Boaters entered in the 41st Manasquan River Marlin & Tuna Club Offshore Open have through Saturday to use up their fishing time, and even bigger fish could be weighed later today, but there are already impressive bigeye tuna on the leaderboard.

Hubris had been holding the top two spots with bigeyes of 213 and 181.8 pounds going into today. Following Seas had a 136-pounder for third, and Reel Estate was next with a 76.2-pound tuna. All that changed as bigeyes were weighed this afternoon.

Milling Around has taken the lead at 251 pounds. Endorfen moved into second at 220 pounds, and also weighed a 178.1. Ledge weighed a 214-pounder to move a pound ahead of Hubris for third. Miss Mikayla Ann had a great trip with tuna of 199 and192 pounds, and Tireless boated a 180.5-pounder. i’ll bring the standings up to date tomorrow.

Capt. Jim Freda had a farther and sons trip yesterday on his Shore Catch as they struggled to find yellowfin tuna before jigging produced three tuna out of four hooked;

The Golden Eagle from Belmar got in a day of bluefishing before the bad weather, and it was excellent. The five-blue party boat limits were quickly filled before going into release mode. The smallest blue was 1 1/2 pounds, but most were 4 to 7 pounds. Tomorrow is a blowout, but they’ll be back on the blues Friday.

Bob Matthews, at Fisherman’s Den in Belmar Marina, says the party boats there have been doing very well with fluke — and its been more like the old days with 6-and-7-pounders being common. Rental boaters are still catching fluke in Shark River, but the keeper ratio is getting worse as those fsh move out to the ocean for the trip to offshore spawning areas. Bob notes there’s good action with blowfish and snapper blues in Point Pleasant Canal at the Barnegat Bay end. The striper bite is mostly at night.

The Spring Lake surf was fishable this morning when Vinny D’Anton and I gave it a try with sand fleas. I quickly released a 25-inch striper, and was hoping for a good bite — but that was it. Vinny switched to Gulp to release a couple of small fluke.

The marine forecast is for north winds at 10-15 knots plus gusts to 20 knots with morning thunderstorms and showers throughout the day. Yet. the forecast for the weekend looks good.

Nick Honachefsky reminds that the Barrier Island Beach Brawl is just ahead from Oct. 8-9 with a chance at $16,000 of tackle to be given away for just a $45 entry. Visit http://www.saltwaterunderground.com for info.

The Jamaica from Brielle has added offshore tuna trips leaving att Sunday Sept. 12 at 11 p.m. Call 732 528-5014 for details.

Mid-range tuna trips weren’t successful with the target yellowfins, but there’s usually something else out there to provide some action.

The Golden Eagle frim Belmar had no tuna, but the Exotics trip was just that with lots of dolphin and little tunny plus sharks. They will be sailing for blues in the morning, but not again until Friday.

The Queen Mary from Point Pleasant had a large yellowfin by 7:30 a.m..but that was the only one as little tunny and 20 dolphin were caught. Inshore trips the next two days are cancelled.

Andreas Toy from Keyport had a goood dolphin trip for a family group on Monday, and added a surprising yellowfin well inshore.

Capt. Ron Santee said fluking was much better today on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands as there was some drift in contrast to hardly any on Monday. Kelly Riley collected his monthly pool earnings for his 13.8-pound doormat, but had another good day with a 5 9/16-pound fluke while also catching several others from 3 to 5 pounds. The pool winner today was 7 pounds, 5 ounces.

Tomorrow’s weather forecast is marginal, with only 5-10-knot northeast winds and 1-3-foot seas with a chance of showers. It gets bad after midnight, but the weekend may be saved.

Vinny D’Anton had a big fish hooked on sand fleas at a Monmouth County beach this morning, but a bad spot in his line gave way to what was probably a ray. Small dogfish were a pain, but Vinny did release a small striper and I pulled the hook on one that felt a bit larger.

The two sea bass by-catch ended today.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported marking plenty of blues today, but jigging wasn’t up to par before they added sea bass and fluke. The Queen Mary from Point Pleasant had a similar problem as only the regulars were able to limit on blues.

The forecast is for northwest winds at just 5 to 10 knots.

Sorry for the delay tonight, but I’ve been having a problem publishing.

It certainly wasn’t a nice day to be fishing the ocean, but that didn’t bother the bluefish as the Golden Eagle from Belmar reported all that was necessary to catch a chopper was to get a jig in the water. They were in the 4-to-9-pound class.

At Atlantic Highlands, Capt. Rob Semkewyc canceled fluking on his Sea Hunter because he knew the ocean would be too uncomfortable for his customers. Capt. Ron Santee gave it a shot in Ambrose and the upper bay with his Fishermen, but only had a pick of shorts and keepers.

The ocean should be better tomorrow as the wind drops to southwest at 5-10 knots before increasing to 10-15 later.

There’s been plenty of good fishing weather this summer, but this wasn’t one of those days. Most boaters stayed home or fished in protected waters, and beach conditions were poor. Vinny D’Anton had a very brief shot of striper action yesterday morning on his Chug Bug in Shark River, releasing a 33 1/2-incher and two 24-inchers, but he only hooked a 3-pound blue there this morning — and no one else even had a hit. Vinny wasn;t happy to see the several red spots on all of yesterday;s bass, but they seemed otherwise healthy.

After John Mazzeo broke the ice with his first little tunny tthe day before, Allen Riley joined him for the trip to Sandy Hook yesterday morning. Conditions were fine, and bait was inshore, but there were no tunny. Riley saw some short fluke caught, and an angler at the rock pile caught two triggerfish on squid — one of which was large.

Chuck Many got off to a good start with stripers in the bay yesterday before storms forced Tyman hack to Highlands.

The marine forecast continues the small craft warning tonight, but the wind drops a bit to east at 10-15 knots with gusts to 20 in the morning.

The Golden Eagle and Miss Belmar Princess found bluefish to be picky on jigs Friday morning, but were able to add sea bass to their catches.

You can never tell what may happen during a day of fishing at sea, but few anglers are likely to encounter the situation Denny Joyce and his South Jersey crew on Keepa from Waretown ran into after a yellowfin trip to the Atlantic Princess was unproductive. A move to Chicken Canyon for dolphin also didn’t produce, and they started trolling back to the AP. Fortunately. there was a strike – and a yellowfin of about 30 pounds was reeled to the boat. That’s when the fun started as a blue marlin estimated at 600 to 800 pounds was hot on the heels of the tuna.

When the marlin tried to eat the tuna it broke the leader and the tuna was free but wouldn’t leave the boat as the marlin was waiting on the other side. When the tuna would move to one side the marlin would follow – and he’d get back under his moving protection. Unfortunately for the tuna it was moving so slowly to avoid the marlin that Doug Itjen was able to free-gaff it and get his Joe Shute lure back.

Other South Jersey sharpies are targeting opportunities to the north. Jake Bowes ran his 28-foot Regulator Liquid Therapy 52 1/2 miles to the bluefin tuna fleet off the Rockaways before catching bunkers and bluefish to drift the live baits which resulted in a 71-inch bluefin fought on 50-pound stand-up tackle by Drew Wilmot.

At Atlantic Highlands, Capt. Ron Santee reported a good day with big fluke as follows; ‘Had to work the conditions once again but we were certainly on the Meat!!John Froelich landed 5 beauties with the largest coming in at 7 pounds 4 ounce’s.

We had 4 fish over 7 pounds today including Brothers Mark & John Hrubic who landed a 7.8, 7.5, 7.0 and a 6.4 pound fluke. The 7.8 took the daily pool.

Several fish in the 3-5 pound range along with plenty of short life for the action. Several guys had their 3 by trips end and several  landed two nice fish including Mustachio Dan with 2 beauties. Sea Bass in the mix once again.“

The Sea Hunter also had a good day with fluke and sea bass, but due to tomorrow’s forecast of small craft warnings for east winds gusting to 25 knots plus showers Capt. Rob Semkewyc is canceling as it won’t be possible to fish in the ocean and there are few keepers in the protected bay.

Chuck Many got back to saltwater fishing yesterday and came up with a variety catch for Alex and Alyssa Katyan on his Tyman from Highlands.

Kelly Reilly was already leading the monthly pool on the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands with a 7.2-pound fluke when he considerably upped the ante today by boating a 32-inch 13 1/2-pound doormat. that was the largest party boat fluke I’ve heard of so far in the NY/NJ Bight area. Capt. Ron Santee said Reilly had already set persnal records this year for striped bass and sea bass. Several anglers had limits today.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported picky early bluefish jigging and then managed a boat limit of sea bass along with both short and keeper fluke.

Little tunny were spotted in many surf areas, but it seems that more anglers were frustrated by tunny that stayed out of range or woouldn’t hit when they were close enough. John Mazzeo returned to Sandy Hook and managed one on a Gibbs Minnow. He said it was spitting up tiny peanut bunkers. There was no mention of the black flies which have been botheriing anglers there.

Good weather continues with a forecast of west winds at 5-10 knots. Late afternoon thunderstorms are possible.

Nick Honachefsky reminds anglers that Spanish mackerel are an eligible species in next month’s Barrier Islands Beach Brawl.

Little tunny are a late summer inshore visitor throughout NY/NJ Bight. and they’re just getting started. Boaters are picking a few so far, and the first surf blitzes were reported today in both Monmouth and Ocean counties;

Those tunny were reported to be feeding on tiny bait, so small slim metal lures are probably the best bet. There’s no faster and harder-fighting fish available to the surfcaster, but you have to be there when they appear within casting range — and they rarely stick around very long.

Allen Riley is a little tunny fanatic, and thought he made some casts to them at Sandy Hook this morning, but only got one bump which may have been from a blue. He noted that the park doesn’t open until 6 a.m. — and there was a line all the way back to the old Highlands Bridge.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar limited with 1 1/2-5-pound blues this morning while little tunny were jumping all around them. They added lots of chub mackerel, plus some Spanish mackerel. fluke and sea bass. Yesterday’s Exotics trip produuced some yellowfin tuna, but the water color was poor and there were a lot of sharks.

The Jamaica from Brielle jigged limits of bluefish this morning and added chub mackerel along wuth a couple oflittle tunny up to a 5-pound pool winner.

The Ocean Explorer from Belmar had a doormat fluke of 13 1/4 pounds on Tuesday.

Inshore fishing seems to have returned to normal as the storm moved far east in short order.

At Atlantic Highlands, the Sea Hunter reported a slow start in a strong current before getting into fair action with fluke and sea bass that included one limit.The Fishermen reported several limits and four fluke of 5 pounds up to 5 9/16 pounds. There were also some sea bass and lots of chub mackerel.

Miss Belmar Princess found decent bluefish jigging before adding limits of sea bass.

The Mimi VI from Point Pleasant has scheduled limited fluke trips for September on the 1st and 7th from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call 732 370-8019 for reservations.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for northwest winds at 5 knots before switching to southwest in the afternoon.

Many boats didn’t sail today, but the Golden Eagle from Belmar got out to find bluefish providing hot early jigging along wiith some overdue inshore little tunny — before the tide died out and the bite turned to a pick. that boat will be fishing for tuna tomorrow

Capt. Ron Santee will get back to fluking tomorrow with his Fishermen from from Atlantic Hghlands, and notes that Kelly Riley’s 5 1/8-pound monthly pool winner is vulnerable. A couple of 8-pounders have been boated recently, but the anglers weren’t in the month[y pool.

The Big Mohawk from Belmar decided to wait a day before resuming fluking, but will be sailing in the morning before running a charter on thursday.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for west winds at 5 knots before going southwest in the afternoon.

The Jamaica from Brielle has an offshore tuna trip departing at 11 p.m. — and there are a couple of spots still open. Call 732 528-5014.

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