The Jersey Shore is fishing a solid summer mix this week. Fluke have set up on the bays, inlets, and nearshore lumps, and holdover and migrating stripers are still available in the surf and the back bays on the low-light tides.
What’s Hitting
Fluke are the summer staple, stacked in the bays, inlets, and on the nearshore reefs and lumps. Striped bass are working the surf and the back bays at first and last light. Bluefish are around chasing bait, and sea bass are on the nearshore wrecks and reef sites.
Where to Find Them
Drift the bay channels, inlet edges, and nearshore lumps for fluke. Stripers hold in the surf troughs and along the back-bay structure at low light. Sea bass and blues work the nearshore reefs and wrecks. The reef sites off Manasquan and Barnegat are producing.
Tides & Conditions
Water has warmed into the upper 60s to low 70s. Moving tide drifts your bait across the fluke — plan around the incoming or outgoing, not slack. Stripers feed best in the surf at dawn and dusk. Calm mornings give the cleanest water for the nearshore drift. Spearing, bay anchovies, and small squid are thick through the bays and along the beaches, and the fluke set up along the channel edges and lumps to ambush that bait as the tide moves it. On the reef sites, a hi-lo rig tipped with squid keeps the sea bass and porgies feeding through the drift.
Tackle & Tactics
For fluke, drift a bucktail tipped with Gulp or a minnow-and-squid strip on a fluke rig, adding weight to hold bottom in the current. Surf stripers eat clams, bunker chunks, and swimming plugs at low light. Sea bass hit squid and clam on a hi-lo rig over the wrecks.
Local Intel This Week
The Belmar Marina ramp and Fisherman’s Cove in Manasquan serve the northern shore, with the Leonardo State Marina covering Raritan Bay. Fluke are concentrating in the inlets and nearshore lumps, stripers in the surf troughs at low light. Always check current FWC/state and federal regulations and open seasons before keeping any fish — bag and size limits change through the summer.
This Week’s Tip
For doormat fluke, keep experimenting with drift speed — deploy a drift sock if the wind pushes you too fast, or add a bit of scented Gulp trailer to slow, tide-only drifts. The biggest flounder want a bait moving at a specific, deliberate pace along the bottom, and controlling that drift is the whole game.