WILD NEW JERSEY: Fishing with Wild New Jersey: Shark bait over the Chicken Canyon

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WILD NEW JERSEY: Fishing with Wild New Jersey: Shark bait over the Chicken Canyon

Fishing with Wild New Jersey: Shark bait over the Chicken Canyon

This blue shark was one of a number of sharks caught and released by the group.
All photos courtesy of Ron Nobile

By Ron Nobile

Having spent an enjoyable - if fruitless - Friday with Captain Todd and the Albatross on a 6 a.m. tour out of Sea Bright to the Mud Buoy, I got an early start on my Saturday trip to the North East End of the Chicken Canyon. Due east from the Glory Hole at an approximate depth of 240 feet, the Chicken Canyon is about 45 miles east of the Manasquan Inlet. Both the Chicken Canyon and the Glory Hole, of course, are considered part of the Mud Hole.

Up at 3:30, we broke the inlet at 4:30 to bathub quality conditions. I set the autopilot, punched in the track, and off we went. Beautiful morning, good bunch of guys and a fun day ahead. We got our drift set up and were fishing around 7. The first runoff around 7:30 was one of 14 bluedogs landed and clipped loose.

We had 5-6 sharks circling the boat most of the day, some up to 8 feet long and well over 125 pounds.

Unfortunately we had no mako or threshers in our slick, but I heard of a few over the offshore channel that were boated along with some yellowfin and bluefin. (The trash talking over the radio about guys riding through each other's slicks made for priceless entertainment as we waited out the bite - the Tony's from New York are quite verbally impressive. Their creativity with, um, language is unparalleled!)

We may not have found what we were looking for, but we had non-stop action all day on some big sharks. Next up...inshore bluefin tuna early next month!

Ron Nobile - a.k.a. Lefty Reeler - has been fishing in New York and New Jersey waters for 30 years and counting. This is his first column for WildNewJersey.tv .