Jumbo blues crash Jersey jetties as summer patterns shift into high gear

The Jersey Shore is absolutely on fire right now, and I'm telling you — this is what we wait all year for. The jumbo bluefish have finally returned to Monmouth County in a big way, and they're hitting everything from metals to live bunker with that savage aggression that makes your drag scream.

I've been working the jetties from Sandy Hook down to Manasquan, and the pattern is crystal clear. These aren't your typical snapper blues — we're talking 8 to 12-pound gorilla blues that are absolutely crushing bait in the inlet mouths and along the rock piles. The key has been fishing the outgoing tide right at sunset, when the current rips through the inlet and pushes bait out of the back bays. I'm throwing 2-ounce Hopkins Shorties in bunker chrome, and when you find the schools, it's game over.

The fluke bite has been steadily improving in the back bays, and that's exactly what I expected with water temperatures climbing into the upper 60s. Shark River has been particularly productive, especially on the incoming tide when those summer flounder are moving up from the deeper holes. I'm dragging 3/4-ounce bucktails tipped with 4-inch white Gulp Swimming Mullets along the channel edges in 12 to 15 feet of water. The fish are holding tight to structure — bridge pilings, channel drops, anywhere the current creates an ambush point.

What's really got me excited is the thresher shark action that's been building nearshore. These fish are following the bunker schools, and when you hook into a 200-pound thresher on 30-pound tackle, you better have your drag set right and plenty of backing. I've been seeing them most consistently in 40 to 60 feet of water, about 3 miles off the beach from Belmar to Point Pleasant.

The striped bass bite in Raritan Bay continues to be absolutely phenomenal. The bunker schools are thick as thieves in the back of the bay, and where you find bunker, you find bass. I'm talking about quality fish — 28 to 35-inch stripers that are fat and healthy. Live-lining peanut bunker on a simple fishfinder rig has been deadly, but you can also score on topwater plugs during the dawn and dusk bite when the fish are pushing bait to the surface.

Sea bass season is winding down — we lose the 10-fish bag limit on June 21st and drop to one fish through August — but right now the action is still hot on the inshore reefs. The Axel Carlson area has been producing consistent limits of quality fish over 14 inches. Drop a 4-ounce jig tipped with clam or squid strips, and work it slow along the bottom. The fish are stacked up in 35 to 50 feet of water.

Looking at the lunar calendar, we're approaching a new moon on Friday, which means big spring tides are coming. That's going to flush a lot of bait out of the inlets and really fire up the predator bite. I'm planning to hit the Manasquan inlet hard on the outgoing tide Friday evening — that's when the big blues and bass will be waiting in the rip to ambush anything getting swept out of the river.

The water clarity has been excellent, and with these stable weather patterns, I expect this bite to continue strong through the weekend. If you're planning to get out, focus on the inlet mouths during moving water, and don't overlook the back bay fluke action — those fish are there, you just need to put your time in and cover water until you find them.