Fellow Anglers,
Just a few updates to pass on to you.
I'm quite sure that with the current arrival of Bluefish in Raritan Bay over the past week, the Winter Flounder are now long gone. Too bad, because the Winter Flounder fishing was a real bust this year and I was still holding out hope that there was still some fish to be taken. With the proposed and current Winter Flounder reg's that are going to be imposed upon both commercial and recreational fisherman, we all won't be seeing Winter Flounder fishing for a few years down the road until the stock is replenished to some safe level. And that's assuming that the stock does get back to some normalcy. Who knows it may never open again.......let's hope that's not the case.
Bluefish are over the place in pretty good numbers. Just follow the birds, start throwing small metals (ava 007, 017, hopkins, etc) and you're into fish and hold on. There are some real bruisers out there for those who like some real sport fishing action. The small blues are good to eat IF you fillet them the right way, and prepare them on the "barbie" the right way. A word of caution...........when removing the hook from old "yellow eyes" keep you fingers away from its mouths or you'll loose a finger or two in the process. We use an extra long, stainless steel "dehooker" for removing hooks from those toothy creatures while holding them from the back of their heads with our free hand. NEVER put you hand or fingers in eyesight of them or they will will jump and attack.
Striped Bass are being trolled in Raritan Bay on Stretch 25's with good results in a number of locations as well as clamming around Romer and now "outside". Spoke to a good friend of mine and he trolled 4 nice "larger" bass in the back of the bay on Stretch's until the sloppy weather kicked in. Nice catch "Donnie". One of his fish had "whole bunkers" in its stomach so that should give you all a hint on what's going on right now. Small pods of bunker have been seen in a few areas but still not great numbers yet........hope they show up soon!
Tight Lines to all.......
Capt. John