Bluefin bite off Jersey has been hot

Capt. Joe Massa fished mid-range tuna grounds

. recently with Capt Vito Manzi out of Manasquan Inlet “The trip out was in fairly choppy seas, but with the NW west wind at our back which made the ride out not so bad.  Heading home was a another story. but the Crew of Mike Riccardi and Jay Zebrowski  were all smiles from one of the best Tuna bites on big fish that we can all remember .

We set up to chunk butterfish and within ten minutes we had our first bite. 20 minutes later we put a 67 inch bluefin in the boat. We then went up to do another drift and had another bite with 5 minutes. This fish we fought for about ahalf hour before the hook chafed off.
We continued to get bites on every drift and released the others before heading back to Belmar.

Jerry Lasko broke the ice on Ocean County stripers this morning when he landed a fat 33-incher on his MJ plug. That bass had sea lice on it proving that it was a migratory fish. There was small bait in the wash.

The forecast is for northwest winds at 15-20 knots before diminishing to 10-15 in the afternoon.