Bass and Bluefish fishing remains good.
But first, as always, shop news.
We added a new product to both stores (brick and mortar and online) today from Hogy. The spook-style lures have become very popular lately, and Hogy has joined the fun with a charter grade version. Their Charter Grade Dog Walker XL is 8.25 inches long, and 3.5 ounces, rigged with VMC trebles, perfect for big bass and bluefish. They are also through-wire, so swap the trebles for some strong inline single hooks and you have a perfect surface lure for tuna. Give them a shot.
We added two new colors (for us) to our SP Minnow line up. We added Bubble Gum to the 15F series SP Minnow, and Grunion to the 17F SP Minnow series. Both colors are hot, but the Grunion especially looks like a sea herring. The big fish won’t be able to resist that.
The fishing in the surf remains great for bass, and good for bluefish. Clams, as it has been for a while now, are taking a majority of the fish, but anglers going out in the dark are getting some nice fish on Hydro Minnows, SP Minnows, and old school Bombers. The bluefish are taking poppers in the daytime.
The local docks are still giving up bluefish. Bait is more consistent, and both the vac-sealed bunker and frozen mullet are taking their share of fish. When the bluefish feel like it, poppers are making the fishing for them exciting.
Fluke are still being taken in the Manasquan River, the channels in Barnegat Bay, and the inlets. Bucktails and Gulp! are still the go-to method.
Here are some notable catches:
Austin’s first stripers! He had himself a banner morning on clams today with a pair of bass! Congrats buddy!
@mike.dagney with a beautiful bass he caught Friday morning on Grumpy Clams.
@gmiller10000 with a nice bass on Grumpy Clams.
The local bay is giving up some monster bluefish. Chad weighed in the 15+ Lb bluefish that took bait off one of the local docks
Kim with a beautiful 40” Fish on Fresh Clams.
Xavier with the first fish of the Governor’s Tournament on Sunday. A little bit short, but it’s a great start.
Roger Mignone with a 39” bass on salted clam.
John Gallagher with a 34” 12.40lb Bass on Clams from the Surf. Nice fish John!
Congrats to Antonio Leone on winning the Children’s Division in the NJ Governor’s Tournament! Bass was 14.70lbs! Caught on Grumpy Clams.
Our own in-house master rod builder, Blackcloud Bob took a “vacation”. He is down south catching OPF (Other People’s Fish). Here he is proudly displaying a flounder. Who knew he would catch his personal best flatfish down there? Photo courtesy of Billy Vivona.
Those who were in the shop early Sunday morning may have noticed our reel tech, Frankie Z, was a bloody mess. Frank said it was from his towel. From what we could ascertain, prior to coming in to work, as Frankie was getting ready for his day, his towel viciously attacked him. We are not sure why. As we all know, towels tend to be docile. We in the shop didn’t know what Frank did to his towel to cause such a reaction, and we were afraid to ask. It could be a new towel that did not take a liking to Frank. It could be an old towel that had suffered years of atrocities in Frank’s bathroom and finally had enough. Either way, it looked like the towel won. We are now trying to guess if it was the green towel or the white towel…
(Note: While the story above may seem fabricated, it is based in more truth than you would believe…)