I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!  It was a hectic weekend with my son playing 5 baseball games in 2 days.  But with his travel season finally winding down, I’m in full swing for charters.  The inlet and surrounding waters had a decent bite on Bluefish & Striped Bass, and Fluke are cooperative on the tides if you find clean water.  The bigger Bass are still being caught mostly on the troll, but the snag-n-drop has started to get better. Regarding fluking, you can definitely see the effects of the rain runoff from fertilizers as the bay has a ton of algal slime right now.  Just a reminder: I have weekends and weekday afternoons available through June 18th, and starting JUNE 19th will run 7 DAYS A WEEK UNTIL SEPTEMBER.

I did manage to get out and had Emil Slane, James D, and Xavier S. of New York, NY on a 4hr Bay/Inlet charter for a variety of species.  The crew tried fishing the inlet for Striped Bass, but it was covered up by feisty Blackfish with the slow current.  The guys boated Blackfish to 5 pounds as it was hard to get the bait to the Bass.  All the Blackfish were promptly released as they are out of season.  We spent the remainder of the trip fishing the backwaters, but the crew could only muster short fluke with the biggest being 17 inches.  All in all, the guys didn’t do too bad for their first time fishing the salt.

With a quick window in the morning, I took my wife and son on a brief Fluke trip to check a different part of the tide. Jen struck first with a solid 19.5 inch Fluke on the first drift, followed by Luke’s first Striper on the bucktail. This one he caught all by himself. After several drifts of short Fluke, Luke jigged an 18-incher that made it into the box. With two Fluke in the box and enough for dinner, we headed home and left them biting. We released about 15 Fluke and 1 Striped Bass in about 2 hours, keeping 2 Fluke for the table. It was definitely a better bite on the tide.

If interested in booking a charter, book through the website (reelreactioncharters.com), or call/text 609-290-7709 .  As always, we use the highest quality gear and everything is included all gear, tackle, fish-cleaning, and ICE – it’s “no worries” fishing.  Just come aboard and FISH.

Capt. Brett Taylor ~ Reel Reaction Sportfishing ~ Call or Text: 609-290-7709

I have been on Barnegat Bay every day since Friday. Fishing for target species, bass, fluke and now fluke, is consistent to on fire at times. Friday’s trip had a mix of bass (one keeper) and blues. The DeCicco party on Saturday started off with non-stop bluefish action during the last of outgoing. Fish ranged from 2-10 pound. Great fun on light tackle. Once tide swung around and the water cooled off the blues shut off but the bass turned on. Attached is a picture of Nick DeCicco with a nice bass. Nick was one of my students who graduated from BHS last year. His dad has been coming out with me for years, but this is the first time Nick came out. It was nice to see that not only did I teach Nick in the classroom but on the water 😉 Today I snuck out for two hours. Wind was a little hard out of the NE but the eastern part of the bay had plenty of windbreaks holding fish. I started by landing a couple 4-5 lb. blues on BKDs. Catching the last hour of outgoing I found a steady pick of 16-17” fluke. Snot grass was a little bit of a problem. Although it was supposed to be low tide the bay was still as high or higher than a “normal” high tide.

On the nature side of things: This month’s full and new moons usually mean horseshoe crabs will be mating and laying eggs. Considered living fossils they are not crabs, although their name suggests that. They are closely related to arachnid (spiders). Because they carry a copper substance in their blood it is blue. Their blood contains amebocytes, which is a cell that coagulates around pathogens. Because of that, about a half million are harvest every year for the medical industry. The blood is taken out and the crab is then released back to Delaware Bay. Some survive this process, some don’t. The time at which horseshoe crab lay their eggs along the Delaware Bay shore is inherently known by several species of shorebirds. One of those species, the Red Knot, has is timed so perfectly that they migrate to the Delaware Bay shore from their wintering grounds in Argentina to feast on the eggs. Often flying for seven to eight days straight, the red knots will put their lost weight back on, doubling it in 2-3 weeks of feeding on the eggs. These birds will then complete the rest of their journey flying to the arctic tundra to reproduce only to fly south to the other end of the hemisphere a few weeks later. Isn’t Mother Nature amazing?

Screaming drags,

Capt. Alex  609-548-2511

Quick one here as I am very busy.  The last two days the action has been great around then inlet and back for blues from 2-10 pounds and bass from shorts to around 20 pounds.  Intel on fluke is that there are around have to fish the right tide. I am open Monday Memorial if you want to get in on the action.

Screaming drags,

Capt. Alex 609-548-2511

There are some nice Striped Bass around, but the trouble is trying to get out as the weather windows have been pretty narrow this Spring, especially for weekends.  There are plenty of Bluefish around, and now that Fluke has opened it gives another viable option.  I tried a few locations in the back, but the recent rains have made for some serious snot-grass.  The trick has been finding cleaner water and frequently cleaning off your offerings.  It’s been a tough go as of late with multiple cancellations due to poor weather, wind, and sea conditions.

This past week I did manage to get Jim Bennet, his son Michael and Frank Baer from Media, Pennsylvania for a 5hr Ocean/Inlet charter. With the guys game for anything that swam, we started working close to home with the sight of birds on Spearing and 3 to 5 pound Bluefish. After moving on from the Blues, we decided to look for marks and trolled spoons for about an hour with two good-sized knockdowns. Unfortunately, we couldn’t come tight and with daylight waning we headed closer to home. The guys finished trip hooking up with 8 to 12 pound Bluefish on both live bait and artificials. Michael recently graduated from Lafayette University with an engineering degree so “hat’s” off to him. 

Later in the week, I had the opportunity to do a quick 2hr recon trip with Tom Duralek for Fluke after work.  Although we had to deal with some dirty water and steady winds to 20 knots, we ended with 1 keeper to 21 inches among a bunch of short fluke and some sea robins. Tom lost another nice one boatside, so they are definitely in the backbay areas.  The west side of the bay had some decent water temperatures up to 68 degrees. The conditions were pretty tough (dirty water & wind against tide), but at least managed to pull the 1st one of the season.

I have weekends and weekday afternoons available through June 18th, and starting JUNE 19th will run 7 DAYS A WEEK UNTIL SEPTEMBER.

If interested in booking a charter, book through the website (reelreactioncharters.com), or call/text 609-290-7709 .  As always, we use the highest quality gear and everything is included all gear, tackle, fish-cleaning, and ICE – it’s “no worries” fishing.  Just come aboard and FISH.

Capt. Brett Taylor ~ Reel Reaction Sportfishing ~ Call or Text: 609-290-7709

Four year old Addie Wanamaker caught her first bluefish this morning.

Here’s a photo of one blue John P recently caught off the surf. 

Norm from Beach Haven stopped in the shop yesterday evening and picked up two new Shimano surf reels. He stopped back in today and reported a good morning, “Eight blues from 6:30 to 8:30 am on bunker.”

Scott B from Mount Laurel caught 14 shorts and one keeper fluke off of the surf opening day (yesterday). Today he went back and had even better action… 30 shorts and one keeper. The one keeper was a really good one. It went 27″ 7.46 pounds. Now that is a real deal fluke for the surf.

Ed B from Pemberton got 12 shorts, no keepers. All of the action was on the dropping tide with Gulp!

Best of luck to all the anglers fishing the LBI Cup tomorrow.

For the offshore guys… our Baitmaster Ballyhoo delivery arrived this past week. We’ve got premium baits in stock.

Today is opening day for NJ’s Fluke Season. We got some awesome reports. The theme is bucktailing the bay with Gulp.
Gulp! 4″ Swimming Mullet

Bill Figley and friends were out in the bay today. The three limited out and reported all nice fish.

Greg Sonday caught 15 fluke today bucktailing in the bay. The chartreuse bucktail was the hot lure. Greg’s largest was 23 inches.

Sea Bass opens May 26th with the bag limit 10 fish at 12.5″

We just got in a nice delivery of fresh primo bunkers.
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2017 Tide Tables now available here! As of now, we do not have printed copies in hand yet. We are expecting them in the near future!

– M. Steadman

This stretch of fishing weather continues. The onshore winds are keeping surf anglers stoked and boat anglers on the fence. Some boat guys are getting out but it isn’t the blue bird days that the majority look for. When the fish are here you gotta go!

Chris Masino got a nice bass off of the surf last night.

Still lots of bluefish in the area; bay, inlet and surf.

Reports the surf is weedy in spots today. There’s some heavy turn action. Birds are picking.  Dave Werner reported one bluefish.

Kevin Lorenz reported, “Finally got away from the blues!”