The fishing continues to be strong in the Beach Haven area for the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association even though the current weekend appears to be a washout thanks to some large ocean waves. This is the last week for fluke in New Jersey, but there appears to be a good selection of other fish to keep the rods bent and the fish-box full.
Captain Alex Majewski of Lighthouse Sportfishing reports fluking remains strong with best catches inside around high tide and in the ocean when the conditions are more favorable for ocean fluking. He sees 1-4 pound blues cruising the inlet and jetty haunts. Schoolie bass are still making a showing with the low light conditions more favorable. He has found enough weakfish to target them. He recommends anchoring up in the bay with chum and bending the rods with species like blowfish, smooth dogfish, baby sea bass, kingfish, snappers, and more.
Last week the “Starfish” with Captain Carl, First Mate Max and Second Mate Marlyn fished with a group of 10 from Bergen County. There were over 110 fish caught, including many keeper sized black sea bass that were released. The group managed three keeper fluke to 22-inches.
Captain Brett Taylor of Reel Reaction Sportfishing had Sean Griffin, his daughter Brooke, and sister Trish on a 4-hour bay charter. Due to a rough ocean, the crew opted for the bay. They started with good tide conditions and the anglers boxed 3 keepers to 5 pounds. Later in the day Captain Brett had his wife Jennifer, and son Luke out for a quick 2-hour trip. Highlight of the trip was Luke landing a dinner-plate triggerfish to take the family pool.
Captain Gary Dugan of the “Irish Jig” took his beautiful wife out fishing on Labor Day and the pair limited out on 6 nice fluke. On another trip Captain Gary had a good trip with a party catching several nice fluke up to 25-inches.
Captain Dave Wittenborn made a trip to the Triple Wrecks on the “Benita J” during the beautiful Labor Day weekend. Blue sky and light winds made for a very enjoyable fishing day. Captain Dave reported he fish gods blessed them with 5 yellowfin in the 50-60-pound class. They had Will, a junior angler, reel in his first yellowfin.
Additional information on the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association can be found at www.BHCFA.net
Beach Report 9/8/2020: Today after my morning beach charter I had some time to check out the Mid-Island Surf and found some very aggressive and good size Northern Kingfish attacking my Fluke baits. Still plenty of time to target these hard fighting and great tasting fish in the surf through the rest of this month at least. For me personally I still have a few more tides to hit here on LBI before I shift gears and start to head more North in search of False Albacore and the first waves of Bluefish & Striped Bass to start off the 2020 Fall Migration / Run. If your interested in fishing the Monmouth County / Sandy Hook area over the next two months just call me 609-276-6983 Steve George ~ Nightstrikes Surfcasting Guide Service LLC
Here’s the Labor Day Weekend Fishing Report Update for the Long Beach Island New Jersey Area, Monday September 7, 2020.
This holiday weekend had beautiful weather wise and outstanding fishing. Here at Fishermans Headquarters the shop has been jamming. Lots of anglers got out and enjoyed their weekend catching fish from the beach and boat.
LBI Surf & Jetty Fishing Report
Kingfish, fluke and small blues were the mainstay on the beaches of LBI this weekend. This trio has been the primary target species for sometime and we expect it to continue for a few more weeks as we transition out of summer.
Just a reminder the NJ Summer Flounder Season Ends September 19th. Every year the flounder fishing is good on the beach right to the close.
Paul Vancelette caught a 14.5″ kingfish off the LBI surf.
LBI Beach Access Info
As of Tuesday September 8, 2020
From now until September 30th, the Ship Bottom Beach Patrol will guard 7th, 15th and 20th streets. This opens up a lot of “new” mid day fishing territory to anglers.
As of Sept 1st, Holgate Beach Buggy Access Is Open. (Permit Required)
Barnegat Inlet Jetty Report
The Barnegat Lighthouse jetty has been on fire for blackfish with many anglers are catching. Most have reported keeper size blackfish on green crabs. Besides blackfish there are still fluke, triggerfish, sheepshead and bluefish on offer at the Barnegat Inlet rocks.
Barnegat Bay Fishing Report
Here’s a report that Ryan Warford shared… “Fished LBI this weekend. Got down Saturday night and stopped at Fish Heads as soon as I got on the Island to find out was was biting and where they were biting. We got intel, bait and tackle. Fished Barnegat Bay Sunday and caught a ton of blowfish and had to weed through the smaller ones for the eaters. Also caught fluke, snapper blues, kingfish, weakfish and some jacks. It was a tight lines the whole day!”
Offshore Tuna Fishing Report
Yellowfin, Wahoo, Big Eye & Tiles!
The yellowfin bite outside the The Triples is still going strong. The boat traffic is horrendous but the fishing keeps kicking.
Positive feedback from customer who are chunking and jigging. Some are gettin them up top on poppers while others are fishing away from the fleet and trolling up an occasional fish. Those anglers chunking and jigging are doing best numbers wise. Those doing it right are getting fish and keeping them in the slicks. The water is clean and day time chunking means anglers must be concerned about their presentations. Fish are leader shy and they want baits free falling naturally. Scale down with a a lighter tackle approach to get the bites. 30-40# fluorocarbon is suggested. Fish tackle and drag accordingly.
Guys jigging are doing damage with pencil style jigs like the Streakers from Chatter and Nomad. Both of these are great jigs from yellowfin and bluefin tuna when they are feeding on small baits.
Mahi fishing has started to pick up on the one the offshore and inshore pots.
Here’s Team Fish Heads Grey with a mahi from this weekend. He reported, “Tons of pelagics inshore right now. We went out fluke fishing in the deep and caught our limit then switched gears catching albies and mahi at the pots.
Some decent fishing in the Hudson with some boats putting big eyes on the deck.
WAHOO! Team Fish Heads Captain Nick DeGennaro caught two great wahoo high speed trolling this weekend. The big one was 70# and the “small one” was 50#. We also heard about a number of other classy wahoo caught in Jersey waters. While out hunting tuna it’s a great idea to do some high speed scouting. We have some gear for those interested in looking for ’em.
As the unofficial end to summer passes, we are in what some think as a transitional month for the local fisheries. IMO, there is nothing transitional about it. Fluking remains strong with the best catches inside coming around high tide and in the ocean when the conditions are more favorable for ocean fluking. Blues from a pound to four pounds are cruising the inlet and jetty haunts and can pop up at any time chasing rainfish (bay anchovies). Speaking of rainfish, the amount of rainfish in and around the inlet is like the flood gates opened up and rained fish. LOL. Schoolie bass are still making a showing with the low light conditions more favorable, but I have been able to put my clients on a bass or two during most trips recently. Weakfish are around in enough numbers to target and while fishing for weaks you are bound to catch a few other species of fish. Anchor in the bay and let out some clam chum and your rods will contently be bent with species like blowfish, smooth dogfish, baby sea bass, kingfish, snappers, and more. Intel speaks of false albacore and Spanish macks real close (a few miles off) to the inlet. Will let you know if I get a chance or have a trip wanting to chance down those speedsters. Attached are two pictures from recent trips, kids and fishing. Gotta love it! I’m presently running trips full time, so I am available to fish when you are. So if you’re thinking about going fishing give me a call. Also with so many dolphins around, if you want to go for an ecotour give me a call.
On the nature side of things: lots of brown pelicans around lately, maybe the most ever. Being an avid birder, naturalist, and citizen scientist, I kind of keep track of birds sightings amongst other things. Things such as when and where a bird is seen, and how many. APPs such as EBird run by Cornell University allows citizen scientists to record their bird sightings into a global database. There are literally thousands, if not tens of thousands of sightings, reported and put into the EBird database every single day. Data that years ago took scientists years to collect, is now being collected every minute of every day thanks to technology and citizen scientists. So back to brown pelicans in our area. Over the last two decades, the frequency and the number of brown pelicans in our area have been on the rise. Thirty years ago they were a southern species and very rare to see in Ocean County. As our climate changes, some animals take advantage, or one may say benefit, from such changes. Brown pelican being one. A few years ago they started nesting in the Chesapeake Bay, the furthest north ever recorded. Will they one day nest in Ocean County? Only time will tell and only Mother Nature knows…..
Today was a good one weather wise. Here’s a quick look at the mid Island beach late morning. You’ll see a small mid-long period swell in the 2-3′ range from Tropical Storm Omar. It’s clean with a light north west breeze.
Hope you got outdoors and enjoyed. If not this weekend is shaping up to be nice. Get out and fish!
Please pardon the month mix up… Where did summer go?
Fishing The LBI Surf
On the beaches of LBI anglers are catching fluke, kingfish, bluefish and some other summertime critters (sharks and rays).
The past couple of days Steve George from Night Strikes Surfcasting Guide has got fluke working the suds.
Kingfish are also being caught by anglers fishing bait and weight. Here’s a popular kingfish rig and a very convenient bait if live bloodworms is not your thing… Dynabait Freeze Dried Bloodworms. The kingfish action is not as hot as it was a few weeks ago but they are around. The kings should stick around for at least a few more weeks.
The Jetty Jockeys were in the shop today and shared it was a “righteous morning on the surf! We caught a massive butterfly ray. It took a bunker chunk.”
Fishing The North End’s Jetty
Right now tog, triggerfish and sheepshead are present as well as fluke, bluefish and striped bass.
Fishing The LBI Bay
The fishing musician Rick from Ship Bottom has been fishing and catching on the bayside. He shared the good word, “I’m nailing them on the bayside. A 1/2oz jig head with a 5″ fork tail softbait. Two days in a row with a number of weakfish. The biggest so far was 25″. There is a ton of bait around so they are eating good.”
Lotta snapper blues as well as a few blowfish reported from anglers fishing bayside street end and docks.
Both spearing and peanut bunker are around. Soon the mullet will start moving.
Big Game Fishing
Both yellowfin and bluefin continue. Yellowfin are still stacked up about 70 off and the big bluefin tuna have not moved from the area, in close off of Monmouth County.
Earlier in the week Paul D’Aloia was out with friends. He reported the sea was ugly but yellowfin tuna fishing was good. They got ’em about 70 miles off. More recently (today) Brian Wynn and friends were out aboard the Jersey Nuts. Brian reported, “My first tuna fishing experience was awesome. We caught a bunch of yellowfin and had a great day.”
Newsworthy NJ Catches
Here’s a couple remarkable catches…
A big Cobia caught by Johnny Kostick fishing the waters off Monmouth County!
A Jersey barracuda caught by Kevin Griffin.
Team Fish Head News
Store staffer Gray just returned back from a trip to Bermuda. He said it was an awesome time full of great fishing for a variety of species. “I really wanted to get a bonefish and I caught one. We literally filled the boat one day offshore bluewater fishing. The captain made us keep everything since they sell it at the dock. I was a meat mongers for a day.”
Just A Heads Up
The Holgate Section of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge is open. The gates opened on schedule, Sept 1st.
The NJ Black Sea Bass Fishing Season is closed. It ended on August 31. The Sea Bass Season will reopen from October 8 to October 31 with a 10 fish bag (minimum size 12.5″).
Fishing is really good right now. There’s a game plan for every weather scenario. Flat ocean? We’re headed to the tuna grounds where 60 to 80 lb yellowfins are the norm this season. Mahi mahi round out the catch when we are lucky enough to stumble on some debris or they find us. Chunking, jigging, and trolling are all producing. We put most of our effort into catching them on bait, it’s my favorite way to catch them, the hit is frightening.
Semi calm ocean? We are headed to Barnegat Ridge for bonita and false albacore. Trolling and drifting with bait offers great sport on light tackle. Any given day you can also encounter spanish mackeral, king mackerel, mahi, or bluefin tuna. It’s best to expect bonita and albacore and anything else is a bonus.
Windy or rough ocean? We anchor up with live grass shrimp in Barnegat Light where we are catching weakfish. 14 to 18 inch fish on 6 pound spinning tackle. In the mix are also fluke, blowfish, sand sharks, silver perch, snapper blues, and many other critters. Lots of fun on the ultralite gear.
We are available for live grass shrimp charters this Thursday and Friday, Sept 3 and 4, Noon to 5PM. Also Mon and Tues, Sept 7 and 8, 7AM to Noon. $550 for 5 hour trip.
We are running Open Boat or charter to the tuna grounds Saturday and Sunday, Sept 5 and 6, 2AM to 4PM. $1,800 plus tip for private charter up to 4 people. Open Boats are $450 per person, 4 people max, all fish are shared.
Any of these dates and trips are flexible if you are chartering the boat.
Pics: Geri DeGennaro of Barnegat, NJ with a weakfish
Adley J Torres of Rahway, NJ with 80 lb Yellowfin Tuna and Mahi
Keeper (dinner size) Fluke from 18”-21” are still around and are feeding aggressively as we head into the Labor Day Holiday Weekend here on LBI. I have some limited availability this week if you are looking to get out before I shift gears and start looking for False Albacore further up the coastline -just Call 609-276-6983 Steve George ~ Nightstrikes Surfcasting Guide Service LLC
21” Recent Jetty Rock Fluke 18” Recent Beach Sand Fluke
Here on the final days of August it’s safe to say it was a great month of fishing on Long Beach Island. From a consistent fluke bite in the bay, inlet and surf to good sea bass fishing inshore and off the charts yellowfin and bluefin tuna fishing mid-shore. A quick look back and one must be thankful for good fishing inshore, offshore and from shore. What a great month of summer fishing we had!
Here’s the fishing report update for the Long Beach Island area on Sunday, August 30, 2020.
Fishing Barnegat Bay
From drifting for fluke in the main thoroughfares to anchoring up at a hole and catching a smorgasbord, the bay has a good spread with a variety of fun.
On Friday I had a great morning trip on the bay fly fishing with Danny Vilardi aboard Fish Head Charters. He started with the long rod and didn’t put it down all day. He caught his first weakfish, fluke and jack (Almaco) all on his own DYI clouser minnow. All together we had a dozen weakfish, all were nice healthy ones except two spike. Two fluke ate the fly but both were just short. We also has too many small bluefish to mention.
Here’s youth angler Danny V with his first weakfish on the fly. This is a fishery that I grew up enjoying and the main reason I picked up a fly rod years ago. Now with the weakfish resurgence, it’s a fun and challenging change of pace from the dog days of summer fluke rut. It was an honor to share the fishing with a great up and coming angler. For the record Danny is one hell of a fisherman. Don’t let his age fool you… he’s dialed in!
Stew Hitchner was on the bay this weekend with the family today. They caught a pile of blowfish.
Here’s a bucket of blowfish heading to the dinner table!
Reports from the Ship Bottom bayside tell of blowfish, kingfish, snappers and spot as well as crabs at the Ship Bottom docks. It seems the past week or two the snappers really made a strong showing. They are a ton of fun for the kids!
Just A Reminder: NJ Bluefish Regulations – All Private Anglers 3 fish, For Hire 5 fish (if on a charter or head boat). Yes this includes snapper blues!
John Bell is getting into some nice striped bass in the back bay. These heathy ones are great to see at this time of the year!
Fishing The LBI Surf
The surf has was churred up from the weekend’s stormy weather. The pass remnants of Laura were wet and windy. Things settled down Sunday and it was a beautiful day on the beach. As the short video report shows it was a great beach day. No great reports but a couple reports none the less… kingfish and fluke in the surf. We recommend fishing live bloods for the best results right now. When the bite is on, artificials work great BUT when it’s a slow pick live bait always outproduced!
Here’s Bayside Dave with a surf side kingfish he caught Sunday morning off of the LBI surf.
Fishing Barnegat Inlet
The Barnegat Inlet has a variety of species to target; fluke, resident striped bass at low light hours, small bluefish, tog, triggerfish and sheepshead.
Jeff Crabtree caught this pair of big sheepshead up at Barnegat Inlet. He also had a keeper tog this morning too!
Ocean Fluke Fishing
Late August and September is prime time fluke fishing in the ocean. The popular reef sites as well as the wrecks and open bottom areas turn out. Gear up and get on the grounds to enjoy one of the best parts of the season NOW!
Today a good report came in from Dale Hawk who fished the Barnegat Light reef (about three miles outside of BI). “Another awesome day. Pink Shine and Nuclear Chicken were catching best. The drift sock came in clutch because without it the drift would have been too fast.
Dale had a good trip fishing the Barnegat Light Reef today! (Yes there were other anglers on the boat.)
There is just one more week left before Labor Day and the fishing action for the captains of the Beach Haven Charter fishing Association continues to be hot and heavy. As is typical with late summer action, a wider variety of fish are showing up.
According to mate Max Goldman, the last week on the boat “Starfish” with Captains Carl Sheppard and Vic Bertotti “has been extremely action packed.” Many times, the boat is booked for two trips a day with catches of 70-90 fish a trip not uncommon. Making up the bulk of the catch have been black sea bass, fluke, weakfish, and the ever-present sea robins. One interesting trip caught a goodly amount of kingfish and weakfish which was a bit of a surprise to all.
On one trip Captain Carl had a group out who caught over 40 fish including sea bass, robins, blowfish, and a triggerfish. The sea bass ran up to 18-inches. Another trip produced all of the above plus some bluefish and a blacktip shark.
Captain Gary Dugan has been making regular trips on the “Irish Jig” fishing inshore reefs and structure. He reports he is averaging 4-5 keepers on each trip.
Captain Brett Taylor of Real Reaction Sportfishing reports that before the remnants of Laura came up, he had Joe Tocyloski, his son Steve, and friends Scott Boyer and Eric Boyer on a 5-hour ocean trip. They worked a bunch of different spots, but the fish were very tough on the bite. Despite that they eked out 4 keepers to 7-pounds as Eric landed a solid 27-inch fluke on a bucktail.
Additional information on the Beach Haven Charter fishing Association can be found at www.bhcfa.net
Fishing the Barnegat Ridge, the inshore offshore spot… For those who want to jump out from the inshore fishery, this is a primer to help introduce offshore fishing for pelagic species such as bonito, albacore, mahi, king mackerel and BLUEFIN TUNA! If you want to branch out from summer time fluke and sea bass near shore, this is the next step.
July through September brings some hot fishing to Barnegat Ridge and the surrounding waters. Bluewaters with structure, bait and pelagic predators make for fun fishing not too far from port. This year (2020) the mid-shore game (10-60 mile range) has been very good. Get out there and have some fun!
First question, of course, is your boat capable?
Barnegat Ridge is about 15 miles from Barnegat Inlet. A boat of at least 20 feet should be adequate on a nice calm summer day. Personally, I only like to run offshore when the conditions are flat calm. This way, if the weather services blow the forecast, you have time to run in before the seas build to an uncomfortable ride. Make sure your VHF radio is in good working order because you will be out of cell range. An EPIRB and a life raft are two things to give you more peace of mind. Having a buddy boat is an extra step in safety and can also be very helpful finding fish.
False Albacore caught by Nick DeGennaro
Next up… Rods & Reels
The good news is that you probably have an arsenal that will work. You need at least four outfits to get started but five is common. More than likly if you troll mojos for striped bass inshore these same outfits will do the job. Any of your inshore outfits that have at least 20-30 pound monofilament line (50-80# braid) on them will work here. I would suggest spooling up with fresh line and putting on maximum capacity. Conventional reels are preferred but spinning can work. It’s not that critical. As long as the line is fresh and the drags are smooth, you are good to go.
Rigging Up
Tie on a 75-100# ball bearing snap swivel to each rod. This snap swivel is used to attach any of your rigged lures. The only time you don’t use it is when you are using a feather. In this case, you pass your running line from the reel through the feather and tie on the feather hook, a Mustad 34007 stainless steel 4/0 hook.
You will need to get some 5 inch cedar plugs in natural, red/white or hot pink. You will be trolling two at a time of any lure, so buy at least three or four so you have backup. There are some toothy critters that inhabit Barnegat Ridge so be prepared for an occasional bite off.
Cedar plugs trolling lures are one of the best fish catching lures and they are one of the most affordable ones too!
Planer & Spoon
One of the most universal trolling rigs is a planner with a spoon. Both Clarkspoon and Huntington Drone Spoon are great in the 3-5″ size. These spoons are unweighed and should be trolled behind a lead trolling weight “drail” or better yet a diving planer. The #2 or #3 planers are best for this type of fishing. Be sure to use two arm lengths ~10′ of 40-60# leader from the planer to the spoon.
Fishing is all about having fun with family and friends while enjoying time on the water. Getting offshore and experiencing the deep sea is a whole new chapter in fishing for most but don’t be shy! There’s lots of great experiences waiting. Get out there! Here’s Greg and Max from Fisherman’s Headquarters with a bluefin tuna that was caught at the Barnegat Ridge trolling a #3 Clarkspoon Squid Spoon behind a #2 Planer.
A planer is more effective at getting down deeper and faster than a drail so the line isn’t stretched out into the spread. This allows for other rods to be fished in those positions. Planers and spoons fished deep are well know for getting the attention of game fish and raising them into a spread. Once a fish bites the planer trips and it’s much nicer fighting it than with a heavy drail.
Spreader Bars
Is you want to make your spread come alive and standout from the pack spreaderbars will help you BIG TIME! Designed to be trolled and look like a school of bait fish, spreader bars raise fish. They come in all sorts of sizes, colors and styles. The most popular are the Chatter Splash Bars and Chatter Side Trackers. The Splash Bars have birds that chatter and splash to cause a commotion which attract game fish. Side Tracker Bars have a rudder which makes the spreader bar track off and away from the boat. For this reason Chatter Side Trader Bars are a huge advantage to small boats who don’t have outriggers. They helps widen a spread and also allows for more rods to be fished.
Sloane Endick caught this pair of bluefin tuna trolling Chatter Side Tracker Spreader Bars at the North Barnegat Ridge in mid to late July 2020.
Hoochie Chain
My other “go to” lure has to be built because I don’t know where you could buy one.
Start with 4-5″ squid skirts. The same ones used to dress up fluke rigs. They usually come in a five pack. Snip off just the tip of each squid to allow line to pass through. Each one will get a ¼ ounce egg sinker inside the head.
First crimp on a good hook that matches up to the squids being used; 4/0-5/0 Mustad 34007 Stainless Steel O’Shaughnessy Hook or Mustad 3407SSD 2X Strong. Then slide down an egg weighed squid skirt. Note it might require a bead or two for spacing. You want the bend of the hook at or about the end of the squid skirt.
Next thread onto the leader a crimp and squeeze (swage) on to the line about 20″ above the first squid. This acts as a stopper that will hold the squid in position. Add a bead and then an egg weighed squid skirt. Repeat working up the leader until there are five squids in a chain, all of them about 15″ apart. Note: The one with the hook is slightly further apart at 20″.
To finish off, thread on a crimp and then do a loose double over hand knot. Pull down (but not tight) to form an “offshore loop”. Then put the tag end into the crimp and swage to complete the rig. This loop is where you’ll attach a snap swivel from one of your rods when it’s time to fish. Note: There will be extra leader line in front of the leading squid in the chain.
I know the Hoochie Chain is complicated and we would all prefer to buy off the rack BUT! The success I have had with it is unbelievable. In fact, I would tell you that in all of the Ridge fishing I do… I almost always have just four lines in the water, two small cedar plugs and two of those squid chains. If you don’t want to go through the hassle or are intimidated at the idea of rigging, pick out some small 4 to 5 inch little jet lures or feathers. Black/white or red/white are ideal feather colors. Blue/white or green/yellow are good jet lure colors.
If you don’t have the time to make your own Hoochie Chain… here is a great alternative… The Feather Chain. Feather Chains will catch anything from mahi, albies and bonita to bluefin tuna.
Time To Hit The Ridge!
There are actually two Barnegat Ridges, North and South. They both hold fish and are about 3.5 miles apart. The water in between them is productive, as well. On your ride out you will notice the depth dropping from 40, 50, 70, 80, sometimes flirting with 100 feet and then, as you arrive, it comes all the way up to 55 to 60 feet of water. I like to stop a mile and a half shy to allow time to get all the rods set and to fish that transition from deep to shallow.
Setting The Spread
Get the boat up to 6-7 knots and set up a simple spread. Start letting out the first cedar plug. Drop it way back, maybe 150 feet and put it in the forward starboard outrodder. On the port side, do the same thing with one of the squid chains or a jet lure. In your starboard stern most rodholder put out a squid chain or feather and keep it about 25 or 30 feet behind the boat right in the prop wash. If you have a release clip or a clothespin, tie it to the stern cleat and put the line in that. This will change it to a very low trajectory and improve the presentation. This is called a flatline. Repeat this with a cedar plug in the port stern most rod holder and… You are fishing!
On The Hunt
Offshore trolling is very much a visual game. You want to constantly be scanning for anything to steer towards, like a piece of wood or debris that might have mahi mahi on it. What you are always looking for are chick birds. Technically they are Storm Petrels, but we call them chicks, chick birds, tuna chicks. They are a great indicator of where the gamefish are feeding. You’re not looking for a big flock like we encounter inshore. Just one or a few is all you need. These birds are too small to feed on the same baitfish the predators are feeding on. They are diving at the surface picking up tiny particles from the maceration that is going on below the surface of the water. The best scenario is when you find these birds diving at a slick piece of water, it has a sheen like an oil slick. This is known as “chicks and slicks” and in the world of offshore trolling, it doesn’t get any better than that. That means you stumbled on a feed that is going on right now and your rods should be singing any minute.
Timmy Smith of Mountainside, NJ caught his mahi as well as bonito aboard The Hi Flier with Captain David DeGennaro (pictured here on the right) fishing the Barnegat Ridge.
You won’t always find this condition, but keep your eyes open for even a single or just a few of these birds. So many times we hook up just from turning the boat towards a single chick bird. Shearwaters, gulls and other birds might present too but none are as relevant as tuna chicks.
Common Catches
You are most likely to encounter bonita, false albacore, spanish mackerel, king mackerel, and occasionally mahi and school size bluefin tuna. The bonita are always our target and are delicious. They average two to four pounds but last year we had them up to six pounds. The false albacore are inedible, they average 5 to 10 pounds and will smoke the reel on their initial first run. Both the spanish and king mackerel have populated this area for 10 years or so but the last few years are the greatest numbers I have ever seen.
Captain Nick DeGennaro (author’s son) with a big bonita that hit a Chatter Side Tracker Spreader Bar.
As always care for your catch properly! Once caught, bleed ’em out (cut the throat, poke/slice the main artery and slice/cut the tail artery) and ice ’em up. Puttiung fish in a saltwater ice slurry is
The spanish are delicious and I get mixed reviews on the kings. They are both toothy and the kings especially will bite you off even on the 80 pound leader. Mahi and bluefin are always a pleasant surprise and can take up residence there any time there is baitfish and blue water to hold them. Sandeels, small mackerel, and flying fish are some of the bait found here.
That should get you started. Call me if you have any questions or need some guidance. See you out there!
