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Quest for the Ring returns to Atlantic City July 13-19

Coach Jimmy Johnson returns to N.J. with his Quest for the Ring Fishing Tournament from July 13-19. Weigh-ins will also be available at Sunset Marina in Ocean City, Maryland for the southern fleet.

The first bjg offshore contest at Big Rock only produced three weigh-ins of blue marlin at 400 pounds or more, but there were lots of smaller blues for the release categories. Tuna were scarce at time, but Dante Soriente reports doing well with them in a North Jersey tournament last weekend.

The forecast in NY/NJ Bight is for northwest winds at just 5 knots.

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.

Bluefish building up

While many party boats switched to fluke when the N.J. sea bass season ended, the Golden Eagle from Belmar went looking for bluefish with yesterday’s results: “06/21/2025

It was a mixed bag out on the water today.

We saw bird life at times with BLUES rolling and breaking water on the surface. We managed to pick at them over a couple of drifts and they were hitting both poppers and jigs.

There was also short FLUKE action with some KEEPERS in the mix along with a few CHUB MACKEREL and LING on board.

We saw bir

There was also short FLUKE action with some KEEPERS in the mix along with a few CHUBB MACKEREL and LING on board.

We saw bird life at times with BLUES rolling and breaking water on the surface. We managed to pick at them over a couple of drifts and they were hitting both poppers and jigs.

There was also short FLUKE action with some KEEPERS in the mix along with a few CHUBB MACKEREL and LING on board.

Capt. Ron Santee had no drift for fluke when he started today with his Fishermen out of Atlantic Highlands, and had to power drift before some rain and wind turned on the bite for fluke up to a 4-pounder.

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The marine forecast for NJ/NJ Bight is for northwest winds at only 5 knots before changing to southwest at 10-15 plus gusts to 20 in the afternoon.

Big tilefish on Viking long range trip

The Viking Fleet from Montauk had another productive multi-day trip as follows:

Mon June 16 to Fri June 20 – Jigaholic’s Charter

Capt Steven Sr. reports a great charter on the Viking Starship. The weather took us south again to where we fished on last weeks trip. We started out in horrible conditions with wind against tide. As it got nicer we picked away at Golden Tiles and lots of Rosies. Since the fishing was good we stayed there overnight and got back at it the next morning. It started out and continued as a slow pick, so we worked our way north and found a few everywhere we went. Overnight and into the next day we continued north and stopped where we had Blueline Tuna. It was absolute Epic Fishing! A mess of Golden Tiles 20 to 49 lbs. All in all a great trip. Honorable Mention goes to Duane “Jigaholic Master” with 6 Golden Tiles in the 30 to 49 lb Class and a bunch of Blueline Tiles. #offshore#goldentilefish#tilefish#vikingstarship#offshorefishing#jigging

Pool winners

Golden Tile Jig – Dwayne Sherard – 48.7 lb

Golden Tile BaitPeter Chu – 42.9 lb

Edible pool Nat Johnson – 12 lb Hake

Blueline Tile – Brad Bergen – 22.2 lb (1 lb shy of all time world record!)

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12

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The marine forecast in NY/NJ Bight is for southwest winds at 10-15 knots plus gusts to 20.

NJ fluke are targeted

Capt. Ron Santee of the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands reports a good start to fluking after the N.J. sea bass closure. “Several guys had their three, a double limit and a couple guys with 4-5 nice keepers including, Bob Newsom, Steve Tauchman, Catskill John, Arnaldo, Fred Piklua, Pillip Pachiolo and Owen Werner.” That boat is chartered on Saturday.

Prowler 5 from that port had a slow start to fluking yesterday before conditions improved and multiple limits were posted.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar switched to bluefish, and found some plus a keeper striper. Changing over to fluke at midday produced action on every drift which included some keepers.

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

Fluke & blues replace sea bass for NJ party boats

The Golden Eagle from Belmar ended up the NJ spring sea bass season with lots of those fish today. and will switch to bluefish on Friday. The Big Mohawk from that port will seek fluke — as will the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands– which is chartered on Saturday.

Great weather continues as west winds of 10-15 knots are forecast.

Last day for N.J. sea bass until October

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reports “IT WAS PHENOMENAL FISHING TODAY! IT DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER!!

There were plenty of SEA BASS stacked up on the bottom and

both jigs and bait worked excellent.

We had a BOAT LIMIT OF JUMBO SEA BASS with LING in the mix.

With this EXCELLENT FISHING and a GREAT WEATHER FORECAST FOR TOMORROW, don’t miss out—COME ON DOWN.

Tomorrow is your last chance for SEA BASS until October.

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The forecast is for southwest winds at 5-10 knots until going south 15-20 plus gusts to 25 in the afternoon. There will also be very high temperatures. Bring ice!

Beaten up by little tunny

I’ve long contended that the little tunny is one of the great game fish on a pound for pound basis – and that was emphasized Saturday off St. Lucie Inlet Florida as a couple of them beat up this old fisherman as I was drifting live baits on the artificial reef complex along with Luis Gonzalez. Those tunny pulled me all over my nephew Bob Correlll’s 34-foot Sea Vee center console and pounded into the depths while fighting like fish twice their size. Perhaps my 89-year-old back had something to do with that, but I was very impressed. Little tunny get no respect due to their poor food quality, and have been tagged with such names as false albacore in the north and bonito in the south where they are regarded as bait rather than a great game fish. After those battles, I was happy to come out of them without a sore back, and I’m looking forward to my next shot at them.

Capt. Steven Sr. reported another great overnighter on the Viking Fleet from Montauk. I lost the report in trying to copy it, but it included lots of golden tilefish and a limit of bluelines plus a school bluefin tuna.

Capt. Ron Santee reported a very good sea bass catch on Father’s Day from his Fishermen out of Atlantic Highlands despite cranky conditions. That boat is chartered on Saturday,

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The NY/NJ Bight forecast is for west winds at 5-10 knots with a chance of showers and thunderstorms — which will dominate on Thursday.

Little tunny before release by beat-up old angler

NJ sea bass closes after Thursday

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reports continued good sea bass fishing though the spring season for that species which will be over after Thursday. Jigs worked best on the last trip.

At Atlantic Highlands, Prowler 5 reports decent fluking Sunday despite tough conditions. Keepers up to a 3.9-pounder were caught along with a legal weakfish.

I haven’t been able to get any official results of the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament out of Morehead City, N.C. other than Big Trouble’s $2.3 million winning 517.1 pound blue. The only other official blue over the 400-pound minimum was the the 449.7-pound entry by the father-daughter team on Bankwalker. Southern Grace weighed a 653.7 after a Marathon battle only to be disqualified due to the mutilation rule.

Other leaders at the end included a 47.2-pound dolphin on Sea Wish which was estimated to win $548,250. There was almost a complete lack of tuna as Smoker ran away with that category with a 117.4-pound entry. MJ’S, the North Jersey bigeye specialist, took second on the last day with a 32-pounder. The top wahoo was a 60.7-pounder on Bull Pen.

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The forecast for NY/NJ Bight is for east winds at 5-10 knots.