The tuna are here and it is very exciting. We have been running 25 to 30 miles for 20 to 40 lb bluefin tuna on jigs and bait. Saturday and Sunday we never had to put the trolling rods out to put tuna in the cooler. We are using 20 and 30 class outfits to keep it sporty. Slicks, chick birds, readings, lots of life. Blue-ish green 71 degree water. Getting quite a few king mackeral bite offs, too. I was tired of getting bit off so I put a few circle hooks on and wound up fighting a 5 foot hammerhead to the boat before cutting him off. If you want to catch tuna but don’t like to make the long trek of 60 to 90 plus miles, this is a unique opportunity. No telling how long it will last. Forever…..I hope!

Here’s Dave Flood of Mantua, NJ battling a 45 lb bluefin tuna on 20 class: https://youtu.be/U0uar_F5C9c

Running Open Boat or Charter for Tuna: 

Thursday, July 15 10AM to 5PM, $300 person

Saturday, July 17  5AM to 2PM,   $400 person

Pics are:
Dave Flood of Mantua NJ (green cargo shorts and visor)
Jim Hutchinson, Editor of The Fisherman magazine, Brick NJ (Light blue shirt, blue hat, blue lenses)Fabian Colonna of Matawan NJ (dark shirt, red hat)

Dave DeGennaro
Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com 

The tuna are here and the marine forecast looks pretty good through the weekend. We are sailing Open Boat or Charter on Sat July 10 and Mon July12.

Mostly 20 to 30 lb class bluefins, and now there are 50 to 80 lb yellowfins in the mix. Trolling, jigging, and casting are all producing. Running about 35 to 45 miles each way. We will have gear for trolling, jigging, and casting.

Running Open Boat or Charter Sat July 10 and Mon July 12. $450 person. Depart at 4AM, returning at 4PM. 4 people max. All fish are shared. 

Pics are from our trip on Monday. 3 for 3 on 25 to 35 lb bluefins for Greg Toufayan with sons Sevan, Artin, and nephew Michael Nargizian, all from Bergen County, NJ.

Give me a call to reserve a spot.

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com

We are running Open Boat or Charter SundaJuly 4 and Monday, July 5.

We can run to Barnegat Ridge and try trolling for bonita and albacore and anything else that might be there. I say “try” because we have not yet been there this season. It’s just the right time to go. We could push further off and troll the Resor Wreck area for a shot at 20 to 30 pound bluefin. From what I hear, you have to catch a lot of false albacore to put a few bluefin in the boat but I guess there’s worse problems to have than catching too many fish. It is still pretty much a troll bite, so if that’s not your thing, you might want to wait until it transitions more into a jigging and bait opportunity. 
If we hit the Ridge, we leave at 6AM, returning at 2PM. $300 person
If we run to the Resor Wreck, we leave at 5AM, returning between 4-5PM. $450 person

Either trip is 4 people max, all fish are shared. Everything is provided. 
If you want to charter the boat for either day, we can fish for whatever you like, including fishing the bay and inlet for schoolie stripers, blues, and fluke. Or we can run offshore.

This awful stormy weather is on the way out and they have cleaned up the marine forecast to mostly single digit winds for each of these days and finally a break from the incessant SW winds. The wind is changing direction from all over the dial. 

I’m headed to the dock to get her fueled up, iced up, and ready to roll. 

Hope to see you on board.

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com 

We had some good striper fishing the last couple of days, both in the inlet and behind the sod banks. Not big fish, anywhere from 16 to 26 inches. These fish are super agressive right now and are great sport on the light tackle spinning rods. 

Now it’s time to put something of value in my report instead of just shameless self promotion of our charters and Open Boats. We caught them all on sandworms. The bulk of them we caught floating a whole sandworm under a bobber right in the inlet jetty. About 12 feet of line under the float, 30 inches of 20 lb flourocarbon leader, and a #1 bronze baitholder hook. Use a small splitshot over your leader to help keep it down. Let it float right over the rocks, most of the hits come right before it hits the first rock. Caught more than a few nice tog, also, but it’s not open season, so they were released. 
On the bay side we use the same worms to tip our 3/8 to 1/2 oz jigheads for the half pint stripers behind the sod banks. Just drop them to the bottom and vertical jig them with a short, sharp sweep. 
This bait will catch everything that swims in Barnegat Bay and the inlet. We use it from the inlet all the way back to the west side of the bay, what I like to call the “West Side Highway”, between the 42 Buoy and the BB Buoy, they are actually mid channel towers. 
Sailing Open Boat or Charter this Thursday June 24 and Friday June 25, 11AM to 4PM, and also Saturday June 26 and Monday June 28 7AM to Noon. $150 person, 4 people max, all fish are shared. We will likely mix in some fluke fishing, too. 
Here’s Chris Hartman from PA with one of his bass from yesterday (Monday): https://youtu.be/hR1djChCJic

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com 

Fishing has been pretty good. We are catching a mixed bag of 18 to 26 inch stripers at the inlet and on the sod banks. Casting and jigging. There are also 2 to 5 pound bluefish mixed in at the inlet. Fluking is producing both shorts and a few keepers in the bay. If we do it all in the same trip it works out to be some good action. 

Running Open Boat or Charter Friday June 18, Saturday June 19, and Monday June 21. 7AM to 1PM. $175 person. 4 people max. All fish are shared.

Waiting patiently for a weather window to get offshore for some tuna fishing. I don’t see that perfection weather I am looking for this weekend but we are constantly watching the marine forecast for that opportunity. There has been a decent bluefin bite at the 35 to 45 mile range from our inlet. 

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com

Been waiting for this to happen….the inlet was on fire yesterday (Wed). Bass and blues on soft plastics, swimming plugs, and bunker that we found a little off the beach. Hookups on every drift. 3 to 7 lb blues, 24 to 30 inch stripers. 
Headed out every day, Open Boat and Charter. Call for details. 
That’s it, short and sweet, headed out right now for some more!

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com

We are running Open Boat or Charter this Sat-Sun-Mon June 5-6-7, 6AM to Noon. $175 person, 4 people max, all fish are shared.The marine forecast looks good for each of these days in the morning and then it blows up in the afternoon, when we’re already back. 

The target? We have some options. If the ocean is calm, we could try the reef for sea bass. That’s not our expertise, but we’ve been doing pretty good there lately. We could drift for fluke in the bay, that’s been pretty good on either moving tide. I would say we could cast the jetty, but I prefer the incoming tide for that, and with the weekend boat traffic as another factor, I’m not optimistic about how that may go. If I’m wrong and we catch it with light traffic and birds working, we always have those rods rigged and ready. Lastly, we are trolling some small blues on the west side of the bay with light rods and swimming plugs.
We are also sailing Open Boat, Wed, June 9, 11AM to 5PM $175 person, room for two more people, only 3 anglers on this one. 

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674

hiflier.com

We will be running Open Boat this Thursday afternoon, May 13, Noon to 6 PM, for Stripers and Blues. The plan is to fish the bay and/or the ocean depending on conditions and what’s happening. If it’s nice outside the inlet, we could go look for bunker pods along the beach or put the trolling rods out depending on what you guys want to do. We could cast lures at the inlet jetty. I will have a pail of shucked and salted surf clams to try anchoring up in my favorite spot of Oyster Creek Channel. We could try casting the channel edges for schoolie stripers in the bay. There are a lot of options and we can try any combination of them. 4 people max, $175 person, all fish are shared. 

Pic: Dave Thompson and his son Baxter with Baxter’s 26 inch striper he took on a topwater in the bay Saturday. 

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com 

We just put the Hi Flier in the water yesterday, Wednesday, and Capt Nick ran a trip today (Thursday) in the bay with his friend, Colin Scott. They have been throwing topwater lures on light tackle and connecting with stripers all morning. Most are 18 to 24 inches but they have three slots already (24 to 28″), and some bigger fish that follow the lure all the way to the boat and then veer off. Bigger: Older: Smarter. Poppers and Zara Spook walk the dog type lures are drawing fire.

It looks like the wind is going to blow pretty hard Friday into Saturday morning. Right now the Saturday afternoon marine forecast has the wind dropping out to 6 to 9 knots. We will be sailing Saturday afternoon, May 1, from Noon to 6PM. Sunday, May 2 and Monday, May 3, 6AM to Noon. Available for charter or Open Boat. Also available during the week for afternoon departures. We will be targeting stripers and blues on light tackle, casting topwater lures. 

Pics: Colin Scott of Cape May, NJ with a nice back bay slot striper. (White slickers)
Capt Nick DeGennaro with one of his bass. (Orange slickers)

Friday Dec 11, Sat Dec 12, Sun Dec 13, and Mon Dec 14. This might be the last dates we offer for 2020. It will be a wait and see for next weekend. 

Tomorrow, Friday Dec 11, we are on a 10AM to 3PM schedule fishing live bait in the inlet. This is a mix of stripers from 23 to 30 inches. We have bonus tags to keep the 24 to 28 inch slot fish. A lot of action right now. We were out Tuesday and had constant action. Multiple hookups on every drift. We could do a few hours of that and if the ocean looks nice we could sneak outside to try and troll some bigger fish for the cooler….or not!

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday we will be sailing 7AM to 3PM if we are ocean bound or inlet/ocean combo.If we are going to just fish live bait in the inlet, we can customize our trip hours around the tide and weather. 

5 hour Inlet Trip $700 for Private Charter, includes live bait.
8 hour Ocean or Inlet/Ocean Trip $900 for Private Charter or Open Boat $225 person, 4 people max, all fish are shared.

Pic: Capt Nick DeGennaro with one of our livelined bass in the inlet Tuesday.

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com