Fluke season winds down as bonito and albies light up NJ beaches

What's biting

What's next

With the First Quarter moon building moderate tidal flow, look for the next few days to keep favoring structure and inlet fishing over open beach — Fin-Atics (Ocean City) and Riptide Bait and Tackle both point anglers toward jetties and bridge pilings for tog and triggerfish while fluke finish out their run. The warm water reported at LBI (75°F, per Fishermans HQ) is running well above what's typical for mid-September, and that's likely why the fall transition still feels incomplete here even as The Fisherman's New England forecast describes albie blitzes already tearing up central Rhode Island and Connecticut. Expect that same push to keep working its way down the coast into NJ waters over the next 1–2 weeks as nights cool and bait continues staging at the inlets — Fishermans HQ LBI and Blue Chip Sportfishing are already seeing bonito and albacore on light spinning gear, and that action should build rather than fade through the weekend.

Fluke anglers have a hard deadline: the season closes September 25 per NJ Fish & Wildlife News, so the next weekend is effectively the last full push for keepers on wrecks, reefs and back-bay structure. Central and Southern NJ shops (Miss Barnegat Light, Big Dave's Tackle, Hands Too Bait and Tackle) describe improving action late in the week, which is typical as fish stage before the close — worth timing a trip around a moving tide rather than dead high or low.

Bluefish should stay inconsistent in the near term; Capt. Al Shinn's hit-or-miss read this week lines up with bait pushes moving through rather than settling, and Northern NJ boats note bigger bluefin are pushing blues and their companions around inshore, which can scatter the bite day to day. Watch for that to firm up once cooler nights lock bait patterns in.

Triggerfish and tog should hold steady around structure through the next couple weeks — several Southern and Central NJ shops describe them as thick around rocks, bulkheads and reef sites, a pattern that typically strengthens rather than weakens as water temps ease down toward true fall conditions. If the warm-water trend breaks with a cold front, expect striped bass interest to pick up first in the surf and inlet zones as anglers start looking ahead to the fall run.

Context

A fluke season stretching hot into its final week, with a 7-pound-plus doormat still coming from the surf per Surf City Bait and Tackle, is a solid but not unusual pattern for a Jersey Shore September — the fishery typically holds up well right through its close, which NJ Fish & Wildlife News has set at September 25 this year. What stands out more is the water temperature: 75°F on the LBI surf per Fishermans HQ LBI is warmer than what's typical for this point in September, and that warmth is likely why bonito, albies and Spanish mackerel are just beginning to show in numbers here while The Fisherman's regional coverage already has albie blitzes fully underway to the north in Rhode Island and Connecticut. That reads as NJ trailing the broader Northeast bonito/albie push by a bit, consistent with a slower seasonal cool-down rather than any bite failure.

Bluefish being described as hit-or-miss by Capt. Al Shinn is a fairly ordinary September pattern for the region — blues often move with bait pods rather than holding station, and reports from other Northern NJ boats note bigger bluefin pushing them around, which is a normal late-summer dynamic rather than anything unusual for the calendar. Triggerfish and tog holding thick around structure is squarely on-schedule; both species typically build through September as water starts to ease off summer highs. There isn't a strong direct year-over-year comparison available in this week's intel — none of the cited sources reference how this September stacks up against prior years specifically — so this read is based on typical seasonal timing rather than a confirmed anomaly.