NJ fishing reports for September 1-15, 2009

[DarkSkies]

Important when registering on our site -- use an active email address so you can activate your account to be able to post.

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.
More discussion on this:
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...ead.php?t=3763 (http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=3763)

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.






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

[DarkSkies]

Finchaser you won the plug in the August random drawing!:clapping: :thumbsup:

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.

If you struck out or got skunked, it would be helpful to hear that as well. Anyone who posts a report can win a plug even if they got skunked! :skunk::D


This month we're giving out plugs from Ace Baits.
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...splay.php?f=83 (http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/forumdisplay.php?f=83)

PM me your info so I can send it out. Thanks for posting and helping to make this a great site! :clapping:


http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6338&thumb=1&d=1238964999 (http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6338&d=1238964999)

http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6340&thumb=1&d=1238965622 (http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6340&d=1238965622)


http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6339&thumb=1&d=1238965319 (http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6339&d=1238965319)

[DarkSkies]

Hit the beach after work yesterday, just in time for sundown. Wind was blowing steadily from the S, nice breeze. Surf wasn't that bad, water very clean. Started with an Ace spook, but fish wanted smaller offerings.

Ran into Vpass, :HappyWave:he had already nailed 2 short bass, good to hear there was some life in the surf. There were large pods of peanuts moving S through the surfline, and the smalll bass and blues were feeding from 10-40' out, no further. These peanuts were tiny, at most 1 1/2", so we were using small plugs and teasers.

I was using a small yozuri, but after he got his 2 bass I switched to a bomber with a spearing/peanut sized teaser. Got a bluefish on that as we worked the top of the outgoing. He landed and lost a few more bass, and had to leave.

Even though it was a slow pick, I decided to stay for another 2 hours. Got 2 small bass and 4 bluefish. Asked myself if it was worth it? Maybe there were bigger fish somewhere else, but the hot weather and water made me glad to get the action we did.

Eventually the bite slowed. I left and did some scouting at some other favorite ocean spots. An old reliable place had no action at all save for a high concentration of spearing and snappers.

Another spot, a nice rocky place, got me disapppointed because I went there to look for crabs to fish tonight. 2 months ago those rocks were literally covered with different crabs during one full moon. Hundreds were there, all different sizes. I figured I found a crab source for eternity.

Well, in the 2 months I wasn't there, the town thought it wise to pour some more concrete on that small jetty, effectively sealing the great holes and openings that existed before. :burn:

You gotta strike while the iron is hot, never take a particular bait source for granted. :learn: (and try not to take more than you need)

Doubled back to my favorite spot, still no action there using small yozuris and teaser to match the spearing profile. Decided to make "one more stop" ;) in search for some peanuts and mullet to cast net for tonight. I found them, there were more peanuts than mullet. The peanuts were perfect size, 5-7", nice for bouncing on the bottom of deep water inlets at night. There were also some bass cruising through, focused entirely on the live bait.

When you have huge concentrations of live forage, especially large, fat and oil filled peanuts, you know there should be bigger fish in the shadows. I even got a short fluke on one of the throws, it's amazing what comes up in a net sometimes.

I wouldn't throw big wood till the mullet start to pour out of the bays, or you are in a key location where bigger bass are known to hang.. The small generic bombers/mambos/magdarters work great, also small metals, slow retrieve seemed best. And now is definitely teaser time, you would be amazed at all the small stuff that's in the same promordial soup with those bunker and mullet. :dribble:


7573

[storminsteve]

I fished somoco this morning, 5-7am, 2 bass to 24" on a white storm shad. I saw fish jumping after that but couldn't be sure if they were albacore or not, they were too far out. Beautiful sunrise.

[clamchucker]

Albies were at IBSP this morning. I got one short bass before sunrise on a bucktail/pink finesse combo, then an albie on a small diamond jig. They were quick in and out, but then came back again after 15 minutes. They were on rainfish.

[finchaser]

4 short bass this morning first light all on AVA 17 jig with green tail

Thanks for the plug. I would rather give it to a young angler(under 18) or a women (any age)starting out if that is OK with you Rich.

They must post why they need it not want it.
If this is against site rules send then it to me

Thanks Again much appreciated

[finchaser]

3 short bass this pm on 3/4 ounce lead head and 4 " salt and pepper mullet tail

[c4charlie]

Had some fun tonight. 3 short bass in the low 20"s and 4 gator blues.

Used a lot of white/redhead plastic minnow type lures. There were more bass around but they were picky. Blues were sporadic. AND Tons of bait around.

One blue was totally insane. I really thought I was going to get spooled. Fish gets hooked and takes off, then just takes off more, then goes deep, I am like what the hell is going on here as I tighten up the drag a little more, each time I tightened, he still was taking line, finally the fish tired and I was able to make ground and land him. Fish was a 30"+ bluefish that mistakenly got hooked in the eye. Not pretty.

Some of the craziest and strongest fights i have had have been when the fish are not hooked properly. I don't like when they are hooked bad which happens once in a while.

[finchaser]

this Am 2 shorts again on the AVA 17 only thing they would eat

[fishinmission78]

Island beach 3 small bass to 24" on a diamond and teaser combo. 2 hit the teaser, one on the metal. Lots of small bait around.

[basshunter]

Went over to SH got nothing. I'll try again tomorrow.

[finchaser]

11 Bass this AM to 30" all on AVA 17 again they wouldn't touch anything else

[LennyD]

11 Bass this AM to 30" all on AVA 17 again they wouldn't touch anything else

Nice job!
Looks like you are on them.
Can't wait to get home and go fishing

[clamchucker]

3 day report for IBSP and area beaches
Thursday I got 2 false albacore early near the inlet, deadly ****. 1 keeper fluke and a few shorts later on using gulp mullet.
Friday no keepers, but a few shorts, again on the gulp.
Today, because the season is closed, I got a very nice fluke, 24", gulp mullet, and a few shorts. All back in the water. Also a nice run of bigger bluefish, 2-5#. They destroyed the gulp, so I switched to a bucktail and got a few. Beautiful mornings on the water folks, but please be careful if you are bringing your children down. The rip currents are still strong.

[voyager35]

We fished the last day of the fluke season Friday with poor results. Netted some peanuts for the live well. Set out to fish with the rest of the fleet by the Earle pier. The crowding was a little too much, so we moved around to a few channel spots. We only ended up with one 20" fluke for the box. A nice surprise in addition to the robins was a few small weakies which hit the peanuts. The day was saved by a small bluefish blitz. We had them for about 10 minutes before some others showed up. Small blues, but great action on poppers, they helped to round out our day.

[finchaser]

Last night :skunk:

This AM 18 bass to 29" all on AVA17 my friend had just as many first light until 8:30

[buckethead]

Caught 2 shorts this morning on a t hex. One got away in the wash.:eek:

[finchaser]

Last night nada :skunk:again

This AM 9 bass to 30" all on AVA 17 again blitz conditions until the morons in the boats ran through them over and over again, until there was nothing left to catch:2flip:. You can tell fluke season is over.

[surfwalker]

Finally got some hours off from work.This morning 4-8:30- not a tap. Wind was around 15mph-NNE/NE.
finchaser-areas where the boats frequent I avoid, kills me, but I can't take the disruptions by inconsiderates anymore.

[cowherder]

finchaser I wanted to thank you for your reports. I have been reading them like a hawk, trying to learn some of your tricks. Today I went to sandy hook and got 1 bass! I was using the ava jig, a17, and dragging it in the bottom, and then jerking the rod tip a bit. I don't know what I was trying to initate, maybe a shrimp or a spearing or something.
And I didn't use a teaser because I didn't read that you were using one. Oh, and I also got 2 redbirds and a short fluke, so these things work on a lot of species.
You seem to be killing them in the morning lately, so my goal was to try to see why these ava jigs work. I am still not completely sure, but there were spearing around in the early morning too, so maybe a big spearing? They work great! My bass was small only about 22", but it was my first fall bass on the artificials, and I say thank you very much!:HappyWave:

[SharkHart]

About a half dozen weakies last night fishing N-Ocean county in the back. First time using pink gulp fin S. Nice size to them for weakies but maybe due to their strength, i had a few hard hits which they took my whole gulp, thats like a $1.25 missed hit :eek:

[fishinmission78]

finchaser, and shark, grats on the bass and weakie action. I have been lazy lately, less motivated. Most of my action is coming from bluefish, gave up on the sharks. We had a decent bite of small blues today at Island Beach. The action was all on metal, and lasted for about an hour. Then the surf got a little rough and it gradually petered out. A half hour later it started up again, but it was a weak bite compared to the first one. It was great to have that action and the bend in the rod. :fishing:

[finchaser]

Thanks

Last night 1 fish on DOA head and tail
Today 7-9:30 am 19 bass 4 of which were 28 to 30" all on AVA 17 all still swimming.

[cowherder]

:wow:19 bass finchaser that's like one every 8 minutes you are a fishing machine! I fished Sandy Hook on the incoming. The water was rough this morning and the wind would not let up. I walked and walked to a spot where it was a little calmer. I was throwing the diamond jig, but it didn't seem like great fishing weather. I called it quits after an hour.:skunk:

[DarkSkies]

:wow:19 bass finchaser that's like one every 8 minutes you are a fishing machine!

His hands are registered as secret weapons with the NJDFW. ;)

I fished last night with Pebbles. We hit a sure fire place where the bait was boiling for the last 6 days. We show up and it's dead water. The E/NE continued to blow through the night. Around 2:30 am I hooked and dropped a decent fish on a blue chrome jointed magnum bomber, that was it for us. No taps, missed swings, or anything that would remotely resemble a fish. The full moon tide was strong and the bait quantities were low.

Met some interesting people out and about. Showed Henry from Cali a little of how we do it in NJ, though we couldn't get him hooked up with anything but a crab. Good luck with the next gig Henry, nice meetin ya! :HappyWave:

Left around 4am to change our luck in OC. 15 minutes later we get a call from a friend to come back, that things were starting to look interesting. Hey, that's fishin. :don't know why:

Slept in the van, wind was blowing strong at dawn. Walked to the beach and saw it was unfishable for artificials. A few guys slinging bait, not much more.


7606

7607

Beautiful morning. This was one of those mornings you pray for in the Fall, strong E/NE, overcast skies. If the bait was concentrated in the surf, there would have been all hell breaking loose. :lookhappy: :viking:

Unfortunately it was not to be. We made our way to an inlet, did some scouting and helped some kids instead. More on that in another thread.

[finchaser]

[quote=cowherder;23379]:wow:19 bass finchaser that's like one every 8 minutes you are a fishing machine!

Catching schoolie fish 1 every 10 miniutes to boiling fish is no biggie, think of how many casts you make in 10 miniutes while your standing in 1 place. To be exact I started at around 6:30 and quit at 9:47 when I returned Dark Skies phone call. I also fish conventional not to stress the fish at this location.

Last night 5 fish on DOA lead head and Rip Tide salt and pepped mullet tail 6-8pm fish shut down at dark when wind dropped out

[c4charlie]

Got back out on Friday night with only two short bass to show for it and lots of misses by big bluefish.

Then went out on Sunday night and the blues were there but just not feeding. Not a good night as far as landing anything. Got 3 hookups where fish came off. A bunch of misses and one fish that bit off my leader and lure. Not very happy that night. The east wind hurt the fishing for me.

[chas527]

fished nomoco this morning at first light.no body on the whole beach.got 4 big blue fish on avis 17 no stripers.

[storminsteve]

Hey chaz I thing the gator bluefish are in. I went to Sandy Hook yesterday 6-8pm. I got 3 big blues to 12# on diamond jigs. There were a lot of rainfish in the surf. Great fight those blues.:eek:

[finchaser]

Did the boat thing last night :skunk: 8pm to 12am

This AM 7-9 got 1 short on lead head and Rip Tide mullet tail, seems the calm before the next blow shut down the 5 days of near blitz conditions:don't know why: there was still tons of bait thick enough to snag on a single jig hook. May try agian after work today.

[DarkSkies]

there was still tons of bait thick enough to snag on a single jig hook. May try agian after work today.

I was wondering if you killed them again last night or not finchaser. At least I don't feel that bad with the poor results I had. I felt like a total idiot last night with the thick quantities of bait I ran into and had to work intensely to scratch out one fish. :beatin:

I fished the back. Missed the incoming, but got out there for the slack and half of the outgoing. Because it was a different tide, I picked a spot where the bait would be coming toward me rather than away. The area was a new one for me. I knew of it but never took the time to really spend time fishin it. Last night I did, with poor results, but I did learn a lot.

This time of year I like to look for deeper water and current. I found both, but on the way to the deeper water, I checked out a flats area that was draining into the channels. My first move had me drooling. As soon as the tide started moving, the bait exploded. There was so much of it, chiefly spearing, that I shone a light on it and saw thousands of spearing come by in waves at a time, in big bait balls, so big the water was dark with the profile.

I figured a spearing profile silver and pink fin-s was the ticket, and worked it hard as I had explosions of bass feeding going on all around me. I could tell by the slurps that they were all small schoolies, but there were so many of them, and no bluefish. It was like a schoolie nursery.

With visions of the bass I was going to catch :laugh:, I cast and cast with no result. Tried different profiles, different rubber sized, different size jigheads as the tide got stronger, teasers (small, medium, and spearing profile), not a tap.

I luckily ran into a guy who has been fishing that place 20 years. He was fishing rubber and couldn't get a hit. He seemed to think that the bass there like yellow at night, and last night was perfect for that. A dark, cloudy night with none of the hard noreast breeze they were forecasting. In fact, there was no wind at all until 3am when it first started W, then shifted to a steady Noreast.

He catches 2 bass on a yellow bomber in the next hour, then leaves. I switch to yellow, not a tap. I finally got one small bass on a yozuri spearing profile, and after hundreds more casts, one slight tap on that plug. Nothing else worked for me, which frustrated the hell out of me.

The best assessment I could make is that the bass were keyed on the spearing bait balls because there were so many of them. It seemed like they weren't targeting individual spearing, but were running through the schools with their mouths open. To me, the rubber jig should have produced in a situation like that, but for some reason it didn't.

It was a beautiful night out there, except for the no see ums that were crawling when there was no wind. Anyone who walked by me would have seen a guy with a glazed look in his eyes, drool dribbling out of my mouth, :drool: and hardly any hookups.

It was a frustrating, but a challenge to learn a new place. I now have a good location to go on the ebb tide when the weather up front is bad, and some intel that gives me confidence bigger bass run through that area.

[bababooey]

Anyone who walked by me would have seen a guy with a glazed look in his eyes, drool dribbling out of my mouth, :drool: and hardly any hookups.



and how does that differ from any of your other fishing trips?:ROFLMAO

[vpass]

Late Report. I fished SH area on 9/8 for the last of the incoming. only caught 1 small blue. The only bait that I seen were Spearing. Not much going on on the ocean side. I fished SI earlier begining of the outgoing caught 5 Blues all small. There were lots of splashes out in the middle of RB. Seems like bigger fish out there. Lots of Peanuts also in the area.

[DarkSkies]

and how does that differ from any of your other fishing trips?:ROFLMAO

Hey at least I'm out there tryin. No shame in not catchin as long as you gave it your best shot. :2flip:

Once I get this site running smoothly, I'll turn my attention to more fishin, and setting up a school for googs and dillydocks, where I'll be not only the president but a card-carrying member. You're welcome to drop in for instruction anytime. ;)

[Monty]

New web site idea??
Stripers and Googs?

I took the skunk Sunday AM in the back and Monday AM (couple hours) out front.
To top it off, a big blue clobbered one of my favorite Rip-Pluger plugs at around 2:30 am, a good fight and then the line went slack, line was cut (bite off) above the plug (lost fish and the plug, darn).




Hey at least I'm out there tryin. No shame in not catchin as long as you gave it your best shot. :2flip:

Once I get this site running smoothly, I'll turn my attention to more fishin, and setting up a school for googs and dillydocks, where I'll be not only the president but a card-carrying member. You're welcome to drop in for instruction anytime. ;)

[c4charlie]

Tues night/Wed Early Morning in NO MOCO backwaters. Planned some spots because of the wind. Wind did not start until 3am which was very odd. Landed 3 big blues, couple hookups that got off and a bunch of misses on the spook. Some of these fish need glasses.

Could of and should have been on the outside but the blues kept me somewhat entertained. Can't believe how different the weather was to what I was expecting. Caught my first fish on a yellow superstrike darter. First fish ever on a darter. I thought those did not work in NJ.

[finchaser]

Tried for weakfish last night in the boat in the back bay, had 6 small blues on a buck tail with white curly tail. 7 to 9PM. At 9 mother nature unleashed her full fury as winds went to gale force:scared: so we took our 10 minute ride home.

[ledhead36]

Decided to try my luck in the weather. I should have stayed home. I was out for three hours and got nothing.

[GeoffT]

A buddy and I found big blues to 14 lbs busting on peanuts this morning 4-6 am in the back in MoCo. It felt good to feel the hard pull of these bruisers again, though they were picky with so much bait around. My buddy also caught a schoolie. All on big bucktails with a white curlytail and surface swimmers.

[finchaser]

Saturday afternoon last 2 hours of incoming 5 small blues and a bunch of large shad on a buck tail and white curly tail water was brown

[Monty]

Ocean side this AM. 1 short bass on the rubber teaser and a fluke that looked to be 20-24 inches on the 3 oz Jrod bunker.
Wow, beach looked like it lost 2 feet of sand to me (exposed rocks, running waves).

[zev]

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/6521/sept1320091stkeepr.jpg
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8255/sept13th20091stkeeperof.jpg
when i scouted earlier this week
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/8274/cimg0200y.jpg

[wish4fish]

nice job on the bass zev i had a dozen small rats last night near a marina. they were all on spearing no peanuts around. used a rattletrap and a white teaser, most hit the teaser. nothing bigger than 22"

[clamchucker]

3 schoolies this morning in noOcean County, first light, small diamond jig with red tail. Surf is clearing up nicely.

[cowherder]

Fished sandy hook yesterday afternoon. 2 sea robins and one big bluefish with an ava metal.

[storminsteve]

A nomoco beach tonight 6-7:30pm. Got 4 bluefish on poppers, they were nice size. Peanut bunker in the surfline, becoming chopped peanut salad. Zev and clamchucker, nice job on the bass, I was hoping to nail one tonight, maybe tomorrow.

[plugaholic]

I fished out front last night. One short bass, black bomber.

[c4charlie]

This may be a long report.

Fished last night from 10-2:30. Started out front on a rockpile that usually produces. Everything looked good, tried a bunch of plugs, bucktails and some FinS but no luck. Bait was abundant, just too happy. Decided to head back north and hit some back spots. Lots of bait again but no takers on anything I was offering. Moved to where I heard some tail slaps and splashes and saw the usual spearing with pods of mullet running through some very clear water with the occasional bass feeding. I have been catching them in this spot so I knew the bass would like a small yozuri crystal minnow. White with red head was the key since there were some lights nearby. Landed a short 24" bass and I thought, now would be the best time to break out my fly rod gear I just got the previous day for my birthday.

Back to the vehicle, get the rod, reel and flies. This is my first saltwater fly rod experience. I got some flies from a friend in FL that has helped me out greatly but I have no clue on which one will work. So I pick a small spearing looking one. I wade out a bit and the splashes are continuing, some as close as 5-10 feet away. I'm surrounded by bait. Begin casting at about 12, still no wind, perfect conditions. Changed flies about 4 times and casted for 2 and a half hours trying a bunch of different strips. Splashes continued sporadically until I left at 2:30 and I was unable to get a bite. One striper swam right past me to slurp some baitfish, we looked at each other for a brief split second and off he went.

Although I did not catch on the fly, I learned a lot. I also learned that I need a stripping basket ASAP. Not easy to shoot line when the current is pulling the line in one direction and you are casting in the other direction. At 2:30, the wind kicked up, the conditions changed and I called it a night. Probably could have caught a couple more stripers with the minnow lure but the experience I had was worth way more. I am going to get a stripping basket ASAP and start asking some questions in the fly fishing forum. Hopefully, I will be able to get one soon.