"It's time to join us on the beach or in the backwaters for some good fishing," said Bob Matthews at the Fisherman's Den. The blackfishing in Shark River has been great. Anthony Petillo of Manasquan had a 5-pounder and his friend Jack Kruger from Neptune had a 4-pound, 9-ounce whitechin in the inlet. The bite is fast and furious with many shorts and some good fish mixed in. Our for-hire boats have been doing terrific with bluefish and albacore, while the bottom boats are getting their one tog per angler and porgies. The surf is seeing an up tic in short bass action while the rivers are loaded with small bass along with some keepers mixed in. "The bait in the rivers has thinned out, so the surf should heat up as the baitfish move into the wash," Bob said.

"Just about no one fished until the Friday," lamented Bob Matthews over at the Fisherman's Den. Bob said this year has seen some of the worst weather for fishermen that he has ever seen and this past week was some of the worst. Fishing slowly started coming back to life on Friday and was decent over the weekend. Bottom fishing boats sailing out of Belmar found some tough fishing over the weekend, however bluefish boats got into some good numbers of blues to 5 pounds along with some bonito, albies and mackerel. Blackfishing has been good off the jetties at the inlet and in the Point Pleasant Canal. Bluefish and albies have been moving in and out of the inlet and striped bass fishing has been good in the evenings. "Hopefully this week's predicted good weather will materialize and we will finally get in a solid week of fishing," Bob said.

Bob at Fisherman's Den said this year's fluke season was good or bad - depending upon of course who you ask! Except maybe if you ask the guy who caught the store's top weigh-in for 2018, a massive a 13-pound, 3-pounce doormat. Bob said late season fluke fishing on the party boats saw plenty of three fish limits an as of this report blues are all over the beaches, inlet and along the inshore waters. False albacore are also popping up in local waters too. There are plenty of small bass in the rivers and surf hitting poppers, swimmers and minnow type plugs, and Bob said mullet have stated to move down the beaches with the bass and blues hot on their tails. Weakfish are hitting live peanuts in Shark River too.

With the season winding down for fluke, some nice fish are coming to the scale on a daily basis according to Bob Matthews at the Fisherman's Den. Ryan Sherwood took a pool on the Mohawk with a 9-34-pound fluke. Myra and Harris Reevey topped a good pick of flatties with a pair of 5-12 and 5-34 pound fish from Shark River. Bob also mentioned that small blues and even some mahi have invaded the river and surrounding beaches. In addition the offshore fleet has been doing great with tuna and mahi. Surf fishermen are waiting for the hordes of baitfish to start moving out of the rivers and bays and start the fall striper and bluefish runs. Hopefully tropical storms won't start moving through at the same time.