Big stripers offshore like big baits such as bunkers and eels, but in the spring and summer surf the biggest bass are often attracted by very smalls baits– sand fleas.
The Monmouth County surf produced a 34-inch striper on sand fleas this morning for Frank Manzi, but Vinny D’Anton stuck it out and did even better with a 37-incher on the mole crabs. He also added a fluke on those baits, which aren’t a favorite of that species.
Sea bass fishing remains very good. At Belmar, the Big Mohawk reported a 30-man limit with most caught on bait though the few jiggers did as well. The Golden Eagle had limits early enough to switch over to other species. They caught six short fluke plus some 2-3-pound blues.
The forecast is for northwest winds at 10 knots with possible showers.
Andrea’s Toy from Point Pleasant sent the following report”
Capt. Matty got our canyon season started on the right foot, and broke in our new 39ST in fine fashion, while putting out the Chatter tracker bar the first fish hit, he proceeded to have a steady pick the rest of the morning going 7-10 on yellows, great job Capt Matty/Chris and to the bunch of regulars who fought the fish , Gary, Russ, Jeremy, Anthony and Kal. Way to go guys”!”
Capt. Fred Gamboa will be in Washington on Tuesday to testify about the vessel speed restrictions that will make offshore fishing more expensive and inefficient in order to guard against a million to one chance of running into a right whale.
From the JCAA:
Sign up by 6/5 to take advantage of the early entry fee. 7th ANNUAL JCAA FLUKE TOURNAMENT – 6/17/23
WIN OUR $50,000 DOORMAT FLUKE PRIZE as Ted Gaydos did last year with his 12.45 lb fluke.
WIN THE DRAWING FOR A 16′ GODFREY PONTOON BOAT AND A LOAD RITE TRAILER donated by New Jersey Outboards and a 25 HP outboard donated by Yamaha. Total value $31,000! Awards ceremony at Resorts Casino on 6/23. To enter online or for a printable application or for complete details visit http://www.jcaa.org.
The Jamaica from Brielle not only had fine sea bass fishing Friday, but also reported an exceptional inshore pool winner of 5 pounds by James Kearney of Toms River,
The first white marlin of the season at Ocean City, Maryland was released on June 2 as Restless Lady II from Sunset Marina won a $5.000 prize by finding it in Baltimore Canyon.
Monday’s forecast is for north winds at 15 knots plus gusts to 20 before going northwest at 5-10 knots in the afternoon.
Giant tuna fishermen may be wondering just what NOAA Fisheries is trying to accomplish after this week’s announcements.
As noted here, they increased the commercial General category daily limit from one large medium or giant (over 73 inches) to three, and then sent a warning for those fishermen. due to market conditions, to make sure they have a buyer who will take their fish prior to going fishing.
NOAA Fisheries also closed the New England region recreational trophy over 73-inch season from June 5 to Dec. 31 as the tiny quota has already been exceeded.
Here’s the photo of the largest striper reported to this blog so far this season– a 63.09-pounder by formula hooked on a live bunker from Capt. Vinny Vetere’s Katfish out of Great Kills, Staten Island by his mate, Brian before a successful release. Vetere said this year’s striper fishing has been the best ever, and is continuing at that pace.
Jim Hutchinson Sr. reports “
Memorial Day weekend has passed in Beach Haven, and summer is right around the corner. If recent fishing trips by the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are any indication, 2023 looks be a good fishing year.
Right now, black sea bass are around the inshore artificial reefs, the summer flounder are all over the bays and inlets, small schools of bluefish are racing around, and there are still good numbers of striped bass to be found.
Captain Connor Smilon of “Fish Hawk Charters” reports good action in Great Bay with multiple keepers per trip and “plenty of throwbacks.” He has also run into small blitzes of 2-3-pound bluefish early in the morning on the way to the fluking grounds.
Captain Max Goldman reports good action on black sea bass on the “Star fish” on the inshore artificial reefs. The top day thus far had a total of 18 keeper fish. The action is hot and furious with numerous undersized fish also hitting the baits.
Captain Steve Palmer reports the initial trips on the headboat “Miss Beach Haven” have been successful ones. A wedding group of the Karr groom and groomsmen had a blast with steady fishing on sea bass, making to port in time for the rehearsal. Another recent trip with Captain Bob Yates and mate Max was a success with both sea bass and fluke providing dinners for many happy anglers. Steve advises the boat will be running a variety of trips this summer.
Captain Brett Taylor of “Real Reaction Sportfishing” had regular client Bob Dodds, his cousin Joe, and Boston Bob on a 4-hour charter. They had decent tide, terrible slime, and stiff winds for a good portion of the trip. Despite the elements, Captain Brett says they ended with 4 decent sized fluke to just over 5 pounds, and 3 others they wanted back.
Additional information on the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association can be found at www.BHCFA.org
Pennsylvania angler Seth Wakefield reports “I’ve been very fortunate to have some very good friends who have I’ve been able to learn from each year. Chuck Tyman Manny is one of them. Every trip out I learn more and more. The brothers and I had an incredible trip the other day out on the Tyman! Doubles, triples, quadruples on eels and plugs. Eels off the back of the boat and plugging off the front. Always a blast with lots of laughs! Ended up the day with 34 big fish up to 50lbs. Another super memorable day.”
Hans Kaspersetz said his first trip offshore with Blue Runner out of Pt. Pleasant was a good one!
A small craft advisory is up through Sunday afternoon. The morning forecast is for north winds at 15-20 knots before dropping to 10-15 in the afternoon.
During my early days fishing for sharks over half a century ago there were no thresher sharks being caught in NY/NJ Bight, though I knew they were considered a possibility in the area. However, there were also few bunkers at that time. Fisheries management which has led to great numbers of bunkers inshore changed everything, as anglers now often hook up with a shark we weren’t sure existed even when we don’t want them while seeking stripers in bunker schools or even drifting for fluke.
The first report I got this spring was from Capt. Lou Grazioso who did the butchering job yesterday on a 425-pounder caught by Chris Schmidt from his 27-foot World Cat after hooking it on a live bunker. With only two girls aboard, that thresher couldn’t be boated and had to be towed all the way to Hoffman’s in Point Pleasant.
Some more offshore news came in today from Capt. Rick Woerner, who reported a quick trip to Wilmington Canyon produced yellowfin tuna
All striped bass and sea bass reports remain very positive, though the Jamaica from Brielle cautions that the sea bass season ends after June 19.
Vinny D.Anton got into a couple 28-inch stripers this morning in the Monmouth County surf while baiting with sand fleas.
There’s a small craft warning up for Saturday morning to night. The forecast is for northeast winds at 20-25 knots before dropping to 15-20 in the afternoon.
The Staten Island Tuna Club is sponsoring a seminar on tuna fishing with Canyon Runner skipper Deane Lambros on June 9 in Proving Ground Waterfront Rest. at 56 Shrewsbury Ave., in Highlands, N.J. with a buffet dinner and many raffle prizes. Call Chip at 201 390-6544 for the $49 tickets.
Chuck Many’s brother and son in on the Tyman striper action
Joe Balzamo said it was all stripers over 40 inches today off Brooklyn.
Jim Hutchinson Sr. had his grandsons in Barnegat Bay today –Trent caught a fine fluke while Troy added a big blueclaw that hung on too long.
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The forecast is for southwest winds at just 5-10 knots with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms.
Vinny D’Anton and Frank Manzi fished the Monmouth County surf with sand fleas and had a pick of shorts in the 23-inch class. Frank had first checked Manasquan River, where there had been lots of blues yesterday, but only found a lot of anglers catching a few small blues.
Kil Song has been traveling from Panama to Texas to N.J. to R.I. where he jigged squid at night last week — and loaded up on big sea bass at Cape Cod yesterday aboard the Patriot from Falmouth.
Just as I was about to write a blog about the relative abundance of 50-pound stripers being reported in NY/NJ Bight this year without one just a bit bigger to break the 60-pound mark, Capt. Vinny Vetere did it again on his Katfish from Great Kills by putting his mate Brian into one well above monster status with fork length of 58 inches plus a girth of 29.5 inches. The formula of girth squared times fork length divided by 800 comes to 63.093125 pounds — and is the only accepted was to estimate weight now that all large stripers have to be released.
Vinnie has produced 60s before, and knows what they look like as well as needing the fork length rather than tail length for the formula which was developed long ago when fish were measured that way. He said Brian fished a live bunker on a spinning rod.
The last virtual public hearing on the ASMFC emergency rule limiting the maximum striped bass maximum size to 31 inches is being held from 6-8 p.m. today. You can check out the comments in the listen-only mode at 914 514-3221. Use access code 424-938-669.
Vinny D’Anton had some action in the Monmouth County surf with stripers on sand fleas, but they were smaller bass from 22 to 28 inches. He also got word of good bite of mixed-size bluefish in Manasquan River.
The Golden Eagle from Belmar had a slow start with sea bass, but that improved in the afternoon as some limits were bagged.
The morning forecast is for northwest winds at 5-10 knots plus patchy fog before going south in the afternoon.
Capt. Dave DeGennaro has been finding mixed-size blues in Barnegat Inlet and Bay by trolling small pugs to locate them before going to casting. He has openings on Hi Flier from Barnegat from Friday through Sunday. Call 732 330-5674.
NOAA FISHERIES has announced a change in General Category bluefin tuna daily landings as of June 1 from one large bluefin (73 inches up) to three. That runs through Aug. 31, and applies also to charter and party boats when fishing for the market with their permits.
A small craft warning is up through 6 p.m. , but the morning forecast is down to northeast at 5-10 knots before going east in the afternoon. Patchy fog is likely in the morning.
If anyone is having a hard time catching striped bass in NY/NJ Bight waters, they aren’t admitting to it. Some have to “weed” through bass too large to boat in order to keep what they want — though that’s a problem that I wouldn’t have objected to not that many years ago.
In describing Dave Lilly’s great wire line trolling catch yesterday , I didn’t mention that in addition to using Tony Maja bunker spoons, they also tried Tony’s mojo rigs and wore themselves out on five doubleheaders
Here’s a shot of one of the big bass caught by Chris Buchta and his crew a couple of days ago,
Vinny D’Anton continues to catch stripers on sand fleas in his local surf by releasing a 31-incher today. The northeast swell has created whitewater conditions which are favorable for that fishing.
A small craft warning is up tonight for northeast winds gusting to 30 knots. That goes south in the morning at 15-20 knots
Dave Lilly called me at 9 this morning to tell me he was finished fishing with Brian Farmer on Ric Martel’s boat as they trolled Tony Maja bunker spoons in the Raritan Bay area all by themselves for two over 50 pounds to 54 inches plus another dozen over 40 pounds, and 10 more over 30 pounds.
Chuck Many reported the beat went on Friday aboard his Tyman from Highlands for Bob Nikki Bowden Alex Katyan and Dylan Parker. .
Chris Buchta had a day for the ages for his crew with personal records that included a 50 plus a 52 for the skipper.
Chris Buchta’s fishfinder
Monda
y’s forecast starts well with north winds at 5-10 knots before going east at 15-20 with gusts to 25 late.
Vinny D’Anton reports a pick of legal stripers on sand fleas in the Monmouth County surf.
Outstanding fishing for both striped bass and sea bass continues in NY/NJ Bight.
The Jamaica from Brielle notes that the Memorial Day weekend isn’t always as crowded as you might expect. They expect to have fof walk-on space for sea bass in the morning. That boat has also added two 1.5-day tilefish trips at 10 p.m. June 19 and 26. Call 732 528-5014 for reservations.
Hans Kaspersetz with a jumbo sea bass on Water Proof
Sunday’s forecast is for southeast winds at a mere 5 knots, The wind goes south in the afternoon.
Tight Lines 