Wednesday out of Squan

[Captain Ken W]

Pulled away from the dock a couple of minutes after five for the Businessman’s special. Heard good things south of the inlet so we banged a right, which unfortunately was right into about 15 to 18 kts straight out of the south. We found a lot of life but none of the right kind, no bunker, but lots of spearing and tons of monster size bluefish. With the hope that if the bait are there and the bluefish are there the stripers may me hanging out deep eating the scraps. We tried our best to get below the bluefish but only succeeded in hooking up more monster blues. After more blues then a care to count we tried heading north of the inlet and stopped on some nice marks off Spring Lake only to find more blues, even bigger then the ones down south. Good news is the brown tide is gone, water is pretty clean as a matter of fact.

[BetterEdThanDead]

Nice job Capt. hey look at the bright side, at least you weren't swimming with those piranah's!

[FinestKind]

I was there yesterday afternoon as well. Started out trolling around the Manotoloking pipe, nothing but big blues. Had to go down to one rod only, with two out and solo, it was non-stop. Lost 2 Stretch 25's to the yellow eyes before giving up on fresh striper meat for dinner.

Heading back toward Manasquan inlet, came upon ACRES of big blues working bait on the surface.
They were in 55 feet of water off Bay Head. Called in a fishing report for anyone interested, as there were no other boats in sight at the time.

Jigged up too many to count while trying to get below them for any stripers hanging down under the madness. Lost a butterfly jig and 2 diamond jigs and decided the tackle shop already made enough on me for the day.
Lookin back on it today, it was a lot of fun and worth every penny.

Len

[Ventura]

Good stuff. I got into that bluefish action off IBSP a few weeks back. First cast yielded a 34" 17 pound blue. Was afraid of falling in the water, they were so thick and bloodthirsty. This was on May 5th, and I don't ever remember such large and FAT bluefish that early in the season. They may not eat as well, but will outfight bass twice their size.

[lawofthesea]

Thanks for the reports gentlemen! I am also out of Squan and am hoping to get a trip in tomorrow. Was planning to run south but maybe have to rethink that. Will post if I get out.

[GlennSr.]

Hay Capt. Ken, thanks for the report. I was pretty worried about that brown tide crap. I'm glad to hear it moved on. I should be out tomorrow afternoon. I hear the bunker are still inside so I'll give her a go. I'll keep an eye to the west and hope the flashes stay north.

[Captain Ken W]

I got a real vague report yesterday that the Bass a there under the blues, we will be out tomorrow. :confused:

[MIWICH]

I was out wednesday also and had 5 bass to 40Lbs.Have to be down deep and wade your way through the Bluefish. I believe I saw you pass me Cap't Ken

[Wahoo-26]

I was out last thursday (5\21), left shark river at 3pm and headed north. We came across the brown tide about 2 miles south of the shrewsbury rocks and decided to troll the edge for a bit before running up to roamers shoal and start clamming. Good thing we did, the only two bass we caught were on the dark side of the line between clean and dirty water. We hooked a third but lost it. The two bass were 32 1/2" (12.5lbs) and 34 1/2" (18.5lbs). We managed only blues after that.

Brett

[shotnbeer]

Was out there sunday. 1 30lb bass and a truck load of blues. The piers were pretty hot in the am for bass. Will be out there this sat and sun if I can finish my auto pilot install. Mike

[FinestKind]

Fished the same area off Bay Head this morning on the Splinter with Capn' Bud...still LOADED with bait and big blues chasing rainfish and butterfish.

(The water is clean and ALIVE...while trolling earlier in the AM a bit further south, we saw a big school of Dolphin in 60 feet right around the Mantoloking pipe!)

If you can get down to the bottom with your jig without hooking up to a Blue (not easy to do during the blitz) there ARE Stripers there.
We got 2, one nice fat 30 pounder, and another smaller Striper. Boat next to us got a real nice 40 pounder also jigging under the Blues.

Boat traffic broke up the fun by mid morning...once the party boats found us, then all the other boats followed them...soon there were 30 boats in the area and the fun was over.

Len

[Blynch]

Hey all, i'm yet another out of squan (well, technically brick) it's grweat to hear the red tide went away. any surf reports from that area? I will be hotting the beaches this week as th Captain's out of town

[WreckinBall]

I got a real vague report yesterday that the Bass a there under the blues, we will be out tomorrow. :confused:

According to the party boat reports in your area, it seems they are catching real nice bass with the blues some days, and other days it's all bluefish. It just depends on the day.

[FinestKind]

According to the party boat reports in your area, it seems they are catching real nice bass with the blues some days, and other days it's all bluefish. It just depends on the day.

I think it's related to the type of bait the Blues are blitzing on. Wednesday when I was into the school of Blues, they were spitting up small rainfish bait when boated. The small bait they spit up was WHOLE FISH.
On that day, I couldn't buy a Striper.

Yesterday, when we boated the Blues, they were spitting up some whole rainfish, but also whole butterfish and PIECES of butterfish and PIECES of Bunker.
Yesterday, we boated a couple of nice Stripers by jigging under the Bluefish schools, and we saw MANY nice Stripers being boated all around us.

So, when the bait is so small that the Blues just swallow them whole, there is not much left over falling down to the bottom for the stripers to pick up on....but when the bait being mauled is larger, then the Blues chop them up and there are a lot of bait pieces falling down for those lazy Stripers to key in on.

Just a theory, but it makes sense to me...

Len