by There was a dramatic change in area fishing today as Capt. Ron Santee Jr. reported his best day of fluke fishing on the Fishermen out of Atlantic Highlands — and the Golden Eagle from Belmar got back into 2-pound blues on the surface.
Santee said he was into keeper fluke right from the beginning as some fares managed limits among many just short. There were also some sea bass, and Tina won the pool with a 4 3/8-pound fluke.
The Golden Eagle blues hit diamond jigs readily, and some bonito were mixed in.
The weather looks good with north winds at 5 knots that switch to southeast in the afternoon.
Jimmy Johnson’s Quest for the Ring out of Atlantic City started with bigeye tuna blasts that had been absent during the Big Rock. Bigeye specialist MJ’s Sportfishing started on top with a 193.5-pounder, but Sushi had the early volume lead as Cameron Coblentz fought every tuna. However, Ro Sham Bo came on at the end to boat a 202-pounder and win the Box of Bigeyes title. The prize fish of the contest was boated on the last day as Christian Sanchez boated the only big blue marlin — a 649-pounder for Team Harvey. The white marlin winner was La Barca at 65.3 pounds.
The 63 boats caught or released11 blue marlin, 105 whites, 3 sails, 18 bigeyes, 12 yellowfins, 10 dolphin and one wahoo.
Tight Lines 
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