Southern Ocean County fishing zones

[Asbury Park Press]

There has been a noticeable improvement in the action in the bay waters over the past week. In addition to the fluke, which continue to be on the small side, there has been a welcomed increase in the weakfish bite. Betty and Nick's Bait and Tackle in Seaside Park reports Jack and Dave Duelks managed five nice weakies in the bay. The Dock Outfitters reports some good numbers of weakfish around Tice's Shoal in the 12- to 16-inch range. They recommend shrimp, worms and Pink Fin-s on small lead heads for the action. The beach action is pretty constant with some small bass and bluefish leading the way. Grumpy's Bait and Tackle weighed in a nice 2.9-pound fluke caught by Joe Yohas on the beach on some clam. They also checked in a good number of stripers caught on poppers led by Travis Skrable's 38.7-pounder. The head boats working the ocean waters are finding big bluefish and decent numbers of fluke. Capt. Bob Pennington of the Sea Devil out of Point Pleasant Beach has been finding good numbers of big blues to 15 pounds on a daily basis.

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