NJ fishing reports

[SkunkBoat]

Finally found a Tilefish spot in Toms Canyon

11 fish to 32 inches in an hour of fishing.
Should have stayed on them cuz we got no tuna on the troll, no sharks and no swords at night.

Found a thousand school bluefins at the Fingers and couldn't get one to bite.
Southeast of the Fingers there were a dozen whales and a thousand dolphins....no tuna

 

[Jody]

Nice, I was out the 16th got a late start so I started at the cigar on my way yo the lobster claw. Trolled for awhile then got a guy on the radio who was at the claw and he said it was dead. So went up to the 28 mile wreck and sharked. Got nothing and seen no life. Only boats I heard with catches were at the Wilmington. First time offshore with the Merc efi 250 disappointed in the burn only got 1/1. Getting the engine scanned, I only have a 228 I would think 1.5 should be the worst I should get.

 

[Jody]

Left the dock 12 am on my friends Black Watch went in between the Baltimore and poor mans found lots of life started trolling south had two knock downs on ballyhoo. When we got to poor mans it seems we missed the only bite of the day around 8. Guys on the radio were saying they had 3 to 5 yellowfin mostly on one hit. Trolled till 11 went back in to the 50 fathom line to try for some bluefin great water no fish.

 

[Jody]

Heading to the lobster claw tomorrow morning on the 228 anyone else heading out?

 

[SkunkBoat]

At the north end of the Chicken Canyon on Sunday
Caught three BFT on poppers with a light spinning rod. Lost one that was jigged deep. Kept a 20# and 40#.

Had to chase down the 40#er he was spooling the little spinning reel.

Friend of mine got a 150# on Friday.

 

[Jody]

That's fun fishing Skunkboat. I got to the lobster claw just after daybreak, whales, two tones, turtles and not one bait ball. It was just me and one other boat. After trolling around for awhile he went farther offshore I didn't have enough fuel for that. I'm getting 1.3 with the Merc 250efi and hold 143 but 135 I'm empty. On the way in found a great weed line 1/2 mile long 50' wide not one speck of life under it. Put the boat on the trailer and brought it home to swap the fishing gear for tubes, rafts and the grill. Wifey wants to have it on the Delaware for the 4th. She has 12 people so far looks like I'll be playing taxi from the marina to the island. We run up to pennslanding for the fireworks, told her only 8 for that to many popo to be overloaded. This time of the year I put it at my buddy's marina in west deptford for family nights and weekends and trailer it to AC when it's fishing time. The one bright side of that is saving $1 a gal fueling up at a gas station.

 

[SkunkBoat]

Got out Friday afternoon with a full tank and a good forecast and no plan.
Just not really enough time...weather was nice so we decided to overnight, so at least also maybe get the morning bite.

Brother and I decided to burn gas and run all the way to the tip of the Hudson.
Got there at 6pm (dumb to do that)

Trolled the pots and deep from tip to elbow and back until dark.
Had a bite on a spreader bar that bent over an 80 rig and screamed off line...until it popped.
center line of the speader bar broke 2 inches behind the bar. AAAAAAGH!

Decided to run back to the Texas Tower in the fading twilight. We wanted to find and mark the wreck and see if there was any bottom life.
Thought was to anchor, bottom fish and put a live bait out all night, then troll for Bluefin in the morning.
Marked out the whole wreck and dropped some jigs and clam. No Life at all. Broke off 3 rigs pretty quick.
Got dejected, breeze kicked up a little, decided to run 50 miles in the dark to the Shark River reef and find some bottom fish.
DUMB.

Anchored on Shark river reef at 1 am. Caught ling and silver eels til 7am, no cod

Went home a lot poorer...
I would say that we should have just trolled the Chicken Canyon to Texas Tower area from 5 pm until dark then anchored and slept, then trolled the morning and ran home.

but... if we had landed what was probably a bigeye at the tip this would be a happier story.

 

[Finest Kind]

Fluking Report:

August has been really great Fluking outside Manasquan Inlet!
Alternating Fishing trips on my buddies 25 Grady and my other friends 29 Boston Whaler, we have had multiple days where we limited out with keeper Fluke (18 inch plus), with several really nice 25 inch plus fish in the mix.

There have been so many short Fluke caught as well that I actually bought a couple of those hand-held counters so we could keep track of the total number of Fluke we caught per trip...recent counts were 37, 52 and 71!
These totals do not include numerous Sea Bass, Sea Robbins. Skates, Dogfish, Bergalls, Porgy, etc which are not counted...only a Fluke gets a click on the counter.

The BEST Fluke fishing is right NOW up until the (way too early) season close on Sept 22.
Best area to concentrate your efforts right now is the rock pile ridges on the South end of the Axel Carlson reef.
Best rig is a 2 oz Spro Bucktail tipped with a Gulp grub, with a teaser tied a foot above also tipped with Gulp.
Best technique is to position your boat over good structure, jig rapidly while drifting and hit the MOB when a keeper is hooked. Then repeat your drift again and again over the same point within the same area. Where there is 1, there are dozens.

 

[SkunkBoat]

We got in on some of that fluking. Also, there is a steady bite of big winter flounder on the Shark River Reef. Get tight to a wreck and fish the bottom(not on top of the wreck). Right now there are loads of Mahi on the pots in the mudhole. We're catching Mahi and winter flounder! My dockmates have been catching YFT steady 70miles out, south of Chicken canyon... we just don't seem to get the right days off...should be there today...

 

[SkunkBoat]

Mahi fishing is on fire. We got 35 in Chicken Canyon and GloryHole. Once again we could not find tuna.

Nice sized fish out there but there is a ton of small fish at the pots in the Mud Hole(20 miles). Crystal blue water there.

 

[SkunkBoat]

Big Sea Bass are flying at Shark River Reef. We limited out. Also got a couple Mahi and little tunny on the troll.

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• SkunkBoat
• Oct 9, 2018

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• SkunkBoat
• Oct 9, 2018

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• SkunkBoat
• Oct 9, 2018

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• SkunkBoat
• Oct 9, 2018

 

[bac0701]

nice man. I wish i got out today, I had a damn class for work. looked like some heavy fog in am

 

[SkunkBoat]

SR Reef again this Sunday---WOW it was a parking lot!
We passed it by to go looking for mahi and tuna in the Mud Hole. Got 3 small mahi and one nice 7 pounder on the pots headed to the Monster Ledge. Also had a half dozen little tunny (Bonita) that kept it interesting. Had a cedar plug get broken off on a hit, 3 year old wind-on leader broke in the middle.

Got to the Ledge and got nothing, headed back thru the pots on the way to SR reef. Got a nice surprise with a double of schoolie bluefins! They weren't big but they were legal and tasty!

Got to the northeast edge of SR reef and drifted the first rock mountain without a boat on it. Lots of big porgies and sea bass. A lot of throwbacks but we did OK. Bluefish biting seabass in half on the way up.

Went north to the Arundo and anchored. Got 4 seabass all bigger than anything at the reef. A few ling also.

 

[SkunkBoat]

Thursday 11/8/18

Bass on Mojos in 65-70ft east of the red can at Manasquan Inlet

 

[CJ7Rob]

Nice fish, I was in the Manasquan River on Sunday 11/11 but we had no luck.

 

[SkunkBoat]

Got out Sunday 11/11 for stripers. Trolled one nice bass on a mojo early then tried snagging bunker & live-lining. Had one bass run off almost immediately but failed to hook it. After that it was all dogfish munching our baits. This was off Spring Lake and later Mantoloking.

Monday 11/12 we blew off striper fishing and went to Shark River reef in flat seas. On the way out we ran thru a dozen whales (humpbacks and minkes) and a thousand dolphin eating sand eels. National Geographic kind of sight. Tried jigging for tuna but nothing. Moved on...
My brother and I got 25 keeper sea bass. Had an owl sit on a rod tip and stare us down for 5 minutes. Headed in at 2:30.
Ran into gannets diving and fish busting...thought it was tuna... I hooked up right away on a jig...no screaming runoff....it was a 25 pound striper! 8 miles out! jigged & released 3 more in the 20 - 25# range and called it a day.

__________________

 

[SkunkBoat]

Last report of 2018---- Its cold...fish are gone.....sadness....no fish til May.

 

[CJ7Rob]

Skunkboat that is Trader's Cove Marina^^...small world, I launched there 7-8 times last season. Great ramp there, lots of water and good staff.

Any of you guys fish, crab, and/or clam in the Raritan Bay? I may be losing my spot further south on the Barnegat Bay where I do all three and may have to launch closer (Raritan Bay) to home this year. I know the Fluke and Striper fishing is great in the Raritan Bay, but wondering how the crabbing (Sandy Hook Bay maybe?) is and if anyone ever anchors up and tries for some clams (Highlands maybe?). Thanks

 

[SkunkBoat]

Skunkboat that is Trader's Cove Marina^^...small world, I launched there 7-8 times last season. Great ramp there, lots of water and good staff.

Any of you guys fish, crab, and/or clam in the Raritan Bay? I may be losing my spot further south on the Barnegat Bay where I do all three and may have to launch closer (Raritan Bay) to home this year. I know the Fluke and Striper fishing is great in the Raritan Bay, but wondering how the crabbing (Sandy Hook Bay maybe?) is and if anyone ever anchors up and tries for some clams (Highlands maybe?). Thanks

definitely the best ramp around. I don't have a truck or trailer to haul this wide beast so I get it hauled to my yard.
When I had a 20 footer I would launch at Manasquan River Club in Brick.

I don't ever go up to Raritan, too far from Manasquan Inlet by water. If I'm spending that gas I rather go East---deep.
Raritan has some great bass fishing early- April/May.
I don't know about shellfish in Raritan Bay. Might be consumption warnings. I know NY Harbor is condemned.

 

[Jargon]

Last report of 2018---- Its cold...fish are gone.....sadness....no fish til May.
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Looking forward to Spring ‘19 updates Skunk!