Ron Nuzzolo
Fish On
July is here, and the bass are still around.Find the bunker pods and you’ll find the trophies. Along the beaches and under the bunker schools, anglers have been picking up some serious-size fish. Reports over the past two days claim that major pods of bait and fish have been showing up from Shark River all the way past Barnegat Inlet.
Capt. Gene headed out with Ron, Paul and Jim, and the guys had nonstop action. For the last two hours of the trip, they had three on at once. Capt. Gene has been landing fish over the 40-pound mark with a great mix in the 25- to 35-pound range.
Prowler 5 from Atlantic Highlands boated 20 bass on a night trip; only three were keepers, and the other 17 were 26- to 27-inch shorts. Dominick Morin of Morganville was the pool winner with a 15-pound bass. Prowler 5 starts chumming bluefish this Friday, 3:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. every night except Monday. Check them out at http://www.prowler5.com.
NJSaltwaterfisherman.com’s Pete, Rooster and Tom, went fluking with the high tide at 9 a.m. They decided on the Shrewsbury Channel with wind and tide together. It really blew hard with rough conditions, as they picked away at the shorts and worked the sea robins over. Tom found a pocket of big fluke and worked that area over, for nine keepers for the morning. Pete caught three keepers, and Tom accounted for the rest up to 19 inches. One fluke got bitten nearly in half as Tom reeled it in, by a chopper blue. All fish fell for the old killie and strip bait.
Aboard the Golden Eagle (Point Pleasant), Capt. Greg has been slamming away at night blues. Bluefishing has only gotten better, with great catches of blues night and day with many fish over the 10- to 12-pound mark. Fish are hitting both bait and jigs while chumming. If you love a hard-fighting fish and plenty of action, check out Capt. Greg at 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. daily. For more information, contact [email protected].
Reel Fantasea from Barnegat Light reported a dip in ocean temperature around the mid 50s and the bass bite showed signs of life again, with bunker pods all along the beaches. The Bucky Hayes party was out for an evening with a strong bluefish bite, where the guys had some nonstop action with blues on plastics at the inlet. They tried swimming some live spot around the jetties but only found more blues clipping the backs off the spot.
Reggie’s Savoy was out for striped bass, where he landed his limit of bass to 34 inches on live bunker. John Repko was out to fish the back bay, where he had blues to 3-4 pounds on buck tails and plastics, and then headed over to the inlet to find schools of bunker milling around. After landing a few baits, they live-lined the bunker, and lost what appeared to be a bass. Capt. Steve ended the day by putting out another bait, only to have that bait bitten off with a strange bite radius – not a bluefish.
Joe Camarata nailed a 41-pound trophy bass on the C-Annamal with Capt. Carl La Manna out of the Canyon River Club & Marina. Joe nailed this one while trolling bunker spoons off the Mantoloking pipe. Congrats, Joe, on your personal best so far.
Capt. Sea Robin from Belford along with Middletowners Mark Shultz, Wayne Smith and Dr. Mark Wasseff were off Sandy Hook and played catch and release with over 60 fluke, with only eight keepers. All action on spearing. Keep those reports and recipes coming to [email protected].
Did you know?
New Jersey female angler makes the IGFA record books
After a 41-minute fight, Ocean City’s Maureen Klause landed a black drum (pogonias cromis) weighing 63 pounds, 12 ounces on May 22, while bottom fishing along Delaware Bay. She used a clam for bait on six-pound class line. Now, that’s impressive. For more world records, check out the IGFA Web site at http://www.igfa.org.
Recipe of the week
With all the big bass being caught in our backyard, I had to get this one out to you. This recipe comes from a local Raritan Bay Italian fisherman known only as Uncle Luna.
Get the Net: 5 out of 5 nets
Comments: A must try
Difficulty: Medium
Striped bass, cream sauce with sun dried tomatoes and olives
1 stick butter
1 quart heavy cream
3 shallots, diced
1 16-oz. jar sun dried tomatoes, diced
1 16 oz.-jar kalamata olives, pitted and halved
1 cup white wine
1 fillet striped bass, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 pound fettuccini
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat; add the shallots and sauté five minutes. Add the heavy cream and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to simmer, add the sun dried tomatoes and the olives, and cook five minutes. Add the striped bass and the wine, bring to a boil and cook 10 minutes.
When the fettuccini is 3/4 of the way cooked, strain and add the fettuccini to the skillet; mix well and heat through. Also works well with shrimp and scallops if no striped bass is available.
Chef: Uncle Luna NJSaltwaterfisherman.com