Yesterday was a pretty day inshore, but tuna trollers were frustrated by the lack of visibility for spotting birds, dolphins and whales that could lead them to bluefin tuna.

Bob Correll sailed with Mike Heaney on his Sea Vee from Clarks Landing in Point Pleasant, and the crew headed to Little Italy where we quickly boated a 48-incher last Sunday. The tuna didn’t seem to be there. and they ended up at Monster Ledge, where little tunny provided some action, An unusual catch was made on a chain of feathers. Bob said it was about an 18-incher shaped like a tropical mackerel — but wasn’t a Spanish. From his description, I suspect it was an early-arriving king mackerel which lacks any spots such as on the Spanish and cero. Kings have become occasional visitors off the Jersey Shore in the summer, but almost all in smaller sizes caught hooked by school tuna trollers.

Lots of tournaments are coming up, and I’ll try to get that info together tomorrow.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported looking everywhere for the jumbo blues which have been up-and-down this week. Some up to 12 pounds were jigged today, but the volume wasn’t there. The Big Mohawk from that port did well with sea bass today before adding ling and even some whiting. They’re keeping an eye on Monday’s weather, so check with them before coming down. The marine forecast is for southeast winds of 15-20 knots with gusts to 25.

Capt. Rob Semkewyz continues to pick away at fluke with his Sea Hunter from Atlantic Highlands — but is encouraged by rising water temps and increasing bait.

Tank Matraxia and his Lyndhurst crew did well jigging sea bass last week on Tagged Fish from Highlands, but they were surprised to find an empty hook rigged above the jig and found that over half of the sea bass hit that empty hook.

Sand flea (mole crab) fishing is producing summer school stripers in many surf areas. Most of the bass are small, but it’s a good way to catch stripers for those who aren’t proficient with lures — and keepers aren’t unusual. Here’s Jim Louro’s daughter Sophia with a typical sand flea bass released this morning.

Former Rutgers star tight end Clark Harris, who went on to an NFL career and is presently the long snapper for the Cincinnati Bengals, ran away with big striper honors at Friday’s Manhattan Cup out of Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City.

Harris was fishing with his half-brother, Jim Hutchinson of the Fisherman magazine, aboard Jersey Devil when two big bass hit live bunkers down the beach. They were quickly measured, tagged and released. Clark’s bass was the largest at 48 inches and gained all the glory while Jim’s didn’t earn any awards despite being by far the second largest of the contest.

Wounded veteran Elfain Diaz was supposed to fish with a boat that broke down on the way to Jersey City, and was welcomed aboard My Three Sons from Morgan Marina by Joe Massa to fish along with Guy Talarico and me. That turned out well for him even though we had a tough bite in the back of the bay. Diaz released a 34-inch striper that was the largest by a vet, and earned the new Chris Raguso Memorial award in honor of that hero who died in the course of saving others. Talarico caught the only other eligible fish in the boat, and his blue of about 7 pounds won a private boat award. I lost a big blue that bit through the 40-pound leader.

I haven’t received the full list of winners yet, and will fill in when they become available. The most interesting catches weren’t involved in the contest as Manhattan Cup founder Capt. Frank Crescitelli found a school of big black drum in the bay. One over 50 pounds was released on a bucktail, and another on a fly!

The Golden Eagle from Belmar had to make a very long run today, but located a school of jumbo blues up to 15 pounds on jigs.

The first good party boat fluke report came in from Capt. Stan Zagleski of Elaine B II from Bahrs in Highlands. He reported more keepers today including a few limits — and also more shorts. As has been the case lately, many fluke are spotting up small porgies. The pool went to Mike Scher of Long Branch with a 5-pounder.

Vinny D’Anton of Wall fished his local beach yesterday with sand fleas to release bigger stripers of 28 and 26 inches. However, it was back to smaller bass this morning as Vinny picked a 21-incher and I released a 22 1/2-incher — though we had a few other hits.

 

Not everyone caught blues or stripers, but all involved had a great time fishing in today’s Manhattan Cup held out of Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City. Capt. Brian Rice of Jersey Devil made the best move of all by running down the beach with live bunkers to hook a doubleheader of the two biggest stripers in the contest where all fish are measured and released. Jim Hutchinson of the Fisherman magazine boated one of about 39 pounds, but his stepbrother, Clark Harris, took the Manhattan Cup trophy with a 43-pounder.

I’ll have more about this tomorrow.

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Saying the latest trip on the Canyon Runner from Point Pleasant was the best in 37 years may be hard to believe, but a long trip in the Ritchie 60 to an area where yellowfins had been reported produced a released 90-inch giant tuna, seven bigeyes from 90 to 130 pounds, 30 yellowfins, and 30 smaller bluefins . Most of the smaller tunas were released by Capt. Deane Lambros and the KieronTraynor party.  I’ve been having a tough time writing on Word Press tonight, and am making this short in hopes of getting something out. The Shore bluefish fleet hasn’t been able to find the jumbo blues since Tuesday, but are catching sea bass. I’m fishing the Manhattan Cup on Friday, son the blog will be late — if I can overcome this problem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 39th annual South Jersey Shark Tournament out of South Jersey Marina in Cape May gets the shark tournament season going for big money contests. It runs through June 8, with boaters fishing two out of three days.

At Fisherman’s Den in Belmar Marina, Bob Matthews reports tuna, sea bass and striped bass are the best bets. He’s weighed stripers up to 42 pounds recently, with early morning bunker spoon trolling providing a  pick of trophy bass.

There was some improvement in the river fluking as a rental boat returned yesterday with eight keeper fluke. More normally they catch two to four keepers with three times as many shorts.  Small stripers are being caught in the surf at night, and bluefish during the day.

Nick Honachefsky of Saltwater Underground joined Chris Driscoll, Christian Palmisano and Brian Keating as they ran 30 miles offshore on Fortunate Son to troll two 45-inch bluefin tuna yesterday on Chatter black and purple side trackers among dolphins and a whale.

There was no word as of 5 p.m. from the Golden  Eagle and Miss Belmar Princess as to whether they were able to find the jumbo blues encountered yesterday.

I cast a jig in Point Pleasant Canal with ideal conditions on the outgoing tide after daylight, but never had a bump. Jerry Lasko said he missed a few hits in another area of the canal before daylight, while Maren Toleno caught a small striper on a Bomber.

Thursday’s forecast is for southwest winds at 10-15 knots with gusts to 20 before diminishing to 5-10 in the afternoon. There may be some morning showers.

The Manhattan Cup will be contested Friday at its new site in Liberty Landing Marina at Jersey City. Last minute entries are possible by calling Gary Caputi at 732 740-9982.

The first year I fished that event (when it was in May) the weather was horrible, with a cold rain, hail, thunderstorms — and a tornado warning for Raritan  Bay to top it off. The weather the next year wasn’t much better, but it’s been a lot better since then —  looks perfect for Friday. Refer to the press releases from recent blogs for details about this event which primarily benefits disabled vets — including many who will be fishing for stripers and blues Friday.

There was good news today from the Golden Eagle out of Belmar as they started out catching sea bass before jumbo blues up to about 15 pounds showed up again. Anglers were able to jig as many as they wanted only a half-hour from the inlet.

Dave Lilly of Hazlet is probably the best fluke pro in N.J., with a string of tournament wins to prove it. Yet, he’s also found fluking to be terrible so far this year. He was all over today with no action until a rough bottom area off Sandy Hook produced the best ling bite he’s had in 30 years. The ling were big, and hit Gulp as well as squid on the drift. He left them biting to search for fluke again, and finally found a keeper plus a few shorts near West Bank.

At Atlantic Highlands, both the Sea Hunter and the Fishermen reported slightly better fluking today with some shorts and a few keepers. The Fishermen started out bottom fishing on rough bottom to put meat in the bags with sea bass up to 3 pounds plus a few ling and a couple of winter flounder.

Ray Soriente ran his outboard from Barnegat Bay to the north and found loads of bunkers from Shark River north. Working live bunkers didn’t produce, nor did hours of trolling.  Ray noted that fluking has been poor in Barnegat Bay so far.

Jerry Lasko and Maren Toleno fished both the bay and surf sides of IBSP without a hit. Grumpy’s Tackle in Seaside Park once again is getting reports of small sand tiger sharks hitting bunker baits intended for stripers and blues.

Vinny D’Anton of Wall came up with his first bigger striper on sand fleas this morning with a 27 1/2-incher from his local surf after being shut out in Shark River.

The Mimi VI from Point Pleasant will be sailing open for sea bass and ling at 7 a.m.  on Thursday. Call 732 370-8019 for reservations on the $75 trip.

Chris Mc Ginn was trolling a bunker spoon off Long Branch on Saturday from Hammer & Tails when he reached the summit of striped bass fishing success by hooking a 50-pounder. After trolling his trophy, he measured the 50-incher and weighed her at 52.10 pounds before releasing her to pass on those big bass genes to future generations.

While there hasn’t been much volume from the current run of big stripers, several in the fifties have been recorded along with many more 40-pounders. It’s been primarily a trolling bite, and lots of patience is usually required to get the right bite. There have also been reports of hits that just keep going before breaking off or dumping wire line reels — though those strikes are almost surely from bluefin tuna.

The 48-inch bluefin I caught Sunday while trolling with Mike Heaney on his Sea Vee from Point Pleasant in Little Italy wasn’t weighed, but I looked up a table of bluefin weights to length and that fish was listed at 65 pounds. It should have been on the heavy side of that average as it was stuffed with small sand eels  — many of which hadn’t even been swallowed when it hit a Chatter side tracker trolling bar just minutes after we started trolling. Al with Bob Correll in photo.

 

For the first time I was more worried about getting the $125 lure back than catching the fish, which was on the lightest tackle aboard — a Shimano TLD25 reel more suitable for small school tuna rather than an “over”.

 

This year’s regulations allow boats permitted in the Angling category to boat two small bluefins from 27 to 47 inches plus one large school/small medium of greater than 47 inches to less than 73 inches.  Charter boats are allowed three school tuna plus one large — and there’s also a quota for head boats of six schoolies and two large.

Boaters must be sure to obtain that permit by visiting http://www.nmfspermits.com or calling 888 872-tuna.

The surprise jigging catch of jumbo blues yesterday on the Golden Eagle from Belmar wasn’t repeated as blues they encountered were skittish and wouldn’t hit. They settled for a pick of sea bass.

The same applied to the big bluefish surf run at IBSP. Jerry Lasko said they never showed up this morning, though Maren Toleno caught a medium blue on a popper cast on the bay side.

I tried Shark River along with Vinny D’Anton as we failed to get a hit in good conditions. I moved to Point Pleasant Canal and did the same thing where other anglers said there hadn’t been a hit.

Grumpy’s Tackle in Seaside Park had an unusual report of sand tiger sharks hitting bunker baits being fished for bass and blues . Those being sighted have been in the 3-4-foot class. Some anglers fish for them at night during the summer. They are protected and must be released.

At Atlantic Highlands, I haven’t been getting reports because Capt. Ron Santee frankly said fluking has been terrible. The only bright spot has been the occasional blast of big stripers that came up a couple of times early last week around Santee’s Fishermen and the Sea Hunter. Santee had a charter on Sunday and didn’t hesitate to switch to bottom fishing for sea bass, ling and some winter flounder which resulted in fillets for all. The Sea Hunter got lucky with a Saturday afternoon charter when big blues and stripers butted into the fluke fishing.

The forecast for Tuesday is northwest winds at 10 knots early, but switching to southwest with gusts to 20 in the afternoon.

Mike Heeny of Allendale ran through Little Italy with his See Vee from Clarks Landing in Point Pleasant on the way offshore for tuna, and liked the looks of the bird action. Bob Correll ran out the $125 Chatter side running bar he’d bought the day before, and we were only trolling a few minutes before the Shimano TLD 25 reel started screaming. We had to run up on the fish to regain line, and I was tied up for awhile on that light reel before we were shocked to see a 48-inch “over” bluefin tuna just 14 miles from shore. I’ll have more about this tomorrow.

Jerry Lasko was into a big blue blitz in the IBSP surf this morning. The fish were moving fast, but he got four on poppers while Maren Toleno landed seven.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar got into a hot jigging bite of blues up to 14-15 pounds, and will be looking for them again tomorrow in clearing northwest winds at 7:30.

 

The Surf Kings competition yesterday evening at the Sea Girt National Guard facility only produced two small blues on bait. American Anglers took the lead with a 22 3/4-incher. but 45 minutes later Ray Lewis landed a 23 /4-incher to win the award for Surf Kings in an event that’s been contested for about 30 years. I made a few casts without result before dusk and a great cookout to conclude the friendly competition.

 

Though they normally don’t show up off the Jersey Shore until late summer, tuna trollers are already reporting quantities of little tunny jumping on their lures. I remember that happening once before, at least a decade ago, when they were mixed with small bluefins on the mid-range grounds. However, the bluefins being caught lately have been mostly much larger tuna such as the photo below which disappeared from yesterday’s blog when I published. That bluefin was trolled last Sunday from Capt. Dave De Gennaro’s Hi Flier out of Barnegat,

Capt. Chris Di Stefano was fishing aboard Frank Criscola’s center console from Brielle when the only fish of the day was trolled last week — but it turned out to weigh 54 pounds with the gill removed. Ironically, it was the same time last year when Chris took his son out and put him into a bass over 50 pounds on their boat from Shark River Yacht Club.

Fluke reports have been sparse with cold water still prevailing in the ocean and shorts dominating inshore. However, Greg Bazsa of Carteret did well Friday from his boat in Raritan Bay with four shorts and three keepers up to one of the biggest reported so far — an 8.25-pounder that was weighed at Fred’s Tackle in Sayreville.

Jerry Lasko and Maren Toleno fished Island Beach State Park this morning and managed to get poppers to the only surface flurry they came across. Jerry said those blues were jumbos. There were lots of anglers on the beach, and they saw a few blues caught on bait.

At Seaside Park, Grumpy’s Tackle reported mostly big blues in both the surf and bay, but also weighed a surf bass of 38 inches and 17.9 pounds landed by Paul Berger in the surf on a bunker head.

Betty & Nick’s weighed two stripers this morning of 12 pounds on bunker and 15 pounds on clam. They also noted that big blues are in the inlet and hitting yellow Ava diamond jigs.

As of this morning, the Big Jamaica from Brielle had two openings on the Sunday 10 p.m. tilefish trip. Call 732 528-5014 for info.

Gary Caputi was fishing for the mid-range bluefins today, and reported that they moved from the areas where they had been. He still managed two large  little tunny, and said one boater making his first trip of the season managed to find the whales later in the day to make the only good tuna catch.

There was lots of boat traffic in point Pleasant Canal this morning, and I was happy to settle for a 21-inch birthday striper on a shad jig.

The forecast for Monday is south winds at 10 knots early, but becoming 10-15 with gusts to 20 in the afternoon with a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Continue reading → Little tunny move into tuna grounds

Capt. Dave De Gennaro got into the hot bluefin tuna bite  off  the central N.J. Shore on Memorial Day, and was limited out with 40-to-100-pounders by noon on his Hi Flier from Barnegat.. A call from Brian on the Dora Lee put him into the area of feeding whales and dolphins where the bluefins were gorging on sand eels.

The hot trolling lured were the Chatter Side tracking Bars which produced three tuna, and the Superbird Bar  that lured the other tuna.  Jim and Brady Trainor, Chip De Paul and Chris Whiting, all from Cherry Hill, were the anglers.  Hi Flier is running an open tuna trip on Sunday.  Call 732 330-5674 for info.

The Jamaica from Brielle had many limits of sea bass plus ling on its daily 7:30 a.m. trip. A monkfish (angler) was also caught . Alex Bell (8) of Whippany won the pool with a 4-pound ling.

The Jamaica has room on a tilefish trip departing at 10 p.m. Sunday. Call 732 528-5014 for reservations.

Allen Riley had good news from the Sandy Hook surf this morning as his South Plainfield partner  John Mazzeo fished fresh cut bunker to beach a 38-inch striper estimated at 22 pounds before release.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar was into lots of small blues this morning, but they had a hard time catching them. A switch to bottom fishing produce a pick of sea bass.

Bob Correll and I joined Mike Heany of Allendale on his first trip of the season aboard his Sea Vee from Clarks Landing in Point Pleasant. We didn’t leave until 10 a.m., but found lots of bunkers just north of the inlet and up to Asbury Park, but there were no signs of stripers in them. North of there we didn’t see any bunkers. There were a few bluefish cuts on our live baits. Pound-size blues came up under birds as they fed on rainfish, and we caught some on metal.

I have lots more news to catch up on, but am still having writing problems with Word Press. Will try to catch up tomorrow.