Same here. Smallest fish all year. Has anyone seen numbers of hickory shad lately? might be more fun to target them with light gear or a flyrod.
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^^ Hookset I bet there are a crap load of hickories up at the Hook. We won't be able to fish there till next summer. Oh well.
Nice going!
Awesome reports and pics, thanks for sharing. I fished Brigantine this am with metal and storm shads, the sunrise was beautiful but no fish for me.
This late afternoon 2 keepers to 9# and 3 shorts all on plugs all still swimming.
I fished for an hour yesterday, and 1 hour today till dark. Got 2 tiny bass yesterday, and 1 tiny bass today. all on fin-s. It was great to be out.
Nice going Fin 9 pounds among tiny bass is a big deal.:thumbsup:
Thu PM....
The shift in a weather pattern sometimes turns on the surf bite...
That did not happen on Wed PM as Fin and I set out to find some bass in the surf. It had turned cold in the low 30's, little windy, and we both fished with gloves.
2 hours of our best efforts, not a tap for either of us. :don't know why:
It was dismal., but the company was enjoyable....:fishing: :thumbsup:
When He went home. I made one more stop...one short bass on a Tsunami bomber copy (with rattles).
Fri PM.....
Real dissatisfied with the inconsistent bite up North...
I made the drive to lower Ocean County....seems the bite may be a little better there as they have small amounts of sandeels in the surf....
Fished all night in the rain for a true Monty Marathon......9 hours....
Managed 14 bass to 28"...all fish released.
The 28" was the only keeper, but others were close.
Nice fish although they were skinny.
What worked:
Tsunami creamsickle colored swimmer
Storm Thunderstick ( when the wind kicked up after the tide change)
Mag darter.....
Fish were very light hitting,
I had to wade out on a bar to get them at low tide.
Didn't think to bring my dry top. Once the tide started coming in I got wet, soaked to the skin.....
There was no way I would stop fishing,,,,just suffered through it.....:headbang:
When you get wet and the water is colder you run the risk of cramping.....
The fish were very light hitting, and may have been pursuing herring in the area.
If you did not set the hook hard you would drop them......
Still, it was a lot of fun to play with that many fish......:fishing:
I dropped a few more, not that many.
You're welcome Seamonkey...fish it hard.....
It is...with all the very small fish being caught a 9# bass is considered one of the larger ones.....Seeing him work artificials is a privelege to behold....:thumbsup:
Friday was a day of "I thoughts" for me. Used up a vaca day to go on a party boat because I thought the shorts were 25-27 and i thought the surf action was dead. I also thought we would fish off Monmouth beach all day. I thought i could finally catch a fish over 30" for this fall this way. I did the marathon trip and they did stay out all day 6am to 345 we got back. Shockingly no bird life at first light, they gave up on that area kinda quickly and headed north, I assumed it be to the highlands bridge but it turns out an hour later we ended up well off Coney Island. Found some fish and birds, fast moving fish, the shorts were more like 21-24" when we got back to NJ for the last hour of fishing the action at the Monmouth Rocks area was better. We left with some good bird life going on in afternoon. We wasted 2 hours of travel time could have been used to pick at fish there. I only 5 all day my friend got about 12 with one keeper @ 29" 6 other keeps on board for 27 anglers. Shads on 3 to 4 oz heads worked for us. If you wonder if they lie on the reports :) The reports said we had limits and tons of shorts. Id say most guys got 3 to 8 fish a few may have got less.
This morning 5:30 to 7 AM 1 keeper 33 inch around 15# also 2 shorts 18 and 27 inchs all released. One of my friends had a nice 35" fish that he kept and 4 shorts he released
Just got back after fishing 2:30-5 PM in MoCo. Light variable winds. Good clean water.
Ridiculous action once the current started moving. 22 shorts and 1 keeper at 28". Numerous hits and miss. All but one on a 5" shad in bunker (that one on a Vision sandeel). They wanted it retrieved fast.
Best part about it was I was completely alone. Which is kinda hard to do on a weekend with such limited beach access nowadays. :thumbsup:
We trolled out to the Shrewsbury Rocks today. A few bass and blues to 10# on umbrella rigs. Once there we got into sporadic action by jigging a27s on marks. All small fish. They were not concentrated. Also heard on the radio of a boat hitting another while we were on the way home. We didn't see it so I don't know when it happened.
I fished nomoco today, 19 micro bass on storm shad. One bass was 23" woo hoo! The rest had diapers on.:laugh:
Finchaser way to go! you always seem to find the bigger fish.
Good going guys!
Fished the incoming tonight moco. Picked up 4 to 12#. Rubber.
This morning 5 to 7:30 AM had 2 keepers 8# and 11# also 7 shorts all on rubber all released
Finally put a good amount of time in surf fishing this weekend. There are an awful lot of short fish out there. All on metal yesterday and rubber today. No keepers.
Good for you^^^^^^
Nice efforts, all. :thumbsup:
as Shorelady and others said, lots of little fish around.
If the swell is not big you will catch em....so easy even a Googan like me can do it....:rolleyes: :laugh:
Bigger fish are the needle in the haystack fish and take a little more effort....
Monty Marathon report:
Sat - Sun.....
** Note...... edited with the gripping details of how I tracked down and mugged the OGB.....:laugh: :moon: :HappyWave:
Sat - went out for the AM Sun bite to the Southern area where I previously got action the other night.
As the tide was at the top at around 3am, I figured it would be no problem as I would work the drop.
Not that great of a strategy...wading was almost impossible as the surf, instead of receding, began to build with a bigger swell. Really a little nasty and ugly. Since I was by myself, didn't want to become a news statistic....decided on another course of action.
Went to Finchaser's front door....looking to see if I could bum a ride in the helicopter ride that brings him to better waters with bigger fish..turns out he was already out, and the helicopter driver was on strike....so I set out to find him in the surf zone....the surf in that area was a little better, except it was influenced by the
Googan Effect...when a googan/dillydock shows up and shuts the bite down.....:rolleyes:
When I showed up, the bigger fish moved offshore...and the little bass took their place....We had decent action on these small fish for about 45 minutes, until Googan #2 shows up, and the bite shut off for good...(allegedly)...
Picture this, Finchaser, one of the most competent Surfcasters on the NJ Surfline....flanked to the left and right by 2 Googans....:scared:
He said he had enough and cleared out....
I took a nap while Googan #2 didn't want to leave without catching a fish.....casted for 2 hours until he finally caught a short bass and sundial...which spurred me into action again...but the bite was really dead at that point.....all affected by the tide....
Sun report..
Found a buffet, got some lunch took a hobo shower in a nice bathroom...report in the nomad fishing thread....
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...he-road-fishin
back out at it for the afternoon and night bite...
As the surf had gotten bigger and the E wind started howling, it became unfishable again....waste of time for most normal folks....:kooky:
I have a good friend who swears that any day now we'll be invaded by herring and bunker in the surf and some bay areas...some think he is delusional...but this does happen every year around this time,,certain key areas....on Fri a (few) fish were caught to 24# in an hour long bite in one of these areas......
So his logic, though seemingly insane...does have a point. Since he was working that night, I spent the next 3 hours at night searching some of our proven late season spots for signs of bunker, herring..... but most importantly the larger stray bass that we could be targeting....all I found was cold dirty water, and no bait.....
**However, this time of year, with fewer people out there hunting for these bigger bass.( as they are truly needle in a haystack fish, one out of every 1000).....you can't rely on intel....you have to be there when they are there with the bigger baits...and so far that has been extremely difficult as the larger schools that most are claiming are on there way here......are not...what I am talking about here is targeting the few teen or larger bass that are around because of some food source.... or just migrating through and touching down for a night or so.....like chasing ghosts in the night......