Same As it Ever Was
But first, shop news…
Only a few more days until our Christmas in July sale ends Monday night. The 15% off on S&S Bucktails deal has been very popular, and we are running low on stocks of some of them. The re-tooling of S&S Bucktails into S&S Jigs (which was recently announced on social media) currently plans to have product on store shelves in September, so if you need bucktails for fluke season, now is the time to get them.
There is also still time to take advantage of the Grumpys Sandstorm / Daiwa BG Surf Combo before it goes away, because once the sale is done, so is the combo offer.
We have added the 360GT Searchbait from Storm to the website. These are a great option for, as the name implies, probing around looking for feeding fish. The swim action on these is incredible, and they can be fished with a variety of retrieve styles. Each pack comes with a jig head with a strong VMC Coastal Black hook rigged with one body and two spare bodies. Don't overlook these versatile baits.
This is the time of the year where the fluke sharpies are targeting big, tournament winning flatties with live bait. Getting bait can be difficult, as you need to find the bait, which can prove difficult with the normal summer turbidity of Barnegat Bay. Add to that the required skill of throwing a cast net and it becomes more trouble than it is worth. But, now you can target small baits with the Tsunami Guide Series Sabiki Rigs. These 6 hook rigs have tiny fishskin “flies” that small baitfish cannot resist. Locally, spot have been falling for these.
The fishing remains pretty much the same as it was in the last report, with the exception we did not hear of any pompano caught on IBSP. So, fluke are still in the surf on bucktails and Gulp!, if you can get them past all the tailor bluefish cruising the surf. Those bluefish, when they are not biting the tails off of Gulp!, are falling for small metals, small poppers, and “bluefish proof” soft plastics like Z-Man DieZel MinnowZ.
In the bay, the crabbing remains good. The local docks are also giving up some blowfish and lots of spot. Scott was able to catch some spot to use for live lining for fluke, so the spot must be thick. Did Scott catch any fluke on those spot? See below…
Here are some notable catches:
Our cover picture is Liam and Layla Brown with a nice 2.95 pound Fluke from surf.
Charlie Kirk with a 20.5 inch 2.75 pound fluke taken from the surf on Gulp! (Nice hat Charlie).
Phillip Scarpone with a quality surf fluke.
So where is the picture of Scott with a big fluke caught on live bait? Well, about that…
Scott claims he had a big fish on. He even says he “saw” it. However, after listening to the full story, Ray believes he hooked into a large clump of seaweed. It is a good story, and we may submit it for a limited-run TV series when the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are over. We think Netflix would go for it. Here is what the poster will look like.
