Now that Labor Day has come and gone the dreaded day is here. Today September 5th, the New Jersey summer flounder aka fluke season closes. Fluke is the most popular summertime game fish on the Jersey Shore; however we do have other great fisheries.

“So Now What’s To Fish For?”

Quick Answer: For table fare kingfish and tog… For drag pulling quality bluefish and sharks… For those looking for a bite more of a challenge stalk weakfish… Offshore the tuna season has lots more to offer…

Bluefish hung around all summer and are present in all size classes (even pushing 10 pounds). The bay, lagoons, inlet and surf are all areas to target. We look forward to a great yellow eye transition into the fall run. Soon those eyes will be on the mullet run!

September is a great month for kingfish and croakers. Usually blowfish are puffing around however this year reports have been few and far between. We saw a recent photo from @chrisg180

The shark fishing continues in the bay and surf. Kenny Nielubowics shared this photo and report, “On Sunday we caught this 75-80 pound brown shark off the dock on peanut bunker!”

A couple tog reports came in. Nothing spectacular but they are around. The Barnegat Light Jetty gets good this time of year. Currently tog aka blackfish is one fish at 15″ until November 15th. November 16 to the end of the year it increases to the 6 fish bag limit.

Store staffer Dan fished offshore yesterday. He reported very poor sea conditions, but they caught some fish. He said, “It was a slow bumpy ride out. We found some yellowfin on the troll at the tip of the Hudson. Not many marks on the screen, they were all blind bites.” Dan mentioned the tuna were spitting up squid and sardines on the deck.

Mark Haley stopped in yesterday the shop to purchase a new Shimano Rod and Reel tuna fishing outfit. He shared his thoughts on the season so far, “The tuna fishing this summer has been awesome! The inshore bluefish hung around all summer. I’m looking forward to the last couple months of the season.”

Fishing Reports from the LBI Surf

John Parzych enjoyed the weekend fishing the surf. He reported that he was out on Holegat all weekend and had a great time. “Plenty of short flounder and there’s keepers too. The kingfish are there but it seems like they will not bite good until about an hour after low. The flood tide is best. The Holegat beach is in good shape but there are some bad spots at high tide.”

Rob Vallone reported the same from the south end. Rob got three keeper fluke on live minnows. His buddy also caught too.

Recent Fluke Reports

Lots pushed for the shorter size limits and along with it came a shorter season. Some leaned towards the longer season offering more days but at 19″. Anyway the cookie crumbles… the reg are the regs and we got what we got. Hopefully everyone made the best out of the season and had a great time enjoying their time on the water.

Tough conditions with some foul weather this weekend made fishing difficult. Some diehard anglers got out and fished.

@sgreene003 posted, “Successful Labor Day fishing trip” with two nice fluke to show.

Ryane Sweeney “caught some nice fluke to end the season” today. Here’s a photo he tagged us in.

 

Labor Day fishing report from the Carolyn Ann III, “What a great day! Lots of beautiful fish, unfortunately there’s only one day left (today) before the fluke season closes.” Hope everyone gave it their best shot this year!

Our End Of Season Fluke Fishing Sale continues Spro Bucktail and Berkley Gulp are 25% Off. Shop online or stop in (must mention the sale to get the discount). Also check out other Discounted Fishing Tackle listed on our Clearance Page.

 

Check out Episode 4 from our boys at Comanche Surfcasting. They open their plug bag and really spill the beans on what is producing best for them.