By Mark Marquez II
Posted 2/1/08

The third article in a series about the 2007 saltwater fishing season, according to the fishing reports.

Fluke fishing was the name of the game up and down the coast at the beginning of August.

Loads bit in Raritan Bay, and fishing for them was turning on in the ocean close to shore along the whole coast, but not yet in deeper water at the reefs. Southern Delaware Bay sometimes gave up keepers, but the best catches there were already past.

Big blues would keep terrorizing the Mudhole and such places through the summer.

Although weaks in years past had also arrived in Raritan Bay in the northern part of the state by now, none were really showing up yet, and that was the case in recent years. But lots swam the nearby Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers, where fluke were also coming up.

Croakers, members of the same family as weaks, were making an appearance from Central to South Jersey.

Bluefin tuna fishing was going strong on the inshore grounds from north to south or from the Mudhole to the lumps and holes off South Jersey. These were some of the first bluefin catches of the season in those northern waters, but South Jersey’s action had been hot some time. But boaters from the southern part of the state were finding that the bite turned off during the heavy boat traffic on the weekends now.

Northern canyons like the Hudson and Toms were sometimes putting out yellowfin tuna.

Stagnant, stale, summer water in
the back bays of South Jersey brought striper fishing to a halt for a
moment.

By mid August fluke were beginning to push out to the reefs and offshore spots from northern areas like off Sea Girt to southern ones like the Old Grounds. Porgies were starting to show up, and so were kingfish in the surf around Atlantic City.

Nighttime chunking for yellowfin tuna at the canyons, instead of daytime trolling, was now most productive, as the tuna started swimming deep.
Stormy and windy weather was beginning to roll in during the second half of August, a harbinger of the coming change of seasons and eventually cooler weather. Bluebird days of unusually calm stretches of weather so far this season were coming to an end. The weather was now disturbing fishing and shutting it off at times, but the unsettled weather is part of what starts to trigger the fall migration of fish that move south.

Peanut bunker and mullet were abundant in the bays, and captains this season would begin to say the bait was very thick, and if the population would hold, it could mean banner fishing in the fall, when the bait schools to the ocean, and gamefish chase them down the coast.

At the end of August a few small stripers were being reported caught in the surf and at Sandy Hook Point. The season was changing. False albacore began to appear off the point and toward Coney Island.

A storm lasting several days hit in early September. Tons of kingfish bit in the surf at Long Beach Island and Atlantic City. The South Jersey boats were beginning overnight yellowfin tuna trips at the canyons instead of inshore bluefin tuna fishing. Longfin tuna had started biting during the daytime troll at the canyons a little while ago.

Lots of fluke were biting in Raritan Bay and in the ocean, but fluke season closed early this year on September 10, because of increasingly strict catch limits. Many party boats and charter boats would normally keep fluke fishing, some say the best time of year for fluking, but they would be forced to switch to other species.

Mullet shot out from the bays to the ocean full blast in mid September, the beginning of the best mullet run in many years.

Weakfish finally turned up at Reach Channel in Raritan Bay during the second half of September. The weaks had sometimes been hitting in Delaware Bay, but the fishing was only a shadow of what it had been in the past. Even the government couldn’t explain the general lack of weaks in many areas, but said overfishing was not the cause. Anglers have said many years that the weakfish population is cyclical or goes up and down, but that was anecdotal.

Striper fishing in the South Jersey back bays was busting wide open in the cooler weather, and popper lures were nailing the bites.

Bluefish were sometimes showing up in the surf, harassing the mullet, always some of the season’s first surf action.

False albacore were speeding through waters from Coney Island and Sandy Hook to Barnegat Ridge and Atlantic City Ridge.

Porgies showed up in Great Bay during the second half of September, a month late. Normally fishing for small fish like porgies, kingfish, blowfish and baby sea bass turns on in the bay in mid August, but only porgies were appearing now, but at least they were there.

Raritan Bay’s weakfishing mostly came to a halt in the latter part of September, a short season that ended as quickly it had started, although sometimes plentiful weaks would still appear, like toward the Verrazano Bridge and Staten Island.

The area’s party boats started chasing other fish instead, including porgies, blues and resident stripers. Stripers would take a little time to start migrating.

Weakfish were beginning to stack up with croakers along the ocean beach front close to shore.

Bluefishing was now the main option for many North Jersey charters until stripers began to appear. Blues were plentiful.

Canyon tuna fishing was in prime time on the nighttime chunk.

But some inshore fishing was in limbo for a moment by the first of October. Anglers were waiting for the fall striper run. One Central Jersey charter captain said he was taking a break between fluke season and fall striper fishing, for example. Others bottom fished, catching fish like big porgies, to take up the slack. South Jersey boats sometimes targeted croakers and weaks at places such as off Hereford Inlet.

Mullet were still schooling along the beaches, but the run was becoming more sporadic. Lots of peanut bunker were stacked up in the bays and were poised to move to the ocean.

This time was like the calm before the storm. Anglers were waiting for the fall migration to begin in a few weeks. But as always, that would be the best fishing of the year.