The Klondike - The Fisherman

The Klondike

2018 2 The Klondike
Chart photo courtesy of Navionics & the Navionics Boating App.

Roughly 5-1/2 miles off the coast between Manasquan and Shark River inlets, the Klondike (40 08.956/73 54.565) is an easily accessible, bottom fisherman friendly paradise. Rumor has it that its name was spawned from finding a “gold mine” of how many fish it always produced in the old days.

The basic substrata of the Klondike is a hardened sandstone clay from the past ice age era that has cemented itself now as porous rock. Structure consists of various mussel beds that have been bolstered by the addition of plenty of dump rock and drops of barges filled with boulders. Depths span quite prominently in the semi-small area ranging from 46 to 80 feet, providing plenty of nooks and crannies for bottom fish to move around on and settle into.

Depending on how cold the water actually dips to during winter months, there’s always a chance that ling or codfish have stuck around, giving anglers a good shot at loading a cooler into March. During the spring thaw, blackfish hounds can intercept tog on their move back to inshore waters, especially during April and early May as the tog settle into the rocks.

Bottom bouncers get a real bang for their buck here, especially during the summer months when a variety of summer fun species prowl about the area including black sea bass, fluke, and porgies. Black sea bass fishing is tops in the heat of the summer as the tenacious predators congregate around the higher portions of the spilled rock patches. Small clam bits will hang them by the dozen.

Fluke anglers find that larger 4- to 8-pound fish tend to congregate between rock piles during the latter part of the season. Look to target the 65- to 80-foot depths in late August and onward to target doormat caliber fluke with large bucktails and long strips of bluefish, mackerel or fluke ribbons. Drift over the sharp ledges and through the holes as fluke tend to hang on the slopes and between rock piles. Porgies will colonize the area into the fall, with some true ‘chops over the 12-inch size hitting small clam bits on size #1 baitholder hooks. The lower lying rocks will hold porgies well.

Come June through September, bluefishing boats will hover over the area during daytime jigging trips for 5- to 10-pound choppers and will switch up to chunk bunker and butterfish for the blues during the summer night shifts. When tropical water temps pushing 80 degrees sit in the area during late summer and early fall, pelagic speedsters such as Spanish macks, false albies, bonito and even chicken mahi will cruise over the structure, zipping around to gobble up spearing, rainfish and peanut bunker schools. Troll small feathers, 00 Clark Spoons and squid skirts over the area at a 5- to 7-knot pace.

Come late fall, look for schools of slammer blues to hang around the area – some real Dream Boat possibilities too – providing run and gun fun casting topwater poppers to the crashing schools.

The Klondike never disappoints. Put it on your hit list this season to bag a bunch of great eating species practically the year-round.

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