New Jersey Fishing Report - March 16, 2017

This winter is to fishermen what the mob was to Michael Corleone: it keeps dragging us back in.

Between the blizzard and frigid temperatures, this week has been a nightmare for anglers.  Nobody went fishing and unfortunately there is little good news to report.

Phil Sciortino at the Tackle Box in Hazlet said there’s more than a foot of snow in his lot and he had trouble getting into the shop on Wednesday morning.

Before the miserable weather, Sciortino said there were bass biting in the back of Raritan Bay and there were plenty of bunker around.

The question is how long it will take to recover from the storm. The water temperature in the bay is bound to take a hit due to snow melt and runoff, so it may be a while before temperatures head back up.

Bob Matthews at Fisherman’s Den in Belmar said it’s been absolutely quiet for the past couple of days.  Matthews reported one of their rental boats went out before the storm and got a couple of winter flounder but that’s been it.

Matthews said it was hard to believe that we escaped a rough winter only to get whacked now that the fishing was beginning to pick up. The fish are around, he said, and we just need a couple of warm days to get things back on track. When that will happen is anybody’s guess. The weather in February was more spring-like.

The only consistent fishing has been at the Oyster Creek power plant where the bass have been biting all winter long. Matthews said one angler he knew caught more than a dozen fish at the beginning of the week.

The Ocean Explorer, the only boat still sailing out of the Belmar Marina, has been at the dock  for the last couple of days due to the conditions, but may be sailing on Friday.

John Bogan at Brielle Bait and Tackle said there is nothing much going on there at the moment. The winter flounder fishing was just getting good in the Point Pleasant Canal and near the Mantoloking Bridge when Old Man Winter returned.

Capt. Dave Showell at Absecon Bay Sportsman Center said it’s pretty much frozen in right now.  On the plus side, he said the fish were already awake and moving around before the storm and they’re probably just hunkered down until some warmer weather comes through.

He’s hoping for a big improvement in the action in the second half of this month.

Justin at Fin-atics in Ocean City said things just shut down with the water temperature in the bay dropping 12 degrees over the past couple of days.  The bass and white perch bite was coming along nicely just last week, but it will take some nicer weather to get the fish feeding again.

The freshwater fishing isn’t faring any better.

Timmy at Tackle and Field in Wanaque said his customers were catching trout and crappie in local ponds and lakes and at the Monksville Reservoir but things got quiet in a hurry when winter returned.

Jeff at Fins and Feathers in Newfoundland said there was nothing going in his neck of the woods except the 21 inches of new snow on the ground. He reported selling a single container of worms on Wednesday to a customer who needed to feed his pet, a freshwater stingray.

The most action I witnessed, aside from the pounding surf on Tuesday, was at the Asbury Park Fishing Club’s Fishing Flea Market last Sunday. The show, celebrating its 25^th anniversary, had plug sharks waiting outside for hours hoping to first on line for their favorite builders.

Fishing Forecast for New Jersey

There’s no getting around it. Once the snow and sleet hit the fan, the fishing – and the participation – took a big hit. The temperature will be clawing its way back up but nothing dramatic is forecast for the next several days. We’re all just going to have to be patient for a little while longer, something fishermen are accustomed to.

It looks like another indoor weekend so The Saltwater Fishing Expo at the Garden State Exhibit Center is probably the best way to scratch your fishing itch. The show runs Friday from noon to 8 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There’s a full schedule of seminars and demonstrations along with aisle-after-aisle of rods, reels and tackle.