Sea Bass Limiting Out Off Sandy Hook as Stripers Stay Strong

What's biting

What's next

With Sandy Hook and Raritan Bay riding a waning crescent moon heading toward the next new moon, tidal swings should build over the coming days, which typically sharpens the bite around rip lines and bridge/inlet current breaks — good news for the black sea bass and striped bass action Capt Ron's and Blue Chip Sportfishing are already reporting. Expect the sea bass bite to stay steady to strong on the drops in the Bay and near-shore structure as long as boats keep finding the small Gulp sand eel presentations that have been producing quality fish, including this week's 5-pound-plus pool leaders.

Striped bass should continue to show along the beaches and around structure, per OTW Northern New Jersey's note that small bluefish and stripers are already active on the sand in the northern part of the state. If that pattern holds toward Sandy Hook, dawn and dusk tides are the highest-percentage windows as water temperatures sit near their summer peak and fish push shallow to feed before retreating.

Fluke should keep building on the upswing OTW Northern New Jersey flagged for July 9 — after a stretch of heat and rough weather knocked the bite around, cleaner conditions typically let fluke settle back onto the reefs and channel edges, so bucktail-and-Gulp combinations are worth working the drift lines over the next several days.

Offshore and mid-shore, the bluefin tuna bite running 15 to 40 miles out should stay in play, and Fishermans HQ LBI's report of a heavy squid showing off the Jersey coast is a bait signal worth watching — a strong squid push in one area often draws tuna and other predators along the coast as it disperses. Anglers planning midshore runs should keep an eye on how far that squid presence extends.

Blue Chip Sportfishing's note that shark fishing has 'busted wide open,' with multiple mako sharks including three landed and released on a single trip, suggests near-shore and offshore shark opportunities are worth planning around for anyone chartering this week, particularly on calmer weather days.

For weekend planning: target the moving tide stages around sunrise and sunset for sea bass and stripers, watch for continued fluke improvement on the reefs as the week goes on, and treat any midshore trip as a bluefin possibility given current squid activity. Check the latest local forecast and a real-time buoy reading before heading out, since no fresh NOAA buoy or USGS gauge data was available for this report.

Context

Mid-July in Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook typically marks the shift from the spring striped bass run into the summer pattern dominated by black sea bass, fluke, and inshore bluefin tuna, with stripers persisting mainly around structure, bridges, and the surf during low-light hours rather than the open-water blitzes of April and May. What's coming through the angler-intel feeds this week tracks that seasonal script closely — Blue Chip Sportfishing and Capt Ron's are both describing strong sea bass action, which is on schedule for this point in summer, and OTW Northern New Jersey's fluke 'upswing' language fits the typical pattern of fluke improving as water temperatures stabilize after early-summer heat and weather swings.

The bluefin tuna push noted by both OTW Northern New Jersey and Fishermans HQ LBI, tied to a heavy squid showing off the Jersey coast, is consistent with the kind of bait-driven push that can happen at various points in summer when squid schools move inshore — not unusual for the season, though the specific timing depends on bait movement each year and isn't something these feeds let us call early or late with confidence.

NJ Saltwater Fisherman's 2026 bluefin retention-limit notice confirms the recreational HMS fishery has been open since June 1 and runs through December 31 unless adjusted, so anglers targeting bluefin this week are inside the regulated season, though limits should always be checked before keeping fish.

Beyond those points, there isn't a strong signal in this week's feeds for calling the overall season notably early, late, or ahead of a typical year for this region — treat this as a solid, on-schedule summer week rather than an outlier.