Summer Patterns Have Settled In Nicely
Just a fishing report this week.
The big story for the anglers this weekend is fluke. The surf bite is still going strong, on bucktails and Gulp! as usual. About the only change is the general size of the fish reported this weekend was a little smaller.
The fluke bite for the boats, however, has been improving on the nearshore wreck, lumps and reefs. Bucktails and Gulp! there too.
The striped bass bite in the surf is still spotty but there if you really want to target striped bass. They are smaller fish and bait is the way to go. Clams or sand fleas will give you the best shot at them.
There is also still the occasional bluefish being caught in the surf. Cut bunker, cut mackerel and mullet have been the best baits for them.
We have also heard of some of the bluefish anglers fishing bunker or mackerel have been hooking into either big toothy critters, or large, flat critters with long thin tails. Either way, if you are fishing these baits, keep an eye on your rod in the sandspike so it doesn’t go swimming. If it does, we have plenty of rods and reels...
One new development in the surf was that we got reports of kingfish arriving. They will take small pieces of squid, small bits of clams, or pieces of Fish Bites. The Fish Bites are a nice bait to pair with a piece of squid or clam because the fish bites are tough for the bait stealers to take. We have the rigs for them.
Bayside, we have been hearing reports the blowfish fishing is picking up. The southern end of the bay is the area where boats are doing better. We haven’t heard of any being caught from the local docks yet.
Speaking of local docks, reports we have been receiving is the crabbing is off the hook. We had a number of anglers come back in over the weekend for more bait because they were doing so well on the crabs.
We haven’t heard anything about snapper bluefish yet off the local docks. This is about the time of year where, though small, they get to the point where they can be caught by hanging a spearing under a bobber. This is great fun for kids and we have all the stuff you need to do it in the shop.
Offshore we have heard the tuna have arrived. Bluefin and yellowfin were being caught anywhere from 15 miles off out to the canyons. No specific spots, so if you need to know where to go you will need to do your research. We heard fish taken on the troll, jigs and poppers. We have side trackers in stock in the store, and the other items both in-store and online.
Our lead-off picture is Legendary Larry with the biggest fluke of the season so far to hit our scale. He got it on a boat at [location redacted]. It was 25.5 inches and pulled the scales down to the 7.25 pound mark. It took an S&S bucktails Fluke Nuke’m tipped with Gulp!
For those who don’t know already, Ray loves fishing in tournaments. Especially fluke tournaments. There is a big one coming up that Ray is looking forward to, and he is prepping for it. Now I know you are all thinking that he just had a little mini fishing tournament with Scott last week to prepare, but for Ray, he considered that more of a side quest. (For Scott, it was a boss battle…). Ray is taking this one much more seriously. He set up some practice space in the back of the shop and is even filming his technique so he can make improvements. What do you all think? How is he doing?
