The bite’s been decent on all of the usual suspects, including fluke, blues and bass, with the fluke fishing showing steady improvement over the last week.
The bay and river bite has been the best with the ocean still a bit on the chilly side.
Unfortunately, we’ll have to say goodbye to the outstanding black sea bass fishing.
The season closes Friday, June 22 and doesn’t reopen until July 1 with just a two-fish limit, down from 12.
Still, there’s plenty to catch, in both salt and freshwater, and the weather finally appears to be in sync with the season.
Capt. Phil Sciortino at The Tackle Box in Hazlet said there’s been a good number of keeper fluke caught in the Raritan Reach over the past week. Fish up to 7½ pounds were landed in 30 to 40 feet of water on bucktails with Gulp, killies and squid.
The striped bass action slowed down over the week but there were fish taken on the troll with Mojos and bunker spoons. Sciortino reported that the Hyper Striper out of Highlands continues to find some nice fish.
On the beach, Jack Weglar from Wanaque caught a 17-pound striper in the Sandy Hook surf on Monday using an SP Minnow.
Capt. George Bachert on The Angler out of Atlantic Highlands reported that the fluking just keeps getting better and better on his trips with limit catches the norm. He estimates that 40 to 50 keepers a day have been caught on his recent trips.
The pool winners average around 6 pounds.
The Sea Hunter, the Fishermen and the Sea Tiger II, all out of Atlantic Highlands are all reporting better fluking this past week.
Mel Martens at Giglio’s Bait and Tackle in Sea Bright said the fluke fishing has been very good in the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers. He was tossing a bucktail from the bank of the Shrewsbury River earlier this week hoping for a bass and hooked a 4.8-pound fluke.
There are some bass around, both in the rivers and the ocean. The better bite is at first and last light and during the night. Plugs, shads and clams are catching the stripers
Martens also reported more spearing around and the blue claws have started to show in both the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers.
Mike Gleason at Tak Waterman in Long Branch said the fluking improved in the surf there with more fish being caught. However, while the numbers are up, the size isn’t as most of the fish are shorts.
Small bass are in the surf as well, hitting clams and plugs in low light conditions.
Bob Matthews at Fisherman’s Den in Belmar said that the shop weighed in its eighth 50-plus pound bass of the season over the weekend.
The father-son team of William and Jason Hadzimichalis caught a 54-pound bass appropriately enough on Father’s Day, trolling a bunker spoon off Asbury Park.
Matthews said now that the excellent sea bass season is coming to a close, summer flounder will be getting a lot more attention. The bite has been excellent in the Shark River and improving for boats fishing the ocean.
The surf, he said, continues to give up small stripers, on plugs and clams with some guys using sand crabs for bait.
Capt. Pete Sykes on Parker Pete’s Sportfishing out of Belmar will be switching to fluke next week after a successful striped bass season.
He’s also offering some inshore shark trips. He decided to give it a try after hooking a 400-pound thresher while trolling a bunker spoon for bass last Friday. It took about 3½ hours to get the shark to the boat.
There have been a number of threshers hooked in a similar way recently as they take a swipe at spoons and Mojos. Capt. Sykes there’s a lot of sharks around and his first trip is this Saturday.
After a couple of picky days on sea bass, Capt. Bobby Quinn on the Ocean Explorer said the fishing bounced back nicely on Tuesday with sand eel teasers catching a lot of fish.
He’ll wrap up sea bass on Friday and start looking for doormat fluke on Saturday.
Capt. Steve Spinnelli on The Skylarker, also out of Belmar, has been catching some nice ling with the sea bass and hopes to catch more of them when the fluking season starts. He’ll also be mixing some bluefish trips in as the bluefish bite is getting better.
Capt. Rich Falcone on the Golden Eagle out of Belmar can testify to that.
Capt. Falcone reported very good bluefishing over the last several days. Tuesday’s trip started out with fish from 5 to 10 pounds and ended up with monsters up to 18.
Wednesday’s outing produced fish up to 17 pounds with everyone on board landing some big ones. All of the blues were caught on jigs.
Alex Kondas at the Reel Seat in Brielle said the striper bite cooled off this past week but the sea bass fishing continued strong. Boats in deeper water were catching ling and winter flounder as well.
Offshore, Kondas said there has been a good push of tuna in the southern canyons with big eye to 225 pounds and yellowfin around 60. A few boats reported multiple big eye catches.
He’s also had reports of bluefin at the Bacardi, Princess and Texas Tower. Based on the traffic at the shop, he thinks it’s going to be busy out there for the next several days.
John at Brielle Bait and Tackle reported the good fluking continues in the Manasquan River. There are some blues and bass on the beach as well, but nothing very big.
The Big Jamaica out of Bogan’s Basin has been getting into big blues and the Jamaica II will be switching to fluke full time once sea bass closes on Friday.
Mark at Jigging World in Rochelle Park said both his salt and freshwater customers are enjoying very good fishing.
Tuna fishing for big eye and yellowfin has been good in the southern canyons and the folks heading to Raritan Bay are doing well with fluke.
The trout fishing is still tremendous, he said, in the Flat Brook and Ramapo rivers with anglers easily catching their limits. The poor spring weather kept participation down and there are still plenty of rainbows around.
He added that the large and smallmouth bass fishing has been pretty good at Pompton Lake and Lake Hopatcong.
Steve at Garden State Bow & Reel in Stockholm reported good large and smallmouth bass fishing at the reservoirs.
Anglers have also been doing well with landlocked salmon at Wawayanda Lake and Lake Aeroflex.
In fact, a new state record for landlocked salmon was set on June 2 when Runelevy Rodriguez of Northvale landed an 8-pound, 5-ounce salmon at Lake Aeroflex.
Steve added that some big channel catfish have been caught in the Delaware River along with some nice smallmouth bass. Trout fishing is still good in the Flatbrook and Pequest rivers.
Ryan at Tackle and Field in Wanaque reported good crappie, perch and pickerel fishing at Greenwood Lake.
Larry at the Newark Sinker Company in Pine Brook said the pike and largemouth bass fishing has been pretty good on the Passaic River for those using artificial lures.
He took some time off from the shop to go fluke fishing in Raritan Bay on Monday and did pretty well. New Penny Gulp was a hot bait, he said.
Ron at Fins & Furs in Newfoundland said the bass bite quieted down in the reservoirs as the warmer weather pushed the bass into deeper water. The fish are still around, but you have to adjust your technique accordingly.
Fishing Forecast for Northern New Jersey
Now that sea bass season is closed, it’s time to concentrate on fluke. The better fishing is in the bays and rivers where the water is a little warmer. The Raritan Reach has been the hot spot over the past couple of days. All of the usual baits are working
The fluke bite is picking up a bit in the ocean, so it’s definitely worth a try.
The big blues are on the scene as well and several boats out of Belmar and the Manasquan Inlet are targeting them. Time to get out there.