Low water when I was out there this morning. surf was a little churned up from last night. nice walk on the beach. No fish.
Low water when I was out there this morning. surf was a little churned up from last night. nice walk on the beach. No fish.
The best teaser for hickory shad is something really short so they don't short strike it.
I've found you can catch them every cast with just a plain hook.
Surprisingly this tourney had a lot of very good fluke fisherman in it....I was expecting most of the fluke guys to be in the JCAA but nope saw most of them at the Leonardo meeting and knew right away it was going to be a tough one.
We fished with 4 guys on my boat and ended up taking 4th place (the last payout slot) with our best five fish totaling 23.5lbs. On my boga 8lbs, 7.5lbs, 4lbs, and a pair or 2lbers.
Under 45ft of water worked best for us and bunker strips took the 3 biggest fish. We ended with 9 keepers total (0 for me) for a LONG day of fishing.
northern Monmouth last night from 7 until a little past sunset. I was fluking with Gulp got 5 shorts and few Robins. there was a lot of bunker around but I didn't see any fish busting on them.
NIce going on the 4th place J Barbosa. win any decent amount of money? Heard the purse for the JCAA was supposed to be big but less entries this year. Was wondering how the other one was compared to that.
:clapping:Way to go jbarbosa! Have to be in it to win it!
About how long were those bunker strips you were trailing? Do you think that would work from the surf as well? thanks
This morning 1 bass 26" and 2 bluefish all on SP minnow
Morning shift in moco. The ocean was very calm and no breeze at all. Looked like a lake. Another skunk. finchaser congrats on the effort. jb nice going on the tourney.
Good job placing in the tourny JB!
Trying to shake the cobwebs from a long absence from fishing...I was out there before dawn this morning....Fished total of 2 hours.
Was looking for a certain feeding window...wading the bay flats...after about 15 mins I knew I picked the wrong window...
Not a touch.....
Back at it soon....:fishing:
I want to enlighten the folks here how unusual this is.....
Any time JB has had people on his boat, he usually ends up out-fishing them......
The trip Rui and I took with him, he was the only one to land a bass that night.....:headbang:
It's uncanny...almost every time he's out there....
Even if the fishing is terrible...he's often the one to pull the rabbit out of the hat...the whistle fish...the fish that no one thought was there.....:thumbsup:
So for him to fish for a long day...with no keepers.....is most unusual.....http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...know%20why.gif
Thanks for the tournament observations and congratulations to JB and crew....glad to hear that ya's placed on the leaderboard. :clapping: :HappyWave:
Hey hey DS actually fishing. Thought you gave it up for Lent. Jk, good to see you in the game again.:HappyWave:
This morning 5 to 6:30 AM 3 bass to 27" and 5 bluefish in the 2 to4 pound would only hit pink finesse. My partner had 9 bass and some blues
Awesome fishing finchaser it seems like everyone gave up fishing for the summer. Rarely do you read reports of bass and you are still plugging away. Congrats. Why do you think the color has to be pink? Is it the water color where you fish or more a resemblance to the bait there? thanks
4th place was only a 9% payout, about 60 boats total. It was a lot of fun regardless. Fishing was definitely tough with a lot of boat pressure, strong winds, super moon tides...
I fished 6" gulp grubs and bucktails (my usual). Rui fished 6-9" bunker strips and crushed our 3 (possibly 5) biggest fluke.
I think when given a choice side by side a big fluke will more often go for the fresh bloody/oily bunker strip over the gulp.
Just thinking out loud here myself....the bait they often eat is tiny and translucent. If you ever heard Bob Popovic's talk about tying his surf candies to imitate rain bait he wants just a strip of flash, the silver belly and a translucent body that you can see through. I think those hickories target on the flash the hook gives off and go for it.
I caught onto this method when the fluke fishing was slow one day at the hook and the hickories & small bluefish were plentiful. I started to catch small blues and hickories on every cast. After a while my teaser was nothing more than just the bare hook. The bare hook was out fishing the small metal trailing it.
Since then I've tried the much thicker live bait hooks in sizes 2/0 or 3/0 and its amazing how well they work. Any hit translates into a hookup. If you use a traditional 3-5" bucktail teaser you will get a ton of short strikes. This can be particularly frustrating at night when plugging for bass with a teaser.
If I was tying a teaser specifically for hickories it would be a shiny live bait hook in size 2/0 or 3/0 with only a piece of bills body braid wrapped around the shank of the hook and then clear coated for durability.
I've also caught small sea bass on plain 5/0 hooks this year when fishing the reefs.
I was jigging for fluke and kept getting my gulp stolen by the small sea bass so I stopped tipping the teaser hook and switched my bucktail for a diamond jig. Well apparently the small sea bass love plain 5/0 hooks too...
Fascinating read. During the herring run here herring will hit small hooks with even just a piece of flashy mylar on them. I guess with the shad they must be eating very tiny fish that are as small as a hook. When they see it in the water they think it's food and go for it. Thanks for sharing that.
finchaser continues the hot streak. Thanks for the tip about the fin s too.
jbarbosa thank you for the explanation. If anyone would of told me fish hit bare hooks I would have said thats BS I have to see it for myself. You guys make sense tho. If they are hitting small skinny bait and the hook is a little shiny that could work too. Thats one of the reasons we like to use gold hooks for shad and herring when they come around.
Fishing report. sorry have not posted for awhile bit its been the usual doggies and skates. The Cape May prize fish lol.
Tried CM this morning for croakers and it was the end of the outgoing tide and no dice. Also it was rough surf which I have found not to be that great. I got a nice mess of them last week when the beginning of the incoming tide was very early near sunrise. Fishbites worked better for me.
This morning 4:30 to 6 released 4 bass to 28" and to many 2 to 6 pound blues to count all on jig head with DOA rubber tail they would not touch a plug or metal even under blitz conditions:don't know why:. My partner did about the same