NJ fishing reports

Seabass action is winding down. Tough to get limits of keepers. Got to SR reef Friday in ugly north wind only managed 30 for 4 people but still some big ones around. Sunday fished inshore at Axel reef Many throwbacks. 7 keepers and a dozen Ling
Hopefully bluefin show up soon

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Solo trip. Dropped on a honey hole of seabass Wednesday afternoon. They’re on sand eels now. Jigging double headers. Good sign. Maybe bluefin will show up. Hopefully the wind will stop and we will get another shot at seabass before the close

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WIND. South Wind. More South wind..... coming weekend....even stronger south wind...

Seabass season done til fall. Down to 1 fish pp.

A boat on my dock brought in 2 BFT from the Bacardi last weekend.

Water is finally warming up to 65. Mahi start showing at consistant 68.
 
Clouds and clouds of presumably sand eels in the lower third of the water column on the SGR yesterday. Mostly seabass chasing them in the breif time we were there.
 
I was out Monday solo in the crazy fog looking for the first tuna. Skunked... (don't count bluefish...)

Trolled a lifey lump in the Separation zone. Nothing. water temp 72 (it was 66 inshore)

Ran to the AP aka Atlantic Princess. fog thinned out there. water temp 74. Small fleet wasn't doing much. Fished around lots of whales feeding on sandeels. I guess the tuna were not hungry.

Ran out to pot markers in the Chicken canyon looking for mahi. no life. fog thickened.
Ran back and fished whales again.

Ran in to Glory pots. trolled them toward home looking for mahi. Found a mess of real tinkers about hand sized. They didn't want to come out from the pot line. There were bonnethead sharks near almost every pot. water there was 74. clean.

ran home hit thick fog at 20 miles....uuuuhg! radar and AIS are worth every penny.

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That is some warm water compared to out here in the NW. We were fishing 55 or so degree water this last weekend. Never seen 70+ degree water out here. haha
 
Saltyone said:
That is some warm water compared to out here in the NW. We were fishing 55 or so degree water this last weekend. Never seen 70+ degree water out here. haha
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Yeah and it gets warmer offshore when you hit the Gulfstream. I grew up on the Puget Sound, and Hoods Canal learned how to get up fast on the waterskis before turning blue. The water here does get COLD in the winter.
 
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Saturday looking like a shot on the 272...
 
athomp228 said:
Looking to head out Saturday as well. Any tuna reports?
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It has been on and off at the Resor , AP triple wrecks , chicken Canyon. Guys at my dock have brought in 90 pound yellowfins and some football bluefins and there have been some really big bluefins around. It hasn’t been consistent the day I went it was off. Crazy whale life and bait. The day before they were catching 90 pound yellowfins at the AP area. The hundred square in the Hudson has had lights out yft and bigeyes when boats can get there
 
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8 YFT at the west side elbow on Saturday on a buddies boat. Took the Grady to Little Italy/Monster Ledge on Sunday but didn't get anything. Ton of whales but didn't see much bait or mark many fish.
 

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Saturday and Sunday are looking stellar for tuna/mahi. The surest bet by all reports is the Hudson but i can't get a crew to do that.
Saturday afternoon we're going to stay close and try and find a bluefin at Little Italy/Humpty maybe try Mudhole pots for mahi.
There have been some big bluefins quietly taken there.
Going to try AP/Triple wrecks full day Sunday. There have been YFT and BFT there. Hit the Chicken and Glory pots for mahi coming home.
 
Saturday afternoon we stopped at a wreck and caught our sea bass and some ling. Had a 40 lb Mako follow a ling to the boat. Didn't try to catch it. fed it a ling.Then went to shipping lane between Manasquan ridge and Humpty. Whales and bait everywhere. read some really good marks in the bait. We put a ling out near the bottom and jigged in the area of bait and whales. nothing.

Sunday left dock at 330 am Flat sea. Half moon giving a nice horizon. Ran 60 miles to AP at 30 mph. Only a couple boats there. First light, lines out. whales and bait... RonZ got wacked and bit...probably bluefish.
trolled for hours. nothing.
Went east to Chicken canyon pots for Mahi. NOTHING! brutal... I had my neice and her 13yo son. I was sure if we struck out on tuna we'd at least get some mahi...
Still flat seas. Went EAST some more to get to more pots. North wind started to blow. Turned around out of caution and figured to start working back West.
Got back to AP area and trolled some 10 lb bluefish. My nephew was thrilled. I wasn't so happy... He wanted to keep some for crab bait so I taught him how to gaff a fish. he did better than most of my regular crew :rolleyes:
Wind kicked up at AP in short order and it was a sucky ride until about 25 mi out where it flattened out to a beautiful day.
Found a fleet at Jenk's beach south of the inlet catching 12" bluefish non-stop. So the kid and my neice caught a few dozen releases on the dock rods.
Tied up before 2 pm

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Manasquan has been closing up with the south wind. Normally there is NO sand and 20ft of water on the left side of this picture.
This is as bad as I have ever seen it. Dangerous. I think the dredge was there today to do a quick fix.

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