Pre-Memorial Day Weekend Report
We are getting into the summer season, and summer means bugs. Nasty, biting bugs. And not all of them are afraid of DEET. Like the infamous jersey shore greenhead fly, who treats DEET as a garnish. But there is a product that works on them, and on many other flying, biting arthropods. Captain Ron’s Insect Repellent is what you need for a pleasant, bug free day at the beach. Don’t be caught without it on the first nice day of the summer, especially during a west wind when the flies come out to find dinner (i.e. you). We are your source for Captain Ron’s. You can pick it up in the shop on your way to the beach, or order it online and have it before you leave home.
The weather for this weekend looks to be, in an understatement, a bit damp. This is unfortunate because after a slower week, the fishing seems to be picking up again the past day. The striped bass are showing again in the surf. As it was last week, bait is the better choice over lures. Both clams and fresh bunker are working, with clams getting better numbers but bunker taking larger fish. Our customer Ray (not to be confused with Grumpys very own Ray, who no longer catches striped bass off the surf) took home a nice 14.2 lb, 35 inch bass that fell for a bunker chunk.
Also in the surf we have been hearing about fluke in the wash. They are being taken using bucktails tipped with Gulp!. The S&S Fluke Nukem Bucktails or the Bigeye Rattle Jig are perfect for fluke in the surf. Stick with the lighter weights, as you want to be near the bottom, but not dredging the sand with your bucktail. And you won’t need to cast to France. They are literally right in the wash. Fish the jig to your feet.
Speaking of fluke, the back bay has been on fire for early season fluke fishing. No particular hotspot as we have been getting reports from all over the bay. If you have a favorite bay fluke spot, we suggest that is where you go. Bucktails, teasers, and Gulp! have been the hot ticket for these fish.
Since the weather is going to be iffy-at-best this weekend with strong onshore winds predicted for Saturday and Sunday, you may want to stick with the backwaters to get your fishing fix in. If you don’t want to chase fluke, there are still small striped bass roaming the back bay. You will need to gear down and use some smaller lures, like the 3” or 4” Tsunami Holographic Swim Shads, but the fish are around. We are also still hearing about some bluefish in a river north of the shop.
And another piece of back bay news, the blowfish are in early. We heard from a couple of fluke fishermen that they got some big puffers as bycatch. Clam, squid and FishBites are great bait for blowfish.
In other shop news, there was a small contest afoot. Apparently Scott challenged Ray to a little kayak fluke fishing challenge, and, Ray being a sucker for fishing competition, accepted it. There may have even been a monetary wager involved knowing Ray. So Ray rolls out his kayak on the day of the event, a kayak that hasn’t seen water since sometime in the early 20-teens. It was like bringing a 1970 Plymouth Superbird to a modern NASCAR race. Needless to say, Ray got smoked. He claims he was leading most of the morning and Scott was being a sore loser and wouldn’t talk to him. Scott only started speaking again when he got a fish bigger than Ray’s. Scott says otherwise of course. Besides the playground accusations, Scott did weigh in a 22 inch, 3.6 pound fluke. We suspect he made the crown himself.
If Ray has his way, there will be a rematch, probably double or nothing. If it happens, and Ray loses again, we are predicting it was because of an “equipment malfunction”.
And if Scott loses, he is going to blame his new “fluke net” that arrived special order today. It is the size of a freshwater trout net. This might be indicative of the size fish he plans to catch going forward. (Representative cardboard fluke sculpture by Jenni….)
