Northern New Jersey Fishing Report
Mullet and sand eels are keeping surfbound bass and bluefish well satiated as another week of unrelenting northeast wind makes for rough ocean conditions. It’s the best time of year to pack an array of metals in your surf bag, and according to some of the local shops, shore fishermen would be wise to include a few swim shads, peanut swimmers, needlefish, and eel-imitation plastics.
Sea bass season opened on Tuesday, and while not many boats made it out, the ones that did came back to port with some surprisingly strong results for the conditions they fished through.
The Tackle Box in Hazlet said that not much has changed since last week as the wind has been blowing pretty hard. However, there are some schoolie stripers being caught at the local pier along with some bass mingling with cocktail bluefish among the mullet schools that are out in the ocean surf. Sea bass season just opened on the 1st but nobody has been out yet due to the sea conditions. Once the wind lays down a bit, and as air and water temperatures continue to drop, baitfish will fill in and striped bass fishing will improve off the beaches.
Joe at Julian’s Bait and Tackle in Atlantic Highlands said there are a lot of fish in the rivers feeding mostly on mullet. He said the stripers are setting up under the bridges and boaters have been spot-locking right along the pilings to pick off fish sitting nose-first in the current. Jigs are working well, but they’re also selling lots of eels as of late. Bottom bouncers have been looking for their fix in the form of black sea bass, but few boats have been out since the season opened due to the incessant northeast winds. Instead, most bottom fishermen are settling for blackfish; they’re picking away at small ones around the Highlander Pipeline, and there have been some very small sea bass in the mix. Not much has been happening locally out front as the surf is, as Joe put it, “coffee”. The talk of the town this week was the 13-pound sheepshead that just barely missed the state record by about 6 ounces or so.
Mike Pinto at Giglio’s Bait and Tackle in Sea Bright said the local surfcasters are picking up some weakfish and stripers on the oceanfront, and mentioned that there are lots of bluefish of various sizes in the rivers. Now that the surf conditions are starting to calm down, he suspects the fishing tomorrow should be very good. Most of the bait, from the rivers to the ocean beaches, has been mullet, but Mike said there’s also been a fair amount of sand eels around. After the steady northeast blow and big surf stirred up everything, the bass are certainly taking notice as to where the sand eels are most concentrated. Grab some soft plastics, diamond jigs, and needlefish and hit the sand.
Mike Gleason at TAK Waterman in Long Branch said the surf has been big after all this northeast wind but it’s just starting to settle down. There’s some heavy northwest wind coming soon which will bring some cold weather with it, and with the new moon having passed yesterday, Mike says things are looking up. Ocean temperatures are still high in the mid 60s, and the rivers are around the same, but the new moon tides have already started flushing peanuts out of the backwaters, and there are still some mullet in the ocean. He said what excites him the most, however, are the loads of 5- to 7-inch sand eels that have shown up in the surf, which bodes well for the night bite. Last week, Mike said, surfcasters were catching all the 2- to 5-pound bluefish you could imagine on the beaches, and they were all spitting up sand eels. Since then, the bass bite has picked up with fish in the teen class taking sand-eel style baits like needlefish, Tsunami sand eels and other slim-profile soft plastics. The rivers are also fishing well for slightly smaller bass. Lastly, Mike said a couple guys snuck out last Friday and caught some recreational-size bluefin with a few hardtails mixed in, and right now, everyone is gearing up to run out on Friday again this week.
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Tim at Fisherman’s Den in Belmar said they party boats are starting to catch sea bass after Tuesday’s season opener left much to be desired, but a lot of people are already excited for the opening of the 5-fish-limit tautog season in a month and a half. The devout toggers are already out there catching some decent fish on green crabs and sand fleas, so it’s easy enough to reach that 1-fish limit. In the surf, he said, shore fishermen are catching bass ranging from 28 to 34 inches along with a few schoolies and, more recently, there have been some really big blues in the mix. One of their shop regulars, who notably fishes heavier gear on the beaches, was all riled up after he broke off two fish during a productive bass outing. Tim added that most surfcasters are catching with heavier diamond jigs and yellow SP minnows during the mornings and evenings, which is likely due to the influx of sand eels. There have even been a few schools of peanut bunker, he added, so fall fishing is setting up nicely.
The Golden Eagle out of Belmar reported that the opening day of black sea bass was a huge success with several limits of big keepers. There was action on all sides of the boat on both bait and jigs. They had quite a few throwbacks, but there were also some extra large porgies and small bluefish in the mix to keep things interesting. They’re running early morning sea bass and bluefish trips as well as some night bluefishing trips this week, so give them a shout for details and availability.
The Reel Seat in Brielle said there are still mullet in the surf, and the bass and blues have been on them. The northeast winds made for some snotty conditions but surfcasters fishing heavier bucktails were able to punch through the wind and managed to pull in a few decent bass with cocktail size bluefish in the mix. There hasn’t been much talk about the opening day of sea bass as a result of the conditions, but shore fishermen are catching plenty of tautog in the Canal—just keep in mind that it’s still a 1-fish limit until November 16th.
Captain Danny Gregory on the Norma K III out of Point Pleasant Beach said they had a light crowd on the opening day of sea bass season with semi-poor conditions, however, they caught some quality sea bass for the hand they were dealt. According to the skipper, some guys went home with limits while some came close to their limit, and they even enjoyed a good mix of hubcap-sized scup and a fair amount of keeper blackfish which made things interesting. The pool-winning sea bass was between 4 and 5 pounds. They’re sailing daily at 7:30 a.m. and are planning to sail Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night for bluefish. Reserve your spot online to get in on the action.
Fishermen’s Supply in Point Pleasant Beach said there are scattered schools of bluefish and stripers of mixed size classes chasing mullet around on the ocean beaches, and there’s been a solid blackfish bite going on in the Canal with green crabs and/or sand fleas. A few anglers have even reported catching stripers on jigs in the Canal. There’s been no word on sea bass fishing just yet, but that should change as conditions look to calm down approaching the weekend.
Frank Giacalone at Gabriel Tackle Co. in Brick reported a slow start to sea bass season due to a small craft advisory, which was followed by another advisory on Wednesday. They’re hopeful that by the weekend the conditions will improve, and as of now, it looks like they will. In other news, he said, blackfishing in the Canal has been good and is getting better each day. The Canal is also still producing plenty of stripers on eels or live spot, but there are plenty of blues around also which has made fishing natural baits a bit more challenging. He added that the bridges in the Manasquan River are also producing stripers on eels, and that the best time to fish is at night or early morning as water temperatures are still fairly high. The local beaches, on the other hand, are producing some blues on mullet, metals, and epoxy jigs, with reports of the occasional striper showing up. They’ve also received good blowfish reports down at the BI & BB buoy, snapper fishing in the lagoons remains pretty reliable, and crabbing is still good and should hold strong for a few more months.
Bob at Grumpy’s Bait and Tackle in Seaside Park said they’ve been seeing mostly bluefish in the surf which are hot on the tails of mullet, and in his words, “it’s been a darn good mullet run this year”. Bob mentioned that there are some bass in the mix, and surfcasters are catching them mostly on swim shads if they can get them past the blues without getting torn apart. The blues are taking metals and chunked, and even live mullet under a float, if you can net a few. He emphasized how great it is to see both mullet and bluefish around in such large numbers, as there hasn’t been an abundance of bluefish like this in several years—it’s very encouraging for the spring run of bluefish. The bass, he added, have been keeper size, which is nice considering that the largest bluefish have been only around 6 pounds or so. In the backwaters, crabbing is pretty much dead now, but the amount of bait that’s staging to head out of the bay is looking great. He said there are a fair amount of peanut bunker, “rivers” of finger mullet and some corn cob mullet, and butterfish, too. The boat fishing scene is still very quiet due to the hard northeast blow, but that looks like it’s going to change by the weekend.
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Best Bets for the Weekend
Pack an assortment of tins, swim shads, and plugs in your surf bag and head down to the beaches. Depending on your location along the coast of northern Jersey, there are small- to mid-size bluefish and schoolie to over-slot stripers feeding on mullet, peanut bunker, and sand eels. The early fall run is really taking shape, and some cooler weather and a change in wind direction could kick things into high gear, forcing the remaining schools of mullet and peanut bunker in the backwaters out into the ocean.
Sea bass fishing should pick up over the weekend; the few boats that got out already have done well with limits of keepers, along with blackfish and porgies to complement the sea biscuits. And if a laid-back sea bass party boat trip is not in your wheelhouse, consider a nighttime bluefish trip. There’s certainly no shortage of them around, and they are the perfect eater size.
Blackfish can also be caught from some of the jetties, and hotspots like the Point Pleasant Canal.