Raritan - east or west?

[Seaclusion]

I would like to give fluke a try again this Sunday. I have only fished for them twice before and that was earlier this summer. Would it be better to fish the eastern side of the bay out of Atlantic Highlands, or the western side out of Keyport?

[mboy]

You fishing from Headboat or trailering your own?

Fishing in bay has been so-so this year.
Most guys are getting the bigger ones outside (Ocean) by Deal, Spring Lake, Shrewsbury Rocks, Sandy Hook Ocean side beach, etc.

If head boat, I would reco one of of the HIghlands as their is only 1 in Keyport.

[Seaclusion]

I will be trailering my boat.

[mboy]

I wouldn't even bother with the Bay. Fish Outside.

Launch of of AH turn right at tip of hook and head south a bit :)

[Skmag357]

yup....what mboy said.....

[Keyman]

With the full moon tides the bay near Ambrose channel would be tough fishing because of the current. You'd need a ton of lead to hold bottom. The ocean has been producing good with some monster flounder being caught down the beach. Good luck! Chartreuse miser twisters above with squid and spearing worked great. KIS Gulp bait also worked.

[ekim]

launched today from atlantic highlands and fished mouth of bay at the shrewsbury.only four keepers up to 3 lbs.awsome bunker kill in the bay.fish and game out checking it out.full moon or warm water made for worst trip of the year for me.go ocean.

[fathead]

After last weekend I highly recommend the beach off the highlands on the ocean side. We started in the bay with the fleet and picked away here and there. We made the run down the beach and hammered them! We had doubles and triples all afternoon. We are going Sunday morning, should be at the ramp at 6:30 am. We ended up with 12 keepers between 4 of us in a matter of 4-5 hours. The action was crazy though. We go out of the highlands with a 19' cc polar navy/white. I'll flag you down if I see you again. Lure/bait did not matter, you could do no wrong!

[Seaclusion]

Where in the Reading area do you live, I live in Muhlenberg. Maybe I will see you there tomorrow. I plan to leave around 5. I have a 21' Sea Hunt CC so I will probably head out if the weather holds out.

[fathead]

That's funny, I live in Muhlenberg too. We leave from the coliseum restaurant at 4:00 am. That usually puts us in the water at 6:30. I'll look for you. The best part about last Sunday---1 sea robin all day!

[fishypete]

I wouldn't even bother with the Bay. Fish Outside.

Launch of of AH turn right at tip of hook and head south a bit :)

I agree. Picked up 8 keepers to 6lbs the other day. Don't bother in the bay. If all else fails hit the mouth of the Shrewbury near the Seastreak. At least you'll get some action w/o the traffic there!

[Seaclusion]

We went around the hook a little to the beach area. We picked up about 25 flounder, 3 of which were keepers, and the largest was 23". We also picked up about 100 sea robins including 3 tripples. I didn't think there were that many of them!!! I even like catching them. It was a real nice day out there. I am greatful for the help!

[Seaclusion]

We had something take our one bait and was making the reel scream. It was an spinning setup with 30# mono. it would run 100+' then stop then change direction and run 100+ more feet. i would not be able to get the boat going in time to do anything so we tightened the drag, then tightened it the rest of the way. When the reel was almost spooled the line broke somewhere above the swivel. No idea what it was but it was big. My buddy caught 20-25# stripers on this rig earlier this year without any problem.

[leedz49]

cow nosed ray. They were all over the place this weekend.

[fishypete]

cow nosed ray. They were all over the place this weekend.

I agree. They're all over the past week. Big suckers.

[fathead]

Well here's our report from this last Sunday.
Started down the beach where we left them biting last Sat.
First two hits were keepers! It didn't stay that hot though.
We lost the wind around 10:00. We finished the day catching three big fish one after another 2 23"s and a 25 1/2 that the capatain caught to bag his first limit. All in all we got 14 keepers between four of us. Fished 7:00 am til 4:30 pm. Wind came back around 2pm and made all the difference. We saw the big rays in the waves too. Glad we didn't hook any. Ton of shorts, enough dogs and skates. Some robins too.