Barnegat Light Weakfish

[dimakossa]

anybody been catching weakies at barnegat lighthouse yet?

also any striper activity in Belmar or shark river inlet yet? i didnt see any people fishing on jetties yet plus local bait house says its quiet...

[JAT11]

also any striper activity in Belmar or shark river inlet yet? i didnt see any people fishing on jetties yet plus local bait house says its quiet...[/quote]


Negative on the stripers in SR & Belmar....we'll try for tog or w. flounder this weekend if the forecast permits.

[dimakossa]

it seems all dead there unfortunately.

tried 2 times on SR inlet t-jetty, nothing but skates. seen a bunch of boats fishing between 2 bridges 2 weeks ago, for flounder obvioulsy, and didnt see anybody pull anythin up. tried myself, got one hit and that was it.

when will porgies show up there? also is there possibility to catch tautog on rocks along the river? it was ok fishing late fall, but so far its awefully quiet.

[JAT11]

when will porgies show up there? also is there possibility to catch tautog on rocks along the river? it was ok fishing late fall, but so far its awefully quiet.


My bad...we fish from a boat, we usually get the porgies in the fall. There should be tog there though....I know the divers see bigguns down there but it may need to warm up a bit more. The inlet is all shoaled up...just an F.Y.I....this is from Ristori's column:

Southside of inlet dangerous even on a calm day --- at low tide a guy was standing alongside the jetty --- really hazardous on any sort of east wind --- accident waiting to happen unless dredged immediately.

[JSB]

we picked the boat up over the weekend and were coming through pp canal, saw a guy with a double header of flatties coming over the rail on the squan/brielle side right near the canal entrance on the north side....though i saw someone say small bass were around there but can't be certain i heard right

[JAT11]

We use to hammer the blackfish in the canal when I was a kid 15-20yrs ago on fidlers....but that was in May/June if I remember correctly....those were the days.

[dimakossa]

Southside of inlet dangerous even on a calm day --- at low tide a guy was standing alongside the jetty --- really hazardous on any sort of east wind --- accident waiting to happen unless dredged immediately


Jet11, i am not sure which jetty you're referring to. i normally fish on t-jetty on the north side of shark river. the part that looks into ocean is pretty safe almost under any conditions. yea, you could get soaked if wave crashes but thats it. it is however a little more scary to be fishing on the same t-jetty on the part that runs parallel to beach, because then waves hit it directly with eastern wind. yet, as long as you have proper footwear you should be ok, unless a real tsunamy comes along ))) as a matter of fact, i had better luck there since you can access nice pocket to the north east...

as far as the jetty on the south side of shark river, i have no idea why it would be dangerous. i fished there only 2-3 times, and it is well protected from wave surges or winds by rocks all over the place. i mean unless you break you leg in rocks or get washed away by tsunami, its all pretty safe,...

[JAT11]

Southside of inlet dangerous even on a calm day --- at low tide a guy was standing alongside the jetty --- really hazardous on any sort of east wind --- accident waiting to happen unless dredged immediately


Jet11, i am not sure which jetty you're referring to. i normally fish on t-jetty on the north side of shark river. the part that looks into ocean is pretty safe almost under any conditions. yea, you could get soaked if wave crashes but thats it. it is however a little more scary to be fishing on the same t-jetty on the part that runs parallel to beach, because then waves hit it directly with eastern wind. yet, as long as you have proper footwear you should be ok, unless a real tsunamy comes along ))) as a matter of fact, i had better luck there since you can access nice pocket to the north east...

as far as the jetty on the south side of shark river, i have no idea why it would be dangerous. i fished there only 2-3 times, and it is well protected from wave surges or winds by rocks all over the place. i mean unless you break you leg in rocks or get washed away by tsunami, its all pretty safe,...

I think Al Ristori was referring to boats going in/out of the inlet. We use to do better on the Squan rocks for tog but hey good luck if you give it a shot.

[dimakossa]

you right, obviously that was a boat warning )))

by the way, since you are a local, have you ever cought a weakfish in shark river inlet? last year i cought a few of them down south, egg harbour bay and barnegat bay, but never here. it seems as a perfect setting for them here - plenty of bait fish, slow moving waters, adequate depth, bridges with lights and so forth. i realize it would be somewhat difficult to even target them here, since there's lots of weeds in warmer months but still...i dont think i seen anybody catch or even try going for weakie. whats your thought on this? thanks

[JAT11]

you right, obviously that was a boat warning )))

by the way, since you are a local, have you ever cought a weakfish in shark river inlet? last year i cought a few of them down south, egg harbour bay and barnegat bay, but never here. it seems as a perfect setting for them here - plenty of bait fish, slow moving waters, adequate depth, bridges with lights and so forth. i realize it would be somewhat difficult to even target them here, since there's lots of weeds in warmer months but still...i dont think i seen anybody catch or even try going for weakie. whats your thought on this? thanks

No sir....not a local...I'm a shoebie or whatever they call us....from Trenton....I put Shark River in because that's our port of call. I just "hear" a lot from my pop & locals in SR. I know they catch weakies in SR, but it's a night/dusk/early morning thing....we catch them when they school up out front in early September...prob coming out of the Raritan. The only time we fish the river is for W. Flounder...other wise we're always out front....but that river produces a lot of fish. Hey I'll let you know if I "hear" anything this year.

[PAWayne]

These are from Shark River.

http://www.myfishpix.com/gallery/data/500/Sharkriver8-20_res.JPG


http://www.myfishpix.com/gallery/data/500/Sharkriver6-10_res.JPG

[snprblue2]

These are from Shark River.

http://www.myfishpix.com/gallery/data/500/Sharkriver8-20_res.JPG


http://www.myfishpix.com/gallery/data/500/Sharkriver6-10_res.JPG

Nice......:cool:

[Blynch]

anybody been catching weakies at barnegat lighthouse yet?

also any striper activity in Belmar or shark river inlet yet? i didnt see any people fishing on jetties yet plus local bait house says its quiet...

None around squan so prolly not up there either.

[dimakossa]

wow, nice pics PaWayne...

yet how the hell are they catching weakies in shark river? again, in almost two years of fishing there, i never seen anyone catch or even target them...and SR does seem like almost perfect place for them...

i normally fish there from the deck, jetties or rocks...you can easily get bluefish, striped bass, flounder, tautog porgies etc. however it is somewhat difficult to target weakfish, due to the way you need to be targeting them....the way i am fishing weakfish is to cast and very slow retrieve and careful jigging (had decent success like this at barnegat light) using leadhead with finesse. the problem is that its impossible to do that in SR in warmer months when there's lots of weeds present in the water. so i would have to either: 1. find a place with no weeds or 2. use a static set-up with a sinker. problems are that i dont know any such place without weeds, and dont really know how to catch weakie using sinkers to hold the bottom and coming up with proper bait. normally i use a leadhead with berkely gulp or f-ness, but have no idea what they eat as far as live bait goes. maybe bloodworms or shedder crabs? but then i would other garbage fish and not the weakies.

of course if i had the boat it would solve half the problem, but i dont, and i prefer to fish from land anyways. so could anyone from locals point me in the right direction how to succesfully target weakies from land in SR?

on the side note, i think fishing for weakies is even more fun then striped bass. they are elusive, and hit or miss fish, but once you find them, know how to get them to bite, excellent fight and very tasty ))) i know how to get weakies by barnegat lighthouse but thats like an hour and a half drive for me. at the same time i can get them from my deck on SR, if i only knew the way to do it. hopefully someone can help me out here. thanks

[JAT11]

Nice weakies PAWayne!