Labor Day Wknd 2018: Pike, yellowfin, mahi and more pike - NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

JDTuna · #1 09-06-2018, 09:45 PM

Saturday:

Had a little bit of time to get out before an offshore trip on Sunday, so I decided to go see if I could get a quick pike. Got to the spot, and managed a big pike. Since I had to get my stuff ready for the next day, I decided to head home.

Sunday:

Headed offshore in search of tuna. Got to the grounds bright and early, and set out the trolling spread. Instantly we were getting covered up by large false albacore. Doubles, triples, quads every pass. Unfortunately, it made it difficult to weed through them to get the yellowfin we were after. We managed to catch two nice yellowfin in the mix, but had to weed through about 30 false albacore.

We decided to switch gears and try jigging. While looking around, we found a large stick floating that was holding a school of mahi. After catch a bunch, we continued the search for tuna.

Things slowed a little in the middle of the day, and we picked a couple of tuna. Then, in the late afternoon the fish turned on and we experienced one of the best yellowfin bites I've seen in a while. We were catching them on topwater poppers, jigs and chunks. We had a big school right under the boat, and you could see dozens of them spinning in the clear water. I watched them fight over the jigs. Ended up catching countless yellowfin and headed in just before dark.

Labor Day

Despite being exhausted from the prior day, I couldn't sit home and not fish on a day off. So I went pike fishing and ended up with a bunch of nice pike.