Action picking up across Jersey

Activity certainly has picked up in the back bay waters of south Jersey and the reason is a huge influx of bait. Mainly these bait schools seem to be comprised of bunker and spearing or silversides, both irresistible fare for any predator fish.

From my home of the bay side of Ocean City, I have seen flocks of working gulls splashing the surface to pick up a morsel. AndWednesday there was the unmistakable smell of bunker in the air.

So, what is all this attracting? Well, we can begin with flounder because reports are almost universal that just about every back water area is holding the flatties. Then, we can add in striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, sea robins, blowfish and rod-breaking cow nosed rays, which if they don’t break your rod, easily can strip your reel clean of its line. More than one angler has been startled when one of these playful rays comes up next to the boat and lets out a snort.

The Grassy Sound Marina in North Wildwood held a small tournamentaweekago Saturday and Bob Hassell of Garnet Valley took one of the top youth awards and Sue Glammar of Aston took the top prize in the pier division.

While there are some stripers being caught during daylight hours, more success follows those fishing after dark with eels. Eels are not one of my personal bait favorites but there is no denying that they are about as effective as anything when it comes to catching bass.

In the surf there has been an erratic run of kingfish. One minute you can’t crank them in fast enough, then just as fast they are gone. It can be frustrating but at least some of the kingies are in the 16-inch range. A few stripers and sharks also are being reported in the suds.

It seems like it has taken a while but it appears the flounder finally have started turning up on the artificial reefs. You also should be able to find some sea bass and taug on the reefs. The sea bass season has reopened after a two week closure but now you are limited to just two fish.

In the past weektheWilmington Canyon has come alive. Up until thenthe southern canyons were providing the bulk of the offshore action. Bigeye, yellowfin and mahi have been providing the activity, but there is not much to report yet on billfish.

Awards were presented this past Sunday for the winners of the Ladies Invitational Bluefish Tournament, which now also includes other species, including flounder and tuna. The largest of the tuna family fish weighed in was 65.52-pounds. The largest bluefish was 14.2-pounds and the biggest flounder was 7.3-pounds. All proceeds from this event went to the AtlantiCare Mammography and Diagnostic Assistance Fund which serves uninsured or underinsured women at no cost. This year’s award to the fund was $20.000.

There was an interesting happening off Absecon Island last week when a Longport based boat had a very young great white shark swim up. Thankfully, those aboard made no effort to hook or disturb the baby but they did take some neat pictures of what probably will be a once-in-a-lifetime event. There was no sign of momma great white.

Crabbing just keeps getting better and better. The popular spot under Ocean City’s 34th Street Bridge still is littered with construction equipment but the small finger pier into the waterway remains and it has been jammed with crabbers.

There are plenty of flounder around to keep anglers happy. You can find them at the usual spots, including Old Grounds, Sites 10 and 11, Massey’s Ditch and B buoy. Some of the piers also have been productive.

In the surf there seems to be good activity on kingfish, weakies or trout, ling, blues, skates and sharks, including an occasional tiger. The Ocean City beach is providing some big sharks in the middle of the night.

The Route 50 Bridge, always a hot spot, is giving up blues, small stripers and shad. Keeper sized stripers are being caught at night under the bridge lights using swimming shad lures. Near the Misspillion Inlet, a sextet of anglers reported they boated 60 weakies, although the vast number were undersized. Still, that is a lot of action.

Offshore of Delaware and Maryland all four of the main canyons are summer hot. I already mentioned the Wilmington in the Jersey portion of this report and the Baltimore, Washington and Norfolk deeps continue producing fish for the big boats. The story revolves mainly around yellowfin, bigeye and mahi but there now are a couple of white marlin and wahoo joining the fray. The biggest of the bigeye I could find was a scale bending 265-pounds.

This certainly is looking like it is going to be a great year for blue claw crabs, both in the Delmarva and in New Jersey. A very competitive invitation only crabbing contest was held last weekend in Somers Point, NJ and it brought crabbers from all over the east coast. I’m not sure how you determine the winner of a crab tournament but it sounds like a lot of fun and I understand the crab boil at the end of the day is heaven for crab lovers.