North Beach Sandy Hook Jigging Fluke in the Surf

Keeper fluke I took for dinner.

Nice drive down, already 83 degrees shortly after 11:00. Sunshine, light traffic--not bad. I seemed to arrive on Sandy Hook sooner than I expected. 

I wanted to fish North Beach. Years ago, I tried that beach, impressed with how deeply it drops off. I rode all the way up to McFly's on the Hook, and bought some beef jerky there. Then I continued on my way. 

I soon found lot J, where nothing seemed to indicate North Beach, so I looked up on my mobile device how to get there. According to AI, I had to go to Lot I, which wasn't distant. And after I got there and unloaded, studying a publicly displayed map informed me that Lot J works, too.

Either way in, it's an arduous walk. I remembered something of that from before, but I didn't remember as much as it really amounts to. Still, it might have been only half a mile. 

You're walking in sand. I had taken my sneakers off and left them behind, and you know how dry sand is, if you've ever sunk feet into it. But even so, it was firmer than some dry sand is. 

Pretty hot, too. The temp was about 80 when I left my car. Cooler than back on the mainland, with the westerly coming across the bay, but not by much. 

I haven't done well for fluke in recent times. The best of the outings amounted to two fluke caught at Barnegat Inlet while fishing with Fred Matero last September, and I think I caught one little one each time I fished Island Beach. Those IBSP outings involved enjoying the beach with my wife and black Lab Loki. We didn't go there this summer, though. I left Bedminster confident, thinking I might catch a few, and that that would be enough. But when I started casting the surf, to the right of shallows with waves breaking on them, I felt as if I'd get skunked. I would have logged the trip in my handwritten log--I do every time I fish--but I was thinking it would be awful to post here about yet another skunker, especially when, all summer, I've been catching so few fish. Brenden Kuprel and I did well on that South Branch Raritan River float trip, though.

I walked a little further to the right and laid a cast down leftward. I think the fish struck on the initial descent, but in any case, I set the hook deftly and fought a 14-incher I didn't photograph, my camera in my backpack well above the waterline. But the next fluke came pretty quickly thereafter, hitting when my retrieve was almost done. That fish might have been a a half inch better. I decided to get a quick shot of that one.

Even further to the right of those shallows--they began to appear distant--I caught one about 12 inches long. All three of these fish hit the anchor jig, not the teaser. I was using a pink half-ouncer with a pink Berkley Gulp twister on it. My teaser--a Z-Man Elaztech straight tail.

I've often admitted that I get hunches that seem to put me on fish in a mysterious way. I'm sure many fishermen experience the same, but it's not talked about. The trip neared it's end with my upper back paining me. I had fished little more than two hours, but the pain I experienced concerned me less than what pain I might feel during the long trudge back. I was also getting feelings about the water right next to the shallows. 

Rather than ignore those feelings, I positioned myself and put a cast in the area that comprised the edge. I began jigging my rig back, felt a fish take it, set hard, and fought a pretty good-sized fluke, that head shake leaving me no doubt. When I saw it in the clear surf, I knew I probably had a keeper. This one hit the Elaztech teaser. It measured 18-1/16 inches.      

Maybe a half inch better than 14 inches.

Barnegat Inlet