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Saltwater Fishing News

NJ Bluefish Are Back

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With the 2010 Fluke season behind us, garden state anglers have been itching for a real fight. Bluefish are back and stronger than ever and for most a fight long overdue. This week the Raritan Bay produced blues from two to six pounds with plenty of bunker pods along the Staten Island side to keep things interesting.

Over the weekend bigger blues kept about a few hundred boats at the Mud buoy- 17 fathom mark busy fighting fish. Most boats anchored up and started a chum slick to get right down to some serious light tackle fishing.

If you plan on a trip to the mud buoy make sure you load up on plenty of wire leader hooks, Big blues will test your arms and your tackle. Ocean temperatures were around 68 to 70 degrees and the mud buoy will only get better as these fish will hang around for a while and start to fatten up before heading south. If you?re looking for a few fights to pick now is the time to do it and the night time bite at 17 fathoms is always a crazy good time. Take it from me, get a few friends together, pick a boat and give it a shot at the mud buoy for night blues. This is always a great outing and usually one you will not forget for a while.

The Mud buoy is a favorite fishing spot for charters because it is a very large area with plenty of elbow room for even a weekend blitz of 200 plus boats. The bottom has lots of high and low spots fort fish to patrol. With a large variety of bait fish, blues are extra aggressive and with depths ranging from 50 to 100 feet these bruisers have plenty of room to run. Anglers on light tackle spinners and bait runners will tell you there is nothing better than getting these gator size fish in your chum slick. Once you get these fish around the boat and feeding they will become relentless. For any angler young or old they were probably hooked on fishing the day they hooked their first Jersey blue.

Fish On!
Ron Nuzzolo

Canyon Tuna Fishing - Are You Ready !

ron_nuzzolo.jpgFishing remains a bit slow. With warm waters most fish will shut down and look for deeper cooler waters. Drifting for fluke and sea bass remain the only game in town. Piers, docks and rock piles are continuing to produce small snappers, porgies and all the crabs you can scoop up within reach. Anglers are coming across a few small weakfish but no solid reports yet. With warm bay waters in August, baitfish like spearing and sand eels are thriving which is always a good sign for the fall.

If you?re not fishing for fluke or sea bass then you are looking at two options.

Option one:
wait until the waters cool down and get ready for fall bass and blues.

 

Option two: break open the check book and take a shot in the canyons for tuna.


A charter in the canyons can run anywhere from $350 to $600 per angler, but worth every dollar to the experienced angler. Fishing the canyons is all about preparation. Being prepared is half the battle. Your Health being the most important factor. You need to be in decent shape if you plan on fighting any offshore fish. Finding the right day, weather, tuna reports, water temperature and even the moon are all equally important when fishing the canyons. Food, ice, bait, fuel and tackle add up quick and can cost you several hundred dollars before you even touch a fishing pole. Finding the right captain is everything. Do your homework and talk to the captain you choose, make sure you are both on the same page.

The canyons are not a place for amateurs. You can have everything lined up, weather, great captain, excellent reports and the day you get out there the bite is turned off. To enjoy a trip to the canyons the captain?s experience will make all the difference in the world. Every angler who has experienced the canyon will have a great story to tell, you will never forget your trip to the canyons.

 Canyon Bluefin Tuna
NJSWF Bob Maehrlein with a nice Bluefin Tuna caught aboard The Phyliis Ann

The canyons are a place equivalent to the Serengeti?s of Tanzania or the to the Amazon jungle. For the most part you are about a hundred miles offshore which leaves you no room for error. You need to be prepared for everything and anything. A hundred miles from Sandy Hook and its like National Geographic in your own back yard. Whales and dolphins for as far as the eye can see can appear and disappear in minutes. Whale sharks, giant sea turtles, schools of big squid can light up all around the boat. Sharks by the dozen can show up like a hungry pack of hyenas and keep tuna away from the boat all night. The biggest problem is other boats. What looks like a city of lights the Canyon is a huge place but anglers will jockey into position for water temperature and water depth. This is where an experienced captain makes all the difference between a bad trip and an amazing lifetime experience.  (Read More)

Read more: Canyon Tuna Fishing - Are You Ready !

Doormat Taken from the Manasquan Inlet Wall

steves_doormat_01.jpgThe fish was caught By Steve O'Connor on Monday August 2, 2010 on the Point Pleasant Beach side of the Manasquan Inlet at the Wall.  The fish was weighed in at Alex's B&T(literally broke a scale flopping around Grin) at 12 1/2 lbs 32 1/2 inches.  "I just couldn't believe the size of it when we first saw it," says Steve.
Steve was fishing all afternoon casting more than half way across the Inlet.  It was at least half way out across the inlet when the fish hit the yellow gulp around low tide. "At first, I thought it might have been a big blue or weakie, but after a few minutes, I realized it wasn't pulling like either one. The fish did make three goods runs on me when first hooked. I actually tightened down on the drag 3 times, worrying the same time that a boat wasn't going to come buy because I was actually casting about half way across the river like I was all afternoon when he hit."  
Steve had assistance from a fellow fisherman and his wife netting and landing the fish since he only had a 4 foot net and the low tide line is way below 4 feet.  "I believe it was the guys wife who grabbed a hold of my legs to keep me from falling over. I kept saying to this guy that were only going to get one shot at getting this fish in the net. When i was finally able to turn the fish, the guy with my net was barely hanging onto the last part of the handle and we got it in head first," writes Steve recapping the great catch"...Hardest part was when I got him to the wall, I could hardly raise. Had to carefully grab the rod with one hand up near the first eye on the pole and lift slow and steady."

Fluke Wars

ron_nuzzolo.jpgRules and regulations divide anglers in neighboring states.

The Raritan bay is shared by NewYork and New Jersey anglers; however they do not share the same rules of fishery management. In fact regulations on fluke have New York anglers giving up on a summer flounder season. The New York side is fed up and throwing its arms up in frustration over the politics involved in a fishery management rule. New York anglers are steadily catching hundreds of fish only to release them back to New Jersey angler?s .New York is currently at a 21 inch 2 fish limit per day while New Jersey recreational possession limit and minimum size remain at 6 fish per day and 18 inches. This is a major problem not only for the management of the species but also for New York businesses owners that count on a bountiful summer flounder season.

New York and New Jersey anglers are fishing the same bay for the same species. The difference is New York will never bag a keeper limit if the fish needs to be 21 inches and New Jersey only 18 inches. New York doesn?t have a chance at a fillet of flounder dinner. Fluke or Summer flounder are currently managed under an interstate plan that uses out dated information leaving the NYS DEC to manage the rules as they stand. Unfortunately the stale data is unfair and critically damaging fluke stocks in the bay. The NY DEC is currently in federal court fighting for fairness in this fishery........

Read more: Fluke Wars