Fishing in Great Bay has still been good for many anglers again this week. A combination of Weakfish, 1/2 pound Bluefish and Kingfish are the best targets for anglers who want activity. Tog fishing really has not taken off yet and the Fluke have taken off right on out into the ocean.

Back in the lagoons, there has been an excellent showing of baby bunkers. A lot of people see them swimming in the lagoons in the evening after the wind calms down. The schools of bunker swim up and down the lagoons making ripples and splashes. They can not be caught on ordinary bait and hooks, because they only feed on micro-organisms. If you want to catch a batch of bunkers, a cast net is the trick. You hover waiting for a school of fish to pass by and you throw the net over the school. Live bunkers make an excellent bait for large ocean Fluke, Weakfish and Bluefish as well as our favorite fall fish, Striped Bass. The best way to keep bunkers alive is to only catch them just before you are going fishing and keep only a few fish in a five gallon pail. If you get greedy and take too many, you end up with all dead fish. Bunker are pretty fragile and will beat them selves to death in a few days even in the best live well.

The bay has Weakfish scattered all over it. Some anglers are reporting catching them while catching Kingfish in Grassy Channel and other anglers are targeting them in the mouth of the Mullica River. The area from the mouth of Big Creek to the entrance of Osborne Island--which is right next to Pebble Beach--has had some pretty good fishing too. Bloodworms and Sandworms are the choice baits when no Shedder Crabs are available. Drift small hook bait rigs with 1 ounce of weight while jigging FinS Fish lures on another pole. Some anglers are still catching the Weakfish with bucktails baited with Squid strips that were soaked in Shedder oil.

Fluke fishing on the ocean is still "good". However, after being spoiled the past few weeks, a lot of anglers still expect to get out there and get their limits in 2 hours. Well, conditions have toughened up. There has been reports about the draggers, but it could be that the Fluke have just thinned out. Several surf anglers on Long Beach Island mentioned that they caught 3 to 5 Fluke right from the beach. Maybe deeper water isn't the answer this weekend. Take a few drifts in the shallower water (18 to 20 feet) along the beach. You may be surprised with some nice Fluke as well as the possibility of a school of good sized Weakfish.

Crabbing still isn't good. Finally, my lagoon is producing small crabs again. It was amazing to see the trap go from 10 to 15 five plus inch sized crabs a day to one so-so keeper sized crab a day. It got to the point that we dry docked the trap. A crabber reported to me in the middle of the week that he had a good catch in the back creeks between Mystic Island and Great bay. He said that the best crabbing was on the incoming tide.