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Hooking Up Anglers Since 2011.
Striped bass are still the headliners in local waters, but they’re already getting some competition from bluefish. Shad fishing could hardly be better in the Delaware River; the spring blackfish season ends Saturday night. And cod remain a good possibility offshore, along with ling. Fluke fishing opens Sunday in New York waters. New regulations set a May 1 to Sept....
Striped bass are still the headliners in local waters, but they’re already getting some competition from bluefish. Shad fishing could hardly be better in the Delaware River; the spring blackfish season ends Saturday night. And cod remain a good possibility offshore, along with ling.
Fluke fishing opens Sunday in New York waters. New regulations set a May 1 to Sept. 30 season with three fluke at a minimum of 20.5 inches. That doesn’t do New Jersey anglers any good, as any fluke caught there must also be landed in New York. Our fluke season begins May 7 with eight fish at an 18-inch minimum through Sept. 25.
Sea bass regulations are still undecided, but Paul Haertel represented the Jersey Coast Anglers Association at Wednesday night’s Marine Fisheries Council fluke advisors meeting. A consensus was reached for an option that achieves the required 40 percent cut while keeping the minimum at 12.5 inches and the bag at 25, with a split season from May 28 to Sept. 11, and from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31. The council, which designated June 4 as the opener at their last meeting, will put forth several options to the public before adopting one at a 4 p.m. meeting Thursday in the Galloway Township Library at 305 Jimmie Leeds Road.
For more information visit my blog at nj.com/shore/blogs/fishing, though that blog may be intermittent next week while I’m on a family trip to Italy.
Stripers are being caught by every method and everywhere from bays and rivers to the surf and ocean waters. Raritan Bay has been hot for clamming and bunker chunking, along with Stretch plug trolling and with an occasional shot on jigs.
Capt. Sal Cursi of Cathy Sea from Sewaren had a good catch of stripers averaging 18 pounds, and ranging up to a 25-pounder, Wednesday on live and chunked bunkers. Capt. Vinny Vetere of Katfish Charters from Great Kills had nine bass up to 27 pounds that morning on bunker chunks. Party and charter boats have been loading up jigging down the beach and trolling bunker spoons for mostly keeper-size bass in the teens. The surf action has been primarily on clams, though warming water should result in some lure action shortly.
TOP CATCHES
Joe Melillo reported Wednesday from Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant that boaters had caught some blues from cocktails to 6 pounds in the Manasquan River at the mouth of the canal, off Clarks Landing, and north of Treasure Island. Melillo also reported legal stripers hitting clams in the Bay Head and Point Pleasant surf, good flounder fishing at the north end of Barnegat Bay, and lots of blackfish in the canal until the season closes after tomorrow.
Betty & Nick’s Tackle in Seaside Park had reports of some blues in Barnegat Bay, on the flats behind Island Beach State Park, and in the Toms River. Clammers are catching stripers in the park surf, with 10 keepers weighed in or reported Wednesday. Gary Nelson of Flemington landed both a 9 3/4-pound striper and a 35-pound black drum Sunday on clams in the park.
It’s usually only days after the initial reports that blues flood into the Navesink River, and Phil Sciortino of the Tackle Box in Hazlet said blues are already hitting plugs there, though Leonardo was the hot spot for shore casters early in the week. He said the last couple days produced stripers on clams in the Sandy Hook surf.
Joe Julian Jr. reports from Julian’s Tackle in Atlantic Highlands that a 10 1/2-pound chopper was caught from the Sandy Hook surf on bunker this week. Allen Riley of South Plainfield was happy just to break the Sandy Hook surf ice with a few short stripers on sandworms.
Big Al Wutkowski of Point Pleasant has been appointed Barnegat Bay Guardian by the American Littoral Society. He is best known as a striped bass fisherman and more recently for his passion to protect bay wildlife, especially waterfowl. Wutkowski works closely with the Mercer County Wildlife Center and has personally saved over 30 birds that were victims of oil coating or were injured in Barnegat Bay.
This Fishing Report was submitted on 4/28/2011 10:54:53 PM by Seamus and last updated on 4/28/2011 10:54:53 PM.
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