By far, May is the month that doesn’t just get anglers out and about, but it is the eruption of the saltwater fishing season bar none all across the boards. First off, striped bass should be as thick as thieves everywhere along the state’s waters and with them should be plenty of bluefish in the mix. The biggest news is that fluke aka summer flounder season, reopens on May 4th with a 3-fish bag limit at an 18-inch minimum size in all ocean waters, except for Delaware Bay where the minimum size is at 17 inches. Bottom fishing will be ripe with activity as the black sea bass season also reopens, with a 10-fish bag limit and a minimum size of 12.5 inches, from May 17 to June 19. And tuna? If all follow the same pattern, bluefin should be within spitting distance from the shoreline while offshore yellowfin will be moving into the canyon areas. The official kick-off to the summer season is here, let’s go!
RARITAN BAY
Stripers should be in the middle or at post-spawn by this time, leaving the Raritan and Hudson Rivers and taking up residence inside the big bay everywhere at all times. The entire month of May should be the best striper action of the year here. Anglers can find fish anywhere but usually start back by the Amboys and Hazlet, then look to find feeding schools in the middle of the bay off Great Kills and out to the Ammo Pier area as well as chasing blitzing schools over to Coney Island, West Bank and at the Rip or Romer Shoal. Topwater poppers and chuggers, swimming plugs, and shads will all score with stripers. I like using Yo-Zuri Mag Darters, Savage Gear Pencil Poppers, Storm Shads and SP Minnows, mainly in a white or yellow coloring. If it seems dead up top, send out the trolling rods with Mojo balls and shad bar rigs to find the schools, then you can set up and jig them. Morning and evening hours are always a good bet to find fish feeding up top, but the chew should last throughout the day as tides usher in and out. Opening day fluke fishermen will be looking to target areas such as Chapel Hill Channel, the Ammo Pier and off the Coast Guard Row to put the first flatties of the year on deck. Big Gulp grubs 5 to 6 inches long on chicken rigs are top offerings to trick up fluke, but don’t overlook bucktails tipped with mackerel or bluefish strips in the early part of the season. There’s always the chance that bluefish will storm the back bays, as they have historically done, although we haven’t seen them in about five or six years now. If they do show up in Raritan Bay, scale up to 50 to 60-pound leaders and toss ugly plugs you don’t mind losing or getting beat up, as well as switching all the treble hooks over to single siwash hooks to prevent any hooked hands and facilitate the ease of releasing the fish.
NORTHERN COAST
Last year, the Navesink and Shrewsbury river systems were devoid of bunker and thus bass fishing was dismal there, but the good news is that as of early April, there is plenty of bunker inside the rivers, which should foretell a decent bass bite. White mag darters and Gag’s Grabber plugs take a bunch of the bass this time of year and white colorings stand out nicely in the usually turbid waters of the rivers. Bluefish usually make it to the Oceanic Bridge area and last year, a shot of 5 to 8-pounders did just that to hit poppers. Staying inside the rivers, fluke can be hanging around the Oceanic Bridge as well as where the two rivers meet up just south of the Highlands Bridge and inside the Shrewsbury River. Shark River will be the spot to really hang on some winter flounder as the water temps should be prime in the high 50’s and low 60’s. Bring plenty of chum to stir up the flundies to feed and put as many people on the boat as you can with such a diminutive limit of a two-fish bag. Out front, it should be a shootout with the stripers as they harass bunker schools from Squan Inlet up to the Shrewsbury Rocks. Just keep motoring around looking for blitzing fish chasing and corralling up the bunker schools and toss poppers, shads and plugs on the outskirts of the school to attract fish off the pod to strike. Strangely, this time of year, when anglers are trolling bunker spoons, they invariably hook into some thresher sharks, which occasionally get landed on the bendy trolling rods. Flukesters will be plying the Shark River to start, but by month’s end, they will bounce around the inshore rockpiles like the Rattlesnake and Elberon Rocks to haul in some flatfish. Bucktails tipped with Gulp is the standard, but don’t overlook the old school three-way swivel skirted rig baited with fresh spearing and squid. Fluke will be in shallow to warm up, so look to target the 25 to 50-foot depths for best action.
CENTRAL COAST
This portion of the state is where the back bay fluke fishing thrives as the expansive Barnegat Bay and Manasquan River systems offer plenty of options to find feeding flatties. My game plan is to start way back inside the Squan River by Crystal Point as fish seem to stack there in the first week of May, feeding in the shallower areas. As the month progresses, those fish move outside the canal, off Clark’s Landing, then through the Route 35 drawbridge and off Dog Beach. Small ½-ounce bucktails tipped with Gulp or thin squid strips work magic to hoist up fish that can push 4 to 6 pounds on any given day. Barnegat Bay is a vast area filled with hot spots to bounce around in spots like Oyster Creek Channel, BB and BI Buoys and Double Creek Channel. Once you get the fish dialed in at the depths they are stacking in, you can work similar areas inside the bay. Not to be overlooked, the fluke brethren of winter flounder will also be available in spots like the Mantoloking Bridge, Toms River and around the 40 Marker in the Barnegat Bay as peak season occurs with water temps perfect for a flounder feed. Bloodworms or clam bits tipped on the hook will get you connected. Bluefish can be hit or miss, if they push inside the Barnegat Inlet to chase bunker baits, then they will stick around through the spring months. Last year, we had a very unusual happening as black drum invaded Barnegat Bay as clammers would be into catches of sometimes 3 to 10 fish on a tide, with boomers ranging from 20 to 65 pounds. How cool would it be to see that again?! Bait up with fresh clams and work the incoming tides in any channel behind Seaside or Island Beach.
OFFSHORE
Bigger bluefin were the rule last year as it was hard to find the 25 to 40-pound fish as horse mackerel of 300 to 700 pounds were more commonplace from right off the beaches out to 20 miles or so into the old school haunts at the Lillian, Mud Hole, Oil Wreck and Slough areas. The season for medium and giant tuna closed relatively quickly, with the quota being reached. Will that happen again? We will see but expect those large and in-charge BFT to show up this month once again. Trolled ballyhoo sent way, way, way back were the top choice for baits and if you were lucky enough to see them busting the surface, sometimes they would hit poppers. Look for the canyon bite to begin to materialize as the month pushes onward and smaller class fish of 30 to 70 pounds start showing up, so long as we get warming waters that push into the upper 60’s out there.
What a fantastic month to get moving! May offers up true piscatorial pursuits in all arenas from back bay, inshore and offshore. Get cracking, it’s almost summertime!