Fluke wake up in Raritan Bay while bunker stay scarce and stripers go nocturnal

Alright, let's talk about last week first because it explains everything happening right now. We came off some sloppy tides in mid-June with a stubborn west wind that knocked the surface temp down a couple degrees right when everybody thought we were locked into summer warmth. That cooler push actually helped — it slowed down the greenhead exodus that usually clears the fluke out of the back bays by now, and it's why guys are still finding keeper flatties in Raritan Bay and the Shark River instead of having to run straight to the reefs. Now we're heading into a stretch of longer, calmer days heading toward the new moon, and that means smaller tidal swings for a few days — less water moving through the inlets at Manasquan and Barnegat, which is going to concentrate bait instead of blowing it through. When the current slacks like that, predators stack on structure and wait instead of chasing down open water, so I'm looking hard at the inlet rock piles and the reef edges on the calmer tide stages rather than burning gas looking for run-and-gun action out in the open bay.

The bigger story for July, though, is bunker — or the lack of them. This isn't a one-week blip, it's been building all spring. The bunker schools that used to choke Raritan Bay and roll down the beach in July just aren't showing in the numbers we're used to, and it's changing how guys are catching stripers. Nobody's out there soaking chunks waiting on a bunker blitz this year. The better program right now is eels — live-lining them off Sandy Hook at night on the last two hours of the outgoing, and trolling big metal-lip swimmers along the Bay side structure where current still funnels bait past the rocks. Surfcasters are doing better than the boats, honestly, because there's more structure to hold fish tight to the beach than there is bait scattered out in open water. If you're throwing clams from the sand at first light around Sandy Hook or up in the Bay, you're still in the game — just don't expect the bunker circus.

Fluke are the one thing actually trending up. Raritan Bay is chewing — not gangbusters, but real, with fish in the 4 to 7-pound class coming over the rail on Gulp Swimming Mullets and jerk shad rigged behind bucktails, worked slow on the drift in 15 to 25 feet off the channel edges. Shark River has been quietly good too, keeper flatties running 18 to 19 inches with at least one 24-inch drop-dead fish taken on a pink shine Gulp bait fished tight along the bottom on the last of the outgoing. Great Bay's been more of a coin flip — some boats limiting on live spot, others struggling for one keeper, which tells me the fish are there but bunched up rather than spread through the whole system. If you're chasing fluke down there, work the deeper holes on the dropping tide instead of covering water — that's where the bait's been getting pushed and held.

Bluefish are the wild card right now and they're not small. Jumbo choppers, double digits, have been working the beach off Monmouth County, blowing up bait right in the wash and absolutely wrecking flounder rigs in the process — which is annoying if you're fluke fishing but a blast if you switch over and throw metal. Diamond jigs or bucktails with wire leader, worked through the surface disturbance right when the birds start diving, and you're in business. Best window's been early morning and again right before dark, which lines up with the low-light feeding pattern you'd expect from bigger blues working shallow water.

Offshore and nearshore, thresher sharks are cruising the beachfront in that same mid-June-into-July window they usually show, and that's worth knowing if you're running a small boat just outside the surf line — keep an eye out, they've been active. On bottom structure, Little Egg Reef down by the research buoys has been a legit mixed bag producer — sea bass, some bluefish, a few keeper fluke mixed in — using two-ounce bucktails with a glass minnow teaser rig tied above them. Just remember the sea bass regs flipped after June 21st, so it's down to a one-fish bycatch allowance now through the summer. Don't plan a trip around filling a sea bass cooler — that program's done till September.

Down at Tuckerton, there was a real weakfish caught off the sod banks — 24 inches, on a bucktail tipped with a white Gulp grub — and that's not nothing. Weakfish that size are rare enough now that one good fish is a headline in itself. If you've got a soft spot for them like I do, working the sod bank edges on a dropping tide with light jigs is worth the gas.

Looking ahead: with tides easing toward the new moon this week, I'd fish the slower current stages at the inlets — Manasquan and Barnegat both — right around the turn, when bait gets pinned against structure instead of ripping through. If the wind stays out of the south and lays down for the weekend, I'd put my money on an early morning striper session with eels off the Hook, then switch over to fluke drifting in Raritan Bay once the sun's up. Not a blowout week, but there's enough real fish around — fluke, blues, that weakfish surprise — to make the trip worth it if you pick your tide right.