Reel Fun Sportfishing, LLC
Fishing Reports for 2025 covering Sandy Hook, NJ
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December 18, 2024

Well fellow angler.....it's that time of the year for me to give you some analysis of the 2024 fishing season. In a word....tough.

First the spring Striped Bass fishing.....which was plagued by high winds and 12 consecutive weekends of rain. There were good numbers of Stripers to be caught in the bay, but getting the people and the boat out during this crappy weather was another story. Very tough months of April, May and June Striper fishing.

Summer Flounder (Fluke)....especially tough to say the least. Unless you were willing to spend the extra fare for an 8 hour charter to the south shore of Long Island, the local Fluke population was a disappointment for me and many other recreational anglers. There were plenty of shorts all along the beach and some nice keepers on the rocks and reefs, but not nearly enough to satisfy me or my anglers. In a word..again tough fishing here in New Jersey waters for Fluke.

Water temperatures, fueled by constant south winds, kept bottom temps very cold even through the months of July and August. While I recorded 78 to 80 degrees on the surface, our bucktails would come up ice cold in 50-60 feet of water where the bigger Fluke live.

Once again...very tough fishing for the summer for me and many other charters, unless again you were willing to pay me to take you out to the south shore of Long Island where boats were doing quite better. For the Long Island trip, I schedule 8 hours to make the run to and back and give you sufficient time to fish, but that eats up a hell of a lot of gas in the process.

Fall Striper run.....once again (sounding like a broken record) tough . Look, let's be real here. The economy put a big hurtin" on the for hire fishing businesses (both charters and party boats). One of the charters close to me call it quits and sold his boat. But having said that, constant howling N/NW winds made for difficult fishing during the fall. 20 to 25 kt winds gusting to 30 kts in the bay with waves 3 to 4 feet kept my boat in the slip on numerous days. The big girls (Bass) did invade our waters, but were oceanside for about 3 weeks as most, if not all, were returned to swim again. And these were gigantic females making their way south but due to reg's could not be retained. The smaller males then followed, oceanside again, and never made into the bay except for a few resident Hudson River fish. But, contending with high winds was a real bummer for me, so the amount of charters I had for the fall run of 2025 was way off. Weather coupled with a slow economy made for an especially difficult year for the crew of Reel Fun Sportfishing....but we will give it another go for 2025 and hope for the best.

With Christmas just a week away, let me say on behalf of the crew and I, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Peaceful New Year.

Tight Lines,
Capt. John and Crew

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