Get ready for fall run of big striped bass, bluefish

via PressOfAtlanticCity

There are more than a few signals that a fall run of heavyweight striped bass and slammer bluefish is about to bust loose.

Several 30-pounders and at least one 40-pound bass have been caught over the past few days, plus Long Beach Island had an attack of bluefish approaching 20 pounds in the surf.

Birds are working over bait fish all along the coastline. Mullet, bunker and herring are on the menu. The fish keeping them company are mostly small-to-medium bluefish.

Except over the weekend when blues weighing between 15 and 19 pounds moved into the surf at Ship Bottom, Beach Haven Terrace and elsewhere on Long Beach Island. The monster blues mostly were taking lures.

That's the third or fourth blitz of big blues on LBI over the past few weeks.

Matt Slobodjian at Jim's Tackle in Cape May reported that there was a striper invasion in the surf at Stone Harbor "as we speak" on Wednesday afternoon.

Plus, some of the pods of bait with birds over them have weakfish lurking underneath the blues.

The message is clear: Make sure to investigate the water under birds because stripers and weakfish might be mixed with the blues.

Striper fans will be excited to know that 40- and 39-pound striped bass were caught on LBI. Josh Falcone at Barnegat Light Bait and Tackle watched as Kevin Wong of Philadelphia hauled a 40-pound, 4-ounce bass up on the beach at Loveladies on Sunday.

That was the heaviest bass listed for the first week of the Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic.

Bob Misak Jr. of Waretown pulled in a 39-pound bass while fishing at Surf City on Monday.

Wreck Inlet north of Brigantine produced a 36½-pound striper for Jimmy Lynn. He was fishing for weakfish with mullet on 12-pound test line, according to Andy Grossman at RipTide Bait and Tackle in Brigantine. Grossman fished with Bob Paxson using live spot to catch stripers on the Atlantic City side of Absecon Inlet. RipTide weighed a 34½-pound bass Wednesday afternoon for Bill Farrell of Williamstown. He, too, was using live spot. Those fish were all caught from boats.

Big kingfish have been reported all along Absecon Island. Kingfish anglers are smacking them from the inlet in Atlantic City to Margate.

One-Stop Bait and Tackle in Atlantic weighed in two 2-pound kingfish this week. Richard Coles of Atlantic City took an early lead in the fourth week of the Atlantic County/Atlantic City Surf Fishing Derby with a 2-pound, 17½-inch kingfish. Noel Feliciano at One Stop weighed in another 2-pound king for a Philadelphian not in the contest.

Josh Sheffel of New Gretna caught a 2.02-pound kingfish in the third week of the Derby. Pat Cooke of Brigantine caught an 18.5-pound striper and Rick Daily of Absecon got a 4.5-pound tautog in the third week of the Derby. Gary Rzemyk of Ventnor caught a 7.8-pound weakfish.

The six-week Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic was dominated by bluefish in its first week. Sunday was amazing. The contest had 82 bluefish entries that day. The smallest fish entered was 9 pounds, 2 ounces and the heaviest was 17-2. Saturday's LBI haul was 44 fish.

Saturday's heaviest weighed 18-6 and was caught by Dave Lugo of Lawrenceville. The heaviest blue in the first week of the Classic went to Dennis Stepien of Marlton with a 19-pounder.

Offshore fishing is still hot. One example: Slobodjian was fishing with Tom Swider on the Salty Susan on an overnighter Monday to Tuesday at the east wall of the Wilmington Canyon and got into a variety of big-game fish.

They pulled in a 9-foot swordfish and three others they released, five tuna to 90 pounds, 15 mahi to 15 pounds, plus tilefish and a big ling.