Northern New Jersey Fishing Report - June 11, 2015

More wind woes in New Jersey, but with water temperatures returning to normal-for-June levels, the fluke and sea bass fishing is improving big time.

Raritan Bay has been producing good fluke action this week for fishermen aboard the Sea Tiger II. Captain Hal put his anglers on flatfish to 6.5 pounds. Spearing have been working well as bait, but squid and Berkley Gulp are also catching. .

Pete from Parker Pete’s Sportfishing said the striper fishing has been hit or miss lately. Some day’s he’s marking fish, but they just aren’t biting. The bunker schools have been doing disappearing routine as well, showing up thick some days and barely there on others. Bluefish have also been sporadic along the ocean front.  The black sea bass fishing on the other hand, has been excellent, and Pete has been finding sea bass as large as 5 pounds.

Steve at Skylarker Sportfishing said the sea bass fishing blew wide open this week. His fares found limits to 4 pounds, with some ling, cod, and winter flounder in the mix. The striper fishing is tough, Steve said, but the northeast winds of last week blew in some warm water and perked up the fluke bite a little bit.  Overall, the ocean-front fluke fishing is still on the slow side, however.

In the Raritan Bay, however, the water temperature warmed as much as 10 degrees, putting fluke on the feed around the Ammo Pier reported the crew from Keyport Marine Basin.

Matt at Harry’s Army Navy echoed the slow fluke fishing out front, saying the Bay was the way to go. Matt said most fishermen who start the day fluke fishing in the ocean have been falling back on black sea bass to save the day. The black sea bass fishing has been excellent on the reefs and wrecks.

Striper fishing is slow, Matt said. He spent a full day trolling over the weekend and only found a single 37-pound fish. No complaints about the quality, but for a full day’s effort, Matt expected to see some more fish hit the deck. The striper surf fishing has been slow as well. Matt said a few fish have been beached at Sandy Hook, however.

Bluefish have been similarly hit or miss on the ocean side. In the bays and rivers, there have been decent numbers of smaller bluefish taking jigs and small metal, Matt reported.

The shark fishing is getting started off Northern New Jersey. Several makos have been taken recently, and that fishing should be improving quickly.

Matt said the freshwater bite has been on fire for largemouth bass. Assunpink and Mercer have been producing great numbers of fish, some as heavy as 4 pounds, on a variety of lures. Topwaters are dominating the bite early in the morning as bass feed on schooling baits like alewives and juvenile white perch, while spinnerbaits and soft plastics are getting it done throughout the rest of the day. On The Delaware River, Matt found a mix of stripers and smallies this week by fishing jerkbaits. The smallmouth bite is slowing down as the water warms, Matt said, but the stripers still in the river are feeding heavily.

Some impressive surf-caught fish hit the scales at Giglio’s this week. One fishermen dunking bunker caught a 32-pound striper. Another angler fishing smaller jigs caught fluke to 19 inches. With the wind shifting to west after last week’s northeast blow, Tom thinks the striper fishing is on the brink of picking right back up, despite the recent slowdown. In the back, Tom said Bug Light produced phenominal fluke fishing earlier this week, with many anglers taking home limits of flatfish.

Best Bets for the Week

Black sea bass is the safest best for action this week, but the spring striper run is far from over. Better weather should allow bunker schools to regroup and warming water temperatures should put stripers back on the feed. If it’s flatfish you’re after, hit Raritan Bay or the rivers.