Had Bill Tevlin, his girlfriend Steph, and "Bluefish Steve" aboard today for the very first "fall" jigging trip this season on Reel Class.
Ran north, finally got into some life N of Shark River Inlet, real close in. Birds, and big nasty bluefish blasting peanut bunker out of the water. Fish were moving south fast, but we were able to get a couple of real good shots at them casting jigs, plugs, and shads. Bill and Steph were using 10# tackle, so they had their hands full.
After that petered out, we ran off the beach and found some more fish spread out on readings and under a few birds, about 4.5 miles off Deal/Elberon, and had a few good shots there.
At about 10:30, all hell broke loose. Water started churning, kinda looked like cinder blocks falling from the sky, and we had a massive blitz of slammer bluefish of the 10-14# class going on right around us for about an hour straight. Absolutely wild fishing -- but as quickly as it started, it turned right off as the S wind started blowing even harder.
Again the fish spread out, and we had a tough time putting a catch together the rest of the day. We wound up running inshore throwing plugs and shads at the jetties, even tried the mouth of both inlets, to no avail.
Still a terrific day. We boated somewhere around 25-30 blues, all of which were 10-14#, however we didn't see or hear of any bass or albies.
With the S winds I didn't expect much, but to see blitzing slammer bluefish gorging on peanuts in Mid-September has to be a good sign for the fall fishery. If today gives us anything, hopefully it gives us a sneak peek at how good this fall will be -- bait is there, fish are coming here, it can only get better!!
