Tuna building up off northern N.J.

After tuna were almost missing in the recent Big Rock Tournament out of Morehead City, N.C., there was very good news this weekend as tuna were located off the North Jersey by Shore Catch and by Blue Runner.

Capt. Mark DeBlasio reported from the latter that there were enough yellowfins within range that they got into release mode — and also boated a 67-inch bigeye after losing another at boatside.

Much closer to shore, the Golden Eagle report from Saturday reappeared when I sent today’s blog instead of Sunday’s. It actually wasn’t much different on that Belmar boat with some blues being marked on bottom where plain 6-ounce jigs worked best. A move to fluking produced a few keepers among the shorts.

Vinny D’Anton remains frustrated with the lack of school stripers in the northern N.J. surf. Blues have also left, and there’s no sign of baitfish. That would normally be OK as stripers would be gorging on sand fleas, but Vinny hasn’t been able to get a bite on that abundant bait. Fortunately, a switch to fluking produces great action on white Gulp.

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The marine forecast for NY/NJ Bight is for southwest winds at just 5-10 knots.