New moon springs push fluke into Double Creek as inlet stripers set up for the sunset flood

I've been running this skiff out of Forked River long enough to know what a hot July does to Barnegat Bay, and this year's no different — maybe a little worse. Last week the flats behind Tices Shoal were sitting in the high 70s by midafternoon, and anything that swims with sense pulled off the sand and grass and slid into moving water. That's the whole story of the last seven days in one sentence: heat pushed the bite into the channels, the inlet, and anywhere the tide keeps things stirred and oxygenated. Wind was mostly out of the southwest through midweek, laying down some afternoons and kicking up a light chop on others, nothing that shut the bay down, but enough to keep the upper water column warm and a little sleepy on slack tides.

Now we're sliding into a new moon — that hit today, the 10th — and that means spring tides building through the weekend, peaking around the 11th through 13th. Bigger swings, stronger current, more exchange between the ocean and the bay through Barnegat Inlet. For those of us who fish structure and current for a living, that's the thing to circle on the calendar. Bigger tides push cleaner, cooler ocean water through the inlet on the incoming, and that cooler water reaching Barnegat Light and pushing up into Double Creek Channel is going to wake fish up that have been sluggish in the bathwater conditions we've had. The other piece — sunset lines up close to the top of the flood this weekend, which is the window I always want for inlet stripers. Last real evening flood-sunset window we had was back around the June full moon. This is the first one since, and it's worth building your evening around.

Fluke have done exactly what I'd expect with the bay running warm — they've abandoned the open flats and pushed into Double Creek Channel and the deeper cuts around Tices Shoal, sitting in 8 to 14 feet where the current keeps things moving and a few degrees cooler than the skinny water. I've had the best luck dragging 3/8-ounce white bucktails tipped with 4-inch Gulp Swimming Mullet, working the channel edges slow on the outgoing, letting the bait bump bottom right where the hard sand drops into the softer channel mud. A few boats working the mouth of the inlet itself, right where the ocean water meets the bay flow, have done better than that — bigger fish, a few pushing 4 and 5 pounds, on white and chartreuse combos fished a little faster to match the stronger current. That inlet bite should only get better as these spring tides build through the week and pull more clean 71-degree ocean water into the mix. If the bay flats are lifeless for you right now, don't fight it — go where the water's moving.

Bluefish have been reliable at the inlet on the last two hours of the outgoing, chopping up peanut bunker and small spearing right in the rips off Barnegat Light. Nothing huge — mostly 2 to 4 pounds, snapper-sized fish mixed with some cocktail blues — but they'll hit poppers and small metal without hesitation when they're on the bait, and it's a good way to keep rods bent while you wait for the tide to turn for stripers. Kingfish have shown decent numbers in the surf troughs off Island Beach, particularly the stretches south of the state park access lots, on bloodworms and Fishbites fished on high-low rigs in the wash. That bite tends to hold steady through July regardless of what the bay's doing, since the surf temperature doesn't swing the way the back bay does.

I have to be honest about weakfish — it's been a quiet season so far, and last week didn't change that. A few fish came off the sedge banks near Oyster Creek at dusk on Bass Assassins worked slow along the drop-offs, but that's scattered activity, not a pattern. The May run we all hope for just hasn't repeated itself into summer the way it used to decades back, and I'm not going to sell you a bite that isn't really there. If you want weakfish, fish the last light hours on the edges near Double Creek and don't plan your whole trip around it. Blowfish, on the other hand, have been steady and dependable on the sand flats off Oyster Creek and around the mouth of Forked River — small hooks, squid strips, patience, and you'll fill a bucket without much drama.

Looking at the week ahead, I'd put my time at the inlet on the evening flood, Saturday through Monday, when the new moon springs are peaking and sunset lines up with the top of the tide. That's the setup for stripers pushing bait against the rocks at Barnegat Light — live killies or bunker chunks fished on the bottom, or bucktails worked through the current seams if you want to cover water. If the stripers don't show — and inlet fishing on a big tide can be a feast-or-famine game — Double Creek Channel is my fallback for fluke, especially on the last two hours of the outgoing when that channel really starts to flush. Either way, fish the moving water this week. The flats can wait until the bay cools down a little.