NJ Fishing Reports for the Week of 9-1 to 9-7-08

[bunkerjoe4]

Please post fishing reports here.......as little or as much detail as you want to give.

Please note: NO SPOT BURNING! Posts burning spots will be Edited or DELETED!
Some veteran fishermen have put in years developing and learning about certain spots.Some of these spots can only handle a few guys at a time. We are losing enough access as it is, due to the unfortunate behavior of a few selfish people. No sense in making it worse.

For some areas, it would be wiser to say:
OutFront (Ocean) OR -- OutBack (Bay) -- if you feel too many people will figure out what you are talking about. "Spot burning" also could involve mentioning something specific only to that area. If you do this, your post may be edited, or deleted. Remember that thousands of people could potentially read these posts. You don't want to be fishing next to ALL of them at the same time!

IF you are fishing an area that is NOT residential, being vague is less critical. For example, it's acceptable to say (Any)Park, or (Any)Bay, or mention a specific state park that has loads of parking and can handle the crowds.


If you are unclear on this concept, ask yourself:


If I name this place on the internet, will it be too crowded for me to enjoy tomorrow when people hear I got 30 fish here today?


If the answer is "Yes", then you should probably not be so specific.


We post these reports so our community will have a sense of what is working, what is not. We want to show people how to catch fish, rather than where.Even if you struck out or got skunked, it would be helpful to hear that as well.

If you have any additional details you would like to share - weather conditions, tide (incoming, outgoing, ebb, flood) water temps, bait present, or other mention of techniques or plugs used - feel free, as long as you are not overly specific about location.

Some acronyms -

SH - Sandy Hook
NoMoCo - Northern Monmouth County (below the hook to Shark River Inlet SRI)
SoMoCo - Southern Monmouth County (below SRI to Manasquan Inlet)

OC - Ocean County
IBSP - Island Beach State Park
LBI - Long Beach Island

AC - Atlantic County
AI - Absecon Inlet
CISP - Corson's Inlet State Park
CMC - Cape May County
CMR - Cape May Rips
GEI - Great Egg Inlet
TI - Townsend's Inlet

RB - Raritan Bay
BB - Barnegat Bay
CB - Chesapeake Bay
CBBT - Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel
DB - Delaware Bay

[bunkerjoe4]

NJ WIR 9-1-08

Folks, it's the last weekend of the summer, and the beginning of the Fall season most surfcasters have come to know and wait for in anticipation.

The children are starting school, most vacationers have left the beach areas, and all sorts of new possibilities loom on the horizon.

With more doormats being caught, the fluke season is almost over. Look for the larger fish to continue being caught in the inshore and nearshore lumps as they make their way out of the bay areas. Now is the time to concentrate on the ocean spots and deepest channels.

Bluefish have returned in the surf, and are providing a more consistent bite. The best times are still dusk and dawn for these and striped bass.

Small striped bass are finally being caught in numbers.

If you know and fish a particular area, try to fish at night and locate places where the bait has been holding. You will find the fish holding there as well. Sorry I can't be any more specific, but some of these places are already starting to get crowded. Members can always pm me for more details.http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/images/icons/icon3.gif :)

For all intents and purposes, the Fall Run has started. Bass are now being caught to the point where it is worth it to spend time looking for them. They are regularly and eagerly hitting plugs.

The productive locations sometimes change. The best advice I can give out is if you are fishing some structure at night, fishing hard, and there is no action in 15 minutes, leave for another location.

If you are willing to move around, you will find them, they are there. :thumbsup:

NY WIR 9-1-08

Folks the NY season is coming to a close as well, and that's a shame, as the fluke finally have some meat to them. Remember that for next year, let your voices be heard.

Porgies still remain a good option in the back bays and near the inlets for those who want to take their children fishing. Snappers make fishing fun for children as well.

One thing I wanted to put out there is that sabiki rigs are great if used carefully. For the most part, I see adults and children fishing with the styrofoam one-hook float rigs.

If the children are small, that's the smartest and safest option. However, if they can handle casting and retrieving their own pole and are a little older, you could teach them to use the sabikis. The biggest danger with sabikis is getting snagged or hooked. If you are confident your grown children can handle one of these, they are a great rig to have fun and get baitfish for larger predators at the same time. Remember that the limit on bluefish in NJ is 15, NY is 15 but no more than 10 can be less than 12". This includes snapper blues for bait as well.

Bluefish are still around in the LI sound and they are big. These big alligators and some bass are feeding on the bunker ensconced in many of the harbors.

The bass bite had slowed down in the past week for surfcasters, but has begun to pick up again in the last 48 hours.

Montauk has recently started to pick up for the night guys. I'm thinking the day bite could turn on later than usual this year unless we get some prolonged severe residual weather from the southern hurricanes.



For the NJ/NY bight and offshore areas, the southern areas are still the best bet for the hot tuna bite. For NY guys, you may not want to make the trip from NY ports all the way to the southern NJ areas. I would suggest if you have a trailerable boat to consider trailering it to Mass, as they have a decent tuna bite there not far from shore.

The mudhole and Hudson canyon tuna action has been terrible for many weeks now. In the last week things started to pick up, and a pick of bluefin have been caught in key structural areas. However, many are fishing, few are catching. That's not a great reality for a captain faced with spending upwards of $1000 on a tuna trip.

That's another reason why the Lobster Claw looks like a parking lot. People who don't have a lot of experience reading water and looking for tuna indicators (bait, temperature breaks, etc) will go with a known spot, and the Claw wins by default.

However, that's just like the thinking by some surfcasters that one magic spot will produce all the fish. When the bite is on, it will be all throughout a surf area, often encompasing several miles.

Same with the tuna. If you are going out for a serious tuna trip, don't hesitate to try other areas if they show good temp and bait readings.

For now, the best tuna fishing reported is from 6-11am, sardine and squid baits are very reliable. Some fish are being hit trolling and rigged ballyhoo as well, but the night chunk bite has not developed as of yet. Bigger bluefin are still being caught and giving guys a run for their money.

The key to this detective work is good electronics. The guys with the higher end systems will be the ones onto the fish. If you don't invest in good electronics, it can be a handicap.

For our perennial inshore cyclical species, the weakfish have not set up in the channels like they usually do. I'm thinking it will be a late season for them. Smaller spikes are in great abundance in many back bays, but the larger fish are just not being caught with consistency at this time.

As for albacore and bonito, they have been caught and observed by guys in boats, but not consistently.

As I'm writing this, the albacore surf run has not started yet. I see there is some interest here, and I'm sure some of our members out looking for them every day will keep us informed.


Hope all you folks out there have a Happy, Safe, and Fun Holiday! Catch em up!- bunkerjoe

[wish4fish]

got 2 small bass up to 24" sh last night, redfin. hungry bass, good!

[clamchucker]

Somoco surf near an inlet tonight. 5 bass to 26" right around dark. Shad with black teaser. Good to see the tourists thin out.

[DarkSkies]

Late report. We fished the SH area again Mon night, 10-2am. After about 10 mins of plugging, I had a feeling it was gonna be an off night. Threw everything from shads to swimmers, not a hit to be found.:skunk:

The only difference between that night and 2 nights before was that the water seemed a little cloudy. Fished the same outgoing tide.

Ran into a few people as we moved around and worked different spots, no luck for anyone except for one guy who said he got a small bass. Hey, that's fishin. :D

[fishinmission78]

Quick run to a popular OC surf spot after work today. Poor fishing, S/SE wind, only 2 cocktail blues after an hour of casting. Also a heads up to guys going in without waders, lots of jellyfish in the wash.

[DarkSkies]

SH last night, 11-7am, man I was shot today!:D

Supposed to meet a bud, but he couldn't make it. Decided to do some back bay scouting first. Went to 3 spots before I found a decent concentration of peanuts. Other places had huge amounts of spearing, you could see the schools darting in the edges, but sparse bunker. The bunker I found were huge for peanuts, some up to 8", almost adult size.

Made a new friend netting the peanuts, helped me out with some info.:thumbsup:

First spot at SH was the best, one 26" bass on a big rattle trap. Slowed after that. Chunked some peanuts, got a 4' shark.

I kept moving with the tide, threw everything in my bag, not a tap.

Should have left 15 minutes after I got the bass, but I was too optimistic things would get better.

Some negative things:

Once it becomes apparent the bite has slowed, it's time to go home.

The sand fleas out there are getting bigger. I fish in shorts till the water gets cold, and the jellyfish and sand fleas like me. Fleas can actually bite. The only other guys fishing there came over and agreed that there were more fleas by me than anywhere else. Do I smell that bad? :don't know why:

There is no shortage of dogfish, other guys were bailing them all night.


Positives:
There was an incredible lightning storm slightly offshore. Got to watch it for about an hour. Some of the lightning was obscured by heavy clouds, reminded me of the "war of the worlds" remake. I was waiting for the aliens to come marching down the beach.:scared:

The other cool thing was the phosphorescence all over the beach near the surf line. When you dragged your feet as you walked, there were hundreds of shiny bits sparkling in the sand. You could also see many phosphorescent jellyfish in the wash. Back in the days of purple microdots, they would have made the night awesome.:bong2:

Snails like mono line and bunker. I pulled in 5 golf ball sized snails in the course of a few casts. Put em on ice, may crack em open and use the next time out.

This is the 3rd time in a week I have been to SH and haven't been attacked by skeeters and greenheads. Anyone who fishes that place will realize how rare that is. Guess the wind and weather has been in my favor.

Stayed around longer than I should because I wanted to see if today would be an albie day. There was a fair amount of bait in the wash, all small anchovies and spearing, but apparently not enough to draw them in.

The most interesting thing about this morning was the noticable lack of action. You can always score a bass and bluefish this time of year at sunrise, but the surf was dead this morning.

I now know when the first albies will be caught - when I'm not there.;)

[clamchucker]

Fished last night moco incoming near high tide. 3 bass to 27", 2 on a yellow teaser. I was fishing a redfin/teaser setup.

[fishinmission78]

IBSP sunrise, very slow, nothing for me.:skunk:

[clamchucker]

Tried a somoco spot this morning near an inlet. Fished a pocket with clams, trying to seek out a sheltered spot. Unfishable, 10 oz wouldn't hold.

[wish4fish]

sh today, bunker at first light, only 2 doggies. gonna bust out the clams right after the storm, should be good.

[fishinmission78]

"Unfishable" would be the key word for the next 24 hours. Big swell building out there, couldn't even tempt a coctail blue at IBSP this morning. Some guys supposably caught some bigger blues last night.

[clamchucker]

Rocky place moco before sunrise. 4 bass, all small to 28", lime green windcheater. Surf has some swells, but is laying down nice.

[fishinmission78]

Just got back from IBSP. All the 17" fluke you can catch, I got no keepers, last day anyway. Better luck next year.

Surf has calmed down a lot, and the mullet run is on full force. All the mullet you want, bring a large diameter net.