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Common Questions
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 WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, AND HOW?
We list here the most common questions we are asked. If you have a question that we have not answered, please feel free to drop us an e-mail.
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Kingfish
Kingfish
 Q - What is the best bait to use for Kingfish?
A - Blood worms or Fish Bites Bag of Worms ( fake bait ) are the best bait. You can also use cut clams for them some times they will take squid or even small pieces of Mackerel. The bait should be bite size, if they are too large the fish tend to shy away from it. They like M&M pieces.
Q - How do you fish for them?
A - You use a small hook , personal favorite of mine is a #2 circle hook , either a double hook rig with or without small floats or a single hook the same way. Use a round sinker usually heavy enough to cast but light enough to feel the light hit. Retrieve it in slowly. They like movement.
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Summer Flounder
Summer Flounder
 Q - What are the basic baits to use for Fluke fishing?
A - The basic baits are Peanut Bunker, cut mullet, cut bunker, mackerel and then the usual squid, spearing on the beach. They also use sand eels, live minnows (killies)along with all of the mentioned above.
Q - How far should you cast to catch Fluke?
A - Cast in close to the beach and retrieve in slowly using a round sinker. You want to simulate drifting.
Q - On a boat what is the depth of water you need to find them?
A - That depends on the fish. In the inlets you just start drifting along the channel edges (never in the channel unless you want to get run over) and hope for the best.
Out in the ocean you start close to the beach then work yourself out if nothing is going on.
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Lead Heads/Jig Heads
Lead Heads/Jig Heads
LEADHEADS, JIG HEADS, SOFT PLASTICS AND REAL STUFF
Known by many names the lead head, bucktail, jig head anything you want to call it is a hunk of lead molded to a hook and then painted and or deer tail tied on to it. It is the only weight you will need. On its hook you attach a plastic worm, grub-head, twister tails, fin-s fish and countless other manufactured products along with sheddar crab, grass shrimp, sand worms, and squid strips(salted and soaked in sheddar oil) to attract you, but especially the weakfish. The weakfish is a school fish, meaning they will travel in groups. If you find one you will have found a bunch (school). That's the problem, finding them. The best way is to first start with a local chart and knowing that the weakfish like a sand bottom 4 to 6 feet deep, like the area around inter coastal bouy # 42 off of main land Barnegat and Tices Shoals off Waretown and the power plant. Even on these flat areas there are holes or gullies that will hold fish and most of all the grass on these flats hold grass shrimp, a favoriate food for weakfish. If you determine the direction that you will drift by observing the tide flow and wind speed, lay your offerings over the side and pay out line maybe thirty feet to start. At this point a lot of factors enter into the picture.
First - one is weight of the jig head
Second - diameter of line
Third - speed of drift.
The best situation is when you dip your rod tip down, you feel the bottom, return to normal position and you should be gliding off the bottom, above the grass. If nothing happens don't repeat the same drift but move over and try again. Have close at hand some sort of marker to put over to mark a fish or hit, so you can repeat that drift. On these drifts you should have a variety of attractions, a piece of sheddar crab, strips of squid (salted and soaked in sheddar oil), sand worms or the soft plastic lures that can be put on a small 3/8 or 1/4 ounce bucktail. When you are drifting slow or at anchor over a hole or gully you have no idea at what depth the fish are at so here again you have to find them. To do this make your longest cast. As the lure hits the water start your slow steady retrieve. Your lure will travel from the surface to its deepest point half way back and to the surface again back to your boat. If you get fish half-way back they are deep and shallow if at start or finish of your retrieve so on your next cast let your jig sink some before you start and that will give you more time in the deep. When you try to decide what weight jig head to use at any condition you have to refer back to the three points mentioned before. As far as color goes this can vary according to brightness of day and color of the water. Keep changing combinations while still and a variety while drifting. As you can well imagine there are a lot of methods that can be used in addition to chumming with grass shrimp or a chum pot filled with clam chum, which works for a lot of folks. This artificial lure fish'n is good if your time is limited but best for finding your own fish, away from the crowds. So study your charts and start looking and keep those markers handy in case you run over some bottom structure you want to find again. As far as tackle goes, stay light. For ease of casting light baits and using 6 pound or 8 pound test line makes it easy. Never set hooks because that's how weakfish got their name. The mouth bones are not connected and tear outs are real easy. Use a net to land-em. Stay away from those that are shrimp-chumming you will not catch the fish they are. Move off and find your own and maybe with luck others will give you the same consideration and not crowd you out. Every two weeks or moon phase we get a new influx of fish. Weakfish will spawn any time between June and October, so different families arrive at different times to make little weakfish. This explains the changes in size of fish through out the summer. So to sum it all up the only way to do it wrong, is to not put your hook in the water.
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Sheddar Crabs/Grass Shrimp
Sheddar Crabs/Grass Shrimp
 FISHING METHODS
SHEDDER CRABS and GRASS SHRIMP
If you are a non-boater the public docks on the mainland and Long Beach Island are good places for weakfish from dusk to dawn on drifted shedder crab pieces on the # 1/0 or 2/0 hook hung under a slip bobber about 36" up. Jig heads and artificial worms will work good also.
If you are a boater the methods mentioned above will produce but you have to be in deeper water. Channel edges and deep holes will be your target area and early or late in the day so boat traffice will be less.
Sheddar crabs are prime bait but most inexperienced anglers shy away from them because of the cost. If the crab is used properly you get a least 10 to 16 baits from each one. That's half the price of a dozen sand worms, if this is new to you stop around to your bait shop and they will show you how.
Live grass shrimp is maybe the most popular method. The hardest job some times is finding a place to buy them. When you find them alive they are easy enough to transport even if you fish the middle or south end of the bay.
A medium sized cooler with 2-3 inches of ice on the bottom and covered with wet newspaper continued up the sides will hold your bait well enough. Once you are quietly anchored up (no anchor chains and lowered not thrown) proceed to start chumming up your slick by throwing 5 or 6 shrimp over about every thirty seconds to start. When you start catching don't forget to keep the slick going or you will have to start all over again.
Tackle for these fish is very light and 6 pound test is not out of the question. Attach your number 1/0 or 2/0 bait holder (92641) hook directly to your line next cut the line about two feet above the hook and tie on a number 10 black barrel swivel. This will be all the weight you will probably need and will help keep twists out of your line.
Take 2 or 3 shrimp and stick them on the hook and pass over the side, strip line out so that your bait moves at the same speed and level as the shrimp chum. If nothing takes your offering reel back in (this is where the line twists come in) and start over again. When a fish takes your bait the line will move fast, Engage your reel and lift your rod tip (don't yank on it) land your fish and while all this is going on don't forget to keep the chum slick going.
Now when you have fish in your chum slick you can use other baits, live small minnows or here again a piece of crab, bloodworms or sandworms on the same drift back method or suspended under a float.
The best way to learn and understand all about this is to con your way on an experienced anglers boat by offering to buy the bait, it may work. Or as some of us busy guys do it, any street light or well lit street end is fair game to a jig and worm.
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Weakfish
Weakfish
 Q - What is the best bait to use to catch Weakfish?
A - The main baits are blood worms, sand worms, lead heads with fish-s fish (plastic worms) and squid.
Q - What would be the best way to catch them?
A - Casting in close and with a slow retrieve.
when using bait use a round sinker and a slow retrieve.
Q - Are grass shrimp a good bait to use.
A - Yes they are. You can use them fresh or frozen. As a bait and also as your chum.
Q - Can you use shedder crabs?
A - Yes shedder crabs are a very good bait but a lot of people will not buy them because of the cost. If cut properly you can get 10 or more bait out of one crab.
We have sheets printed telling you how to fish these baits. Stop in and ask for them and we will be glad to help out.
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Bluefish
Bluefish
 Q - What would be the best bait to use for Bluefish?
A - Some blues are caught on Mullet, Mackerel, Bunker, Herring, Squid, Clam, Sand Eels, Worms. As you can tell by now Bluefish are not fussy with what they eat. You would cut these baits into bite size baits about 1 to 2 inches long about an inch wide.
Q - What type of rigging would you use. Make sure the rig is made of wire leader with a float of your choice of color. The wire leader will protect your investment of the rig plus the bait. Use a pyramid type sinker and the weight would depend on the length of the Rod and Weight line you have on the reel.
Q - Can you use artificial lures?
A - If the blues are in thick by all means. A Kastmaster, Hopkins, Ava-Jigs, or anything shiny. They will also go after any type of popping plug or swimming plug. Just remember when using an artifial plug or lure use a wire leader in front of it so that you can protect your investment of those expensive lures. The length of the leader would be from 6 inches to 18 inches. No longer that 18 because you could get it caught in the tip of your pole and break it. The leader is not just for the one you have on but also for the other fish that it is swimming with. They can cut you off just a well.
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Striped Bass
Striped Bass
 Q - When do Striped Bass start to make an appearance?
A - The bigger ones usually show when they start to make their migration to the north for the summer which starts usually the end of May. Then in the fall they start with the full moon in October to the full moon in November to make their way home for the winter months. We have a resident population that hangs around for the full year. They are all the males and the young females that are not ready to start a family. Only the females do the migration.
Q - What would be the bait of choice today?
A - You could use blood worms, sand worms, bunker (fresh or fresh frozen) cut salt bunker and clams. With the bunker you can cut it into bite size pieces using a pompano rig, regular float rig with or without a float along with a pyramid sinker. You can also steak it like a salmon steak. Use about a 8/0 or 9/0 hook along with a fish finder and a pyramid sinker. The circle hooks are becoming popular with them. You put your rod in a sand spike and sit down to relax, you must let the fish hook himself or else you will loose him (her).
Q - Are eels a good bait if so how would you fish them?
A - Eels are a favorite of many fisherpersons. There are a couple of ways to hook them. One is 1 1/2 inches from the tip of the tail with about a 5/0 hook and put a fish finder on the line before any thing else. Be careful not to hit the spine. Cast it out carefully and let the eel do the work for you. Another way is in the head either under the jaw out the eye or in the back of the head. But the tail is the most popular because he will not curl up the line.
Q - Could you use artificial lures for Bass?
A - The swimming plugs are a popular one to use such as the bomber, which you retreive in ever so slowly and if you think you are going slow enough go slower, red fins are also a slow retrieve, needle fish have an action all of their own. They are retreived in a slow jerky motion just like they swim. You can use metal lures, they are retrieved slow on the bottom of the ocean, with a jerk motion to smiulate a sand eel coming out of the sand. Some times they will go after it if you skip it across the top of the water when you are fishing for the blues.
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