With the fluke season closing last Sunday and the bass bite yet to gather steam, the story this week is porgies – lots of them.
Not only are the porgies filling buckets, they’re filling the void created by the absence of summer flounder and the still-closed sea bass season.
Phil Sciortino Sr.at the Tackle Box in Hazlet said the porgies are everywhere and limit catches aren’t a problem.
He also said the false albacore are still biting off the Sandy Hook beaches and small blues are in the mix. And while the bass fishing is still on the lean side, guys plugging at night are getting some small fish and there have been some keepers with a few stripers in the high teens.
Joe Julian at Julian’s Bait and Tackle in Highlands also mentioned the plentiful porgies, small bass and false albacore, and added that there are kingfish being caught from the Keansburg Pier.
Capt. George Bachert on the Angler out of Atlantic Highlands said the porgies were coming over the rail pretty steadily on Wednesday’s trip until the current and northeast wind picked up and the boat started to rock.
He moved into the calmer bay and got into the porgies once again. When the current quit, so did the fishing. Still, Archie Stewart from Nutley took the pool with at least 30 porgies.
Although closing day of the 2016 fluke season was not very good for the Angler, Capt. Bachert called this year’s fluke season a good one overall. The boat had 11 fish over 10 pounds, the best season ever for big fish, and plenty of keepers. He said the early fishing was especially good with the Raritan Reach being one of the best spots all year.
Bill Karg from Millington won the big pool that was close to $5,000 with his 9-pound, 9½-ounce fluke he caught on the last Wednesday of the season.
The weather for the next couple of days looks pretty dismal and Capt. Bachert said the Angler probably won’t sail until Sunday.
Most of the other party boats out of Atlantic Highlands and Highlands will be fishing for porgies until the striped bass fishing hits its stride and the sea bass season opens again on Oct. 22.
Ernie Giglio at Giglio’s Bait and Tackle in Sea Bright said there are loads of porgies in the Shrewsbury River and the false albacore were all over the beaches in his vicinity until the blow began. Deadly Dicks and Crippled Herring were catching the albies.
They were joined by small blues in the 2- to 4-pound range with some larger fish showing up. The snappers are still around in the Shrewsbury, he said, along with some small bass.
My friend, J.R. Moore of Shrewsbury, has been having a blast with his kids in the Shrewsbury River on light tackle. The short bass have been hitting Rat-L-Traps.
Over in the Navesink, Mike at the Oceanic Marina in Rumson said it was a pretty good weekend for blue claws with one rental boat returning with five dozen. It’s hard to tell what this nor’easter will do to the crabbing so we’ll just have to wait and see.
In his estimation, Bob Matthews at Fishermen’s Den called the 2016 fluke season a good one, awarding it a seven on a scale from one to 10. The party/charter boats had the best of it, he said, while it was a bit tougher for small boaters to put a catch together and tougher still for the river fishermen.
During the last week of the season, Matthews said some nice fish reached the scales with Patty Mulligan of Farmingdale catching a 9½ pounder aboard the Ocean Explorer. On its final trip, the Big Mohawk boated several limits with fish up to 7 pounds.
On his last fluke trip, Capt. Steve Spinelli on the Skylarker out of Belmar reported that Jim Cacace of Hamilton landed a 9-pound, 14-ounce fish. Capt. Spinelli thought the fluke fishing was okay this year with the latter part of the season providing the better fishing.
Right now he’s concentrating on the porgies and his customers are being well rewarded with medium to large fish as well as some triggerfish. He’s been bluefishing as well and got a nice surprise last Friday when Paul Bender from Forked River landed a king mackerel.
Capt. Pete Sykes at the helm of Parker Pete’s Sportfishing out of Belmar is calling the current porgy fishing phenomenal. The only problem is getting through the sea bass to get to the porgies.
The sea bass, he said, are ridiculously big and coming up two and three at a time. He had to move just to get away from them all and reach the fish he could keep. He’ll be fishing for stripers once that fishery kicks in, then sea bass and blackfish.
Jeff Nuel at Harry’s Adventure Outfitters in Robbinsville also reported the excellent porgy fishing along with false albacore and small blues in the surf from Sandy Hook on south.
He personally found a load of weakfish fishing north of the Manasquan Inlet hitting Crippled Herring and small Avas. The fish were anywhere from 8 to 18 inches and stuffed with spearing.
He also reported some nice threshers being caught 10 to 20 miles offshore. He hadn’t heard much on the tuna fishing.
Vinnie at the Reel Seat in Brielle said the porgy fishing has been very good off the Red Church in Long Branch and he, too, is getting good reports of blues and small bass in the surf. There are also bass in the Manasquan River and some of the fish being caught there are keepers.
The reports he’s been getting indicate the tuna fishing is slow. There have been a few yellowfin caught in the southern canyons and inside the Hudson.
One positive tuna report came in from the Big Jamaica out of Bogan’s Basin in Brielle. After several weeks of catching mostly mahi and swordfish with just a few tuna, the bite broke open earlier this week with good fishing on the 31-hour trip that began on Tuesday.
Things started out slow but small yellowfin started hitting around 2 a.m. and by 4 a.m. the bite was on. When it was all over, the 125-foot Jamaica had 85 yellowfin, two swordfish, a mako and a handful of mahi-mahi. A 300-pound hammerhead was also caught and released.
The weather will make offshore trips impossible for the next couple of days, but Capt. Howard Bogan believes the good fishing will resume once this storm clears out.
While the weather is making a mess of the surf and boats can’t get out of the inlet, Greg Bogan at Brielle Bait and Tackle said folks are finding lots of stuff to catch in the Manasquan River and Point Pleasant Canal.
There are blowfish at either end of the canal and blackfish in between. There are also small blues and stripers in the river. The bass are hitting worms and Fin S lures and every so often there’s a keeper in the bunch.
Fishing Forecast for Northern New Jersey
Until the wind abates, fishing the ocean will have to wait. Sunday looks like it will be the first chance to get out. In the meantime, the rivers are holding small bass, blues and porgies and there are even some snappers. Once the surf quiets, the blues and albies should still be around as the water remains very warm.
And there are bass in the surf. I witnessed an angler pull a 33-inch bass from the Ocean Grove surf last Friday when it hit a popping plug in the middle of the morning.