Tuckerton Bait and Tackle

Mike at Tuckerton Bait and Tackle reports that the local crabbing is “hot” right now. There are tons of crabs from the back bay creeks on out into the bay. The shallow creeds are seeing lots of small crabs while the slightly deeper waters are producing more keeper size crabs. The same has been true for flounder fishing with the shallow waters giving up all the shorts you care to catch, but keepers are being found in the deeper waters. Fishing the creeks and bay, customers are reporting anywhere from 30 to 50 fish per trip with “maybe” a keeper in the mix. There are plenty of other fish in the mix as well including croakers, spot, sea bass, and sharks. Mike is waiting for a good blowfish bite to materialize in the bay, but thus far there has only been a couple fish here and there.

Mike at Tuckerton Bait and Tackle tells us that there are short flounder “all over the place”. His customers are reporting 30 to 50 flounder per trip, and of those, just a couple make the 18-inch mark. The best bite has been on spearing and strip bait combos. The keepers have been quality fish in the 18- to 21-inch size range and are coming out of the deeper waters near Marshelder Channel, to marker 124 to the Stink House. Anglers fishing the inshore reef sites are seeing more keeper size fish, but more shorts have also recently taken up residence on these structures, so those anglers are also playing a lot of catch and release. The greater bay is filled with tiny sea bass, croakers, spot, tog and sheepshead. There are also plenty of brown sharks around, so many that anglers are “paying the taxman” if reeling in their flounder too slowly. Crabbing continues to be strong but the crabs are a bit deeper now as the shallow creek water temps are still soaring. Good crabbing spots this week have been off Parkertown Dock, and off of Dock Street where West Creek dumps into the Bay. This latter spot has also seen some very decent flounder catches earlier in the week.