Best Canadian Fly Fishing Holiday

FISHING REPORT: Flat Creek is a hot spot for keepers

Fluke are still covering up the inlet areas and reef sites, while high tides had stripers chasing lures around the dawn and dusk hours in the back bays. (Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto )

Sounds like bluefin tuna fishing amped up a level this week, while the inshore lumps and humps began to attract bonito, false albacore and dolphin. Fluke are still covering up the inlet areas and reef sites, while high tides had stripers chasing lures around the dawn and dusk hours in the back bays.

At Sea Isle Bait and Tackle, Sea Isle City, Mike Cunningham spoke about the continuing back bay fluke bite. "Flat Creek, the ICW behind Corson's, and Avalon Point Marina have all been top spots this week to find plenty of shorts with a few keepers. It seems there are more keeper fish in the 5 to 7 pound class hanging at the Townsend's Inlet Reef." Cunningham states that 4-ounce bucktails, fished with a high dropper and a large Gulp! grub are tackling the fluke at the reef. The morning and evening high tides this past week put striped bass on the feed along the backwater sodbanks as topwater poppers worked close to the banks connected with bass in the 20 to 30 inch range. Bluefin tuna have been reported everywhere, but are concentrated nowhere. "Bluefin are moving all between the Tea Cup, Lobster Claw, 19 Fathom Lump and Elephant's Trunk, back and forth. You just have to be in the right spot at the right time," said Cunningham.

I was able to get out fluking the Great Egg Inlet with Sean Reilly and we found fish both shallow and deep. A 6.5-pound fluke fell to a bucktail in the 12 foot depths, while the 20- to 25-foot depths near the mouth of the inlet held legions of throwbacks with a few 18 to 22-inch keepers as well. Target fish with larger strip baits now such as fluke bellies or 5-inch Gulp! grubs to weed out the shorties.

"Southern Jersey fishing is at its summertime peak right now!" exclaimed Cathy Algard, Sterling Harbor Bait and Tackle, Wildwood. Fluking has been staying solid in the back and on the reef sites. Mike Woertz of Runnemede checked in with a 7-pound, 12-ounce flounder caught on a Spro Bucktail near Grassy Sound. Bill Stewart and crew of Swedesboro hit the Wildwood Reef to bail flatties to 5 pounds. "Offshore, fluke catches have also been reported from the Cape May Reef, Reef Site 11 and the Old Grounds," added Algard. Suzanne and Ken Smith Philadelphia and Scott Pierce of Drexel Hill, Pa., reported 15 keeper flounder up to 6 pounds while drifting Reef Site 11. As a bonus, Suzanne also boated a 20-pound mahi-mahi from Reef Site 11 while flounder fishing. The canyons have been lighting up with activity. Big eye tuna were found in the Wilmington Canyon, being caught sporadically, and Joe Gillen reports that white marlin also hitting trolled lures at the Wilmington. The hot bite however was for bluefin tuna at the Hambone, as Ken Freeman and crew of Upper Black Eddy, Pa., hooked four bluefin tuna to 90 pounds while chunking sardines. Jamie Neill of Rio Grande, jigged up his first ever bluefin tuna at Massey's Canyon while on the Tuna Chic, and his crew also landed six more bluefin along with two mahimahi. Crabby Jack gives the crabbing 4 Claws this week.

Tammy Carbohn, Avalon Hodge Podge, Avalon brought a spectacular report from CJ of Riverside, who bagged a pair of sheepshead in the backwaters, the largest pegging the scale at 14.36 pounds and measuring 27 inches! Sheepshead feed and fight very similar to blackfish, and are just as good in the frying pan. Try using live green or fiddler crabs and work around submerged structure to find the summertime visitors.

The inshore troll is heating up according to Matt Slobodjian, Jims Bait and Tackle, Cape May. "False albacore, small blues, bonito and a few small dolphin were rooted at the 5 fathom bank area, the East Lump and Sea Isle Ridge areas as well.

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