New Jersey Fishing Report for 4-30-2015

The blues are back, and they are hungry.

It seemed like almost all of the Garden State was invaded by big hungry bluefish in the past week. Blues to 16 pounds have been weighed in, and bigger ones have been reported caught and released.

With the ocean temperatures still on the cold side, the bluefish seem to be concentrating in the warmest available water, on the west side of bays and farther inside the inlets and rivers. The Manasquan River bluefish seem to be stacked between the Canal and the Route 70 Bridge.

Barnegat Bay is also holding lots of big, hungry blues, especially the west side of the bay. Great Bay is another epicenter of bluefish activity with schools of bluefish from 6 to 16 pounds beating up on the schools of bunker. There are so many blues, Dave from Absecon Bay Sportsman could barely get a lure past them to target the stripers this week. Gravelling Point and Pebble Beach have both been producing bluefish. Great Egg Harbor is holding some bluefish as well, with fish of 10- and 11-pounds being reported by Bill at Fin-Atic’s.

Farther south, there are still blues, and the occasional big ones, but most of the bluefish are the 3- to 4-pounders that are a blast to catch on light tackle and specialize in snipping up soft-plastics meant for weakfish and stripers.

Bluefish have also popped up in the surf a few time. Dave from The Reel Seat reported good surf fishing for blues between Point Pleasant and Bay Head this week.

Depending on where in New Jersey you are, it could be striped bass or bluefish dominating the backwaters. Far north, in Raritan Bay and the Navesink, schoolie stripers are being caught in big numbers reported Scott at Efinger’s. Same goes for the back bays from Ocean City south, where anglers working the sodbanks at night are finding good numbers of bass. In the middle of the state however, from Great Bay to Manasquan, fishermen are having a tough time getting through the blues to the stripers.

The Raritan Bay is still the striper hot spot. Most fish are coming on bait, but True World Bait and Tackle weighed in a 40-pounder taken by trolling wire line this week.

The full moon is coming up, and Dave at Absecon Bay Sportsman believes that should get the bass to spawn and then get moving along the coast, and he says “all hell could break loose with striper fishing next week.”

Some stripers are also being caught in the surf. The biggest surf stripers seem to be coming from South Jersey, Ocean City to Cape May, where Bill at Fin-Atic’s reported fish to 25 pounds on clams and bunker. In Monmouth County, clams are catching schoolie stripers in the surf.

Cod fishing is slowing down, reported Dave at the Reel Seat. The wrecks have been picked over by now, and unless you are fishing structure that’s flown under the radar, the bite could be slow. There was a little good news on the cod front. One boat leaving from New York Harbor did find their cod limit on Shark River Reef this week reported the crew from True World. Bob Cope of Full Ahead Sportfishing out of Cape May was still finding keeper codfish for his charters as of early this week.

Speaking of Cape May, a couple black drum have been caught in Delaware Bay so far. A surprising number of drum have been caught outside Cape May. Pebble Beach produced a number of drum to fishermen using clams, as has Brigantine.

Though you won’t be able to keep them, fluke have been showing up over the past few days.  Fishermen targeting stripers are catching them on small soft plastic jigs reported both Billy from Fin-Atic’s and Dave from the Reel Seat.

There is no word on weakfish yet, but the water temperatures are just hitting the point where they should begin showing up.

Best Bets for the Weekend

Embrace the bluefish. After a long winter and a slow start to the fishing season, watching a big bluefish chase down a popper is just what the doctor ordered.