining them up. Don’t forget a green machine out there too. Wahoo are speeding around on the 20 & 30 lines with Aloha Deep Six lures and Skips Custom Tornados (the heavy 24 oz jobs). Don’t forget to rig these with cable… if you want, Tom will do it for you with a purchase over $20.

Best Bet for this Weekend

I know the clock is ticking on fluke season but if the weather holds this weekend and the seas remain manageable you just have to go long. The weather patterns are going to start swinging around in the next couple weeks and the opportunities to get those overnight trips and those long day trolls where you don’t get your aft handed to you are going to start getting fewer and further between. How much flounder can you eat anyway? If you can’t go the distance a run to the 30 line can nail you tuna, wahoo and mahi. The big switch to striper is right around the corner so surround yourself with as much of the beautiful, blue offshore water as often as you can. That’s my plan and I hope to see you out there.

Stay Tuna-ed!