Late Fall Striped bass....mixing of the Chesapeake and Hudson biomass

[DarkSkies]

This thread is centered in NJ, but if anyone from another state cares to join in the discussion,feel free....

Fishing last night the first group of fish I ran into were around 24", fat as footballs, presumably filled with sand eels. These sandeels are now abundant 1/4 to 1/2 mile offshore, in the Shrewsbury Rocks to Sandy Hook area. (also high concentrations around IBSP, and a few other areas.

The interesting thing to me is that after the tide turned, the fish got a little bigger. Still small fish, but keeper sized up to 31".

I kept one at 28".
It was skinny, not like the fat footballs an hour before that....

It's belly was empty...had one crab claw in it....

[DarkSkies]

Some thoughts....


For the Monmouth County area, I've been telling some folks that the Shrewsbury rocks fish are a mix of small fish feeding before they go up the Hudson for the winter, and another portion of migratory Chesapeake fish, which will continue on down in the Southward migration as the water temps drop.

It was interesting to me, that the fat fish, albeit smaller, had obviously found the sandeels, and the larger fish, had not found them...

This is all hypothesis here, so I don't think anyone can provide a right or wrong answer, just looking for different opinions and thoughts......

My hypothesis is that the fat smaller fish will continue to feed, and up the Hudson, as indicated. This would also mean they are mioving back and forth between the Shrewsbury Rocks and the surf line.

The bigger fish, seem to have just arrived, so why haven't they found the sand eels, or at least the abundant herring?

Thanks for your thoughts, folks, remember there is no right or wrong anwere here..



** One of the short fish did have a tag in it, but I released it with the tag still intact...