by Scott Leadbeater did pretty well with fluke yesterday in Raritan Bay, but that was nothing compared to a relatively close call with a whale. In trying to copy his account, I ended up with duplications and boxes. Please scroll down and over any duplications I didn’t get out.
As you know well, there no telling what you might see or find during a fishing trip at sea. Well I had an amazing moment yesterday.
Now I might expect this somewhere off-shore, or at the Rocks. But where I was and with the activity around on a Saturday morning, is what was amazing to me.
I was fluke fishing, and actually putting together a decent catch. Location the Knoll. Drifting the mussel beds in roughly 20ft depth. On the outgoing tide drift I was working my lines, facing to the west as the drift was to the east. Suddenly I heard what sounded like a high pressure hose let loose behind me. I turned and there was a whale surfaced and blowing it’s air spout, only 60ft away. I say 60 ft because my boat is a 20ft cc and I swear it was only 3 boat lengths away ! It was huge ! 3 other boats near by suddenly were hollering excitement also. The whale appeared to be 6-8 ft across at it’s back. I saw maybe 20 ft of it at mid section. So the thing might have been 50-60ft. Water rolled off the brown-black whale like it was a submarine. (I used to see subs a lot when fishing at Jax Fla). It was stunning. It went under water directly beneath my small boat, I know that because it’s next surface and air blow was maybe 100ft on my port side. It stayed there for a moment, blowing another time near the same area, and then disappeared. I had a few words with the other boat closest to me and to the whale. They were as shocked as I was.
Do you have any idea what kind of whale this might have been ? And what was so surprising was where this took place and at 9:30 on a Saturday morning with boat traffic and fishing lines all over the area.
Never know what you might find when venturing out on the sea.”
Scott Leadbeater had surprisingly good fluking yesterday. but was more excited about a near-encounter with a whale on his Aquasport from Atlantic Highlands. s detailed below:
As you know well, there’s no telling what you might see or find during a fishing trip at sea. Well I had an amazing moment yesterday.
Now I might expect this somewhere off-shore, or at the Rocks. But where I was and with the activity around on a Saturday morning, is what was amazing to me.
I was fluke fishing, and actually putting together a decent catch. Location the Knoll. Drifting the mussel beds in roughly 20ft depth. On the outgoing tide drift I was working my lines, facing to the west as the drift was to the east. Suddenly I heard what sounded like a high pressure hose let loose behind me. I turned and there was a whale surfaced and blowing its air spout, only 60ft away. I say 60 ft because my boat is a 20ft cc and I swear it was only 3 boat lengths away ! It was huge ! 3 other boats near by suddenly were hollering excitement also. The whale appeared to be 6-8 ft across at it’s back. I saw maybe 20 ft of it at mid section. So the thing might have been 50-60ft. Water rolled off the brown-black whale like it was a submarine. (I used to see subs a lot when fishing at Jax Fla). It was stunning. It went under water directly beneath my small boat, I know that because it’s next surface and air blow was maybe 100ft on my port side. It stayed there for a moment, blowing another time near the same area, and then disappeared. I had a few words with the other boat closest to me and to the whale. They were as shocked as I was.
Do you have any idea what kind of whale this might have been ? And what was so surprising was where this took place and at 9:30 on a Saturday morning with boat traffic and fishing lines all over the area.
Never know what you might find when venturing out on the sea.”
Fin whales have been most common in our area, and it’s surprising that there aren’t many close calls when striper fishermen are drifting in the schools of bunkers they feed on. They used to be unheard of in the bay, but have become fairly common there in the last few years.
Tight Lines 
A friend of mine ran his boat offshore looking for tuna. He tried trolling feathers first and had a couple of knockdowns about 20 to 40 miles off. Out east. He then decided to try trolling deep cleaners and large spoons. And that worked success with them as they voted 6 Blue Fin before heading in and keeping only one. When he came by he dropped off a couple of really nice fillets for the barbecue. I intend to venture my boat out there in the next two weeks. As it sounds like they’re going to hang in. But weather and wind will determine whether I get out there or not. The parts are starting to load up with nice mahi mahi. I n s h o r e pots. Mudhole.
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Be careful!
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The whale has been around there a few weeks. It is a humpback and probably more like 30 feet or so. Feeding on the huge bunker schoolsâ¦.
Best,
Remote Anglers
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Thanks for that. I’ve been hearing about a whale in the bay, but that was the first account of it. Heard whales in the dark Tuesday night while fishing outside the bay.
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please reinstall your daily newsletter to me. It was recently removed and my attempts to get it back were answered with “invalid email”
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This is a new one on me. Waiting to hear back from my daughter on what to do.
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