Variety of fish making appearances locally
Ron Nuzzolo
Fish On

Fishing remains solid, producing plenty of weakfish in the Raritan Bay.

Sandworms and peanut bunker are choice baits. On the Staten Island side, schools of peanut bunker are keeping plenty of small bluefish in the bay - enough to wear you out. On the Jersey side, there's still good fluke fishing reported from Keansburg to the Sandy Hook Channel. Doormats in the 5- to 10-pound-plus range are still being picked in the deep waters off Ambrose Channel. The bigger the bait, the bigger the fluke. That's what Capt. Mike Silva of Hoboken tells me. Capt. Mike also caught a 28-inch weakfish on a fluke rig with a live killie.

Capt. Bob of Sandy Hook Charters had a three-man Half Day Charter - the Jenkins family of Weehawken. They fished the last of the incoming and first part of the outgoing. The boys limited on fluke to 5 pounds, most in the 2-pound range. They totaled 24 keepers, 38 throwbacks and many sea robbins. The bite continues to be strong in the ocean (32-50 feet of water). Again, gulp swimming minnow/killie combo was deadly. The big fluke was caught on a smelt with a bucktail.

Capt. Allen on Reel Class Charters from Point Pleasant had a great day with crew Juicebox Bob, George "Dubya" Push and Bruce Stone aboard for the marathon trip. First spot was slow to start, but they picked a few shorts and one keeper fluke followed by a keeper sea bass. The next spot they lost a bunch of bucktails, but put about 10 nice keepers in the box, as well as a few nice ling and sea bass. Capt. Allen also worked a big wreck just south of where he started, and fished the debris and rubble on the down tide side, and it was on a good steady pick of mostly keeper fluke, along with some real nice sea bass as well. Truly a great day with a great crew. Capt. Allen ended up with 26 fluke in the box and two dozen sea bass, and three nice ling, as well as a few taylor blues. Capt. Allen can be reached for private charters at www.reelclassfishing.com or (201)248-5281.

First mate Brett, aboard Captain Dave of Atlantic Highlands, reported a group of longshoremen, headed by Scott Ryan, come once a year to fish on the Capt. Dave, and with fluke fishing on the slow side, they wanted some action. A return to the bluefish area, which was productive a few days before, rewarded these guys with nonstop fishing. Again, there were so many fish that the crew of the Capt. Dave had a hard time keeping up with these anglers. Most blues were in the 10-pound range. They were able to cut the day a bit short and return to the dock early with a great catch filling the coolers.

Moving down south a bit, the Shrewsbury rocks are still producing great fishing. Capt. Sea Robin on the Scotty P, along with Wayne Smith of Middletown, tells me that there are large schools of bunker in shore with big blues, and bass feeding steadily on them. Wayne and Capt. Sea Robin did well with three nice keeper bass up to 36 inches and releasing a 4-foot Brown shark, cutting through the pods of bunker along with a few gator blues.

My good friend Capt. Ed from NJSaltwaterfisherman.com had some time and covered some serious ground trolling. Bonito are being reported all along the Barnegat Ridge and plenty of trolling boat traffic to go with it. Capt. Ed trolled up some bonito, and also at the Manasquan Ridge he decided to play around near an area of bunker - tons of bluefish that you could even snag with a weighted treble hook. A small Hopkins lure and he had all the cocktail blues you could ever want to catch. From there Capt. Ed decided to go to Oley's and troll toward the Barnegat Ridge, where he picked up a nice 30-pound football bluefin tuna to end a perfect day on calm waters.

Get ready, the bluefin tunas are coming into our area, according to reports out of NJSaltwaterfisherman.com.