Bay Bluefish by Dave Spendiff

Posted on May 16, 2019 by kelli

I left the dock around 6:20 this morning and headed for Manahawkin bay where I started the troll for bluefish with a Tony Aceta spoon and a Yellow Bomber Magnum A. l trolled north past Main Point as far as I could go before the water became too shallow, picked up and motored to the “limestone” channel just west of Sandy Island. Marked a bunch of fish, but was only able to entice only one small “cocktail” bluefish on the swimming plug. Went back to Manahawkin bay and trolled endlessly without a touch. Hours had passed, so I decided to finish out the trip by trolling over to the bridges near Ship Bottom and try plugging for schoolie stripers. As I entered the channel off of the ICW leading to the bridges a rod went down resulting in a 9.2lb bluefish being landed. Over the next 2 hours I was able to pick up 10 more, much smaller, blues before calling it a day. Lagoon and bay water temps were 50 degrees when I started and 58 going home at 2 pm. No telling where they will be tomorrow, but they are in the bay, so just go out and find them.

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Fishing Facts

Of the fifty United States, thirty-eight have a striped-bass record. New Jersey has the largest striped-bass record—a 78-pound 8·ounce whopper that was caught in 1982. The state with the smallest striped-bass record is Iowa. That landlocked striper weighed only 9 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in 1983.

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