Island Beach, Trying for Bluefish, Striped Bass, and Fluke

We fished Island Beach State Park, Fisherman's Wharf, which the half of the wooden walkway is wiped out from Sandy and not replaced. Reports of bass thin, I only bought fresh bunker in addition to a pint of live killies.

The surf fairly light looked real good for fluke, but I didn't get a hit. I even put a killie out on my eight-foot Tica with a two-ounce sinker. Otherwise, I used a heavy split shot like I usually do in the surf with my medium-power freshwater St. Croix. So long as the surf is light enough, that's usually all it takes to catch some fluke.

Wind shifted from out of the south to out of the west, and with it came biting flies. That's when I decided we would leave early. All we caught was a sting ray of about 18 inches in diameter, the rounded kind. That's the first we've hooked in New Jersey. My son hooked a southern sting ray of about 100 pounds at Avon Pier, North Carolina.

We used to catch a lot of stripers as late as June 22nd. In recent years, they just don't seem to be around as they were six years ago.