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Hooking Up Anglers Since 2011.
NEW YORK HARBOR TO RARITAN BAY Ambrose Channel has been the focal point of fluke fishing lately. Those using braided lines and heavy sinkers or jigs have been enjoying steady action with enough keepers to provide a meal. Fred Fessel and I fished there last Friday with Gene Graman of Middletown on his That’s It from Twin Lights Marina in...
NEW YORK HARBOR TO RARITAN BAY
Ambrose Channel has been the focal point of fluke fishing lately. Those using braided lines and heavy sinkers or jigs have been enjoying steady action with enough keepers to provide a meal. Fred Fessel and I fished there last Friday with Gene Graman of Middletown on his That’s It from Twin Lights Marina in Highlands for eight keepers, as standard fluke rigs with Gulp and squid worked as well as bucktails with Gulp. Graman fished live eels in hopes of catching a striper but instead boated two keeper fluke no bigger than the others, plus a couple of shorts on that unlikely fluke attractor. Sandy Hook Channel has also had its moments. The Tackle Box in Hazlet weighed a 12¾-pound doormat boated there by April Coleman of Keyport on a bucktail tipped with Gulp. They noted that Ernie Parodi of Holmdel had fluke limits there two days in a row on a Spro jig with Gulp.
Dragging those eels all day without a chop-off proves how scarce bluefish have been, though The Tackle Box got an unconfirmed report of big blues hitting bunkers off Belford on Wednesday. Keyport Marine Basin had another interesting unconfirmed report — of thresher sharks in the bay.
Capt. Vinny Vetere of Katfish Charters in Great Kills has been chunking successfully in the Hudson River with limits most days of 10- to 25-pound stripers.
Joe Julian, at Julian’s Tackle in Atlantic Highlands, says crabs and snappers are thick in the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers. Fred Black of Manchester weighed a 6¾-pound fluke that he caught on a Gulp Shrimp in the Navesink. Julian noted that Brian Compton got in on a blitz of 2-pound blues Monday at the Route 35 Bridge in Red Bank.
SANDY HOOK TO MANASQUAN INLET
Capt. Scotty Hilliard, of Prowler V at Atlantic Highlands, reports the boat has been doing well with keeper fluke in the ocean around the Fishermen’s Buoy area. Kevin Bizhon of Hillsborough boated a 10⅛-pound doormat there last Thursday, and Bob Honahan from Flemington had an 8¼-pounder Tuesday. Magic Hours bluefishing has been inconsistent, but Hilliard has been jigging small blues inshore and chumming some larger choppers at the Mud Buoy.
Party boats running up the Shore have been getting into small blues on jigs at times, and some bigger ones near Shrewsbury Rocks, which may also produce a few stripers for trollers and some triggerfish and porgies for bottom fishermen. Sea bass, though, have been hard to come by everywhere. The Rattlesnake is a prime rough bottom area for large fluke and a possible sea bass.
Capt. Joe Bogan of Jamaica II at Brielle said drifting conditions were perfect last Thursday when 20 to 30 fluke were being fought at a time, with many keepers up to 7 pounds. Saturday night bluefishing was good for choppers up to 16 pounds. Capt. Howard Bogan Jr. found large blues that hit jigs 14 miles to the northeast Tuesday from his Jamaica out of Brielle. The Sandy Hook surf produced a bit of life Wednesday morning for Allen Riley of South Plainfield. Lou Vargas of Fanwood, John Pernal from Pennsylvania and Anthony Martino of Long Branch as they joined Riley in casting killies, metal and snapper poppers to catch short fluke, sea robins, snappers and, at last, some 1-to-2-pound blues that were chasing abundant small bait. Vargas and Pernal stayed after Riley left, and at about 9:30, there was the first blitz I’ve heard of this year. Both anglers limited on the small blues. I saw one of those very small blues caught on a surface plug at Sea Girt that morning, and started casting a 1-ounce Tsunami SlimWave metal that attracted snappers plus a striper of a mere 13½ inches, and an aggressive 17½-inch fluke that hit on a fairly fast retrieve. Brielle Tackle reports Spanish and cero mackerel plus small dolphin are being trolled 3 to 10 miles east of the inlet on small feathers and spoons. Blackfish and triggerfish are being caught in Point Pleasant Canal. John Sperco of New York City fished rocky areas off Long Branch to boat fluke of 7 and 8 pounds plus three 4-pounders on jigs.
Joe Melillo at Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant says small stripers are getting active in the surf and Barnegat Bay, and bass from 18 to 22 inches are hitting in the canal. Tom Deers of Normandy Beach weighed a surf-caught 9¾-pound striper that hit a small plug. Roy Hartley of Brick landed a 4-pound fluke in the Bay Head surf on Gulp. Tom Roth of Manalapan had a 4½-pound fluke in Manasquan River, where Michael Hanneman of Long Branch caught a 4¾-pounder. The Mud Hole was full of bait Saturday when Christopher DeFoe of Neptune City ran his No Shame 28 miles out of Shark River Inlet with Dave Clark of Point Pleasant and Richie Hahn from Saddle Brook to find mixed bluish-green waters with dolphins (mammals) feeding on the east side — and trolled a 28-inch bluefin on a balao. That fish was full of fresh butterfish. On the way back in from the Hole they were hit by bluefish, spewing up anchovies, in green water on the west side. Capt. Terry Sullivan found decent looking water last Friday at the Bacardi. There were no tuna, but chunking there produced two large dolphin. Capt. Pete Wagner, of Hyper Striper at Twin Lights Marina in Highlands, trolled 13 yellowfin tuna for the Ron Marks party from Westfield last Friday east of Chicken Canyon. Six of them were in the 45-pound class, and they hit both balao and plastics. His inshore trips are producing some trolled stripers, and fluke up to 6 pounds on jigs.
BAY HEAD TO BARNEGAT INLET
Green water has put a damper on yellowfin tuna fishing inshore of the canyons as well as on the bluefin bite. A boat working the Atlantic Princess and Chicken Canyon on Wednesday found only green water and just one small dolphin. However, good water can return overnight, just as it left those areas recently.
Canyon fishing has been up and down, with some very good yellowfin trolling and chunking in the Hudson, Toms and Lindenkohl, followed by very tough fishing. Lenny Palumbo of Elizabeth trolled the Hudson on Saturday on the Reel McCoy from Atlantic Highlands with Dwane and Bill Reger and Tom Datka as they got blasted by a pair of bigeye tuna. One was lost in a lobster pot, but the other was fought for four hours before the estimated 250-pounder was boated. Tony Arcabascio of Bayville and his neighbor, John Warchol, fished outside Barnegat Inlet on Maja for three keeper fluke, and then went inside the inlet for three more on 4-inch green Gulp — with a lot more action. Arcabascio hosted his brother, Vito from Staten Island, on Monday as they fished in the back of Barnegat Bay for blowfish and kept 25 while releasing many small ones. Betty & Nick’s Tackle in Seaside Park bragged of the blowfishing in the bay, and pleaded with anglers to release small puffers in order to help rebuild the formerly superabundant stock that has come back after decades of virtual disappearance. John Bushell notes Betty & Nick’s is carrying chum logs to attract the “chicken of the sea”. The bay is also full of crabs and snappers, and fluking is good in the Island Beach State Park surf.
Capt. Dave De Gennaro of Hi-Flier at Barnegat caught some 12-to-15-inch weakfish, his first of the year, around the BI marker in the bay on shedder crab, and then returned between downpours Sunday with grass shrimp to chum them up. Capt. Jack Shea of Rambunctious at Waretown says light tackle fluking is now better in the channels than in the back bay. His charters are catching up to 75 a trip, but only one in 30 is a keeper — though a 26-incher was boated recently.
SOUTH JERSEY
The Little Egg and Atlantic City reefs are beginning to get stacked with keeper flounder (fluke) up to six pounds that are inhaling live snappers, spot, finger mullet and peanut bunker. The 6-inch Gulp! Swimming Mullet and Gulp! Grub in chartreuse and pearl white on a two-to-four-ounce Spro jig or plain ball-head jig are also scoring on big flatfish. Legal-length sea bass are also beginning to be caught in decent numbers on these sites in addition to the Garden State North and Garden State South reefs. Fresh clam is the jam for sea bass to 3 pounds. Keeper fluke are also being nailed on the Tuckerton Sandwich and squid/spearing on the lumps just outside of Little Egg Inlet.
In Great Bay, blowfish and kingfish are being caught on clam or squid strips in the clam stakes on the Mystic Island side of the Fish factory — with chumming necessary to draw them close. Snappers and cocktail blues are smacking small metals and eating cut mullet at the mouth of Big Creek and Little Sheepshead Creek. There are some fluke around the deeper edges of the islands around the Fish Factory being caught on squid/minnow (killie). Crabbing has picked up along Great Bay Boulevard. The Brigantine Bridge after dark is the place to be for shots at keeper bass that are on the live eel bite.
The stripers are also engulfing live spot. Flounder to 5 pounds can be had at the AB marker, with spot, peanut bunker, snappers, and the four inch chartreuse Gulp! Swimming Mullet being the most productive baits. Keeper tog and triggerfish are being caught on clam and green crab at the T-Jetty. Kingfish are eating bloodworms in the surf down to Ventnor. Crabbing is very good in Absecon Creek.Great Egg Inlet and the Ocean City Reef offer the best shots at legal flounder, with sea bass also beginning to show in greater numbers on the latter location. Cobia have been seen by the Bell Buoy.
This Fishing Report was submitted on 8/21/2011 5:17:47 PM by Seamus and last updated on 8/21/2011 5:17:47 PM.
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