Kayak Fishing Report for Raritan Bay New Jersey 5-24-14

Kayak fishing Raritan Bay New Jersey for Striped Bass Bluefish and Fluke (Summer Founder)

Arrived at the drop in at 5 am. Did not stop for any bait as best bets there would be bunker plenty available. Water temps 60 degrees outgoing tide had just started. Water was muddy as there were heavy thunder storms the night before. There was actually an entire tree trunk floating.

Started Trolling with Diawa SP Minnow. No luck no bunker. Trolled for 2.5 hours. Decided to switch for Fluke.

First drift had a few hits. Maybe Sea Robins or Fluke that were just mouthing bait.

Made around 15 drifts with no hook ups. Wind was against tide and strong. A bit chilly intil around 9am. Finally spotted bunker. Small schools boats kept crashing the schools. I was able to snag one.

Rigged the bunker for live line set up. Drifted across reach channel . Had a hit on the bunker then no more. Reeled up only the head was left.

Dropped back down and hooked up a bluefish that eventually sawed my hook off the leader. By now the sun was out strong and the wind was pretty straight out of the north. Spotting bunker was almost impossible.  Decided to troll and ended up landing a nice bluefish 30”. Lost my SP minnow and a few other lures.

Called it a day at 2:00 PM just after slack low tide.

Striped Bass in thinking are mostly up the river spawning. Few reports of them on the radio. A little early for fluke in the back of the bay. Maybe by this weekend.

Another J-Bay Kayak Classic in the history books! As always a different story to go with the event. Weather good and bad. Broken gear and decent fishing!

As my previous post stated, the weather wasn’t predicted to be fish able Thurs night into early Saturday morning as a slow moving but very strong storm system was predicted to pass through the area. Thought about staying home Thursday night and leaving very early Friday morning to beat the traffic. I was unsure of what the weather would be like so the decision was made as soon as 5:30 came and work was done a day early for the week. Finished my packing and left the house a little after 8:00 PM to arrive at Floyd Bennett Field by 9:00. It was too windy for night fishing so a few brews and a little catch up and sleep for the morning.

Friday:

Around 7am it was still very windy. We hung out for the morning and awaited the captains meeting at 11 AM. After the rules were explained it was decided the tournament is to be postponed until 5AM Saturday morning. The video shows the morning before the captains meeting.

A group of us went fishing anyway. It was quite windy at least 10-15 with 20-25 mph gusts. Mill Basin was the only place sheltered from the direction of the wind. It seemed like a good spot for fishing. The area was loaded with bunker. Using 1 oz a weighted treble hook snag the bunker. Then reel it in and hook it up on a live line setup.

A live line setup consists of a Heavy rod be it a jigging rod or just good 7 foot 4-8oz rod. I use a custom 7′ heavy rod with a Abu Garcia 7000 C3 reel spooled with 65lb Power Pro spectra Braid  Terminal tackle consists of a 9/0-10/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook with 50-60 lb mono or fluoro carbon leader a barrel swivel. For weight you can use a nylon slide on the main line with 12-16″ leader extension for a bank sinker or use an inline egg sinker with a bead at the swivel side.

For snagging bunker for bait. I use a Medium Heavy spinning rod with a Quantum Boca 40PT series reel. Also a 60lb fluorocarbon leader is tied on uni to uni. You may use a wire leader after that before the weighted treble hook. Just in case a bluefish inhales the bait you just snagged. Added protection against blues biting through your fluoro leader.

Fishing for me was uneventful after fishing the area being blown around for 3 hours. A few of us made the decision to get off the water. What a great decision it was. Not even 20 mins later the wind was intensified to easily sustained at 30 mph. Back at camp/tournament headquarters portable toilets were being blown over. Tents and shelters were knocked down and tables and chairs from the event tent were thrown over.

The weather ended the day and eventually cleared up around 11:30 PM after down pouring for about 2 hours.

Saturday:

Up at 4:00 am and getting ready for 5 AM tournament start. Trucked the BIg Rig Down to the launch. After Broke my cart I then broke my pliers. Realized i did not have enough rod leashes with tme so i ended up making 2 more. On the water about 3/4 mile from the launch first hook up trolling a Spro BBZ1 Thought it was a Striper at first turned out to be a 32″ bluefish. Thats a nice fish. Measured him for the tournament and released him alive. Caught 4 more around the same size one  20 inches. No bass. Was looking for schools of bunker but dud not see any. The amount of freshwater probably pushed the bait down.

Went back to the launch to get my net for fluke fishing. fluke fished for about 30 min wind against tide. Couldn’t even buy a hit.

After coming back to the launch a second time I noticed 2 police cutters and a helicopter. Looked like they were searching for something. Turned out they were just training. It was pretty cool watching them maneuver and pickup the divers.

After that i went back out for picking up winds against the tide. It got rough out there so i headed in.

A few hours later gave it another shot for Fluke this time paddling the Cuda 14. It was still rough out there and wind against the tide. Gave it about an hour and gave up with no Fluke being caught.

Sunday:

Sunday was a hard day to find fish. I was looking for fluke most of the day. Was able to hook up a few decent sized bluefish. Fluke were not easily found again. Off the water around 12 pm and loaded up just in time for the awards and lunch. Jackson Kayak donated a Big Rig for raffle which was really cool!  There were four other boats for the raffle too. The winners received a nice plaque with the chart of j-bay and the 4 targeted fish painted on it.

To the right were the results of the tournament. Brian Pickard was in our group and won 3rd place Grand Slam! Grand slam is 3 largest combined fish consisting of a Striped Bass plus Fluke Bluefish or Weakfish.

If you have never fished Jamaica Bay its a great place to fish. It is very kayak friendly and holds many migratory fish. I look forward to seeing everyone there next year!!

One of the largest tournaments on my schedule is the Jamaica Bay Kayak Fishing Classic Tournament. Located in Brooklyn NYC the event draws around 300 anglers from as far as Toronto. The main fish targeted are Striped Bass Weakfish Blue Fish and added last year Fluke ( Summer Founder).

This year is a new one in the chapter for myself. I am registered in the electric division. A division I never thought I would compete in. It is a challenge to fish the electric division from the mere fact that there is no electricity at the camping area. The only power available is from gas generators.

Unfortunately this year it doesn’t look like the weather is going to cooperate.

Wind and rain for Friday. I have a feeling the committee may officially postpone the start of the tournament till Saturday morning.

Saturday looks good so far!

I am bringing both the Jackson Kayak Big Rig with the Troqeedo and the Jackson Kayak Cuda 14. The Cuda is more manageable with my current kayak cart. Just in case I want to drop in near JFK Airport at Grassy Bay off the Cross Bay Boulevard. Theres a beach there that’s a long haul for the big rig on a cart on sand. The drop in where the tournament headquarters is at Floyd Bennett field is easy due to it being a huge sea plane ramp. Its very Big Rig friendly!

Looking forward to camping and hanging out with fellow fishing buddy’s long term and new. Of course cant forget the food!! If  your going stop by and say hello. Have a bite to eat drink a beer and trade some fishing stories.

As I write this my buddies are there prefishing. Wish I was there right now!!!