Fluke fishing in Barnegat Bay continues on a remarkable pace. About the biggest challenge is keeping the minnow away from the Crabs long enough for the Fluke to bite it.
Yesterday's trip had a youngster on board, so I decided to start with a quick couple of drifts in the Bay. I did find some 70 water out more than 3 miles but we were only able to bang short fish.
Yesterday, on what was otherwise a slow day, we were able to boat back to back matching 26.5 inch Fluke on the same Drift!Ocean is quite warm now (70+) so I expect the bite to just get better from on out.
The fish are absolutely stacked from bottom up 30 ft around my favorite wrecks.Clam is still the favored bait but squid is now becoming effective as well.
Here we are 35 miles out to sea on the same drift all day, no other boat within miles. When he was about a mile out I tell the guys a quick story about the last time a sailboat was heading straight at us in the inlet and kept changing his mind should he go left or right.
Yesterday had temps of up to 62 F. at the Tires (3 miles off the beach), 54 F. at the Coast Guard Station (right off the beach) and 53 on the East side of Oyster Creek channel and 78 F. on the West side of Oyster Creek channel. There seems to be a narrow band of cold water in between some water warmer just off shore and dang warm west bay side temps.
The Ocean Fluke bite seems to be better than I expected it to be so early in the season. We ended up catching more Fluke than bass including this beauty of 25.
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