Fluke and sea bass turn on around Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook

What's biting

What's next

Expect the fluke bite to keep building through the rest of this week and into the weekend. Capt Ron's out of Atlantic Highlands has been finding pockets of larger fish on drifts that hadn't been hit over the weekend, and with the full moon pushing stronger tidal swings through the bay, drift speed and current timing should matter more than usual — plan trips around the moving water rather than fighting a slack tide. Grumpys Tackle (NJ) notes the surf fluke bite is trending upward on bucktails and scented soft artificial baits, typically a sign that bait is pushing shallower as water temperatures hold through late July.

Black sea bass should stay a reliable fallback. Blue Chip Sportfishing is reporting limits on almost every trip, and that kind of consistency tends to hold through early August in this region as long as boats can find clean structure. If you're marking bait but not connecting on bucktails, switching to bait or gulp on the bottom — as Capt Ron's crew has been doing — is the move.

Striped bass are the wildcard. Blue Chip is calling it some of the best striper fishing they've had, but Grumpys is only seeing occasional fish mixed in with bluefish and croaker closer to the back bay. That kind of split reporting between a run-and-gun charter and a bay-adjacent shop usually means stripers are present but moving, likely tracking bait rather than holding on structure — worth checking the moving tide stages around dawn and dusk when they're more likely to show.

Weekend timing: with the full moon just past, the biggest tidal exchanges of the week should land over the next few days, which is typically when drift-fishing for fluke and working structure for sea bass produce the most consistent results. Weather wasn't part of today's data pull, so check the local marine forecast before committing to an open-boat or offshore trip — Capt Ron's has flagged rough conditions on short notice more than once this season. Bluefish should stay steady in the rivers and around inlets on soft plastics as summer progresses, per Grumpys' back-bay reports.

Context

Late July in Raritan Bay and around Sandy Hook typically means summer fluke and sea bass are in full swing, with striped bass thinning out as they push toward cooler water or track bait unpredictably through the back bay — this year's reports fit that pattern closely. The monthly pool leader Capt Ron's landed (6 lbs 12 oz), quickly followed by a 6.4-pound fish, points to a solid, on-schedule doormat fluke run rather than an early or late season.

Black sea bass being described as 'red hot' with near-daily limits is also typical for this stretch of summer, when structure-holding sea bass are most active before water temperatures peak. The striped bass picture is less clear-cut than usual — one charter reporting some of the best striper fishing of the season while a nearby tackle shop calls sightings 'occasional' suggests the fish are more scattered or bait-dependent than in a typical consistent summer pattern, rather than a wholesale absence.

No source in today's feed offered a direct season-over-season comparison for Raritan Bay specifically, so this reading is based on typical late-July species behavior for the region rather than a confirmed year-over-year trend. Worth re-checking the striper situation in the next report rather than assuming either extreme.