Tuna fishing off the N.J. coast started well, and continues to improve.

Capt. Mark DeBlasio reports from his Blue Runner out of Point Pleasant: on the July4-5 trip.

Beautiful weather and loads of action for our open boat group. Over 35 Bluefins caught / released plus 4 for 6 on nice Yellowfins. Added a couple of Marlin releases and a Mahi. Really nice to put 11 year old Mason on his first Tuna

Jersey Nutz Sportfishing made a July 4 trip on the 53-footer that produced eight yellowfins, two bigeyes and three bluefins plus a white marlin release — and they still got home for the festivities.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar opted to anchor up due to today’s wind, and had a steady pick of ling and whiting. Everyone also got the one sea bass now allowed in N.J.

The Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands had a good day with keeper fluke up to the 4 5/16-pound pool winner. However, some bigger fluke were lost due to not being hooked well in deep waters where heavy sinkers are required. Bring a rod with enough backbone!

A small craft advisory is up through Sunday afternoon, though the forecast sounds fine by morning with west winds at 5 knots before going south in the afternoon.

The Golden Eagle had another day of limit bluefish jigging. Those 1-to-3-pounders hit best on jigs and teasers. The Queen Mary from Point Pleasant has also been limiting with those blues most days.

The Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands has been into more keeper fluke by fishing deeper waters where rods with some backbone are needed to set hooks. A 5-pounder won today’s pool, but several bigger fluke were lost due to the use of “noodle” rods that can’t set kooks when heavy sinkers are needed,

A small craft advisory is up through Sunday afternoon.

𝟏,𝟒𝟎𝟐-𝐩𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐥

On February 29, 1992, Paolo Roberto Amorim set the IGFA All-Tackle Atlantic blue marlin record with an incredible 1,402-pound, 2-ounce specimen he landed in Vitoria, Brazil.

On a day that only comes around once every four years—a leap year—he landed a once in a lifetime fish. The heaviest blue marlin ever recorded by the IGFA was tricked into biting a Mold Craft lure and was landed after a one-hour, twenty-minute fight.

Good news from the Golden Eagle out of Belmar as they found 2-lb. blues for jigging. with some anglers limiting on the first drift when blues were read 20-40-feet deep. Diamond jigs worked best. A drift for sea bass produced the single sea bass now allowed as by-catch in N.J. The first bonito I’ve heard of so far was also boated.

The Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands had better luck with keeper fluke today as several fares caught their three. A 5.4-pounder took the daily pool, but wasn’t entered in the monthly.

The forecast is for south winds at 5-10 knots before going to 10-15 plus gusts to 20 in the afternoon. Patchy fog and showers are possible.

Fluke pro Dave Lilly has had no problem coming up with fluke limits for his crew this season in NY/NJ Bight at the same most boaters are catching lots of shorts but few keepers. Dave emphasizes that long drifts aren’t working. Whenever you catch a keeper, work that spot from every angle instead of continuing the drift.

Lilly has also found that rigging a Tsunami Glass Minnow tipped with Gulp well above the sinker or jig has been the best producer.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported very fast action close to shore with short fluke plus some keepers and a few sea bass and ling.

The forecast is for south winds at 10-15 knots.

The annual July 4 World Cup Blue Marlin Tournament will be fished around much of the world tomorrow. The basic entry costs $5,000, and the minimum size is 500 pounds.

It seems as if every Raritan Bay charter boat is equipped with a Percy cast net with which to load a live well with bunkers which are often the key to successful striper fishing. For decades, Percy has been demonstrating how even a man in his eighties could open up his net. As of today he’s demonstrating how a 90-year-old can do so!

Percy also mates for Capt. Vinnie Vetere on his Katfish from Great Kills. Those trips start with netting bunkers, and Percy also performs all the other mate functions which end in filleting the legal-size catch. Percy is an inspiration to relative youngsters like me as well as to anglers of all ages.

Capt. Ron Santee Jr. said yesterday was far too windy for drifting fluke in deep waters with his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands, but he was pleased to see the water temperature get up as high as 65. Yet, the fluke coming up from the bottom still felt ice cold.

At Belmar, the Golden Eagle reported as follows:

There was a better showing of KEEPER FLUKE for us today. Fishermen were dialed in early this morning on great action on throwbacks with nice KEEPER FLUKE in the mix. It continued until late morning when the drift slowed up. We moved offshore and had nice JUMBO SEA BASS along with LING and KEEPER FLUKE “

Capt. Ralph Leyrer of Last Lady had a similar report of keeper fluke during an open boat charter.

The Big Mohawk had this 10-pound, 11-ounce doormat come aboard on June 25.

The forecast is for south winds at 5 knots before going southeast at 10-15 plus gusts to 20 in the afternoon. Patchy fog is possible in the morning.

The Viking Fleet at Montauk reports “ri June 28 – 3 Day Captain’s Choice – Viking Fivestar

Capt Steven Jr. reports a lively trip on the Viking Fivestar. Due to weather we did have to cut the trip short, but we still manged to get our fish with 20 Yellow Fin Tuna up to 80lbs and 6 Blue Fin Tunas. We also had a nice pile of Tiles! That warm water has seemed to move into our backyard and it brought plenty of life with it! For this trip, most fish were caught on the troll, however we did have some on jigs.” Check with them for the next special.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar had great fluke action today, though there were only some keepers among the shorts. However, the season for a single sea bass a man opened July 1, and they did have a few of those in today’s catch.

The forecast is for north winds at 5-10 knots before going southeast in the afternoon.

FOUND THIS ON FACEBOOK TODAY

” A catch that remains shrouded in mystery and history, but no one denies the monster Pacific blue made it to the docks to be weighed. It’s the Hawaii state record, which outweighs the IGFA world-record of 1,376 pounds. The IGFA record was caught out of Kona, Hawaii in May of 1982 by Jay de Beaubien. For what it’s worth, there are marlin caught by commercial anglers that reportedly weighed more than 2,000 pounds.

This incredible fish became known as “Choy’s Monster” and hasn’t been broken for over 50 years.”

A small craft advisory is up in NY/NJ Bight to 7 p.m.

Monday starts with north winds at 10 to 15 knots plus gusts to 20.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar had a few keeper fluke among many shorts, but the pool went to Steve Rawls with an unusual white hake.

Mike Monte reports from Nantucket that island remains surrounded by striped bass which normally would have moved on during their migration, but are being held there by an unusual volume and variety of forage. Mackerel, squid, bunkers and sand eels are all abundant at the same time. Mike says most of the bass are 40 inches or more and hitting everything.

There was also good news from Capt. Mark DeBlasio of Blue Runner from Point Pleasant:

“Snuck out with Jeff Kapralick and crew .. took a bit to find them but once we did it was game on. Caught a 6 man limit of Yellowfin, a limit of under Bluefins, released another half dozen Bluefins and went 3 for 4 on Bigeyes. First thing this morning hooked a pair of Giant Bluefins, pulling the hook on one quickly. The other one we fought for 1.5 hours on standup gear before we pulled the hook at color. Great to see fishing like this after a slower start to the season ..”

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Capt. Ron Santee Jr. reported starting out with his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands to an “area we found shorts, tried a little deeper and found not much life. No current or drift all day so we had to power drift. Took a ride to a new area and found some nice keepers but the lack of drift hurt us once again.

Mustacio Rich is on a roll with his 3rd pool in a row in the ninth inning, todays fish went 5 pounds 3 ounces and is the new Monthly pool leader. Couple 3-4 pound fish in the mix also. A load of Big Sea Bass that had to go back!!! Bunch of crap that is.

Water temp was up to 61 today, found some bait so i’m expecting the bite to get better. Back at it in the AM.“

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported fast action with short fluke along with some keepers.

The forecast is for southeast winds at 10-15 knots plus gusts to 20.

I haven’t heard from the canyon Runner out of Point Pleasant in some time, but it turns out they’ve almost completely booked their canyon trips for this year. Adam LaRosa reports:”

This email is more of a heads-up and warning to you folks that haven’t booked anything with us yet for the 2024 canyon season. I don’t want anyone upset with us when you call and there are no dates left so this is your warning to please grab your date now. This is usually the busiest month of the year with folks finally nailing down their dates – but as of right now there just aren’t many good ones left.  “ They are holding a few trips on an open basis to take care of customers that no longer can put together a full charter. Vinny D’Anton once again found a pick of stripers in the Monmouth County surf with his Chug Bug popper. However, the larger of the two stripers he released was an ugly striper full of rashes. Though it looked terrible, that bass fought well and swam off without a problem. Vinny also caught a 5-pound bluefish. Friday’s forecast is for northeast winds at 10-15 knots plus gusts to 20 before going to southeast 5-10 in the afternoon.