Asbury Park Press - Sept. 2, 2011
By Dan Radel
Just look what the tide brought in now.
Many anglers were hopeful that false albacore would show up inshore in the days after Irene. Instead, some of the first boats to start getting back on the water found lizardfish.
“They must have hitched a ride on the back of the storm,” said Capt. Morgan Murphy of the Norma K III.
Murphy made their first fluke day trips on Tuesday afternoon after the wash out from Irene. He reported the ocean conditions still hadn’t completely cleaned up by mid-week. The ocean had lain down by Monday morning but the water clarity was still poor and murky as late as Wednesday.
The good news is the fish are starting to bite again.“There are plenty of fluke around and 1-pound blues,” Murphy said.
Murphy was fishing on the Offshore Lump southeast of the Manasquan Inlet when he discovered the lizardfish. “They’re tropical. We catch a lot them down in Florida,” Murphy said.
Capt. Bob Bogan of the Gambler also reported catching the oddball fish. Bogan began taking people out again on Tuesday morning for fluke. He found the lizardfish on the Sea Girt Reef, north of the Offshore Lump but still in the vicinity of the Manasquan Inlet.
“They’re weird looking. They actually look like lizards. We caught about a half-dozen of them. They’re real small but they’re hitting regular fluke baits,” Bogan said.
It’s hard to tell if Irene is the cause of the fish’s presence in New Jersey or not, because there are several types of inshore lizardfish with a range from Massachusetts to Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico. However, they are very uncommon north of South Carolina, according to the Audubon Society’s Field Guide to North American Fishes, Whales and Dolphins.
They may have even been in Barnget Bay before Irene. Dennis Palmatier at Murphy’s Hook House reported an angler catching one in the bay in the days following the storm. Another likely place that they could have come from is the Chesapeake Bay where they have been pretty common lately during the summer.
Perhaps they are expanding their range.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources describes the fish as brownish or greenish in color with silvery sides. The body, they report, is elongated and roundish, the snout is pointed and the mouth is filled with sharp teeth. The tail fin is forked and the dorsal fin is high and short.
Most of the specimens they see in the Chesapeake Bay range from 7 to 13 inches although the species may grow to 24 inches.
Bogan added that they saw a lot of variety, other than just the lizardfish on their first days back on the water as is usually the case after a good weather system comes up the coast.
“We were getting a lot of bites. There were a lot more sea bass on the reef than before Irene. We also saw pilot fish, weakfish, and snapper blues,” he said.
The water clarity should improve this week and who knows, those false albacore may be here, but it’s hard to troll or jig for them in murky waters.
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