Inshore fishing for flounder has been improving with bigger fish showing up on reefs, wrecks and lumps all along South Jersey.
With a hurricane Irene threatening from a distance, some boat anglers went fishing in the ocean Tuesday while they had mild conditions.
When and if the ocean gets rough, there are other ways to fish if the impulse is powerful.
Debbie Mooers said there are a lot of nice flounder, plus kingfish, croaker and small bluefish around Grassy Sound Marina pier in North Wildwood. Anglers fishing from the pier had two 19-inch, a 21-inch and a 22-inch flounders in recent days. And 11-year-old Will Evans from Westfield caught a 5.16-pound, 25 1/2-inch flounder in Turtle Creek there.
Mooers said striped bass are biting in the early morning and late evening under the lights of the pier.
Noel Feliciano at One-Stop Bait and Tackle said to fish from the Atlantic City Boardwallk and inside Absecon Inlet back to the A.C. Seawall and near Harrah's Resort Marina. Kingfish, croaker, small bluefish and triggerfish have been caught in that area recently.
He said there are lots of bait such as mullet and spearing in Absecon Inlet. He said maybe a storm will push in some cooler water and striped bass might come in with the surge.
Curt Rott said from Absecon Bay Sportsman Center in Absecon that Ian Donati caught a doormat flounder and five kingfish on two different outings on the rocks on the Atlantic City side of Absecon Inlet.
Joan Barrett at Dolphin Dock in Somers Point said that while flounder are making a "pilgrimage" out to the reefs in the ocean, keeper flounder plus sea bass, sea robin, kingfish, flounder, triggerfish and sheepshead have all been caught in the back bays of Great Egg Inlet.
She said it is the peak of the back-bay season with that potpourri, plus crabbing is "off the charts" good.
Margaret O'Brien at Jingle's Bait and Tackle in North Beach Haven said blowfish are thick in the back waters of Long Beach Island. She advised a good strategy for blowfish is to anchor around Intracoastal Waterway marker 110 when conditions allow.
Mostly small flounder, plus snapper blues, small weakfish and some triggerfish are also in the back bays of Long Beach Island, O'Brien said. "Marshmallow" 3-inch blowfish add to the fun for kids - and adults - "dockside," or at the street ends of Long Beach Island.
Big bass update
The International Game Fish Association received the application and acompanying material from Greg Myerson, the Connecticut fisherman who caught the potential world record 81.88-pound striped bass Aug. 4 in Long Island Sound.
Jack Vitek, world record coordinator for the IGFA, said Tuesday that it is early in the process but "everything is fine, so far." They are going through what Vitek described as their normal routine of testing the line, looking at the photos, getting eyewitness testimony, etc.
Vitek said the state of Connecticut verified the scales the fish was weighed on. He said nothing is missing and the IGFA could have a decision early October. If the record is approved, it would erase the 78-pound, 8-ounce striped bass caught by Albert McReynolds in 1982 on an Atlantic City jetty. McReynolds now lives in Naples, Fla.
A couple of Facebook messages rightfully pointed out that McReynolds' record will still be considered the standard for many land-based anglers who fish in the surf or from the rocks, bridges and piers because Myerson caught his heavyweight striper while fishing in a boat.
