Fluke and Bluefish and Albies and Hurricane Lee
First, shop news…
We received an order of custom plugs from Salty C’s. We have restocked on most colors of the Salty C’s Gliders and have added two new lures from the Salty C’s Lineup. First is the Salty C’s Peanut Swimmer. This is a 5 inch long wooden, metal-lipped swimmer that is fully sealed. This is a perfect plug for imitating the mullet we currently have coming down the coast, and the peanut bunker we will hopefully see later this fall. Get one while we have them.
The other plug is the Salty C’s Danny Swimmer. A classically shaped single belly hook danny plug, the Salty C’s spin on it is that it is fully sealed. We got a limited supply in 3 colors, so don’t wait to pick one up.
As far as the fishing goes, it seems some really nice fluke have moved into the surf. They are mixed in with a lot of shorts, but they have been falling for bucktails and Gulp!, or fresh/live mullet (which you can pick up at the shop, or net your own). There are still some bluefish around harassing mullet and falling for small metals. The false albacore and bonito have been making flash showings along the coast, usually just out of casting range but occasionally following the bait into the surf.
For this upcoming weekend we are going to see some rough surf from Hurricane Lee passing offshore. We are going to have brisk northerly winds Friday and Saturday. Sunday the winds drop down to something reasonable, and turn west, but it may take a day for the surf to clean up. Are there fish to be caught at this time? Possibly, it will depend on how riled up the surf gets. If you go, you need to be very careful and stay out of the surf. There have been enough rescues around here lately.
Some notable recent catches:
Our cover shot is the biggest fluke of the season weighed in off the surf. @toomuchtoofast with a 25” 6.40lb Fluke he caught using Gulp! Congrats Will!
Tony Silvastera with a nice fluke from the surf.
Pat V with a 3.65 lb triggerfish caught off the jetty. Triggerfish are a great fight, and while they’re a little tricky to fillet your first time, they make excellent table fare.
Ramon with a 2.15 lb fluke taken off the surf on a mullet.
Scott was fishing the park and found a school that wouldn’t leave the Yo-Zuri Hydro Monster Shots alone.
Shel E with a 3.20lb fluke from the surf on Gulp!
We have confirmation of another southern visitor. This redfish (or red drum or, if you like the classics, “channel bass”) was caught in Barnegat Inlet.
There are a lot of changes coming at Grumpys. A bunch of new things we are not quite ready to announce. It’s going to be a fun 3 to 4 months coming up. One new thing coming up isn’t as quite as fun, especially for Ray. Grumpys is getting a new roof. Ray’s attempts for the past two years of using Flex Seal to repair the leaks is no longer cutting it. He’s finally called in professional help. Why is this not as fun for Ray? He has to figure out how to pay for it. He has considered a couple of options. He has tried hiring Grumpy out to a couple of local restaurants as a host or server. That didn’t work out very well. He went fishing for green sweetwater fish but couldn’t figure out how to monetize it, even though he said “Whoa Son!” every time he hooked one. He is thinking about having Connor open a lemonade stand in front of the shop, but we are past lemonade stand season. It’s too bad, we have a lemon costume for Connor too.
