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Mystic Island
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Little Egg Inlet gave up a little activity with summer flounder, and keepers were scarce, said Scott from Scott’s Bait & Tackle. A couple of better-sized ones 7.4 and 6.8 pounds were weighed in from Tuckerton Bay. Nothing was heard about weakfish, and snapper blues were yet to show up. The small sea bass, porgies, kingfish and croakers that show up in the bay in summer were yet to appear, and they normally begin to be seen in the second week of August. No customers said they tried for sea bass or tog. The lack of effort at tog fishing was surprising. One per angler per trip could be kept starting July 16, and though that bag limit was as low as could be, Scott would’ve thought more anglers would target them. Some customers bought green crabs for tog bait, but none reported results. Anglers played catch and release with brown sharks that move into Grassy Channel in Great Bay in summer, and the shop carries a special rig for the sharking in the bay and a chum ball that’s a perfect size. Scott in past years has talked a lot about the sharking, But this year so far he had held back about speaking about the fishery, because he was trying to find out whether catch and release fishing for the prohibited species was allowed. The best answer he could come up with was that the game warden could get no answer from authorities about whether making the effort to catch and release them was illegal, and therefore the game warden reportedly said he would ticket nobody fishing for them, so long as the fish were released. But have no doubt that if an angler appeared at all to be keeping the sharks, a ticket would be issued. The sharks offer a chance to fight a big fish without traveling far. Anglers anchor for them at night, like at dusk until 10:30 p.m., setting up a chum slick at Grassy Channel, fishing with usual shark baits like mackerel or oily baitfish on a rig with a wire leader. The shop knows a lot about the sharking and can describe how anglers fish for them. Crabbing was good. “No doubt,” Scott said. Fresh, shucked clams, minnows, bloodworms and green crabs are stocked.
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