Tight Lines

The bluefish bite off northern N. J.had been up and down, but now seems to be very consistent.

Both the Jamaica from Brielle and the Golden Eagle out of Belmar have been filling 5-blue party boat limits on jigs quickly before running out to hard bottom for the two sea bass presently allowed plus ling and possibly a fluke to fill out the catch. The blues generally range from 3 to 8 pounds.

The Golden Eagle had some yellowfin tuna caught and lost on Monday’s weekly exotics trip along with a couple of bluefins. The trip was topped by a 104-pound yellowfin.

The Jamaica has another tuna trip coming up on Aug. 8 at 11 p.m. — and a tilefish trip at 10 p.m. Aug. 9.. Call 732 528-5014 for reservations.

Tank Matraxia had a hot hand yesterday on Tagged Fish from Highlands as he took his limit from six legal fluke while drifting in the Scotland area.

Allen Riley and John Mazzeo fished the Sandy Hook surf yesterday morning and finally saw some small bait in the wash. Gulp produced three short fluke for them, while John also hooked a small blue on cut bunker.

A last try at surfcasting before heading back to Nashville produced a fat fluke in the Sea Girt evening surf yesterday for my grandson Aiden , but it was just a quarter-inch short. He was casting a Band of Anglers Dart Spin.

There’s a small craft warning up this evening through Thursday afternoon, though the morning forecast is only north at 10-15 knots with gusts to 20 before dropping to southeast 5-10 in the afternoon.

I’ll be updating the White Marlin Open later tonight if their Marlin Cam works. Don’t expect much because only 36 boats sailed today after most of the 440-boat fleet sailed the first two days in fine weather. I suspect that few will fish tomorrow in order to get out for the final shot at the $9.2 million purse on Friday when light west winds are forecast.

Open document settingsOpen publish panel

• Post

After being unable to get on the Marlin Cam at all to see the weigh-ins, and seeing the White Marlin Open site showing no change in leaders except for the first wahoo of 48.5 pounds 0n Island Hopper — I’m not sure there was really no change as there was a photo of a tuna weigh-in that should be second in that division.

Hopefully. I can get this tigured out in the morning. In any case, with most teams fishing both of the first two days in fine weather, there are only 491 boat days left the rest of the week in the 444-boat contest.

There was a dramatic rescue at sea the first day as Knot Stressin filled up with water and sank right after Fishbone arrived to take the crew aboard from the lifeboat.

Paul Haertel reports for the JCAA as follows:

LAST CALL for JCAA HEAVY HITTERS FLUKE TOURNAMENT – August 5th – 8th $10,000 cash prizes based on 250 entrants. 1st to 5th place prizes based on total weight of 3 fluke plus one prize for the largest fluke and one prize for the largest sea bass in the tournament. Ten weigh-in stations from Sandy Hook to Cape May. You pick your one day to fish, huge Calcuttas, $175 per boat  (up to 4 people/anglers) Last year’s big winner won a total of $14,684 including Calcuttas. Our awards ceremony will be at the Forked River Tuna Club on 8/8 from 4-8 PM. Salad, Italian food, soda, water and desert will be served. There will be door prizes, a 50/50 and our High Roller Raffle tickets will be on sale as well. To top it off we will have a live band, Ken and the Escorts providing entertainment. Visit www.jcaa.org to register online or print an application or see our FB page (Jersey Coast Anglers Association and please “like” it) or call 973-943-8201 for more details.  Online signups will continue to 11:59 PM on Wednesday 8/4 or you may call Paul at 973-943-8201 for last minute credit card signups.

Paul was fluking in Barnegat Inlet yesterday when he caught his first N.J. cobia. It was well short at 26 inches, but any cobia this far north is a thrill.

Capt. Rob Semkewyc reports lots of fluke action today on his Sea Hunter from Atlantic Highlands plus the best whale show he’s ever seen.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for east winds at 5 to 10 knots before increasing to 15-20 in the afternoon.

The 84th White Marlin Open continues with 420 boats fishing today. The first day’s results were in my late blog — and I’ll be doing another after the scales close tonight. The name of the boat with the leading 82.5-pound white marlin is actually Fender Bender.

The volume of weigh-ins on the first day of the White Marlin Open out of Ocean City, Maryland wasn’t impressive considering that 421 boats took advantage of fine weather to fish the canyons.

Mama C broke the ice on blue marlin with a 559.5-pounder to lead for $800.000, while Gender Bender leads in white marlin with an 82.5-pounder that could be worth $4.9 million. The tuna leader is Seven at 137 pounds, followed by Fishanado at 96 pounds,Uno Mas with a 60.5-pounder — and Finatic at 51.5 pounds..

Kilo Charlie weighed a 31.5-pound dolphin.

The first White Marlin Open out of Ocean City, Maryland in1957 drew 57 boats vyng for $20,000. The 47th event has 444 boats seeking a purse of about 9.2 million dollars.

With a great weather forecast, 421boats opted to fish the first day. There will surely be a great many fish weighed, and I’ll try to get another blog out tonight with those results.

As noted in my last blog, there was great bluefishing yesterday off Long Branch. Those aggressive blues responded best to poppers. and I was able to raise them on blind casts during long drifts even though there were no surface signs of them. A couple of times I had two blues on the popper — somethng that occasionally happens in a blitz, but not normally on blind casts.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported there was great bluefishing again today as their fares jigged early limits before releasing many more from 3-7 pounds. They are tuna fishing tomorrow, but will be back to the blues on Wednesday.

The forecast is for northeast winds at 5-10 knots before shifting to southeast in the afternoon.

Capt. Dave DeGennaro has been into 30-40-pound bluefin and yellowfin tuna on bait just 25 to 35 miles offshore with his Hi Flier from Barnegat. He has room on an open trip Wednesday from 9-5 for $350 — and Saturday and Sunday from 4 a.m. to 3 p.m. for $450. Call 732 330-5674.

Action is the name of the game when it comes to taking young anglers fishing as was the case today when my son Mike came in from Tennessee with his wife Allie and son Aiden (13) . Capt. Joe Massa invited us aboard his My Three Sons from Morgan Marina to run down the beach for triggerfish which he had loaded up with last week.Fortunately, we saw a few birds picking off Sandy Hook and caught some 3-4-pound blues before dropping to bottom. However, small sea bass ate up our shrimp so quickly that only Aiden managed to catch a triggerfish. Allie was impressive in catching variety as she caught the only porgy, fluke and sea robin. Before an early return, Massa suggested we switch to the blues which he figured were below picking birds coming toward us, and that turned out to be the right move as blues of 6 to 7 pounds exploded on every cast though there was no sign of them. We were all alone off Long Branch, and left them biting as Aiden got a good introduction to the most exciting form of fishing — casting poppers for surface blasts.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported blues were fussy in the morning, though anglers who worked hard with their jigs did well. A move offshore later on produced large sea bass and some fluke.

It was a bit choppy today, but should be fine in the morning with northwest winds at 10-15 knots.

Jigging for bluefish often drops off on a calm weekend day with lots of boat traffic, but that wasn’t the case today. The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported that anglers were releasing choppers from 3 to 8 pounds by mid-morning. The Queen Mary from Point Pleasant had a similar report of blues up to 10 pounds.

Jim Hutchinson Sr. reports for the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association that Captain Bob Gerkens got into the tuna action on the “Hot Tuna” last week when he limited out with 21 yellowfin to 50-pounds at one of the canyons off Long Beach Island. Captain Bob teamed up with his former mate Donte Soriente to test Dante’s new line of offshore tackle that his Magic Tail Company produces. The day turned into a day to remember as over 30 fish were caught with over 10 tuna released for another day. All the action occurred from 6:00-10:00 a.m.

The forecast is for south winds at 5-10 knots before increasing to 10-15 in the afternoon when showers and thunderstorms are possible.

Captain Gary Dugan has consistently been putting his anglers on good fluke and black sea bass action on the inshore reefs and wrecks out of Little Egg Inlet. His anglers are returning with great days on the water with numerous throwbacks to go with some fish dinners taken home in the fish box.

Captain Brett Taylor of Reel Reaction Sportfishing has been splitting his time with ocean and bay charters. He had Dave Samuelson of New York with his nephew Mike on a 5-hour ocean trip. They put their limit of black sea bass to 19-inches in the cooler and switched over to fluke. Working the same snag, they put 7 quality keepers in the boat. That same afternoon, the Steve Danastorg family fished the bay and released over 50 fluke, keeping three to 22-inches in just 3-hours of fishing. All trips used S&S Bucktail Bigeye bucktails tipped with natural bait.

Additional information on the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association can be found at www.BHCFA.org.

At Atlantic Highlands,, Capt. Ron Santee

 R

Captain Bob Gerkens got into the tuna action on the “Hot Tuna” last week when he limited out with 21 yellowfin to 50-pounds at one of the canyons off Long Beach Island. Captain Bob teamed up with his former mate Donte Soriente to test Dante’s new line of offshore tackle that his Magic Tail Company produces. The day turned into a day to remember as over 30 fish were caught with over 10 tuna released for another day. All the action occurred from 6:00-10:00AM.

Captain Gary Dugan has consistently been putting his anglers on good fluke and black sea bass action on the inshore reefs and wrecks out of Little Egg Inlet. His anglers are returning with great days on the water with numerous throwbacks to go with some fish dinners taken home in the fish box.

Captain Brett Taylor of Reel Reaction Sportfishing has been splitting his time with ocean and bay charters. He had Dave Samuelson of New York with his nephew Mike on a 5-hour ocean trip. They put a sea bass limit aboard and then added fluke; Additional information on the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association can be found at www.BHCFA.org.

Capt. Ron Santee had a charter today on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands and stated tje rental rod group with their limit of sea bass before adding fluke; He said this was the first time there wasn’t anyone with a jig fluking, but it stil qorked out well.

the forecast is for south winds at 5-10 knots before increasing to 10-15 in the afternoon when showers and thunderstorms are possible.

You didn’t have to be a pro to boat a five fish party boat bluefish limit this morning as both the Jamaica from Brielle and the Golden Eagle from Belmar reported jigging 3-to-8-pounders one after another. The latter noted they were in catch and release mode by 9:30 before adding the two sea bass a man presently allowed plus chub mackerel and some ling.

The Jamaica is running 7:30 p.m. half-night trips for blues on Friday’s and Saturday’s in addition to the daily 7;30 a.m. sailings.

The Fishermen from Atlantic Highhands got into quality fluke today as Joe The Plumber ran off with both the daily and monthly pools while beating his 9.1-pounder with a 9.3. Another angler caught four which included fluke of 6.8 and 7.14 pounds. Capt. Ron noted that the ocean is remarkably clear.

The morning forecast is for northwest winds at just 5-10 knots with gusts to 20 before going west in the afternoon.

The big game tournament season moves into high gear next week as the White Marlin Open in Ocean City, Maryland runs from Aug. 2 to 6. Most of the N.j. entries will actualy be sailing out of Cape May to join the huge fleet competing for what will probably be well over a million dollars. The bigeye tuna bite was excellent during the recent Jimmy Johnson Quest for the Ring Tournament in Atlantic City (see photo below), and that fishery will draw attention from those not concentrating on white marlin with much lighter tackle.

There was a lack of fishing reports today as many anglers seemed to think it was going to rain before the end of the day. If anything develops, it will be over by tomorrow with dry northwest winds at 15-20 knots before gusting to 30 in the afternoon.

New Jersey party boats have gotten into decent jigging during offshore trips for small bluefin tuna. but yesterday they set their sights much higher with yellowfin tuna.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported that they were running 75 to 80 pounds and a “handful” were boated with three times as many lost. The Queen Mary from Point Pleasant only noted that some quality yellowfins were caught.

The Golden Eagle was back to bluefishing this morning. and that fishing was good for 2-7-pounders on jigs which also produced some sea bass, fluke and ling before more sea bass hit on bait.

At Atlantic Highlands, the Sea Hunter reported another good fluke day with quality fish topped by a 7-pounder that beat a 6.5-pound fluke. There were also some sea bass and two blues. That boat is taking tomorrow off.

The Fishermen had a similar report of quality fluke as Merg Anthony boated a 5 11/16-pounder to take the pool.

Betty & Nick’s Tackle in Seaside Park reported there was a bluefish blitz on spearing in Island Beach State Park — where fluke were also caught.

Thursday’s forecast is for southeast winds at 10-15 knots plus possible showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon.