Weekend Reports Bay to Midshore

[JerseyCoast]

The Bay & River are still giving up some fluke, with a bit more shorts showing up now. Few weakfish mixing in, with some 2-4# bluefish too. Bullet Head Jigs are the top producer for jigs on the bay & river. Something about the action of them that has them out fishing the other styles!

Blowfish are pretty thick, but you need to spend the $5-$6 on a couple of chum logs to get them interested if your serious about filling a bucket up for the table.
( we are watching so many customers buy extra clams, to chum with, but the cheap chum logs are working better)

Out front, we have more keepers being caught on the rough bottom, shorts along the beaches, dog fish and skates are still thick! Most popular set up has been the Jigs with our very own NJ Fishing members custom Trailing Teaser Rigs. Our bets sellers have been the Trailing Teaser Rig with OMT Jigs, in sizes 4,5,6,8 ounces. ( Smaller hook on larger sizes has been the popular choice) . Glow, Silverside & Nuclear Chicken, tipped with Gulp! or some nice fresh meat!

Offshore/Midshore, we have tons of tuna being caught from just 8 miles out, to the Chicken Canyon and surrounding areas! Trolling, jigging and now the chunk bite has picked up as of the weekend! SMALL LURES!!!!! Sandeels are being spit up all over the deck when fish are caught, so go small on your lures! Our Mini Daisy Chains are flying off the wall, as customers are fishing them once, then coming back for 5 or 6 more! When the sandeels are thick, the fish will respond to smaller lures a bit better. Mini Green Machines, Jets, Ballyhoo Skirts, all great choices over the large lures we use for yellowfin and bigeye in the Canyons. Yes, the big stuff will work, but the boats landing 15-20 fish a day are locked in on the smaller lures.

Few dolphin being caught now around the pots, but the Hudson is still on the slow side with reports. Fish further south if your looking to run out to the deep. A couple of wahoo were hooked about 30 miles off, to the south of us this weekend, using heavy lures with ballyhoo! This is encouraging, as we are seeing our best bluefin season in years.... if the wahoo show up in numbers, it would make for an epic year of midshore fishing!



John W with his first bluefin caught on their own boat, with his nephew: