Bass Per Hour

[vpass]

So far for 2011, I'm averaging 1 bass for every 7.42 hours.:embarassed::blackeye::waaah: I'm going thru my log book and will post my stats.

For 2010 I got 1 bass for every 1.99 hours, I did get into some good Blitz action. I also had 15 skunked trips. I made 35 trips.

For 2009 I got 1 bass for every 3.93 hours I had 59 trips, and out of that 59 trips 22 of them where skunked trips.

From 2008 and earlier, I didn't documented well enough to use the data, and had skipped entries. The entries that I have for 2003, and 2004 are amazing. I wish i could relive them. In 2003 I had approx 300 bass caught in Oct. and Nov. and their was one week in the end of Oct. that peanut bunker were being beach for a half mile. There were a few that withnessed this. 1 blue for every 4 bass. That was a great year. I also had a hook go thru my finger. I crushed the barb to remove the hook. I then waited a half hour and continued catch a dozen bass. and these bass were mid teens low 20 pound fish.

The purpose of this post is to show the trend of bass per hour over the years. If all of you could contribute to this mini project to get a better picture. I bet it's trending down. I did a quick comparison to 2003, and 2004, and I’m way down.

[Monty]

Looking at my trips and bass caught and average time out there this year, I'm likely in the 8-10 hour per bass area. Last year was much lower. My skunkings are down this year, but most trips with one bass. Usually November is my most productive month, will see what happens....
Looking back through 2008 its easy to see a decrease in bass per hour each year.
Either I am becoming a more incompetent fisherman each year or there are less bass around (don't count out the first one :confused:).

[finchaser]

Dark 1 bass every 3days (72 hours) your both doing well, keep up the good work

[DarkSkies]

^^ I'll come back and answer this in detail when I got more time. For now, I'll just shamefully admit the grouchy basstard's statement is accurate. Been getting some bigger fish lately, but at a price of lost sleep, wet ballz, stinky car (my 2nd home), and running all over to nail a teen fish or 2.....definitely much harder than it's ever been.

Quick rant on Sandy Hook...
I know that place well, and could tell ya to the week when certain fish hit certain places there...I still have a network of friends who fish there regularly...many of them with decades of experience...and almost every experienced angler I know complains how the catching has declined drastically..

I know the structure has changed, that's part of it...
But if you take that out of the equation, and consider an area there that almost always holds bass,,,, well it hasn't been holding bass for the surf guys....and that area still has good structure, the fish should be there.

Vpass, I have great memories of the 2003-04 years running out there before work, catching 4-6 schoolies in a half hour, and still managing to get to work on time. And the nights of double digit numbers of fish to the 20's were enough to make you drool. This was in any month of the year except Jan-March, and August...













And the great times when I hooked up with the Old Farts Fishing Club, and we cruised the beaches in Ocean and Monmouth counties...for the Spring and Fall we usually managed to find 3-4 pods of fish/day that were blitzing...sure we got skunked once in awhile, but if you spent an afternoon scouting for active fish you could easily get double digits of bass and big blues. There were more varieties of forage fish than you could count,,,,,spearing, rainfish, anchovies, peanuts, herring, hickory shad, sandeels...all moving in the surf line as part of the seasonal bait migrations...
That was only 8 short years ago....





Now that kind of blitz fishing is mostly available under the adult bunker pods, and lately rarely, as miles of bunker sit just off the surf line, with no bass or blues to bother them...

The fishing is a mere shadow of what it has been...
Ya can't blame all of that on structure changes, or an offshore migration...


If Montauk is the fish superhighway of the East Coast.....

Sandy Hook at one time was at least a decent highway....now it's no more than a rarely visited cow path, metaphorically speaking...






Good thread, V. :thumbsup:

[DarkSkies]

Daniel Nee of the Brick Patch, sent in by Finchaser, thanks.


"Truth be told, it's been a relatively slow striped bass run so far this fall.
This time of year, everyone I talk to seems to bring up fishing, and while last year at this time everyone was bragging about their monster bass they had caught, this year it's more like a Q&A session of, "Well, did YOU catch anything yet? Nothing here.' "

[gjb1969]

hey at least u guys are getting keepers all i get is micro and runts thats it my last keeper bass was in the spring and i am just sick of it so good for u guys :HappyWave:

[cowherder]

Looking at my trips and bass caught and average time out there this year, I'm likely in the 8-10 hour per bass area..

I agree with monty, it takes me at least 10 hours to catch a bass. I recently went back to clams again as it seems many of the pluggers are not catching.

I don't keep records of all the time I spent fishing like you guys do. If my wife knew so little fish were caught with all the time I spend out there, she might think I am out fooling around!

[jigfreak]

I don't keep hours logged either, too depressing. I will say I have been shut out many times this year. A lot of trips I take are according to my logs. This year has been one disappointment after another.

[williehookem]

I If my wife knew so little fish were caught with all the time I spend out there, she might think I am out fooling around!

Then make sure you don't tell her the truth about what you spent on your fishing gear.:)

[fishinmission78]

Good one willie! I don't log hours either vpass, but have spent a hell of a lot of time this year for a few quality fish.

[stripermania]

You guys should see this guy John Skinner catch bass. He catches so many it almost looks unreal. Put him on your team and your catch per hour should spike up through the roof!
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/showthread.php?8150-bucktail-fishing-on-inshore-structure&p=55366#post55366

[plugcrazy]

The purpose of this post is to show the trend of bass per hour over the years. If all of you could contribute to this mini project to get a better picture. I bet it's trending down. I did a quick comparison to 2003, and 2004, and I’m way down.

I am sorry vpass. I don't keep a log. What you said above seems true. It's like every year you have to run to more beaches to get any bass. This year if you didn't fish Island Beach and you lived in New Jerey, you may have said there were no bass. So I fished there in the late fall. I also fished there in the beginning of the fall. There were not a lot of fish caught until November, so I wouldn't say the place was really that great for the whole year. It does appear that the bass are NOT in many more places, than they ARE. This is not a good sign. Just MHO. Thanks

[basshunter]

I wonder if you were to look at the difference between day and night trips., not counting the blitzes. I bet the numbers would be 3 times as much in the night. I dont have numbers either vpass but thats what it seems like to me.

[finchaser]

According to my logs dusk and dawn numbers blow away night numbers and I've been at this for over 50 years. Many guys who fish all night rack up most of there fish between just before and through first light one of the main reasons i gave up the all nighters and still average around 250 to 300 bass a year on plugs. In the last 2 weeks I've had over 60 fish 9 of which were bass in approx 10 hours none from the boat and didn't fish in the dark or use bait once. Just my opinion no need to marathon fish like we had to in the 70's were fish were scarce but those days will be upon us again unfortunately do to how the bass are being wiped out again.( snag and drop killing of the breeders)

Grey to orange sky majic hour #1
orange to dark sky majic hour #2
Dark #3

[baitstealer]

still average around 250 to 300 bass a year on plugs. In the last 2 weeks I've had over 60 fish 9 of which were bass in approx 10 hours none from the boat and didn't fish in the dark or use bait once.


I have been reading your reports finchaser. I know dark makes fun of you but it seems you are catching fish regularly. All of the other sites have guys talking about anything else but bass and blues in the surf. It seems this is a bad time for them or people only want to fish for the monsters in the snag and drop as you said. What ever you are doing you must be doing something right. 60 fish in 2 weeks is awesome! I would be happy with 6 fish! Way to go and thanks for the reports.

[DarkSkies]

So far for 2011, I'm averaging 1 bass for every 7.42 hours.:embarassed::blackeye::waaah:

The purpose of this post is to show the trend of bass per hour over the years.

If all of you could contribute to this mini project to get a better picture. I bet it's trending down.

I did a quick comparison to 2003, and 2004, and I’m way down.


Would have to agree with that V.....:HappyWave:
My catch rate is way down....hours and hours to find fish when I used to have a somewhat normal fishing schedule....fish 1/2 hour before work, catch 4-5 bass, and I was happy.

Last night I fished almost 8 hours, not even a dropped fish, just one that was missed, one bump from a bass.
I think Sandy has a part in all of this.....the normal back bay forage that is here this time of year, is notably absent.

I also agree with your trend and what you are trying to prove.
I was talking with the OFFC last week, about the fishing we used to do 8-10 years ago in the Spring....
There was great action going on. All you had to do was drive a mile or so down the Coast and you could find bass and blues....and I'm not talking about the bunker pods either.....there were many varieties of bait, and the bass and blues would crush them at the surfline....

Now all that seems like ancient history, or fairy tales....
When folks hear my rants about it, it's because I remember it with passion...those were fun times, and they weren't too long ago...

[finchaser]

There DEAD you will never see fishing like that again as a matter of fact I didn't think I'd see them wiped out twice in my life time guess I was wrong. Thanks to the many facets of the internet, bunker and most of all egotistical look at me chest pounders.

[DarkSkies]

Thought some might like to comment on how they did this year, relative to bass per hour, and Vpass's original question.
I'm embarrassed to say I did not break it down to bass per hour for my trips this year.

I had a lot of things going on fighting for fishermens rights and access and did not start my season until May....
I have gotten very few bass on artificials this year, compared to other years....
Kicking myself for not travelling throughout the state to take advantage of some specific bites I knew about....In the past, it wasn't necessary to do that to get good numbers (a few hundred up to 500) bass per year.......

If I had to estimate, I would say it took me at least 20 hours of fishing time, to catch, each bass, this year.. (so far)...with the caveat that I know putting in more time I could have done better....

Again, there were some more missed opportunities....there have been some very small bass in front....12-20"........I go back and forth in my head whether I want to target those bass or not.....the ocean bass in larger sizes have only shown up for a few hours at a time.....usually when I'm working.......

I also have friends fishing bunker heads in strategic areas....pulling in high teen and bigger bass...for a few hours time.......
It's clear to me, that if you are
1. fishing bunker heads...your answers to "bass per hour" would be very different in this thread....
2. same if from a kayak or boat......

So I don't think my results this year were typical for me...and probably should be taken in that vein...I have some friends who were out almost every night, who did much better than that.......


**Nonetheless if I want to be consistent in my reporting I have to report the bad, with the good.....









Just thought some of the other folks here, would like to re-visit this thread....and maybe have have something to contribute....

[J Barbosa]

Fished last night with 25 of my closest friends (I counted).

Started off with just me, Rui and about 5 other guys. Rui and I caught a short each within our first couple of casts on bucktails. Thought it was going to be a good night. Before you know it groups of 4 and 5 guys show up at a time and your fishing shoulder to shoulder making it practically non fishable.

Saw 8 bass caught in a 5 hour window including our two fish.

So 25 guys / 8 fish = .32 fish per angler / 5 hours = .064 fish per hour per angler!

Need Vpass and Finchaser to come fishing with me so when a group of 4 guys tries to stick themselves between 10ft of space we can shove them in the water.

Rant over!!!!

[fishinmission78]

At least you tried JB.