Raritan Bay Reports?

[bulletbob]

I know its all about the rocks and hard bottom out front right now, but geez there must be something in the bay along the channels, and near shore. I have seen very few bay reports past few weeks. Is it mostly just shorts, or are the majority of the fluke already heading into the ocean?... Are small blues busting on top early in the AM anywhere in the bay?...
I want to take my little 14 footer down.. Its a stout, heavily built and supremely stable little side console Grumman with a 30 HP and a 4 HP backup, great for the bay in decent weather,but it IS only a 14 footer, and I should probably not try and go all the way around the hook, and then 5 miles downthe beach...

If fluking is that slow in the bay, have the Porgies started yet in the bay, or is that still a few weeks away??.. Any help would be appreciated. I have a bigger 17 center console boat with a 70, but this will be a solo trip down, and the small rig is SO much easier to deal with for 1 guy, plus its way better on gas.. PM's are fine if a public reply would not be appropriate.... bob

[Fishermancraig]

Sending you a private message.

[Skolmann]

Plenty of fluke in the bay.

[Togfather2530]

Fluking sucks period. I don’t mean to be negative but that’s why the party boats are traveling 20 miles to go fluke fishing. It’s not like it was 15 years ago, it’s all going to shit. Sure you can catch some fluke in the bay and if you drift over a good body of fish you can catch a couple of keepers in an hour but that is you being very lucky.If you want the truth you run 20 miles to get a hard bottom to east jabiff and you will get one and a half keepers per man fishing all day LOL. Fluke fishing is a lot of luck as we all know you have to drift over a good body of fish. New Jersey ruined the fluke fishing with the 18 inch regulations. We all need to get our heads out of the sand and wake up to the reality that we ruined this fishery. I took a handicap guy out in the bay in a wheelchair the other week and I was disgusted with what I had to offer him. It’s a disgrace

[Togfather2530]

I hate to say it pull it Bob but you I’ve seen better days of fishing in New Jersey

[Togfather2530]

I get sick of these reports sugarcoating everything

[Jigman13]

I've been catching plenty of keepers this year in the back. Find the peanuts and you'll find the fluke. All my fish been caught on a single jig head and gulp mullet. Nothing fancy. No bucktail. No teaser. Prob 4:1 short to keeper ratio. No giants but fish to 21".

[bulletbob]

Ok, well thanks guys... Look I understand fluking is not what it was..

Mixed reports here, some good others awful, so I suppose its just give it a shot and see what happens.




I was just hoping that there was something I might have missed, and that the fishery in the bay was worth the effort.. As stated, I was going to bring my little Grumman down, and she's plenty fast, but the range is very limited as its only a 14 footer.. I could go on a PB but that makes for too long a day, as I can't leave the shore until around 3:30, and the NJ traffic gets real bad real fast and its a 6 hour drive home..

When I take my own rig, I can leave here at around 1 am, and am at the shore and launching around 5:30 am, and can be pulling out of the ramp around 1 PM and home by 6:30 PM..
In any case I don't typically do party boats for fluke anymore, as I simply never do well.... Last time I tried I got a keeper and a big blue and maybe 3 shorts.. I was undergunned badly. Guys that were catching fish had huge weird color GULP on gigantic 8 ounce jigs,, Several guys were using double tandem tied -4 ounce jigs, each with 6 inch Gulp and masses of bait globbed on.. Thats what you needed that day to get anywhere near bottom and I was unprepared, using 2 ounce jigs...

My 8YO grandson is driving me crazy, and desperately wants to come to NJ to go salt water fishing.. He watches the videos with me all the time.. Dogfish, sea robins and skates are something he has never seen up close, and he would be fine catching those, but he also loves to eat fish, and I would rather him catch a few fish we can take home. I would hate to have to make him throw back every fluke he caught.

Might be a better plan for me to take my 17 footer down when the Porgies are in the bay, and take him and my son along. Thanks for the heads up..bob

[NoLimit]

Fluking sucks period. I don’t mean to be negative but that’s why the party boats are traveling 20 miles to go fluke fishing. It’s not like it was 15 years ago, it’s all going to shit. Sure you can catch some fluke in the bay and if you drift over a good body of fish you can catch a couple of keepers in an hour but that is you being very lucky.If you want the truth you run 20 miles to get a hard bottom to east jabiff and you will get one and a half keepers per man fishing all day LOL. Fluke fishing is a lot of luck as we all know you have to drift over a good body of fish. New Jersey ruined the fluke fishing with the 18 inch regulations. We all need to get our heads out of the sand and wake up to the reality that we ruined this fishery. I took a handicap guy out in the bay in a wheelchair the other week and I was disgusted with what I had to offer him. It’s a disgrace Worth repeating....and I will go a step further. Fishing for fluke is a long long tradition. So was whiting and ling in the winter. But have you noticed the other traditions that are going by the way side? The shut downs especially targeted other traditions like family restaurants, family clubs, cultural centers, and even churches. Connect the dots before it is too late. There are social forces that do not want these traditions.

[Skolmann]

I've been catching plenty of keepers this year in the back. Find the peanuts and you'll find the fluke. All my fish been caught on a single jig head and gulp mullet. Nothing fancy. No bucktail. No teaser. Prob 4:1 short to keeper ratio. No giants but fish to 21".

Exactly, find the bait and you’ll find the fluke either off a boat or beach. 👍

[Duffman]

How did a question about bay fluke reports go to “Fluking sucks” “remember whiting and ling” and “they are taking our traditions away” ?? You guys can really suck the fun out of a room…:rolleyes:

FWIW I’ve been fishing inside all season. Partly due to time constraints, partly due to inexperienced family being with me. Nothing big all year but some solid 21-22” fat keepers every time out. And spread out all over. BT’s produce but those Peeps I’m setting up with old school spearing/squid do just as well.

Gave the pork chops a quick shot last week on 2 local hangs but came up with zip. Last year I started with them 2-3rd weeks of august.

Giving it a go Friday and finally getting to some deep snags. Take care grumpy men….:D

[dakota560]

Duffman I understand both sides of this discussion. Hard to discuss fluke and not get into what's happened to this fishery over the years. Are we seeing some better catches this year, based on reports some people are and calling it the best year they've seen in many years. You have to ask what impacts domestic and world markets being shut down for most of last year are having on this years fishery. Markets were literally closed for a good portion of the year. Prices got so low fluke we're fetching .25 a lb. at the docks at one point.

Can't base anything on this year since all fisheries got a reprieve last year due to the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Covid-19. No one likes data on this site and when it's posted it's viewed as complaining so I'll keep it short. Last stock assessment, population was down over 70 million fish between 2010 and 2017. Mature female population was down almost 40 million fish over the same time frame. All because today's harvest between both sectors is all sexually mature fish with a high percentage females. It's why recruitment is and has been at levels for the last decade equivalent to the low levels of the 80's when the stock bottomed out. You can't harvest the spawning stock, kill younger age classes in the process at record rates, kill recruitment and think a fishery will be here for our children. Not going to happen. Fish aren't spread out the way they were years ago and the numbers aren't there. Trawl studies say so.

Regulations are killing this fishery and when (I hope to God) things return to normal and markets reopen, the same regulations we've been operating under for the last two decades reducing this fishery by almost 50% with discard mortality levels never before seen because of ridiculous size minimums we're governed by, the stock will continue it's decline.

That's why people are complaining. We went from no possession limits, no size limits, no season closures, fish of all sizes and age classes (sign of a healthy fishery) and successful regulations from 1989 to 2004 when the stock experienced it's best growth ever and today we have 81% of recreational angler trips ending up with zero keepers and probably 20 - 30 shorts per angler. Size minimums went too far and are now causing damage to the stock. It has to change or eventually that damage will be irreparable.

Do the research and you'll understand people's frustrations. Can I go out, fish the rough stuff and find 3 nice keepers, absolutely. But this fishery is a shadow of what it was and heading in the wrong direction because the regulations are mandating the harvest of the breeding stock which is the most ludicrous regulations I've ever seen in any fishery. From 2009 to 2019 446 million fish caught recreationally to harvest ~40 million keepers. We're at a point where a good percentage of the shorts are females between 17 and 17.99 inches. How are regulations harvesting all mature breeders, killing millions of younger age class fish in the process benefitting the fishery? They're not, stock assessment says so. That's why people are frustrated. 30 or more years of sacrifices with promises of more liberalized regulations. We've all seen and lived the sacrifices, tell me what happened to more liberalization in regulations for both the commercial and recreational sectors. Hasn't happened and not going to happen under the current governance. The regulations don't work, they're causing major social and economic impacts to the industry, shore communities up and down the coast and small businesses. They have to change. Why would anyone replace regulations that promoted record growth with regulations that have caused record declines? Answer that question and then we can discuss people's frustrations.

[bulletbob]

How did a question about bay fluke reports go to “Fluking sucks” “remember whiting and ling” and “they are taking our traditions away” ?? You guys can really suck the fun out of a room…:rolleyes:

FWIW I’ve been fishing inside all season. Partly due to time constraints, partly due to inexperienced family being with me. Nothing big all year but some solid 21-22” fat keepers every time out. And spread out all over. BT’s produce but those Peeps I’m setting up with old school spearing/squid do just as well.

Gave the pork chops a quick shot last week on 2 local hangs but came up with zip. Last year I started with them 2-3rd weeks of august.

Giving it a go Friday and finally getting to some deep snags. Take care grumpy men….:D

Thanks for the realistic assessment... bob

[SaltyVet]

Bob,
I have been fluke fishing Coney Island , the east and west wall deep drops
along the Hudson, Hoffmann and Swinburne Islands.
Gulp on a high low, bait brings doggies, rays, and other non wanted fish. My bigger fish 19-21 but 10 shorts to 1 keeper.
The reach on both channel edges. Sometimes at the triangle but lots of pressure there. I use a wonder rig with a killie in 17ft. Or less.
I’m out a a couple of days a week. Lots of shorts.

[NoLimit]

How did a question about bay fluke reports go to “Fluking sucks” “remember whiting and ling” and “they are taking our traditions away” ?? You guys can really suck the fun out of a room…:rolleyes:

FWIW I’ve been fishing inside all season. Partly due to time constraints, partly due to inexperienced family being with me. Nothing big all year but some solid 21-22” fat keepers every time out. And spread out all over. BT’s produce but those Peeps I’m setting up with old school spearing/squid do just as well.

Gave the pork chops a quick shot last week on 2 local hangs but came up with zip. Last year I started with them 2-3rd weeks of august.

Giving it a go Friday and finally getting to some deep snags. Take care grumpy men….:D

Whos grumpy? I have been on 3 canyon trips so far with boat limits on BF plus caught 6 YF on the last trip. Spring striper was phenomenal and thank God the state is not in charge of them. They would have us killing everything over 27". But it is what it is with what has been a tradition for the working family in this state for over 100 years. The angling that has filled up party boats for over a century has been decimated.

[Duffman]

Whos grumpy? .

We all are at some point no?:D I come here to escape the BS of everyday, not add to it. I’ll bow out of the convo now.

Bob, bottom line is they are there. One word of warning tho, I’ve been seeing a ton of chem trails on the bayshore lately. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

C’mon man…..I had to!!!!! :p:p

[bulletbob]

We all are at some point no?:D I come here to escape the BS of everyday, not add to it. I’ll bow out of the convo now.

Bob, bottom line is they are there. One word of warning tho, I’ve been seeing a ton of chem trails on the bayshore lately. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

C’mon man…..I had to!!!!! :p:p

You know what??.. I haven't been seeing near as many up here.. Not sure why but its been a while since I have seen them in any numbers.. For several years, the sky was full of jets, crisscrossing day and night leaving webs across the sky. It always looked like a milky wash after the webs broke down which took hours,, This went on for weeks on end. Never a clear blue sky..All across upstate, and into Pa. for several years..

Then during this "pandemic" I have noticed it really slowed down a lot.. We actually have blue skies again... I am not alone.Chem trails are common worldwide, and there are millions that see them daily... Passenger jets do NOT go continually horizon to horizon in formation, leaving the entire sky looking like the Tholian Web.. [look it up if you have never heard of it]... My wife and I would sit outside and watch and wonder what they were spewing out into the sky all day and night month after month..... Scary.....bob

[rwp2101]

Bob, both sea robins and skates can be delicious. I’ve made the robins myself. Believe it or not, they serve skate wings at some pretty good NYC restaurants.

[Detour66]

Spending a day on the water fishing is my tradition. A tradition my grandfather passed down to me and now I pass it down to my children and friends. If I catch keepers great! if not it's OK. Still had a great day on the water. There are plenty of Fluke in the bay. You just have to find them. That's why they call it fishing not catching. Tight Lines!

[bulletbob]

Bob, both sea robins and skates can be delicious. I’ve made the robins myself. Believe it or not, they serve skate wings at some pretty good NYC restaurants.

Yeah, sea robins are ok, but I am not a big fan.. They are decent, but still taste a bit strong to me.. I put them on a par with Porgies, ok, but not a favorite.
.I wouldn't drive down to NJ, spend a couple hundred bucks in gas,bait ramp etc, just to load up on birds. Actually, I like small 1-2 pound blues better.. I might go down early next week, not sure.... bob

[rwp2101]

Bob, agreed on the small blues, they are some of my absolute favorites!

[Detour66]

I like small 1-2 pound blues better.. I might go down early next week, not sure.... bob

Been seeing 1-2 lb blues almost every morning I go out at the tip of the hook on the outgoing tide, Get there first light before the crowd show's up. Tight Lines!