It’s shaping up to be a solid Fourth of July weekend for anglers with fluking picking up on the beach and off the boats. Black sea bass will also be filling out catches as they are back on the menu with a two-fish limit as of July 1.
Sand bugs continue to catch bass in the surf. Small plugs are working as well while the blues are going for metal, bunker and mullet.
The forecast looks great so get out there.
Rick Hebert at Tackle World in Rochelle Park said he’s getting good reports of fluke in the surf, especially in the Long Branch area. Schoolie and keeper bass are also off the beach hitting sand crabs and poppers.
Night fishing for walleye and hybrid stripes has been good, he said, in local lakes, including Greenwood Lake and Lake Hopatcong.
Capt. Phil Sciortino at the Tackle Box in Hazlet said it’s steady fluking in Raritan Bay. The highlight of the week was a 12-pound doormat caught by Luke Gomez on a homemade jig tipped with a 6-inch New Penny Gulp grub.
Sciortino also got good reports on porgy fishing at the Tin Can Grounds.
Mike Pinto at Giglio’s Bait and Tackle in Sea Bright said the Shrewsbury River is still full of bluefish hitting metal and topwater plugs.
There are stripers in the surf hitting poppers and sand bugs along with a few blues now and then. There are fluke in the wash as well, eating the sand bugs and Gulp.
Mike Gleason at Tak Waterman in Long Branch said anglers are getting decent fluke off the beach there and bass are in the surf as well hitting small plugs and sand crabs.
The tuna fishing remains on the slow side with the offshore bite all that’s going on right now with no action to speak of on the inshore grounds.
Gleason said the bait is in place with loads of sand eels around. All that’s needed is for the tuna to show up. He’s hoping this week’s new moon will shuffle the deck and get things going.
The stripers continue to hit sand crabs in the Ocean Grove surf. Bass in the 30-inch range were taken over the weekend. The stripers are easy to spot as they move in and out of the wash looking for a bite to eat.
Bob Matthews at Fisherman’s Den in Belmar said the fishing is very good with lots of triggerfish being caught at the Shark River Inlet.
There are kingfish, fluke and stripers off the beach, he added, and the fluking has been good in the Shark River.
Matthews said that while the overall fishing is good, he believes the high cost of fuel is having an impact on participation.
The party boats out of the Belmar Marina are seeing better ocean fluking as the water continues to warm. Conditions, as always, dictate the catch but the fishing is definitely on the upswing.
The Big Mohawk saw some nice fluke come over the rail in the last week with James Bishop of Cherry Hill landing a 7-pounder on Friday’s trip. A 5-pounder took the pool on Wednesday.
Capt. Pete Sykes of Parker Pete’s Sportfishing out of Belmar reported good fluking on their first bucktail extravaganza last Sunday. It took some moving around but by the end of the day, there were several limits and plenty of keepers aboard the boat.
Capt. Sykes will be running open boat trips Sunday through Friday. With the reopening of sea bass with a two-fish limit, anglers will have more fish to take home.
Capt. Jay Richardella on Side Job Charters out of Belmar said tuna fishing was a challenge over the weekend. He expects that will turn around soon with the all of the bait around. He still has some open dates for offshore trips and can be contacted through his website.
Capt. Steve Spinelli on the Skylarker said the bottom fishing has been very good with ling, cod, fluke and winter flounder making up his catches. The addition of sea bass starting on Friday will help fill the coolers.
Paul Puccini at the Reel Seat in Brielle said the beach fishing for fluke has been phenomenal with bucktails and Gulp. Ocean fluking has been up and down with this past Wednesday an up day. He said most boats reported good fishing.
Tuna fishing has been confined for the most part to the canyons and it’s been slow going.
Kyle Tanger at Fishermen’s Supply in Point Pleasant Beach said folks fishing sand fleas are catching a lot of bass off the beach. Fly casters working around the jetties are also doing well on stripers.
He reported some unusual goings-on at the Manasquan Inlet this week with a few cobia being caught along with the appearance of a baby thresher that made its way into the river.
Fluking in the Manasquan River is excellent, he said, on Gulp and bucktails with the fish seeming to favor the 4-inch mullets.
Capt. Danny Gregory on the Norma K III out of Point Pleasant Beach reported a very good day of fluke fishing on Wednesday with approximately 60 keepers coming over the rail.
He was fishing to the north off Deal and Long Branch and said there were plenty of limits caught. The Norma K III sails Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and two trips on Saturday and Sunday.
Chris Parlow at Capt. Bills Landing in Point Pleasant Beach said the fluke fishing on the local reefs blew open this weekend with water temperatures finally climbing into the upper 60s.
Many anglers reported limits on both the Axel Carlson and Sea Girt Reefs.
Parlow said that shark fishing remains very good with a number of large threshers being caught, including a 472-pounder that was brought to scales on Saturday.
Frank Giacalone at Gabriel Tackle Co. in Brick said the surf fishing is very good with fluke in the wash and plenty of stripers on clams, sand crabs, and plugs. There are also bluefish hitting bunker and mullet.
Pete Kupper at Charlie’s Bait and Tackle in Normandy Beach said the fishing has been really good with bass, blues, and fluke off the beach.
Sand bugs and plugs are working for the bass, Gulp and bucktails, along with sand bugs, are catching fluke and the bluefish are going after metal and plugs.
Kupper also said the crabbing in Barnegat Bay is getting better every day.
Frankie Z at Grumpy’s Bait and Tackle in Seaside Park said the fluke fishing in the surf there is crazy good on Gulp and bucktails. The shop weighed in two of 3½ and 4½ pounds earlier this week.
Sand bugs continue to catch bass right in the wash as they cruise the drop off. The bite slowed just a bit this week, but there’s still plenty of action.
The bluefish are on the meat, he said, with mullet catching blues in the 3- to 5-pound range.
Fishing Forecast for Northern New Jersey
The beach is a good bet this holiday weekend with the surf is giving up bass, blues, fluke and kingfish. Gulp and bucktails along with sand crabs will work for the fluke while sand crabs and small plugs will interest the stripers.
The blues are on metal and mullet while small pieces of clam or blood or sandworms will catch kingfish. Have a safe and happy Fourth of July.