Capt. Dave DeGennaro of the Hi Flier said they have been catching a crazy amount of stripers on 10-pound spinning outfits in the Barnegat Inlet. The fish are mostly schoolies and they are catching them chumming the water with grass shrimp. Also getting drawn into the chum slicks are blackfish, sea bass and some big porgies. Capt. Jack Shea of the Rambunctious said the great Barnegat Bay Fluke-a-thon continued this week. “The bottom of the bay is absolutely paved with fish right now, and if you time the tides properly the action is unbelievable,” he said. Capt. Steve Purul of Reel Fantasea said they hooked up with some 4- to 6-foot brown sharks in the Barnegat Bay this week. The sharks attacked live bergal baits almost instantly. They also saw a few weakfish in the mix, but not very many. The crew from the Miss Barnegat Light reports good catches of 1- to 3- pound blues. Anglers have been getting about 10 fish to a limit of these smaller sized fish. Fluke won all the pools this week on the Carolyn Ann III reports Jeff Bauer. Dennis Haney of Lumberton and Jim Reviello of Manahawkin tied for the big fish this week. Both anglers caught 5.7-pound fluke. Frank Camarda of the Miss Beach Haven reports the fluke fishing in the bay has been excellent most of the summer with tons of fish caught each day. Their biggest fish out of the bay this year so far is an 8.5-pound fluke. Outside the story has been different. The ocean fishing has been a struggle between the unstable water temperature and the poor conditions with no drift on most days. So far this year Pete from Philadelphia is leading their season long fluke pool with an 8 pounder. Captain Tim Knorr of the charter boat William Knorr had the John Donegan party out for a night chumming trip at the Barnegat Ridge for bluefish. At some point during the night’s fishing they hooked up with something that they knew was entirely too big to be a bluefish. When they finally got the fish to the boat and aboard, they discovered they had a 69-pound cobia.

Dan Radel