The Scotts Bait and Tackle Weekly Bulletin

The Scott's Bait & Tackle Weekly Bulletin

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Scott's Bait & Tackle Weekly Bulletin for Thursday, July 16, 1998

A difficult weekend of catching is ahead. However, that will make a real relaxing day of fishing, very little tidying of the boat, and no cleaning the fish in the green flies and yellow jackets. You know how it goes "a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work"! If you stay home, you might end up taking a ride to Hamilton Mall and spend money on things that your wife thinks are pretty only to listen to her complain about dusting them six month from now. Either that, or you'll buy more tools for projects that you never quite get around to doing. SO, GO FISH!

Back bay and inshore Bluefish are pretty scarce. Occasionally, a Bluefish is caught in the Great Bay. A few have been caught off Graveling Point at the high tide by anglers fishing Mackerel strips on float rigs. Now and then, there is a Bluefish caught on a squid and minnow baited Fluke rig by anglers fishing in Grassy Channel. There really isn't any

good direction to point the anglers toward in search of local Bluefish. If you don't mind the

run offshore, the Barnegat South Ridge has heated up again. This location has been the

only sure area for good action. Barnegat South Ridge: 26775 & 43205...25 mi. ENE of

the Little Egg Bell Buoy. Bait fishing with Mackerel and large quantities of Bunker chum

are necessary there for good steady Bluefish action.

Snappers have shown up in the lagoons the last few days. Most of the fish are 6" or

smaller. Best way to catch the Snapper Bluefish is by using a small hook with a little piece

of Spearing or little Minnows for bait. Fish the surface with a plastic float on the line about

18" above the hook. Casting and retrieving a Minnow also works well. Beware, larger

Weakfish and small Stripers up to 20" were caught in lagoons in the past few weeks.

These not so weak fish will pull small unattended Snapper rods and reels into the water.

A couple of times this week, anglers caught Weakfish in the mouth of the Mullica

River. I know some of you have been there several times without even a bite. The fish are

there, they just have been real flaky. One angler reported seeing tons of the Weakfish on

his fish finder in a large black cloud of fish, but couldn't entice any to take a hook. That is

the way fishing has been these past few weeks. However, we continue to weigh in a few

Weakfish. Today, we saw more of them in the 2 pound bracket. Bloodworms and

Sandworms are the only available choice of live bait. Squid strips soaked in the shedder oil

scent worked on a bucktail lures, too.

What's the deal with the Shedder Crabs? There just aren't any, or not enough to go

around. The crabs shed on a cycle with the full moon. The full moon just passed and the crabs are out of their shed phase. The few bait crabs that the crabbers are getting are being

bought up by their own friends, or by bait shops that they run themselves. But you didn't

have crabs last week either? True, we were able to beg 5 dozen off one crab dealer and we

sold 1/2 of them last Thursday night and the rest sold out early on Friday. The very little

amount we were able to freeze went in a hurry, too. We haven't seen a crab since then. Another reason for the bait crab

shortage is the high food market price which the crabbers are able to get for their soft shell

crabs this season. It's getting to be pretty much the same story for the squid too.

Fluke are hard to figure out. The mouth of the Mullica River gave up a few fair size

keepers today. A couple of anglers were able to find Fluke on the ocean too. The area of

the red tower on the Southern most end of long Beach Island in 24 foot of water was the

spot for one angler. Another found Fluke in about 40 feet of water 1/2 way between Little

Egg Inlet and Atlantic City Inlet. Main Marsh Thorofare, from 145 marker buoy to 148

marker buoy worked well for both Fluke and Weakfish earlier in the week, but there is

competition between the grass and the green flies to see which one can chase you out of

there first.

A few of the recent Weigh-ins:

7/16 Jay Clifford Black Drumfish 6 lb.22" 5th Bridge on Great Bay Blvd.

7/15 Jack Reagan on "Queen'O'Mean" 1 lb. 15 oz 17" Fluke & 2 lb. 6 oz 20" Weakfish

7/13 Keith Youse and Andy Hunte on "Queen 'O' Mean" 1 lb. 13 oz 18" Weakfish &

3 lb. 2 oz 20" Fluke 139 Marker on Squid

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