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MyCharge a Father’s Day choice for night fishing

Having a virtually unlimited source of power with you while fishing at night comes in very handy for anglers putting in long hours seeking big stripers, blues and sharks from beaches. That makes MyCharge a fine Father’s Day gift for such fishermen as not only is light available for tying rigs, baiting hooks and, hopefully unhooking fish — but your cell phone and other devices can also be charged via two built-in USB ports. The 500 lumens LED lamp has four levels of brightness and a flashing SOS mode. An anti-corrosive metal kickstand is included. MyCharge is also handy to have in the house in the event of a power outage.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar caught its usual sea bass, ling and fluke today, but also tangled with a big one that got away. A very large thresher shark grabbed a hooked sea bass and was fought briefly. Threshers have such small teeth that some are actuallty caught by fluke fishermen with mono leaders, but this one was much too big. The Golden Eagle has some reservations available for weekend afternoon trips.

The Big Jamaica from Brielle has been catching many limits of sea bass as that season comes to an end on Monday — and will then switch to general bottom fishing for the ling plus some flounder and cod which are also hitting. A half-night ling trip will be run Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m.

At Seaside Park, John Bushell Jr. at Betty and Nick’s noted that the sixth straight day of northeast wind has made the surf dirty and full of babbage, but bluefish have been cooperating in both inlets for those who are on the scene when they flurry in.

I tried the Manasquan surf this morning, but found it to be quite rough and somewhat dirty.

The forecast for Friday is for south winds at merely 5-10 knots.

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Bigeyes bite in canyons

The Canyon Runner from Pt. Pleasant reports bigeye tuna are building up in the canyons as per the following report:

Deane Lambros & Capt. Mike Zajac had a very busy beginning of June getting in 8 overnighters since the start of the month. Highlights included the Cameron Brown charter with 3 big-eyes, 30 bluefin and a yellowfin, the Matt Couzon charter with 3 big-eyes & 40 bluefin, the John Bridge group with 2 big-eyes and 42 bluefin, the Kieron Traynor charter with 2 big-eyes and 9 bluefin, the Jon Shuler group with 6 big bluefin between 60-75 inches and finally the Alan Freedman group finishing off this run on Saturday to Sunday with 4 more big-eyes and some yellowfin.

Those catches were made in Toms Canyon, except for the latter when a much longer run to the south was made to find yellowfins.

At Seaside Park, Grumpy’s Tackle reports some black drum on clams in addition to the blues and stripers hitting at times in the surf. Betty and Nick’s had a report of 5-pound blues in both inlets.

Weed was a problem again today in the Bay Head surf, and that was also the case in the Point Pleasant Canal where I still managed to release a 26-inch blue that was my biggest this spring – plus a 16-inch striper on a Z Man paddeltail. It was nice to feel the light tackle drag working at last.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported very good sea bass fishing plus ling the last two days,

Though the ocean has been sloppy, light winds continue to prevail. The forecast for the morning is east at 5-10 knots.

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Sea bass closes soon

The N.J. black sea bass season closes Monday, so anglers wishing to get in on the current opportunity shouldn’t hesitate to get out there. The June 22 closure is followed by a reopening on July 1 though Aug. 31 — but with a bag limit of only two. That’s intended as a by-catch for fluke fishermen during the summer.

The N.J. Division of Fish and Wildlife added materials to two artificial reefs last week. A 150-foot caisson gate was dropped on the Deepwater Reef, and a 65-foot tug was added to Sandy Hook Reef as a memorial for Darren Cardinal. Details on those placements are available at the Division’s web site.

After a beautiful day, it looks as if there will be another tomorrow as the forecast is for east winds at just 5-10 knots.

The Jamaica from Brielle reports that Friday night’s ling trip produced catches up to just over 30 red hake. There was not only good sea bass action on Sunday, but Caren O’Neil of Trenton added a 7-pund cod, and Bill Jones of Lakewood had two winter flounder in addition to his sea bass limit.

Weed was a problem in the Bay Head surf this morning, and it also returned to Point Pleasant Canal — though some small blues were caught.

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Out of Luck

The captain is having computer problems…yet again. He will hopefully be back with some reports tomorrow.

Tight Lines

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Little shark news

June has been prime time for sharking along the Jersey Shore as well as on Long Island, but between the current mako regulations and the pandemic there’s been little interest in tournaments and charters — or even private boat sharking.

Last weekend’s South Jersey Shark Tournament in Cape May was the poorest ever with only 19 boats competing and very few sharks caught. There were no makos weighed in, and it appears the only two eligible entries were a 439-pound thresher on Meraki that was worth $1,260 — and a blue shark of 247 pounds by Gina L for $1,440.ournaments started decades ago with all species eligible, but over the years most switched to only makos, or makos and threshers, in order to avoid killing lots of sharks not normally desired for food. That probably hasn’t made much of an impact on mako stocks, but there’s been a huge increase in longlining for them that now involves most of the U.S. mako landings.’ve been sharking and writing about the sport since the early days on Long Island, and watched the sport change from a man against killer situation with all sharks killed to one in which almost all are released — including many with tags that provide scientific info at little cost. It’s always amazed me that makos could survive since they’ve never been abundant, have a very long gestation period, and produce only a few pups. Yet, they still have produced reasonable catches in line with what we had during those early days when there was hardly any pressure from either anglers or commercial fishermen. Small makos have often been caught in large numbers during tournaments, though they have all been released in recent years due to high minimums. However, now that NMFS has raised the minimum to 83 inches it’s much harder to boat a keeper. It appears that the biggest Long Island shark contest, the Freeport Hudson Anglers, will be contested next weekend, but the venerable Mako Mania of the Greater Point Peasant Charter Boat Association was changed to a tuna format before being cancelled due to the pandemic.

The horribly wrong calm forecast for Saturday resulted in lots of sore anglers, and it’s fortunate that everyone that believed in the 10 knot north prediction survived. Mark Roy ran down to the Resor with his Release Me from Raritan Marina in Hazlet on Friday night in order to be ready for te early bite. However, it was too rough to fish at night, and though a few fish were trolled at first light, they only caught one little tunny. t was too rough to head back in the ocean, so Roy went inside to go north and ended up trolling mojos in Raritan Bay up to dark in order to catch a striper. He also had six mojos chopped, indicating that blues have finally arrived there.

Jimmy Giles ran 15 miles off before turning back, but ran into birds working over tuna at 8 miles off. They were on sand eels, and wouldn’t hit anything.

I fished Point Pleasant Canal this morning and released two 22-inch blues on a 5-inch Z Man. That was a lot better than what’s been going in there lately.

Monday’s forecast is for 10-15 knot winds from the northeast, switching to east in the afternoon.

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Worst weather forecast of the year

Sorry for no blog yesterday, but AOL kept putting me off the internet. Perhaps that may have been for the nest as I was going to pass along a fine weather forecast that was totally inaccurate.

That forecast was for north winds at 5-10 knots, but the reality was a strong north wind that turned the ocean into a mass of whitecaps. It was barely fishable for those trolling the medium range grounds for bluefin tuna. Not surprisingly, I only heard of a few isolated tuna on the marine radio. Even little tunny were generally scarce in the sloppy seas during a morning that turned out to be quite chilly as Joe Massa and I trolled the Resor area to no avail with Bob Correll on his Sea Vee 32 from Crystal Point Marina in Point Pleasant.

Just like yesterday, when Mike Heaney and I trolled Little Italy with Correll, we saw only a few scattered tuna chicks, no whales or slicks and no other surface signs of tuna. At least yesterday there were a few large little tunny and a couple of early arriving bonito hitting the tuna lures.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar had good bottom fishing yesterday in fine conditions as sea bass and ling cooperated along with two

cod.

There were no reports today from the Seaside Park tackle shops, but they will be open for normal business on Monday.

Capt. Vinniy Vetere is back to chartering his Katfish out if Great Kills, and is catching lots of stripers — though most are too big to keep.

If you can believe it, there’s some good weather coming after tomorrow. Today’s afternoon forecast is northwest at 5-10 knots. After midnight it goes to northeast at 10-15 knots with gusts to 20. That holds for the morning, but changes in the afternoon to 5-10 knots.

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Starting from scratch

Though the weather prediction is good, it will be a whole new ball game when anglers get back to fishing tomorrow. Today’s exceptionally strong winds followed by afternoon storms will shake up the ocean and muddy some inshore waters. All of what was learned before the bad weather may have to be discarded in favor of a new search.

That especially applies to the inshore bluefin tuna run which had been very good at Little Italy and even closer to the beach though Capt. Chris Di Stefano said he heard that Little Italy trollers had to go further south Wednesday in order to find school bluefins.

I suspect that most party boats stayed in port today, but the Golden Eagle is ready to sail from Belmar tomorrow– probably checking for schools of small blues before filling bags with sea bass and ling. The surf may require a few tide changes to clear up, but you never know. There had been sightings of bunkers out of range in many areas, and those who happen to be around when stripers attack them have scored with stripers on popping plugs.

Small blues are also a surf possibility. Dan Sheehan said bunkers stayed out of casting range yesterday morning at Sandy Hook, but some small blues hit Hogy epoxy jigs.

Point Pleasant Canal has been dead lately, but it was the only place I was sure would be fishable this morning. Casting a jig into the howling south wind wasn’t easy, but I actually had the opportunity to catch something. A fish fighting like a legal fluke came off at the surface with a splash at 5:20 when it wasn’t bright enough to identify it as the Z Man jig came out. Later, I had a small blue on for four jumps before it got rid of the jig next to the wall. There were also two other taps on the ebb before I left. The only other angler released about a 16-inch striper.

Ray Rogalski commented on Monday’s whale incident, and noted that he was trolling close to the beach recently when a whale seemed to make an aggressive move toward him. That’s something I’d never heard about before.

The south wind should decrease after midnight to north at 5-10 knots before switching to southwest in the afternoon.

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Too much south wind

Small craft warnings went up at 4 p.m. and extend to Thursday afternoon. Some boats are already cancelling Thursday trips, so be sure to check with your skipper before making a trip in the morning. Jon Falkowski of Linden reports yesterday’s sea bass fishing on the Golden Eagle from Belmar wasn’t as good as two weeks ago . After an unsuccessful attempt at bluefishing, the sea bass were finicky as he only caught seven — of which there were four keepers. A current developed that became so strong he couldn’t hold bottom with 12 ounces. The Golden Eagle reported getting a good shot at 2-4-pound blues this morning before other boats broke them up. There were a lot of sea bass marked, but they didn’t bite well. Some ling and fluke were added. The Thursday trip is cancelled due to the wind forecast.

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Watch out for whales!

It’s a thrill to watch a huge whale fly out of the water before crashing back into the ocean — unless your boat happens to be where the whale is coming down.

Joe Daley passed along some info about that happening to an unfortunate boater yesterday off D St. in Seaside Park.

An internet check of various accounts indicated that the incident occurred about 11:50 a.m. yesterday, and that the two anglers were unhurt and able to swim to the nearby surf. The estimated 25-foot boat was trailered off the beach a few hours later.

When whales were making a comeback several decades ago, I was tuna fishing on Mako outboards out of Montauk and started seeing them swimming under the boat at times as I chunked. That was a little scary at the time, but they never seemed to rise up to threaten a boat that would have been only a toy to them.

However, shallow water is a different story. Boaters are usually fishing very close to a school of bunkers that the whale may also be interested in, and there’s nothing you can do short of moving away to prevent a long-shot accident.

There may not even be any sighting involved. I once hooked a whale while casting a 1/4-ounce bucktail jig for school stripers off Ocean Beach even though I hadn’t seen it surface at any time. By unning with the annoyed whale I was able to shake the tiny hook out of tough skin that I knew it couldn’t penetrate.

Tuna fishing relatively close to shore exploded today as Capt. Dave De Gennaro put a charter on his Hi Flier out of Barnegat into “lots of unders” before tangling with a 70-inch bluefin that was fought for 2 1/4 hours on stand-up tackle.

Allen Riley fished the Sandy Hook surf this morning with Duke Matero and Frank Huza. They had ideal conditions with the water temperature way up to 64.5 degrees. Riley had a hit on his bunker bait during the first cast, but that was it as nothing was caught by any of the anglers on the beach. There were bunkers well out of casting range, and two whales put on a show for them.

Despite having to avoid an armada of kayaks, Capt, Chris Di Stefano joined Jimmy Herrick for limits of fluke again in Navesink River. Just after the limits were filled, Chris had to cut loose a 7-8-pounder.

I tried casting into Manasquan River from shore for the first time this spring and only had one hit on a 5-inch Z Man paddletail, but that was from an unexpected 19 1/2-inch fluke that felt like a doormat after only having caught shorts this spring. It was released as thanks for saving my morning.

Tomorrow starts with light south winds of 5-10 knots, but goes to 15-20 with gusts to 25 knots in the afternoon.

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The Golden Eagle from Belmar was catching sea bass Sunday when bluefins from about 100 to 150 pounds began splashing on the surface and picking off dead, floating ling. Those tuna often follow trawlers to pick off fish falling out of holes in the net, but it’s unusual for them to ne attracted by just a few floaters.

The new Word Press system eliminated my title, so I’m publishing what I can save before losing it all,

There have been great quantities of small bluefins far offshore, especially at the 1000 fathom line. Many of those bluefins are short of the 27-inch curved fork length minimum, but there are some larger ones among them. The largest bluefins seem to be around the intermediate offshore areas such as the Atlantic Princess.

Capt. Chris Di Stefano saw a couple of school tuna brought into Shark River Yacht Club today from even closer.

Boaters must purchase a NMFS permit to catch tuna, and the limit this year in the Angling category is two bluefins from 27 to less than 47 inches plus one large school/small medium from 47 to less than 73 inches. Charter boats can retain three of the smaller bluefins plus the one “over”. Party boats are allowed six schoolies and two overs.

The Golden Eagle sea bass limits and a few 2-3-pund bluefish yesterday. As a result, they started out looking for those blues this morning and got into themon jigs when located — but couldn’t hold them for long. The sea bass and ling bite then continued/

Capt. Rob Semkewyc was hoping for a repeat of Saturday’s great quantity of big striprd bass in Raritan Bay, but instead it was the same poor result as on Sunday as the only bass was hooked was lost. Semkewyc has cancelled the rest of those striper trips and goes back daily fluking tomorrow with his Sea Hunter from Atlantic Highlands,

The Queen Mary from Point Pleasant also got into blues up to 4 pounds on jigs during Saturday’s trip that also produced sea bass.

The marine forecast remains good with west winds at 5-10 knots in the morning that increase to 1-15 with gusts to 20 knots in the afternoon.

The Mimi VI from Point Pleasant added a limited striper trip Thursday that costs $100 and runs from 4 p.m. to dark. Call 732 370-8019 for reservations on this and other special trips.

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