Strange things happen frequently in fishing, but the run of Spanish mackerel occuring along beaches in northern Ocean County right now may be one of the oddest ever. Those tropical visitors often visit us in August and September when waters are at their warmest, but I’ve never heard of them in our surf so early in the summer. They’ve been mixed in with very small blues, but I haven’t seen any of the srching leaps out of the water that they normally make. It’s been blind casting for the most part, but some anglers have seen seen birds working on them at times. Those who have kept blues say they’re full of spearing.

I stuck with a popper this morning rather than the small metals that others have been using. A very small teaser fly was rigged ahead of the Chug Bug, and that fly must have touched the water enough because I landed a 16 1/2-inch Spanish mackerel — the first I’ve ever caught from the Jersey surf. Later I released another of 14 inches that was part of a double with a fat 15-inch blue. That chopper was far bigger than the very small cocktails — and I was later surprised when a “huge” 19-incher blasted the popper and put a real bend in the rod. Though I didn’t see any other larger blues caught, another angler caught a 22-inch striper on an SP Minnow. Joe Melillo, at Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant, was showing off an 18 1/2-inch Spanish mackerel, a real filleting size, that a customer brought in. Those fish are excellent eating. Hopefully, this evening’s storms with south winds won’t lower the surf water temperature and chase our tropical visitors offshore.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported a good day of variety fishing with blues, chub mackerel and ling.

Capt. Ron Santee saw the monthly pool leader change twice on Friday aboard his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands despite a lack of drift. It went from 4 7/16 to 4 5/8 pounds before a 6 5/16-pound fluke by Pat Kostka took the lead for $1500 that will be payed out after Sunday.  Today’s RFA charter was also hampered by a lack of drift and produced mostly shorts with a few keepers.

Vinny D’Anton got a late start in Shark River, but it turned out to be the right time for four small bass on his Chug Bug.

The forecast inshore for Sunday starts with west winds at 10 knots before going to 10-15 in the afternoon with gusts to 20 knots and a chance of showers or thunder storms.

Pictured below is the 22-inch fluke I jigged Friday with a Spro and Gulp Grub while fishing with Joe Massa on My Three Sons from Morgan Marina.

 

Though you have to work hard for them with live bunkers, striped bass remain available to NY/NJ Bight anglers. I fished today with Joe Massa on his My Three Sons from Morgan Marina, and found Hudson River stripers eager to hit the bunkers he cast-netted with a single throw. We caught 10 bass up to 38 inches, and lost a few others. At one point we caught a doubleheader.

 

When the tide changed, Joe headed for his favorite fluke spot on the NY side where we had lots of hits on Spro jigs with Gulp Grubs, though my 22-incher was the only keeper  where the limit is 19 inches. We also caught sea robins and dogfish, while Joe added a bonito that hit as he was reeling in.

Chuck Many worked both the Hudson and East rivers with his crew on Ty Man from Gateway Marina in Highlands for 18 bass releases up to a 28-pounder.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported a good day of mixed bag fishing with blues, bonito, chub mackerel, ling, and even cod. The Big Mohawk from that port had a problem with lack of drift, but still had some fluke limits. They’re sold out Saturday and Sunday.

 

Though the inshore forecast remains calm, Capt. Jim Freda showed me an offshore forecast that shows breezy conditions offshore where there’s been a hot bite of bluefin tuna.  Saturday’s inshore forecast is for southwest winds at 5-10 knots increasing in the afternoon when evening thunderstorms are likely.

Grumpy’s Tackle in Seaside Park reported an improvement Thursday in surf fluking on Gulp. They’ve also heard of bonito and houndfish.

There have been lots of very small bluefish in the northern Ocean County surf, but I also saw a very unseasonable Spanish mackerel caught there Thursday evening,

Vinny D’Anton didn’t find anything in the surf this morning, but went to Shark River and released a 23-inch striper on a Chug Bug.

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A most unusual marine weather forecast predicts winds of no more than 10 knots right through Monday, which is great news for those seeking tuna both at mid-range areas and in the canyons — and for the Jamaica’s Sunday night tilefish trip.

The Jamaica sails from Brielle at 10 p.m. Sunday for a tilefish trip that will return at 2-3 a.m. Tuesday. The fare is $360 plus $10 if you want to reserve a bunk. Call 732 528-5014 for reservations.

The June 24 trip was also sailed in good weather, though strong currents were a problem at times. Yet, a couple of anglers managed limits of both golden and blueline tiles — and a bluefin tuna was also caught. Jigging was the best method. Joe Tomaszewski (not pictured) won the pool again as he boated a 26-pound golden.

The Jamaica will be sailing for fluke at 7:30 a.m. on other days. They also start afternoon family fluking at 4:30 p.m. Friday, and have a half-night ling trip at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

The forecast for Thursday is northwest winds at just 5 knots before shifting to southwest in the afternoon.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar didn’t find the big blues they sought offshore on Wednesday, and the few small blues and bonito they encountered wouldn’t cooperate. Today was much better with small blues plus bonito and chub mackerel in the slick while ling were caught on bottom along with sea bass that had to be released. A big hammerhead shark swam around the boat to provide some excitement.

Small blues and bonito have moved into the surf, but they are just as small as those we saw there last fall. Joe Melillo, at Castaway’s Tackle in Point Pleasant, said he heard from two sources that there were also Spanish mackerel in the mix. Those tropical visitors usually don’t show up until at least August.

Allen Riley, of South Plainfield, is vacationing on the Outer Banks in Corolla, N.C. with his family and enjoying clear waters with lots of life in the surf. He and his son have been catching many small blues casting any small shiny lure along with mostly 9-12-inch Spanish mackerel plus a 16-incher.

With water temperatures rising, it’s time to be looking out for species from the south to be moving into NJ/NY ocean waters.

Grumpy’s Tackle in Seaside Park made mention of hearing about cownose rays, sand tiger sharks and bonito moving into the surf along with small bass and blues plus the expected fluke in very clear waters.

There were also bonito reports a bit further offshore, where Miss Belmar Princess anchored on rubble to pick at small blues plus a few bonito in the chum slick while anglers fishing bottom did well with ling.  The Golden Eagle from Belmar had great weather for their experimental chumming trip far offshore to locate big blues, but there was no report by 5 p.m.

Northern NJ fluking remains slow for keepers, but shorts are more abundant now. The action’s been in the ocean, and bay fishing remains tough. The Elaine B. II from Bahrs in Highlands got into a good shot of ling in shallower waters on Monday, indicating that ocean bottom temperatures remain low.

Vinny D’Anton worked hard to catch a 21-inch striper on his Chug Bug at Manasquan, and lost an 18-incher in the surf — but nothing else was caught there this morning.

 

 

After not raising anything to a popper yesterday morning in the Manasquan surf, I switched to the Band of Anglers Dart Spin plastic (ith a metal blade at the rear) as it had produced fluke the last time I used it there. There were still no hits until it got stuck even though I was retrieving at a steady pace.

After pulling hard to either get off or break my 30-pound braid, there was some movement before I reeled in what I hoped was a fluke but didn’t feel like one. The culprit turned out to be a 19-inch, 6-pound stargazer.

I should have realized what I had hooked as they are common in the surf and typically feel like a snag when first hooked.

That was the largest I’ve caught, though they grow to at least twice that size. While potential problems in handling most fish are obvious, the stargazer’s mouth full of sharp teeth isn’t all you have to worry about as they can give you a shock if you touch the top of their head. The bigger the stargazer, the greater the shock. Yet, they can be handled by holding them under the body — or under the gill cover.

Releasing stargazers is an experience as they are likely to dig in rather than swimming away. Mine was completely covered with sand in a second, and you’d never know he was there. The same thing may happen when they’re being reeled in to shore. I’ve seen anglers who have fought a fish stare in amazement when they see nothing at the end of their line even though they can’t reel any further. Stargazers are edible, though I doubt if you’ll ever see such an ugly species in a fish store.  They will hit a wide variety of lures, especially jigs or metal bounced off bottom, but rarely put up much of a fight. Yet, with so little variety in our surf, I welcome those occasional surprises especially after getting shut out on them last year.

It was another great week in the canyons for the Canyon Runner fleet from Point Pleasant. They caught over 100 tuna which were mostly yellowfins and bluefins plus bigeyes and a 300-pound giant. In addition there were dolphin, a 92-inch 375-pound mako shark and 12 white marlin — including five one day. Capt. Deane Lambros has already accounted for 20 bigeyes out of the fleet’s 25.

Vinny D’AntoN tried Shark River after the early storms and rasised a couple of bass or blues, but went to the beach to release six small bass on his Chug Bug.

Wednesday looks like a beauty, with northwest winds at just 5 knots before they switch to southwest in the afternoon. The Golden Eagle from Belmar is planning a run far offshore to locate big blues which have been absent inshore lately.

The Big Mohawk from that port will be sailing early for fluke at 6 a.m. this week before taking reservations for Saturday and Sunday sailings at 5:30 a.m.

 

 

 

 

 

Though it’s nothing like the hot fishing of the spring, striped bass remain on the menu in NY-NJ Bight all summer — at least for the pros who know how to catch them.

I fished with two such striper pros Sunday, and released legal stripers both trips. Chuck Many has earned his reputation while winning many tournaments over the years, but Sunday morning he and I joined old friend Capt. Fletcher Chayes on his Two Rivers Charters for a fun trip to areas he doesn’t fish often. While fishing together a few years ago, Fletcher spotted my class ring  and noted that we’re brothers in Lamda Chi Alpha fraternity — he at LSU and me at Colgate. We also enjoyed a great trip to Pesca Panama a few years ago.

Chayes only needed one throw of his cast net to fill the live well, and we headed up to Hudson River to work several of Many’s drops. Bluefish were a surprising problem at the first, and we also spent some time in East River in the course of releasing eight stripers up to a 37-incher within a few hours.

After Fletcher dropped us off at Gateway Marina in Highlands, we walked to Many’s Ty Man as Hugh Mura and his son Dan joined us along with Bob Bowden for the afternoon tide. Bunkers were hard to come by in the afternoon boat traffic, but Many made a long run that payed off in a net-full on his only throw.

The bass were waiting for us where we had left them. It wasn’t easy fishing, and we missed many hits from fussy fish, but Hugh got us off to a good start with three and the rest of us caught up . Chuck only ran the boat to put us on his pieces as we ended up catching 10  legal bass ranging up to 36 inches plus two shorts.  Not wild action, but not bad for weekend daytime summer fishing in an area surrounded by millions of people!

Trolling reports haven’t been as good. Capt. Chris Di Stefano fished aboard Frank Criscola’s Crisdel out of Brielle Yacht Club yesterday while looking for entries in the Navesink-Shrewsbury River Club contest,  — but never got a bass hit. Crisdel is expert at trolling Shrewsbury Rocks with umbrella rigs, and they rarely fail there.

Fluking is looking up  after a very poor start. Capt. Ron Santee, of the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands, said he saw more shorts and some keepers as Jimmy Valentino fell just two ounces shy of the monthly pool with a 4-pound, 10-ounce fluke. The pool is up to over $900.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar didn’t find any blues today, but did see some bonito running through the slick, Jon Falkowski was aboard and confirmed their report of very good ling fishing.

.At Seaside Park, Grumpy’s Tackle reports some bass, blues and drum are being hooked in the surf — and fluking is improving. Betty & Nick’s  noted that schools of bunkers are out-of-range, though nothing has been on them.

Showers and patchy fog are coming in later tonight. The wind will be south at 10-15 knots in the morning with gusts to 20,

 

Summer stripers cooperated today in the Hudson River during two trips from Highlands which I’ve just returned from. Though too tired to go into details now, I’ll detail that info in tomorrow’s blog.

Capt. Stan Zagleski reported the best fluking of the season on Sunday’s trip of Elaine B. II from Bahrs in Highlands. Shorts provided lots of action and keepers were mixed on as both Spros and natural baits produced.

The weather was great today, and Monday looks even better with 5-10 knot west winds.

 

 

The weather was great, but there were surprisingly few reports today. Tomorrow looks like another great one with a  northwest breeze at 10 knots switching to west in the afternoon

The N,J, sea bass season closes this evening, which is bad news for all the party boats that have been depending on them to fill bags with bluefishing off to another poor summer start and fluking very spotty so far.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar had a very good sea bass catch today, but will be looking for ling and anything other than sea bass on Sunday if bluefish don’t show again. Check with your favorite skipper before coming down.

Capt. Rob Semkewyc of the Sea Hunter at Atlantic Highlands was happy with the weather today, and saw a lot more action with short fluke, but keepers are still hard to come by.

Capt. Dave De Gennaro is excited about getting weather suitable for offshore fishing by small boats. He says bluefins are 50 to 60 miles off, and he may have room for a last minute angler tomorrow at $350. Call 732 330-5674 for info about that and other trips this week.

The Jamaica from Brielle has a tilefish trip sailing at 10 p.m. Sunday that has some spaces available. The weather looks perfect for that trip, and the last one earlier this month produced quite a few large tilefish. Joe Tomaszewski of South Amboy had two 30-pounders to take the pool — and there was a boat limit catch plus a few of the smaller blueline tilefish.  Call 732 528-5014 for reservations.

Frank Criscola’s Crisdel made its first canyon trip of the season yesterday from Brielle Yacht Club to Hudson Canyon, which turned on after having been poor earlier in the week. Capt. Chris Di Stefano was aboard as the crew trolled five bigeye tuna up to about a 200-pounder plus lots of mostly small yellowfin and bluefin tuna up to a 40-pounder  — and went two out of three on white marlin opportunities. Earlier in the week boats were running all the way to Wilmington Canyon where it was mostly yellowfins.

It’s officially summer now, and the rainy weather is supposed to give us a break, though a few showers remained today. It was actually perfect for fishing in Shark River this morning, but Vinny D’Anton was the only angler to get any action even though that amounted to losing a school striper on his Chug Bug while getting three other surface strikes. He later made up for that with two schoolies in the Manasquan surf. Frank Manzi caught a surf schoolie that had a mouth full of sand flies (mole crabs) that were still alive. I ended up in Spring Lake and released a 24-inch striper that inhaled a Band of Anglers Spin Dart.

Joe Melillo reports from Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant that the best bet is a good run of blowfish from the pier at the south  end of Point Pleasant Canal. Clams have been working, and he has rigs for that fishing. There’s no better eating in the ocean than blowfish — chicken of the sea.

Bob Matthews reports from Fisherman’s Den in Belmar Marina that a skin diver shot a 6-pound sheepshead in Shark River Inlet. That species is common in South Jersey and up to the south jetty of Barnegat Inlet, but rare north of that.

The Golden Eagle from that port put a charter party into all the sea bass and ling they wanted today. Saturday is the last day for N.J. sea bass fishing. It will reopen from July 1 to Aug. 31, but with only two fish at a 12 1/2-inch minimum as a by-catch for fluke fishermen.

Fluke fishing remains a pick in the Raritan Bay area, but several party boats will be added to the fleet seeking then when sea bass go out-of-season.

Grumpy’s  Tackle in Seaside Park reports surf fishing has been slow the last few days, but they’re hoping for a return of the black drum that created so much excitement last Friday.  Some kingfish are being reported in the surf.

The weather is looking up this weekend with northwest winds at 10-15 knots and gusts to 20 on Saturday. A great looking Sunday features 10 knot northwest winds that should be perfect for heading offshore to the mid-range tuna grounds or for sharking in the continuing mako tournaments.

 

Trying to get this out between thunder storms, so it will be short.

There’s a big change this weekend as sea bass fishing closes in N.J. after Saturday, while N.Y. begins fishing for that species on Sunday.

A big surprise in N.J. is the switch of the Big Jamaica from Brielle to fluke. That traditional bluefish boat has been sea bass fishing recently, and after Saturday will sail daily from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for fluke. They’ve also  converted their Saturday night trip from blues to ling at 4:30 p.m.  That worked out very well last weekend. Tilefish trips depart at 10 p.m. on June 23and 30. Call 732 528-5014 for tilefish reservations.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported jigging a few 3-5-pound blues this morning before switching to sea bass and ling. That boat is chartered tomorrow.

A dense fog advisory is up tonight, but that should be patchy as the northwest wind comes up in the morning at 10-15 knots before increasing to 15-20 in the afternoon. Showers  are possible in the morning.

Joe Melillo, at Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant, reports some small stripers are being jigged in the canal during the morning, while boaters are doing well with fluke in Manasquan River — including some 5-pounders. Sand eels and squid are best. Crabbing is excellent.

Grumpy’s Tackle in Seaside Park reports fishing has been slower the last few days, but there are still some black drum being hooked.