The Golden Eagle from Belmar headed south this morning and got into bluefish from 1 to 3 pounds before finishing up to the north with 4- to-7-pounders. Jigs and teasers worked best.
The drop in wind speed made for better fluke drifting conditions, but dogfish were a morning problem on the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands before skates took over in the afternoon. Some anglers managed a limit up to 4 pounds while catching lots of short fluke.
The forecast is for south winds at 10-15 knots with gusts to 20 and a chance of showers.
A houndfish is a sure sign of summer in N.J. This one was caught in the evening last week in Barnegat Bay.
Mike Monte is a Jersey Shore native who’s long resided in the striper paradise of Nantucket while continuing to make frequent trips back to the Shore. This morning he decided to try fishing sand fleas for the first time in the Monmouth County surf where the three sand fleas on a drifted hook and tiny shot resulted in a fish which almost dumped his light spinning tackle.
After a long battle, Mike needed both hands to release a 39-inch striper! Sand fleas {actually mole crabs) are a great bait for surf stripers which load up on them when other prey isn’t available, but jumbo bass are very rarely hooked on them. Mike tried again, but only came up with a fluke on the fleas,
Vinny D’Anton wasn’t doing anything in the same general area until a school of 3-pound blues chased rainfish into the beach. Before he went home, a last cast with the Chug Bug at a jetty produced an explosion that turned into a 33-inch striper release.
The Big Mohawk’s first fluke trip turned out very well except for the lack of a big fish that boat is noted for. They did have many limits up to 5 pounds as jigs and Gulp produced best. The Big Mohawk sails from Belmar at 6 a.m.
The Golden Eagle from Belmar got into 2-5-pound blues during the first trip for the choppers that hit teasers, poppers and jigs. Some bonito and fluke were added.
This 311.5-pound bluefin was weighed in last week at Hoffman’s Anchorage in Brielle
The forecast is for north winds at just 5 knots before going southeast in the afternoon
I’m sorry for last night’s screwed up headline as I didn’t check it after editing.
The sea bass season in N.J. ended today, and the fleet which has been working on them will now be shifting to either fluke or bluefish.
Capt. Ron Santee made the move to fluke today with his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands. He was pleased with the numbers of keepers taken even his fares had to use lots of lead in the northwest blow.
The Golden Eagle from Belmar finished up with a good catch of sea bass today
along with some ling, fluke released blackfish, a cod — and some of the blues they’ll be seeking tomorrow.
As noted last night, I thought the northwester would be good for surfcasting, and that’s what Vinny D’Anton found. He’s been picking stripers in the Monmouth Beach surf on both lures and sand fleas. but that wasn’t working out this morning until a school of 5-10-pound blues showed up. It took a long cast to reach them, and Vinny had to switch to a heavier Tsunami popper to get out to them. Surprisingly, there were no bass today.
The forecast is for northwest winds at 10-15 knots before dropping to west at 5-10 in the afternoon.
There’s a full menu of fishing choices for Father’s Day, but small craft warnings are up through the afternoon, and the Golden Eagle from Belmar had to cancel this afternoon’s trip due to high winds. Northwest winds from 15-20 knots with gusts to 25 continue tomorrow, but that’s fine for surfcasting and can be worked with in protected bays and rivers.
Striper anglers can find some protection in Raritan Bay or very close to the Jersey Shore and hope for a personal best such as Joe Balzamo’s 55-pounder before release by the famed western Long Island angler.
The N.J. sea bass season ends Sunday, and most boats fishing for them will switch to fluke on Monday.
Capt. Ron Santee made the switch today with his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands, but isn’t doing any celebrating after getting ready a couple of days ago as he noted “Went for fuel today, $5.99 a Gallon, $410 a day to fish where we have been going. I will still do what I have to do and go where we have to go no matter what……Screw you JOE, I’m not going away!!!“
The canyon yellowfin tuna run continues for the Canyon Runner Coaching members.
Adam La Rosa reports as follows: Starting right where we left off – we had two tuna tournaments run this past weekend and had folks we coached up in the Winners circle in both the Manasquan Tournament and the Beach Haven Tournament. Chris Vennitti & Chris Jessen placed in the money in the Beach Haven. And one of our Members who would like to stay anonymous placed in the Manasquan Tournament. But the solid Member action didn’t end there as this past week and weekend saw most Members who made it to the canyons with solid trips and ended with inshore grounds finally giving up some decent bluefin action.
Capt. Dave De Gennaro made it to Lindenkohl Canyon just in time Saturday morning with his Hi Flier from Barnegat to boat a 45-pound yellowfin on the first balao deployed before the bite turned off to just three yellowfins that didn’t make the minimum. A run to Barnegat Inlet on Sunday morning produced light tackle action with stripers of 29 and 31 inches plus tautog from 2-4 pounds which were released since they are out of season. Dave has added a Saturday afternoon inshore trip from 1- 6. Call 732 330 5674. Nick from Monmouth County was finally shut out Saturday morning as no stripers hit his $2 jumbo bloodworms or fresh bunker in the surf. However, there was good word today in that county from Vinny D’Anton who picked a few school stripers on his Chug Bug before failing to get any action on sand fleas. The Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands switches to fluke on Saturday. Small craft warnings are up through Saturday afternoon with northwest winds of 20-25 knots that may be favorable for fluke drifting along the Shore. Striped bass live baiting and bunker spoon trolling is holding up. I’ve had a terrible day trying to stay on the internet, will try to get this out while it’s possible and catch up tomorrow.
Starting right where we left off – we have two tuna tournaments run this past weekend and had folks we coached up in the
The awards for last Saturday’s JCAA Fluke Tournament will be presented Friday along with lots of prizes in a free drawing open to all who entered. The site is Resorts Casino/Hotel in Atlantic City. Register between 3-7 p.m. The awards and drawings start at 7.
As I predicted before the contest, there were some ports where many prizes weren’t claimed for lack of a legal entry plus many others where very small fluke prevailed.
7. Southern Region (Great Bay, Ocean City, Atlantic City, Cape May)
Name
Hometown
Entry #
Weight
Length
1st
Reuter, Drew
Mullica Hill, NJ
67
6.02
25.5
2nd
Horgan, Terry **
Berwyn, Pa.
83
5.49
24
3rd
Karwoski, Paul
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
15
4.84
23.5
4th
Rawa, Jason *
Little Egg Harbor
76
4.47
22.75
5th
Slobodian, George
Twin Oaks, Pa.
39
3.6
21
6th
Daunoras, Joseph
Little Egg Harbor, NJ
19
3.58
21
7th
Fenton, Jim
West Berlin, NJ
37
3.445
21.5
Sea bass fishing has been tougher the last couple of days as it winds down to Sunday’s closure. Even fish that marked well yesterday weren’t biting, and Capt. Ron Santee of the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands said today started with rain and turned into terrible conditions when the south wind ran into moon currents. They picked away at sea bass and some ling and added a 22-inch cod. Tomorrow is the last sea bass trip before switching to fluke Saturday. Small craft warnings are up though Friday afternoon. Southwest winds at 10-15 knots will gust to 25, and there is a chance of afternoon showers.
Big inshore thresher sharks are providing an opportunity for small boat anglers to tangle with a great offshore game fish just a few miles from Raritan Bay and NY/NJ Bight ports.
Capt. John Contello reported that both of his Just Sayin’ center consoles fought those sharks today. The tail takes up a lot of space. Below is a 437-pound weigh-in at Up Front Tackle in Keyport.
Jim Hutchinson reports for the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association as follows:
Captain Jonathan Kelly of LBI Sportfishing Charters recently moved the “Outcast” down to the Delaware Bay in search of some trophy black drum fish. It paid off well as in two days of fishing he totaled over 20 black drum with the biggest over 70-pounds. The boat is back in Beach Haven in time for the inshore bluefin tuna fishing and bottom fishing to heat up!
Captain Max Goldman of the “Star Fish” reports trips to the inshore reefs and bay with black sea bass and fluke coming over the rails.
Captain Jimmy Zavacki of the “Reel Determined” had a good day in the Beach Haven Tuna Open as it finished in the money once again. His three yellowfin tuna weighed in had a total weight of 140.2-pounds. This followed last year’s event when Captain Jimmy was awarded the Fish Trap Award gaining free entry for this year’s event.
Captain Brett Taylor of “Reel Reaction Sportfishing” has been doing well recently. He had Ralph Rodio and friends on a 4-hour light tackle charter. Despite cold bottom water temperatures, they did well on fluke. The group ended up with 11-keepers topped by a 6-pounder. On another trip Bruce Connor found two keeper fluke and a 27-inch tagged striper. On Sunday Captain Brett found himself without a charter and spent a family day on the water.
Captain Gary Dugan of the “Irish Jig” has been finding catches of fluke in the Great Bay area to provide fish dinners for his anglers. He reports his new tiki barge is about ready for launching.
BHCFA President Captain John Lewis is reminding everyone that on Wednesday, June 22, 2022, the Junior Mates will host a fundraising cruise on the “Black Pearl” from 7:00-8:30 PM. A minimum donation is $75 while children under 18 if accompanied by a paying adult will be $25. There will be a brief talk about the Reef Project then a DJ for your dancing pleasure.
Small craft warnings are up for tomorrow after starting at only 10-15 knots south before freshening to 15-20with gusts to 25 in the afternoon.
Capt. Vinny Vetere said the forecast was way off and he could hardly stand up on his Katfish as the first 60-pound striped bass on his charter boat from Great Kills in several years was fought Monday morning.
Vetere said his scale is down at the IGFA being certified. but the bass was 55.5 inches tail length with a girth of 30 inches.
Eight other bass were also released in the rough ocean, and all of them were over 47 inches.
Sorry for not being able to get the blog out last night, but the internet was down at my home.
Ted Gaydos of Spotswood, N.J. was the big winner in Saturday’s JCAA Fluke Tournament as he not only won the $1,200 Sandy Hook port prize at Gateway Marina in Highlands, but also joined the $25 doormat division which paid off $50,000 for his 12.45-pounder. To top it off, he swept the fluke Calcuttas to end up with $55,706!
I’ll have more about the JCAA winners tomorrow.
The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported sea bass still providing good catches as the season winds down to close Sunday. They also had some large cunners (bergalls), ling and a keeper cod while releasing a few fluke and blackfish.
Though regulations have practically eliminated the shark tournaments that used to flourish in NY/NJ Bight at this time of year, there are still sharks to be had for those who want to engage in what I used to call the poor man’s big game fishing.
I didn’t expect the first shark report this year to come from Keyport, but with reports of bunker-seeking threshers not far from shore it’s not surprising that one would be weighed at Up Front Tackle. Those long-tailed sharks are a common inshore sight and will hit many baits as well as trolled lures. Fortunately, they have small teeth and even fluke fishermen with light leaders sometimes are able to boat them. Threshers are considered to be on a par with the mako as both a game and food species.
Bill Schlette boated this 207-pounder on Two Thumbs Up.
Andreas Toy put the Don Beshada party into lots of yellowfins in the canyons before adding tilefish and barrellfish on Fisherman’s Choice Salmon Belly strips on bottom. The forecast is for southwest winds at 5-10 knots with possible morning showers. I’ll have results of the JCAA Fluke Tournament tomorrow.
The current economic problems resulted in only about 90 boats entering today’s statewide JCAA Fluke Tournament, but that left prizes for almost everyone while one angler beat the long odds of catching a doormat fluke over 12 pounds to make his $25 investment in that portion of the contest pay off $50,000.
Tom Fote didn’t have the angler’s name or other details, but believes he also swept the Calcuttas as well as the $1,200 port prize at Sandy Hook. I’ll have complete results whenever they become available.
Sea bass fishing was tougher today for the Golden Eagle from Belmar, but they added some ling plus a whiting and a cod.
Capt. Ron Santee had a similar sea bass report on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands. Anglers did better with large sea bass on jigs rather than bait. That boat shifts to fluke next Saturday.
Capt. Mark DeBlasio had another fine canyon charter this week as the party on Blue Runner from Point Pleasant kept their limit from 34 yellowfins caught. They also fought tiger and hammerhead sharks at night.
Chuck Many reports fishing for big stripers from his Tyman out of Highlands held up this week,
Sunday’s forecast is for south winds at 10-15 knots with gusts to 20. Showers are possible.
Tight Lines 