All Clams All The Time!
The word for the weekend is “clams”. There were plenty of clams fished and plenty of striped bass caught. We are not proud of this, but, on Sunday afternoon, we ran out of clams. While we are embarrassed we can take solace that, at least based on all the phone calls we were receiving about the clam situation, we were not the only shop to do so. We are not going to make that mistake again. The picture above is the fresh shucked clam delivery we received Monday morning. I count 16 buckets, twice what we brought in before the weekend.
As far as fishing goes, the biggest news is still the striped bass being caught in the surf. Pretty much all of them were caught on clams, but we did hear of one or two caught on fresh bunker. There have been slot fish, unders and overs caught.
There are also still striped bass in Barnegat Bay. They are falling for bloodworms and the usual suspects for artificial lures (Kettle Creeks, Tsunami Swim Shads, Storm Swim Shads, Vudu Shrimp, and Rapala X-Raps).
Also newsworthy is the arrival of bluefish. They are in the surf in multiple sizes (as you will see below). They have been hitting on both fresh bunker and ava jigs.
We have heard reports of a few black drum being caught in the surf out on IBSP. These were all caught on clam.
Fluke season opened today in NJ. We have already heard of some good catches of fluke today. Mostly from the back bay. This includes our own Sean and Ray (who took the day off to fish). We have plenty of Gulp!, jigs, and rigs for the season. (Fin Strike rigs are 30% off, just use FINSTRIKE30 at checkout)
Here are some notable catches from the weekend (there are a bunch…):
Congrats to Mike Putnam on this striped bass. The fish measured 45” long and took a clam in the IBSP Surf. Fish was safely released.
Local Legend @gmiller10000 with a beauty from the Seaside Surf! He was a man on a mission when he came in to grab his bait that day. Nice job George…
Harry with a large Bass caught on clams.
Even the dedicated lure anglers are getting in on this clam bite. This time it’s store regular Frankie @picasso_of_destruction with a bass over 40”. It obviously did not take him long to figure out the bait game.
@mark_hara223 with a beauty. Congrats Mark! Caught on clams (of course)..
Our clam man’s son with an awesome catch! Here’s Braden with a whopper Drum he caught recently.. On what you ask?! His Clams! Congrats buddy!
Toothy critters starting to show up out front. It may not be a giant, but it is the first weigh in of the year for a bluefish. Caught on bunker. Congrats Mike on the first bluefish weigh in of the year! (There is no prize for it though, just bragging rights. Sorry)
Anton came in for fresh clams and went home with a bass! The bass tipped the scales at 30” and 8.95 lbs and was caught in Seaside Park.
Our "winner" of our "first bluefish contest that we were not actually running" came back again with a keeper bass, caught on a clam. Mike was having a good day.
Jenna with a 27” CPR (catch, photo, release) bass caught on clam!
Bob and Bryan bullock with blues up to 33” 12.2 lbs on ava jigs in the surf. They are here!
@michaelgallagherfinancial with a bass on a clam.
Eric with a 13 lb 33” bass on…wait for it…clam!
Here is our very own Sean with a nice keeper fluke from a full boat limit with Ray today.
So Ray took another day off to go fishing. How does he do this? Well…
