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Home › Waters › New Jersey › Absecon Channel
Estuary · Atlantic County back bay, the thorofares and channels behind Atlantic City between Absecon Inlet and the Brigantine marshes · New Jersey

Absecon Channel Fishing Guides

The working back-bay channel behind Atlantic City, fished all season for fluke, stripers and black drum within sight of the boardwalk.

A dock reaching out over wide brackish water at dusk
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Absecon Channel

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About the Absecon Channel

Absecon Channel is back-bay water in the truest sense. It runs behind Atlantic City between the marsh islands and the barrier beach, connecting a maze of thorofares, sedge banks and dredged cuts to Absecon Inlet and the ocean beyond. Nothing about it looks like wilderness. Casinos stand on the skyline, the Route 30 and Route 40 causeways cross overhead, and boat traffic is constant through the summer. It is also one of the most consistently productive stretches of estuary in southern New Jersey, and a great deal of the region’s guided light-tackle fishing happens inside it rather than out in the ocean.

The fishing follows the bottom. Dredged channels drop away from broad shallow flats, and that edge is where fish stage on a moving tide. Summer flounder settle on the sand through the warm months and are the standard target for half-day charters. Striped bass work the bridge shadows and channel edges in spring and again through the fall run. Black drum move into the deeper holes in late spring and reach genuinely large sizes here. Weakfish, kingfish and croaker fill in the mixed bag, blackfish and sea bass hold on the bridge rubble into cold weather, and crabbers work the back thorofares all summer long. The great advantage of this water is shelter: it fishes on days when the inlet is unworkable.

The gauge carries both tidal elevation and water temperature, and on a back bay that temperature reading matters more than it would on a river. Black drum and weakfish arrive on temperature rather than on the calendar, and the flounder bite turns off when the shallows heat through in midsummer. Read the tide stage for timing and the temperature trend for what is likely to be in front of you.

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  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Absecon Channel.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Gardner's Basin, Atlantic City - the main public ramp and the base for most back-bay charters.
Route 30 Absecon Boulevard bridges - bulkhead and bridge access over the deepest channel water.
Brigantine Boulevard bridge - shoreline access to the north end of the channel system.
Historic Gardner's Basin bulkhead - walk-in fishing for kingfish, croaker and school bass.
Absecon Inlet jetty at Oriental Avenue - rock access to the mouth for blackfish and stripers.
Bader Field launch area - cartop and kayak access to the back thorofares.
Farley State Marina - full-service dockage for guided boats working the bay and inlet.

Seasons

Spring: black drum move into the holes and the first striped bass show along the channel edges.
Summer: fluke on the flats and channel drops, crabbing in the thorofares, and kingfish along the sand.
Fall: the best fishing of the year as bass and bluefish stage in the bay before running south.
Winter: blackfish and sea bass hold on the bridge rubble and structure until the cold shuts it down.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Absecon Channel?

Anglers target American Eel, Atlantic Croaker, Black Drum, Black Sea Bass, Blue Crab, Bluefish, Northern Kingfish, Striped Bass, Summer Flounder, Tautog, Weakfish on the Absecon Channel in New Jersey.

Where can you access the Absecon Channel?

Gardner's Basin, Atlantic City - the main public ramp and the base for most back-bay charters. Route 30 Absecon Boulevard bridges - bulkhead and bridge access over the deepest channel water. Brigantine Boulevard bridge - shoreline access to the north end of the channel system. Historic Gardner's Basin bulkhead - walk-in fishing for kingfish, croaker and school bass. Absecon Inlet jetty at Oriental Avenue - rock access to the mouth for blackfish and stripers. Bader Field launch area - cartop and kayak access to the back thorofares. Farley State Marina - full-service dockage for guided boats wor...

When is the best time to fish the Absecon Channel?

Spring: black drum move into the holes and the first striped bass show along the channel edges. Summer: fluke on the flats and channel drops, crabbing in the thorofares, and kingfish along the sand. Fall: the best fishing of the year as bass and bluefish stage in the bay before running south. Winter: blackfish and sea bass hold on the bridge rubble and structure until the cold shuts it down.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Absecon Channel?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the New Jersey agency site: https://dep.nj.gov/njfw/fishing/marine/