September’s song is a sweet one. Every angler holds a special place in their heart for the month that shifts fishing into a magical place. Fall is nipping at the heels of summer to exit the area with cooling nights settling in and sparking the migratory habits of all species – but not before we get four months of mayhem. The first rumblings of migratory stripers will enter into NJ once again, pushing around all sorts of baitfish including spearing, bunker, rainfish, squid and sand eels. Bluefish could be hot on the track as well if all the cards line up. Fluke fishing is entering its twilight as the season closes on September 25th. Warmwater species such as Spanish macks and mahi will hold on as long as they can before bonito and false albacore take their place later in the month. Bottomfishing gets an injection of activity as blackfish, and porgies are on the feed. Offshore tuna fishing is primed for lights out action. Hello September, let’s get it on!
RARITAN BAY
Some quality flukes were staged inside Raritan Bay in August and historically, doormats hang in the deeper channels to finish out the season. Ambrose Channel, Swash Channel and the Sticks are all super-hot spots to target the 6 to 12-pound class rugmats that lay on the bottom in deeper water to cool off and prep to move offshore. This time of year, anglers bring out the long strip baits of fluke belly, salmon belly and whole squid to drift down below in the channels. Tandem two hook rigs are important to employ as the big fluke sometimes hang on the big baits so two hooks will ensure a hookset on the take. The bayside piers at Keansburg and Belford will still be holding plenty of kingfish, croakers and spot for plank pounders looking for a tussle. The first showing of stripers and bigger bluefish should push into the bay to follow bunker schools that have been laying relatively untouched through the summer months. Savvy anglers know that this is the time of year to target tiderunner weakfish of 6 to 10 pounds in Flynn’s Knoll and back by the Shrewsbury River Highlands Bridge. Drifted sandworms usually find their mark.
NORTHERN COAST
The cooling nights always seem to spark up an invasion of small weakfish off of Asbury Park section of coastline as waters in 30 to 50 feet, are absolutely inundated with spike weakfish of 8 to 12 inches with some pushing into 16 or 18 inches. Jigging with slender metals will get you into a ton of action if you want to fool around with them. Mixed in with weakfish hitting those metal lures will be scores of bonito willing to streak the lure. Jigging or casting and blasting will score the bones brigade and some fish can push upwards of 6 pounds so keep those drags on the lighter side to prevent a snapped line. The first showing of little tunny will also pop up around the Sandy Hook Rip as the rainbow bullets vault out of the water to pounce on small whitebait like rainfish and spearing. Bottomfishing is super productive too as porgies will be the main fare on tap at the Sandy Hook Reef with a liberal limit and you can always find your one fish limit of blackfish on any rocks or wrecks at 17 Fathoms and the Farms. Big time fluking occurs on the structure piles as well where packs will congregate around the low-lying structure between rocks and tire units. Bounce through them with bucktails to intercept flatfish waiting in ambush. Always tip with a strip of fluke belly or Gulp baits for added attraction. When out fluking, keep a keen eye out for cobia as reports in August were fantastic off of Sea Bright and Long Branch. Toss a bucktail or a live eel back to the cobia if you spot one and be on the lookout for their brown shadows sitting on the surface.
CENTRAL COAST
The waters will be alive with speed demons around here. Little Tunny will be popping up and down outside of the Manasquan Inlet, especially during the sunrise hours up until about 9 AM. You have to get on them early as they go down in the water column once the sun rises. Troll around with small 3-inch flash feathers and clark spoons to find them, then cast Deadly Dicks and Kastmaster lures out to the blitzing schools on the surface. Mixed in with the tunny will be Atlantic bonito. They hit and fight nearly identical to the albies, but a cool way to score them and the tunny is to have the fly rod ready on board. When the fish are blitzing, drop that fly in and strip back with a two-handed super-fast strip for the ride of your life. Work the Axel Carlson and Sea Girt reefs around the perimeter and then inside on the hi-flier pot markers to find fish. There could also be some mahimahi hanging around the pots as they enjoy the last breath of warm waters. Fluke will be stacking up in the 55 to 90 feet depths and will even push out further to the Manasquan and Barnegat Ridge 14 miles offshore. Most of the largest fluke of the year are reported this month on those ridges and reefs, so bring the big baits to weed through all the shorties that have been omnipresent this summer. It’s been wild to see all the cobia around this summer too, and there should be some brown clowns still milling all around the reef sites and right outside the Barnegat Inlet. Ol Barney will also be a haven for sheepshead sticking close to the rocks, mixed in with triggerfish and tog. Last year there were even tarpon caught off the south tip of the jetty! So, you never know what will be sticking around. The usual suspects of stripers and bluefish will be inundating the backwaters of Barnegat Bay and the Manasquan River. Any poppers or soft baits tossed off the sod banks in the sunrise hours will most definitely get attention.
OFFSHORE
August was lit with tuna activity out at the Bacardi, Triple Wrecks and Texas Tower as 25 to 50-pound yellowbirds seemed to be all over the place. Poppers and jigs accounted for some intense action though if you really wanted to drag squid spreader bars you could find them as well. That fishery should be ripe in September from the Hudson down through the southern canyons. Fin tuna fishing for large and medium fish was happening big time at spots like Humpty Dumpty, Monster Ledge and Little Italy as it was hard to catch a fish that was below the 73-inch minimum size limit! Ballyhoo rigged with glo-skirts in white were the hot ticket trolled 150 to 300 yards way back in the spread. Everyone was looking for yellowfin to move into the closer 45-mile Chicken Canyon and they should congregate there by the time you read this. Plenty of anglers would do combo trips for tuna and tilefish this summer as golden tiles were paved along the 400 to 600 feet depths inside the canyons. Thouh most golden tiles were in the 8 to 15 lb. class, some bruisers hitting the 35 to 45 lb. bracket were picked on most every trip out.
This is no time to sit inside waiting for reports! September blesses us with insurmountable fishing opportunity. Get out and hit it hard!