BBQ’s are firin’, suntan lotion wafts on the breeze and fishing is lit up! July is a wonderful time to be in the saltwater. Most tourists and hardcore inshore anglers alike will be after summer flounder for the mainstay and hopefully, offshore, tuna fishing will follow its path of hot pursuit in July. Uncommon tropical species generally start to show up inshore and offshore with mahimahi, cobia, Spanish mackerel, bonito, bar jacks, rudderfish and such, providing excitement on any day out. Tailor bluefish of 1 to 3 pounds generally dominate the surf catches this month, but big-time sharks also invade the nearshore waters. Night hounds can always find some stripers by the dock lights to satisfy their need. Sea bass regulations shift again to 1 fish at 12.5 inches until September 22nd.
RARITAN BAY
With fluke season in full swing, the big bay attracts plenty of boating anglers to fish the expansive waters. Day trips can allow for exploration on all sides of the bay to find where fluke are stacking. On the southwestern side of the bay, the Ammo Pier, Chapel Hill Channel and Keyport areas hold flatfish, while on the northern shores, the areas off Coney Island flats, Romer Shoal and inside the Ambrose Channel are perennial hot spots. Tricking up fluke varies in tactics as doormat hunters opt to go big with long 8-to-12-inch strip baits on big bucktails or drifting them on fishfinder slide rigs. For numbers of fish, the ol’ squid and killie combo works wonders as well as any sand eels, spearing or smaller strip baits, including Gulp products. The bay also gives up smaller beasties on the Keansburg Pier, Belford Pier and Port Monmouth planks as kingfish, spot, croakers, porgies and blowfish will eagerly bite on Fishbites or clam and squid bits on hi-lo type rigs. Up at the Sandy Hook Rip and North Beach, it can be a wild ride in the rippy waters as big bluefish can come tearing through, Spanish mackerel and albies can streak on by, and there may even be reports of cobia showing up there to hit live eels. Historically, Flynn’s Knoll and Swash Channel were the spots to find large weakfish prowling about to hit sandworm baits floated off the bottom during the night. It could always happen again; you just have to try!
NORTHERN COAST
Sea bass season was impressive through the end of June, though the limit drops to only one fish for now, leaving you with the option to keep one if you hook a fish while fluking or ling fishing. And speaking of fluke, it’s time to hit the hardscrabble structure to find flatties hiding between rocks and crevasses of the Elberon rocks, Rattlesnake, Klondike and Deal area from 25 to 70 feet of water. Larger fish will hit live baits like spot or snapper bluefish, but average fluke of 2 to 5 pounds will always pounce on the old three-way swivel squid skirt spinner drift rigs tipped with sand eel and spearing. Tailor bluefish of 1 to 3 pounds are dominant in the nearshore waters, but gator up to 15 pounds are usually hanging a bit further offshore in the Mud Hole area wrecks, where both day and night chunk and jig trips can get your rods bent at spots like the Stolt Dagali, Arundo and Lillian Wrecks. Trolling around anywhere from the Shrewsbury Rocks down to the Manasquan Ridge area can offer up a bunch of exotic stuff as anything from Spanish macks, cobia, mahi, bonito, jacks, king macks, pufferfish and so on move into the waters if they rise into the mid to high 70s and 80s. Sharks will be patrolling everywhere out there too, as we see threshers, blacktips, browns and hammerheads hanging around the fluke party boats during daytime hours. Check the reefs like Sea Girt, Sandy Hook and Shark River reefs for action on both sharks and exotics.
CENTRAL COAST
In the backwaters, the epicenter of summertime activity will be all over the Barnegat Bay and the Manasquan River as both waterways hold the usual summertime suspects. Beasties such as kingfish, blowfish, spot, croaker, cocktail blues, spike weakfish and smaller stripers disperse over both playgrounds and are great fun for young anglers and old alike to target in many different ways. A well-defined chum slick of clam logs in Barnegat Bay by the 40 marker can bring plenty of fish in to feed like horses at the trough. Throw a few crab lines or traps off the side of the boat while anchored, to add to the fantastic fish and crab meat stuffed dinner you plan to bring home! Early morning hours at sunrise usually get bluefish in the Manasquan River attacking topwater poppers tossed against sodbanks at Gull Island and off Dog Beach. The Manasquan Inlet area east of the 35 bridge holds the remaining bunches of fluke that are sticking inside the shallow waters of the bays and rivers as drifts past Dog Beach into the inlet, generally scoring with limits of fish in the 18-to-23-inch class. Once outside Squan Inlet, fluke are colonizing on inshore lumps and humps such as the Manasquan Ridge, Sea Isle Lump, and off structure piles inside the Axel Carlson Reef, Mohawk and Tolten area wrecks. Warm waters tend to attract speed demons like Spanish, bonito and albies over the wrecks and reefs and you never know when tarpon will show up again off the south jetty of Barnegat Inlet! Speaking of weird fish, sheepshead have also begun to colonize some of the inshore wrecks off Barnegat Inlet and Island Beach State Park, as a few convicts were actually caught in the surf the past month, so they have to be setting up on those close nearshore wrecks, one would think. Crab or clam baits on light jigheads should get struck by the jailbreakers.
OFFSHORE
Interestingly, tuna fishing got off to a quiet start in early June as slim reports came in. However, July is usually a peak month for inshore bluefin tuna as they can push as close as 3 to 5 miles off the coast, but more generally are found between 10 and 50 miles at spots along the 20 to 30 fathom lines and the notches of the Mud Hole, Glory Hole and Chicken Canyons, as well as wrecks in 150 to 250 feet of water. The good news is that there has been a bunch of squid close to shore in central Jersey, which may prompt the BFT to come in again close off Seaside Heights as they did a few years back in only 75 to 90 feet of water. Yellowfin tuna fishing should be ready to rumble out in the Hudson Canyon and southern counterpart canyons as trolling spreader bars, cedar plugs and ballyhoo baits will get walloped during daylight hours and chunked butterfish and sardines on a slick at night will hang plenty of yellowbirds. Always be on the lookout for bigeye tuna, mainly in the Hudson, Toms and Lindenkohl canyon areas, as they will hit ballyhoo baits on Ilander sent way, way back in the spread.
Summertime always seems to pass too quickly, so this year, slow it down a bit and take the time to stay in the moment, fishing as often as you can on the ocean or backwaters. Let’s go! It’s summertime, baby!