Though it’s nothing like the hot fishing of the spring, striped bass remain on the menu in NY-NJ Bight all summer — at least for the pros who know how to catch them.

I fished with two such striper pros Sunday, and released legal stripers both trips. Chuck Many has earned his reputation while winning many tournaments over the years, but Sunday morning he and I joined old friend Capt. Fletcher Chayes on his Two Rivers Charters for a fun trip to areas he doesn’t fish often. While fishing together a few years ago, Fletcher spotted my class ring  and noted that we’re brothers in Lamda Chi Alpha fraternity — he at LSU and me at Colgate. We also enjoyed a great trip to Pesca Panama a few years ago.

Chayes only needed one throw of his cast net to fill the live well, and we headed up to Hudson River to work several of Many’s drops. Bluefish were a surprising problem at the first, and we also spent some time in East River in the course of releasing eight stripers up to a 37-incher within a few hours.

After Fletcher dropped us off at Gateway Marina in Highlands, we walked to Many’s Ty Man as Hugh Mura and his son Dan joined us along with Bob Bowden for the afternoon tide. Bunkers were hard to come by in the afternoon boat traffic, but Many made a long run that payed off in a net-full on his only throw.

The bass were waiting for us where we had left them. It wasn’t easy fishing, and we missed many hits from fussy fish, but Hugh got us off to a good start with three and the rest of us caught up . Chuck only ran the boat to put us on his pieces as we ended up catching 10  legal bass ranging up to 36 inches plus two shorts.  Not wild action, but not bad for weekend daytime summer fishing in an area surrounded by millions of people!

Trolling reports haven’t been as good. Capt. Chris Di Stefano fished aboard Frank Criscola’s Crisdel out of Brielle Yacht Club yesterday while looking for entries in the Navesink-Shrewsbury River Club contest,  — but never got a bass hit. Crisdel is expert at trolling Shrewsbury Rocks with umbrella rigs, and they rarely fail there.

Fluking is looking up  after a very poor start. Capt. Ron Santee, of the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands, said he saw more shorts and some keepers as Jimmy Valentino fell just two ounces shy of the monthly pool with a 4-pound, 10-ounce fluke. The pool is up to over $900.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar didn’t find any blues today, but did see some bonito running through the slick, Jon Falkowski was aboard and confirmed their report of very good ling fishing.

.At Seaside Park, Grumpy’s Tackle reports some bass, blues and drum are being hooked in the surf — and fluking is improving. Betty & Nick’s  noted that schools of bunkers are out-of-range, though nothing has been on them.

Showers and patchy fog are coming in later tonight. The wind will be south at 10-15 knots in the morning with gusts to 20,

 

Summer stripers cooperated today in the Hudson River during two trips from Highlands which I’ve just returned from. Though too tired to go into details now, I’ll detail that info in tomorrow’s blog.

Capt. Stan Zagleski reported the best fluking of the season on Sunday’s trip of Elaine B. II from Bahrs in Highlands. Shorts provided lots of action and keepers were mixed on as both Spros and natural baits produced.

The weather was great today, and Monday looks even better with 5-10 knot west winds.

 

 

The weather was great, but there were surprisingly few reports today. Tomorrow looks like another great one with a  northwest breeze at 10 knots switching to west in the afternoon

The N,J, sea bass season closes this evening, which is bad news for all the party boats that have been depending on them to fill bags with bluefishing off to another poor summer start and fluking very spotty so far.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar had a very good sea bass catch today, but will be looking for ling and anything other than sea bass on Sunday if bluefish don’t show again. Check with your favorite skipper before coming down.

Capt. Rob Semkewyc of the Sea Hunter at Atlantic Highlands was happy with the weather today, and saw a lot more action with short fluke, but keepers are still hard to come by.

Capt. Dave De Gennaro is excited about getting weather suitable for offshore fishing by small boats. He says bluefins are 50 to 60 miles off, and he may have room for a last minute angler tomorrow at $350. Call 732 330-5674 for info about that and other trips this week.

The Jamaica from Brielle has a tilefish trip sailing at 10 p.m. Sunday that has some spaces available. The weather looks perfect for that trip, and the last one earlier this month produced quite a few large tilefish. Joe Tomaszewski of South Amboy had two 30-pounders to take the pool — and there was a boat limit catch plus a few of the smaller blueline tilefish.  Call 732 528-5014 for reservations.

Frank Criscola’s Crisdel made its first canyon trip of the season yesterday from Brielle Yacht Club to Hudson Canyon, which turned on after having been poor earlier in the week. Capt. Chris Di Stefano was aboard as the crew trolled five bigeye tuna up to about a 200-pounder plus lots of mostly small yellowfin and bluefin tuna up to a 40-pounder  — and went two out of three on white marlin opportunities. Earlier in the week boats were running all the way to Wilmington Canyon where it was mostly yellowfins.

It’s officially summer now, and the rainy weather is supposed to give us a break, though a few showers remained today. It was actually perfect for fishing in Shark River this morning, but Vinny D’Anton was the only angler to get any action even though that amounted to losing a school striper on his Chug Bug while getting three other surface strikes. He later made up for that with two schoolies in the Manasquan surf. Frank Manzi caught a surf schoolie that had a mouth full of sand flies (mole crabs) that were still alive. I ended up in Spring Lake and released a 24-inch striper that inhaled a Band of Anglers Spin Dart.

Joe Melillo reports from Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant that the best bet is a good run of blowfish from the pier at the south  end of Point Pleasant Canal. Clams have been working, and he has rigs for that fishing. There’s no better eating in the ocean than blowfish — chicken of the sea.

Bob Matthews reports from Fisherman’s Den in Belmar Marina that a skin diver shot a 6-pound sheepshead in Shark River Inlet. That species is common in South Jersey and up to the south jetty of Barnegat Inlet, but rare north of that.

The Golden Eagle from that port put a charter party into all the sea bass and ling they wanted today. Saturday is the last day for N.J. sea bass fishing. It will reopen from July 1 to Aug. 31, but with only two fish at a 12 1/2-inch minimum as a by-catch for fluke fishermen.

Fluke fishing remains a pick in the Raritan Bay area, but several party boats will be added to the fleet seeking then when sea bass go out-of-season.

Grumpy’s  Tackle in Seaside Park reports surf fishing has been slow the last few days, but they’re hoping for a return of the black drum that created so much excitement last Friday.  Some kingfish are being reported in the surf.

The weather is looking up this weekend with northwest winds at 10-15 knots and gusts to 20 on Saturday. A great looking Sunday features 10 knot northwest winds that should be perfect for heading offshore to the mid-range tuna grounds or for sharking in the continuing mako tournaments.

 

Trying to get this out between thunder storms, so it will be short.

There’s a big change this weekend as sea bass fishing closes in N.J. after Saturday, while N.Y. begins fishing for that species on Sunday.

A big surprise in N.J. is the switch of the Big Jamaica from Brielle to fluke. That traditional bluefish boat has been sea bass fishing recently, and after Saturday will sail daily from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for fluke. They’ve also  converted their Saturday night trip from blues to ling at 4:30 p.m.  That worked out very well last weekend. Tilefish trips depart at 10 p.m. on June 23and 30. Call 732 528-5014 for tilefish reservations.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported jigging a few 3-5-pound blues this morning before switching to sea bass and ling. That boat is chartered tomorrow.

A dense fog advisory is up tonight, but that should be patchy as the northwest wind comes up in the morning at 10-15 knots before increasing to 15-20 in the afternoon. Showers  are possible in the morning.

Joe Melillo, at Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant, reports some small stripers are being jigged in the canal during the morning, while boaters are doing well with fluke in Manasquan River — including some 5-pounders. Sand eels and squid are best. Crabbing is excellent.

Grumpy’s Tackle in Seaside Park reports fishing has been slower the last few days, but there are still some black drum being hooked.

Jeff Crilly got more publicity for not catching a shark yesterday than he ever did winning tournaments with his 31-foot Big Nutz Required II. While chumming for sharks around 30 miles `southeast of Manasquan Inlet in about 210  feet near the Resor wreck, Crilly’s crew saw a great white estimated at 16-18 feet and probably 2,000 pounds cruise into their slick and eat the chum bag just as much smaller blue sharks are prone to do. They got it all on video which was played on the 11 p.m. Channel 7 news yesterday, though the announcer butchered the name of Manasquan Inlet.

Though white sharks can show up anywhere. I never saw one when I was sharking during the early days of the sport in western Long Island — and then out at Montauk where big boat skippers predicted a dire ending as I started sharking with a 19-foot Mako center console — and later began chartering from Montauk with a Mako 25 and sharks as my primary target.

Since they are primarily mammal eaters, the attraction of bunker chum probably isn’t that interesting to whites under normal circumstances. Ironically, I’m sure I saw shite sharks twice while fishing for yellowfin tuna on the mid-range grounds off the Jersey coast.  It appeared they were about to hit hooked tuna, but both tuna evaded them.

There haven’t been any tuna reports lately due to the weather, but that changed today. Capt. Fred Gamboa posted on Facebook about a great trip today on his Andrea’s Toy out of Clarks Landing in Point Pleasant as his party was releasing bluefins by 9 a.m. and took the time to add a 90-inch mako shark that weighed 292 pounds before getting back to the inlet by noon.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar has had shots at small blues north of the inlet every morning, though only a few were jigged Tuesday before they added a boat limit of sea bass and some ling. That boat is chartered on Friday. The Big Mohawk is sailing for sea bass by reservation over the weekend, but may have some spots left for Friday.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for southeast winds of 10-15 knots with gusts to 20. It will shift to southwest after midnight.

Vinny D’Anton, Frank Manzi, Tommy Cox and Jim Louro all had a pick of fish on poppers in Shark River this morning with mostly 5-pound blues and small stripers.

Capt. Dave De Gennaro made the best of a bad situation Sunday morning when his party didn’t show up by running to Barnegat Inlet with his son Nick on Hi Flier from Barnegat to have some fun with stripers and blues on light tackle. The bass were from 20-26 inches and the blues from 2-5 pounds, providing light tackle sport on poppers. That fishing was slow to develop for a party on Monday,  and was mostly stripers when a bite developed. A run into the bay produced short fluke, but nothing for the box.

Monday’s fluking remained slow in Raritan Bay. Capt. Stan Zagleski found some where he had done well Saturday with his Elaine B. II from Bahrs in Highlands — but not the 5-6-pounders of the weekend.

Capt. Ron Santee has officially switched to bottom fishing with his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands, but will fish for fluke on Sunday. Sea bass have been providing steady action along with ling and even an occasional whiting. The only fluke on the last trip was hooked at anchor.

At Belmar, the Big Mohawk will be sailing limited trips for sea bass on Friday and Saturday. Call 732 974-9606 for reservations.

There have been schools of 2-4-pound blues chasing bait on the surface north of the inlet in the mornings, but they haven’t been  easy to jig.

The Mimi VI from Point Peasant will be sailing open at 7 a.m. from June 24-27. The fare for bottom fishing is $75. Call 732 370-8019 for reservations.

It wasn’t as good for him as yesterday, but Vinny D’Anton caught a couple of school stripers in Shark River this morning on his Chug Bug, plus another on a MirrOlure. Frank Manzi had a 25-inch bass on a popper.

There wasn’t much  east wind this morning, but the surf temperature was quickly back to normal. The forecast for tomorrow is for northwest winds at just 5 knots before going to the southeast in the afternoon.  There may be patchy fog early and afternoon showers.

Jeff Merrill sent the following press release about a new blue marlin tournament coming up:

Red, White…and Blue Marlin!
Introducing the MidAtlantic Cup Blue Marlin Tournament!
July 4th, Independence Day and traditionally the official kickoff of the summer vacation season for most! A day for parades, barbecues, fireworks and celebrations. Early July also gets the juices flowing for big game anglers as the offshore canyons begin to warm up and pelagic visitors make their arrival including the most prized of all billfish species, the majestic blue marlin. This year has already seen some exceptional offshore fishing in the Mid-Atlantic region. It’s well documented plenty of yellowfin and big eye tuna as well as dolphin have already hit the docks at marinas from Sandy Hook to Virginia Beach! Confirmed releases of white marlin and blue marlin have already been tallied at numerous marinas and have crews anxious to get the billfish season underway. It’s setting up to be another exciting offshore season and South Jersey Tournaments has added a very special tournament to its MidAtlantic “Signature Series” of events for 2019.
The MidAtlantic Blue Marlin Cup is set for July 4th and this one prize, winner-take-all event awards a cash payout for the single heaviest blue marlin! More importantly, we’ve made this event very convenient as you can fish from your home marina. Sail from any port, any inlet and fish wherever you like no matter where the good water is! Run as far as you like because there are no boundaries! From Sandy Hook to Virginia Beach several weigh stations have been enlisted for this event. Entry fee is set at $2000 and can be made by standard commercial means either by mail or online registration at SouthJerseyTournaments.com. Please note after June 19th only internet credit card payments will be accepted. Each participant will receive an entry confirmation number prior to July 4th which will confirm the participant’s entry into event. Deadline for entry is 5 p.m. on July 3rd.
The possibility of winning a large cash payout is definitely enticing, but there’s more! The winner will also receive an “Admirals Package” fishing vacation in Nosara, Costa Rica courtesy of Fishing Nosara (FishingNosara.com). The package includes seven nights lodging at the luxurious Casa Capitan at Nosara Paradise Rentals plus four full days of fishing for up to six anglers and much more. The value of this package is well over $6800!
Need an additional nudge to join the fun? For those looking to go in deep The MidAtlantic Cup Blue Marlin Tournament coincides with the Blue Marlin World Cup and participation in both events is permitted so you’ll have the chance to stake your claim as not only the best blue marlin crew in the Mid-Atlantic but also
among the best in the world!
As mentioned earlier boats may sail from any port at any time to reach their desired fishing grounds. Fishing hours are set for 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on July 4th however boats may catch bait prior to lines in. The minimum
length for a blue marlin to qualify is 106” lower jaw fork length. All blue marlin below the minimum length shall be released. Any fish to be weighed must be brought, aboard the boat on which it was caught, to an
Official weigh station by midnight. The winning fish shall be the single heaviest blue marlin caught in accordance with tournament rules. Prize money shall be 80% of all tournament entry fees. Participants shall
comply with IGFA rules and must use only non-offset circle hooks with natural bait or natural bait/lure combinations though J-hooks can be utilized when employing artificial lures. Any Dacron, monofilament orbraided line with a manufacturer’s stated breaking strength of 100-pound test is allowed. Additionally, any line
labeled “IGFA-rated” or “Tournament-rated” with a breaking strength of 130-pound test or less is also permitted. Backing of any line test is allowed as long as the top shot does not exceed the 130-pound test IGFA/Tournament designation or 100-pound test manufacturer’s stated breaking strength. Note the IGFA top
shot and backing rule is stated as follows: The catch shall be classified under the breaking strength of the first
five meters (16.5’) of line directly preceding the double line, leader or hook. This section must be comprised of
a single, homogenous piece of line.
Note this is a one-day only event and there is no weather day or weather committee. It is the responsibility of each participant to decide in advance whether or not to fish on July 4th.

Tournament rules and available weigh
stations can be found at http://www.SouthJerseyTournaments.com or by calling 609-884-0177. Event updates will be pushed out throughout the day on the South Jersey Tournaments app. Download it from the Apple App and Google Play stores. You can also follow the day’s action on the South Jersey Tournaments Facebook page as well.
The offshore season upon us and plenty of tuna species and dolphin, prime forage species for blue marlin, are now being found and caught in the canyons off the Mid-Atlantic coast. Why not consider participating in the
2019 MidAtlantic Cup Blue Marlin Tournament? You’ll no doubt be fishing offshore on July 4th anyway!

Save the barbecue for celebrating later in the evening when you raise an adult beverage and reminisce about the winning blue marlin piling on the right long!

Seaquester will be hard to beat in both Mako Fever and Mako Mania after weighing in Saturday. John Schachel of the Jersey Coast Shark Anglers reported a 402-pounder weighed in by John Marotta — and that mako was then weighed at 397 pounds at Capt. Bill’s Landing in Point Pleasant for the Point Pleasant Charter Boat Association’s Mako Mania. There’s almost always a slight variation in weight when sharks are weighed on two scales as they must be weighed upside down and some stomach contents and liquid may be lost in the process. That will be a hard mako to beat, but they do grow much larger — and there’s still a week to go.

The awards ceremony for the JCAA Fluke Tournament will be held the evening of June 20 in the Clarion Hotel on Rt. 37 east in Toms River. Every boat entered in the contest should be represented as many valuable prizes will be drawn — right up to the grand prize of a 14-foot StarCraft with 20 hp Yamaha and Yacht Club trailer.

It’s not necessary to have entered a fish in order to win at the drawing. Indeed, fishing success seems to be a negative since 19 of the previous 21 grand prize winners had all been shut out in the fishing

Hard south winds during the last few afternoon’s have driven the surf water temperature down, but that didn’t bother the small stripers I encountered this morning. A 22-incher hit my Tactical Anglers Bomb Jr. popper at Manasquan, and another was lost before I made a few casts at Spring Lake and released a 20-incher on the popper.  I was more surprised to find the cold water didn’t turn off the fluke. It just took a few casts with the Band of Anglers Dart Spin before I hooked a fluke that looked to be well over 18 inches before it spit the lure after I landed it but flipped back in before I could measure it. I also hooked a 14 1/2-inch fluke and lost a couple on that lure with a metal blade tail that doesn’t look like a fluke attractor especially when reeled at striper speed.

Shark River had been dead when I cast there Sunday morning, but Vinny D’Anton woke the school stripers up this morning with his Chug Bug and released seven. He topped it off by hooking a big blue that seemed to be much bigger after becoming covered in seaweed by the strong current. it weighed 9 1/2 pounds without the salad.

Grumpy’s Tackle in Seaside Park is still seeing many black drum being caught in the surf during an exceptional run of that species so far north of Delaware Bay.

There were some small blues north of Shark River Inlet this morning, but not many were jigged before the Belmar party boats switched to the dependable sea bass and ling.

Capt. Ron Santee has been concentrating on sea bass and ling with his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands since fluking has been so poor. However, on Father’s Day he took advantage of a slower current  to make a drift which produced two keeper fluke and six shorts before the drift got too fast. The sea bass bite was good despite choppy seas at anchor.

Though there’s a possibility of patchy fog and showers in the morning, the wind is switching to east at 5-10 knots — which should bring surf temperatures back up.

In response to my blog about catching three stripers Saturday while fishing live bunkers with Joe Massa on My Three Sons from Morgan Marina, reader Marc Chiapperino noted that there were lots of bunkers at Old Orchard while we were struggling to net bunkers in Great Kills. However, there weren’t any bass apparent in those bunkers, and it worked out not seeing them but rather bringing our bait to N.Y. Harbor where hungry stripers were waiting for them. Though my three releases were only from 34 to 36 inches, they were in perfect post-spawning condition and fought very well on my light conventional rig of an Avet SX reel with 30-pound braid, a 40-pound mono leader to a large circle hook, and a 7ft., 5-inch  Jigging World Black Demon rod.

 

 

 

There were no doormats caught during yesterday’s JCAA Fluke Tournament by 188 boats competing out of seven weigh-in ports.  Jesse McLean of Toms River made the most of his 8.79-pound fluke weighed at Manasquan River as it was the largest overall, and he was entered in all Calcuttas  at his port and overall to end up with a total of $10,870.

In a recent blog I called Dave Lilly of Hazlet the top fluke pro in NJ. as attested to by his many tournament wins. Lilly didn’t want to make a liar out of me, so he teamed with Brian Farmer on his 23-foot Grady White along with Mark Capalbo of Dumont and the Salt Water Anglers of Bergen County to boat the latter’s 5.45-pound fluke that was just short of the 5.5-pound winner at Sandy Hook by Steve Kelly of Jersey City. However, Kelly wasn’t in the $100 Calcutta that fell into Lilly’s lap — and they also raced across Raritan Bay to an unpublicized contest in Woodbridge to add that to their winnings. Lilly said they almost tore the boat apart in the 30-knot south winds going across the bay, and barely made the weigh-in.

Dawn Jacobson of Bridgewater won at Jersey City with a 5.59-pound fluke, and Andrew Green from Pa. took Shark River at 5.78 pounds over Don Marantz of Clarksburg with a 5.04-pound entry.  The Southern Regional winner was Tony Mosloskie from Essington, Pa. at 5.53 pounds. I’ll have more about this contest tomorrow. For a complete list of winners visit jcaa.org.

At Seaside Park, Betty & Nick’s Tackle reports Steven Wilfing weighed a 22 1/4-pound striper that hit bunker in the surf. Though bluefish didn’t hit at the docks yesterday evening, there were lots of semi-tropical houndfish there.

Grumpy’s Tackle reports more black drum in the surf up to a 19.4-pounder yesterday evening by Chris Pitcher on clam.

Saturday’s hard south wind in the afternoon lowered surf water temperatures, and we got more of that this afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While most boaters were chasing fluke in the JAAA Fluke Tournament today, Joe Massa brushed off negative striper reports as I joined him this morning on My Three Sons from Morgan Marina. Bunkers were hard to come by in Great Kills Harbor, but Massa finally got one good shot at them with his castnet. There was no current in N.Y. Harbor when we got there, and fish marks were scarce in the many spots we checked out. The, when the ebb finally started running, we had an increasing south wind up against the currant.

It was difficult to work small spots, but Joe put me into stripers of 36, (see photo below),35 and 34 inches on live bunkers. He had several hits, but none hooked up. Since we didn’t mark many fish, that catch wasn’t bad under very poor circumstances. Joe’s 30-foot Grady White handled the seas well even as the 30-knot south winds predicted did develop. Those winds are predicted to drop off after midnight, becoming 5 knots west in the morning– and shifting to south in the afternoon.

 

Happy Father’s Day

 

 

I’ll get the JCAA results out as soon as they’re available tomorrow.

There was some good fluke news from Capt. Stan Zagleski of Elaine B. II from Bahrs in Highlands as he picked some larger fluke early before the current got too hard and shut the bite off.  Doug Kay of Union Beach had a limit that included a 5 1/4 and the pool-winning 5  3/4-pounder.

Grumpy’s Tackle in Seaside Park reported an unusual number of black drum being caught in the surf, with some anglers catching more than one.