Great going guys. Good news about the surf too buckethead thanks. I may be out there tomorrow, or maybe tonight. Trying to shadow dark or finchaser.:laugh:
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Great going guys. Good news about the surf too buckethead thanks. I may be out there tomorrow, or maybe tonight. Trying to shadow dark or finchaser.:laugh:
Fished moco last night. Cold and bleak out there but did find a few bass to 10#. Swimmers. Did anyone else see the meteor showers they were awesome.
Outstanding job buckethead, and anyone else who is out braving the cold for the few remaining fish. :thumbsup:
I struck out big-time last night.
Returned to the previous night's action scene and it was dead. Made a few more moves in that area. Not a touch. Casted my aZZ off for 2 hours, believing against hope I could find at least 1....I couldn't. :skunk:
Conditions -
Air temp 30.
Water temp 46.
Wind not bad, light E/SE 0-5mph.
Swell, 3', duration was tough in that there was an intermittent period swell. Some of the waves were coming at a duration of 4 secs of less, with some periods of calm in between.
The water is getting really cold......ocean water temps in most of NNJ have dropped 4 degrees in the last 10 days.....that's a significant drop....anyone who is believing that the bass will be around all winter......:kooky: needs to think about where the water temps are now, as opposed to last year.......and of the forage currently available....
I reviewed the 2011 Stripers and Anglers Winter fishing thread. Beyond the mild weather we were having, the water temps stayed near 50 for a very long time.....and only gradually dropped to the low 40's at the end of January.....
Remember.... 42-43 is the cutoff point where bass are likely to hit artificials.....we got them last year to around that temp. Then they shut off for a week...the temp inching slowly upward was the only thing that kept the fish actively feeding.....
This was in addition to the abundant bait we had, the most abundant it had been in years.....
This year that is not the case......
And this means that the fish that are around, are mostly very skinny and small fish.....if they are not finding abundant food they will move on very quickly....
This is part of the conditions that make it so hard for me and others to predict the bite with any accuracy......so when someone tells me the fish will be here all winter, I have to question whether that person fishes often......:huh: and really has an understanding of the things that keep fish around for us to catch them....
More on that in
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...y-abandoned-us
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Part 2.....
Slept in the car....
Up at 6:30 am to try to shake the skunk before work today.
There was a limited bite but it did not start till the sun was rising in the sky....lasted for about 1/2 hour......
I managed 2 small bass on small 5" plugs......yozuri and megabait.
The high hook on the beach got around 5 or 6...
He is an old timer and had some interesting things to say about the fishing this year...
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...ght=old+timers
Not many others were caught... bite was basically over as the flood tide neared the top.
This frigid water makes it smart for reasonable fishermen to shift their fishing time to the end of day.....after a sunny day.....:learn:
Unless you find herring or bunker coming close to the surf line, which has happened a few times in the last 2 weeks, it is a vast dead sea out there.....although as recently as today birds were diving on bait slightly offshore.....there are many areas which hold nothing at all other than the small sand crabs and a few pods of fast moving rainfish.
Googan bunker are long gone
Grumble, grumble, grumble......:rolleyes:
(I found some this week.......ssshhhhhhhhh!) :moon: :laugh: :kiss: :HappyWave:
Fished pretty hard in the last 48 hours.....
Fri Pm
Got down to the beach after work.
Decided to return to Ocean County beaches as the water is cleaner and periodically has been more bait there. The conditions were great, flood tide, clean water, no signs of fish.....
Casted for an hour, nothing for me.
Then went to another beach, met some old farts ;) We had the same results there...:skunk:
Got a call from another group of old farts....the OFFC....:HappyWave:
They did manage some fish during the day....:thumbsup:...but their chief complaint was the big intermittent swell interfered with presentation....I completely agree,,,,when throwing clams it doesn't matter, but when throwing artificials, if you are only in the strike zone for a part of every cast, or every 2-3 casts, it gets frustrating......
I decided the surf was so lame, that I was gonna take a nap and fish the other side of the tide......
Sat AM...
I was rousted from a sound sleep at 2am by the local police....they were "worried" that I was ok....:rolleyes:
I never mind when they check on me....all good since in my sobriety I'm not doing anything in a drunken stupor that could get me into trouble.....:cool:
They did me a favor, my secondary alarm clock...if they didn't wake me I would have missed the feeding window.....
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...feeding+window
Got ready and made it down to the water for low tide. This enabled me to wade out to the bar......
It took awhile, but eventually the bite developed.
The fish were extremely sluggish.....at these water temps they are almost comatose at night.
For example, bass usually hit on the front treble....all my bass were hooked on the rear one.....
Daiwa SM (smaller version of the SP) was the best producer. Things that had worked other nights did not work last night......not a touch at all on rubber...
As mentioned with a cold water night bite...the fish were very lethargic. My biggest fish of the night bumped the plug so lightly it felt like it sometimes does when a school of bunker goes by at night.....
It was a blast as she woke up and started pulling drag......:bigeyes: haven't had that happen in a while.....
Note to Finchaser....:moon: there were no bunker where I was in that surf....possibly herring, though......;) :HappyWave:
I missed an embarassing number of strikes. Once I got into a groove and began to see how these migratory fish were passing through the area (farthest end of the cast) I started hooking up and landing them better...........
It was a lot of fun, best sizes of fish and level of activity I have had in over 2 weeks......:headbang:
Total:
Managed 7 bass to 35" and 15+lbs.....
2 were legal, released one, kept one......
Eventually I had to leave the surf because the tide came rushing in as I was out on the bar.
I then went to another beach that I had found activity during that part of the tide....but got nothing at all there......packed it in around sunrise......A good night of steady action while it lasted.......:headbang:
Pic of the nicest fish of the night.....
Attachment 15898
Attachment 15899
Attachment 15900
Conditions....
Air temp 43, about 12 degrees warmer than the night before....
Water temp 47
Swell, 3', and reported duration of 9 secs....the bad part of this was with the intermittent period swell., the duration was closer to 4 secs,,,,which really hampers your presentation....
Wow good to see you are still getting them over there. Real nice fish!
:clapping: Fantastic job ds. that fish looks bigger than 15. Didn't think any that size were still around.you work hard at it and kudos are in order. Any idea why the SP was the only thing that worked?
I fished nomoco from 7-9a, it was like the dead sea in the wash. Even the little ones seem to have moved out. I stopped at a few places on the way home and heard talk of a few on clams and a 25lber further south. Lots of guys fishing today but not many catching. I was one of the ones not catching.
Beautiful fish dark! Thanks for sharing the pics. Like steve said you put in a lot of time out there and deserve it. Striper cakes!
dark dooooooooooooooood! nice now eny one that wants to follow him pm me and ill tell u wat he drives. jus kiddin pretty work dude
Aah, I heard a rumor he bought that fish at the Philly market. They had it listed as the googan special of the day.:ROFLMAO
Nice fish dark, show your mug next time.
Great reports and pics thanks for sharing. Looks like there may be a few more. The party boats did ok today with some bigger fish. I went to Jack's today, bought some sps, and tried them in the lb surf. Got the skunk but it was a great day to fish anyway.
Fished outgpoing moco tonight from 10-1am. 5 bass to 9#. Rubber. Nice bass ds.
Great reports guys. Dark congrats on the nice bass!
Nice going guys, Wow Dark nice action. Hope it will continue for you like last year. I heard that the bass are loaded with Mole crabs.
^^ :moon: :kiss: :laugh: :clapping: :HappyWave:
Thanks for the kind, and not-so-kind....;) words, people.....it's all good, some of ya's should quit your day jobs and do stand-up....:rolleyes:
Feel free to lay it on.....but if you really want a challenge come out with me at night and see if you can put up with the rigors of a 5-6 hour trip, often coming up empty handed or with a few small fish.....:fishing:
I got those fish because I am obsessive about forage, weather, and swell patterns....but in the end no matter how good or persistent you are, you need a little luck, and have to put the time in.....
As I was explaining to someone else, these larger fish are the needle in the haystack fish for we who fish the surf....
To the newer anglers out there I would say you're more likely to catch a 15" fish than a 15# fish...lately even the numbers of smaller fish has dimished as our NJ season winds down.....some specific reasons for that....I'll try to explain it here
when I get a chance.....
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Sun AM report....
Got down to the water around 2am. The forecast rains didn't start yet, and the winds were E, but less than 2mph....
The problem was the building swell....and the stable duration of 9 secs still had the intermittent swell component.....
Which as I explained in my last report was a problem for presentation....there were a series of big 5' waves coming 6-8 at a time...followed by maybe 1 minute of calmer water. This surf action continued to build as I was there.
I casted into the calmer periods for 45 minutes. The frustrating thing was waiting for 2 minutes to get better presentation. Finally managed a short bass on a bottle plug. I knew it was not going to happen like it did the night before, so after an hour was up, I cut the trip short.
Went to another location where I could cast with my back to the building E wind...that location was weedy, and there were no fish there.....so that ended the trip for me......
I really don't understand those folks who drool :drool: over Northeast conditions....
It ruins the bite unless you're fishing clams or there is a lot of bait in the surf...and this is not the case right now....
IMO the best windows for the surf bite were Friday and Saturday.....the guys who knew that were out fishing hard, and some nice fish were caught,,,,,,,
Congrats to all who made it out there......:clapping: :thumbsup: