Charley Soares

3 weeks ago | thefisherman.com | Tony DUrso |Matt Broderick |Tony Salerno |Charley Soares

One angler’s approach to kicking off the surf season in style. It was early April as I made my way down the path leading to the bridge. The sound of a red-winged blackbird in the reeds greeted me on this unseasonably warm spring morning. Armed with a 7-foot medium-light outfit, I began working the deep eddy created by the bridge abutments with a pearl jerk shad threaded onto a 3/8-ounce jighead.

3 weeks ago | thefisherman.com | Matt Broderick |Tony DUrso |Tony Salerno |Charley Soares

Raritan offers one the best chances at a big striper for start of the ’25 season. Each year, as winter loosens its grip on the Northeast, a predictable pattern begins to unfold in the waters of Raritan Bay. With water temperatures creeping into the mid-40s and daylight stretching longer, striped bass make their annual push into the bay, setting the stage for some of the best trophy fishing of the season.

1 month ago | thefisherman.com | Tony Salerno |Charley Soares |Scott Newhall |Tom Melton

A spot that promises some of the first Peconic stripers of the season. Many years back – and I mean many years back, when flounder fishing was sensational during the spring inside the Peconic Bays – I recall one particular trip in late March. It was a chilly cloudy day with rain at times that would turn to snow and then rain again. To make matters worse, it was blowing pretty good from the bone chilling east.

2 months ago | thefisherman.com | Charley Soares |Scott Newhall |Tom Melton |Matt Broderick

“Be careful out there. I can hear them breaking from here.” Ernie was changing the oil on the inboard marine bass boat I helped him build four years prior. This was the third weekend we were blown out of a planned hunt for dolphin-sized bluefish off the west side of Nomans. The week prior to making those plans Ernie’s deckmate, Ed Joaquim boated a 19-pound, 8-ounce blue on a homemade Linesider popping plug there.