Awesome advice gents thanks.
Awesome advice gents thanks.
Fished moco from 3-7:30 it was like a lake out there. Saw some bait and blowups around sunset. I could not hook up with anything but those shad. Heard they are crushing them in the boats off long island. Hope they save some for us.
Nomoco from dark to now, just got done. One bass caught not by me. A few others and I gave it our best. Like others have said it's hickory shad heaven out there right now. I would love to see some 15lb blues come in and crush these shad like jaws. The stripers could come and pick up the pieces and we would all be happy. Doesn't look like that will happen.
I hope sharkhart is right about the sandeels. Or we can just pray to the striper gods to have mercy on us and open up the striper pipeline a little. That is if there are any left. Starting to see what all you guys are saying is spot on. It's going to be november in 12 days and like finchaser says it seems too many stripers are dead. They are just not there.
Haveing the same experiences as you gents. Found some shad in no moco last night. I was casting mag darters and bomber long a plugs. I thought shad only hit teasers but I got one on each of those lures. Didn't see or hear of any stripers caught.
Yes please. someone come up with a prayer or something. Lack of bass is getting depressing. While we are praying, maybe NJ will can the program of 3 stripers. I met a guy from long island this week in a tackle shop. He was visiting family and coulldn't believe we can still keep 3 stripers. Why do we have to be such greedy a-holes when the other states are trying to fix this problem?
There dead almost wiped out again I never thought I'd live to see it again. I heard a 9# fish just won the Jersey Coast shark anglers boat tournament. There are no fish in Montauk or any other place north of here, Sharkharts fish I believe passed here on Wednesday and Thursday. Our regulation suck thanks to the JCAA but then again who do you know that has caught 3 fish. 1) 28 to 43 then 1 over 43 and a 24 to 26" bonus fish you can't catch what isn't there . I have been catching December size fish all month:scared:
moco was dead for me this morning. Lake like conditions, a chill in the air. Lots of rainbait in the wash and hickory shads feeding. Otherwise I didn't see that much else, even offshore was quiet.
It doesn't make sense that if there are plenty of striped bass the best the guys could do is a 9 pounder. Either there is a great conspiracy theory that in the middle of the night they are being removed by the FBI to be stockpiled in holding tanks - or there aren't too many stripers left. Just read a report from a guy saying how bad fishing is at montauk right now. No fish at mecca? Something is wrong with the whole picture here.
Yes here is a post from a charter boat
Sunday trollBelmar to the hook. Nothing except tons of birds outside SRI, saw a whale off of Belmar. Didn't see anyone else catching. Water wasn't bad if you stayed inshore. Bunker spoons, stretches, umbrella rigs not a touch.
I took a walk along the boardwalk by the squan inlet. Some buds said they were catching stripers to 30 lbs last week within 2 casts of shore when bunker were around. "were" is the key word here. I did not see any bunker or signs of life. As for that little bait you folks are finding along the beach I wouldn't put too much faith in it. Long Island has sandeels. If we were going to get them they would be here already. My opinion, that little bait you all talk about is not really worth it if you want a big striper. mullet, bunker, sandeels will keep them close. If not they will run the coast along the 3 mile line like they did last year.
This morning 4 to 6AM released 5 bass to 30" all on purple 5" pintail from Got Stripers colder out going water and weed in river shut it down
Nice!
Good going fin chaser! I fished no moco last night with 20 of my closest friends lol. I got a short striper on a bucktail and pork around 7:30. fished for four hours after that and got nothing although I saw one decent striper caught and that was it where I was. Pretty cold and windy out there too gents you might want to start packing gloves.
Finchaser well done. You are the king of rubber,sir.
Nice job guys. Its been windy and cold in cmc. Haven't had a bump last 2 times out. Instead of the fall run we should start calling it the fall bocce ball tourney. Periods of excitement peppered by many periods of boredom.
Well in my opinion you guys are lucky to have even those varieties. We rarely have had sand eels. Mullet are good for about a month. sometimes the bunker hang out around cape may in the back as well.
The great food source where I fish is spearing. We have a ton of that. Don't know what we would do without it.
Rubber, small avas, small curly tails and bucktails will catch more fish throughout the year in NJ than 90% of the big wood out there. I don't know why guys drool over big wood the way they do. If I never saw a custom plug for the rest of my life I could still catch fish and feed myself. Why do you think the army puts bucktails in it's survival kits?
Figured I might as well post a fishing report. Have been fishing the island beach area for the last 2 weeks on and off. This time of year it's usually full of some schoolies and keepers. A few decent bass were landed by some of my friends but slim pickins is the smartest way to say it. It's a desert of cocktail blues and hickory shad out there. The bright spot is the false albacore I have seen the last 3 times out. Usually too far to reach but very obvious when you see them. I hope they stick around for a week or so more. would really like to nail one.
+2. If you learn how and where to fish rubber instead of paying $3 for those way overpriced vision sand eels you can cut down on the gear you bring with you. I bring one small bag with me when I'm out. 3-4 different sizes of shads, curlytails, bucktails, different jig weights. Easy peasy. They catch fish. The thing that probably prevents more folks from fishing them is you actually have to work them and know what you're doing. Too many guys today want a lure that does the work for them. Rubber has saved me from the skunk many a time.
Well said. I do think it does take a while to get the knack of it. I'm still learning and appreciate the advice you gents have shared.
Moco this AM from 4 to 6. Bucktail and redgill as teaser. picked up two short bass and 1 Hickory all on the redgill.
Glad to hear someone got fish, and congrats. Fished oc co from 5-7am. There was small bay anchovies all over. Some places were dark because there were so many. Hardly anything under them though. Threw the sp and some bombers. Barely escaped the skunk with one blue.
Not sure where I left off so if I repeat one don't hang me...
Fished 10/9 on my boat did really well with the porgies in a few short hours. We caught a bunch of large ones mixed in with a ton of shorts as well. Total was 41 keepers if I remember correctly. No lack of action and many doubles (lots of shorts mixed in). Clam cut up in small strips worked well.
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Fished 10/10 - 10/11 on a friends boat. We headed to the Hudson canyon along with 2000 other boats. Picked some small mahi off the pots nothing great seems like most of them had been picked clean by the time we checked them. Setup on the night chunk and immediately had two big eye bites that we lost to broken/chafed leaders. We lost a third big eye on the troll when the hook failed. We did end up landing a 50# longfin and 80# yellowfin. Squid's were our hot baits
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Fished this past Saturday on my boat...We were looking for those big bass chasing bunker schools but couldn't find them. It certainly wasn't for the lack of happy bunker around! Had dolphin swimming along side the boat about 200 yards from the beach. Large schools of rainfish everywhere and albies busting on them. We didn't play the chase game and ended up anchoring near some structure. No bass/blue love on the bunker chunks but did catch some albies when they rolled through. At one point they were right on the beach without a surfcaster to be seen for miles. Got one hell of a pounding on the way back to the marina. A reminder about "pushing your limits" in a small boat this time of year.
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Fished last night 5:45pm to about 8:30. 8 bass on bucktails lots of small rainfish around. 1.5oz bucktail with #70 pork worked for me
I tried the redgill this morning and couldn't keep the shad away from it. They must be very hungry even with all the rainfish around. Fished a little further south in moco. 4-6am outgoing tide. One striper 27" and a handful of shad with bucktail and redgill teaser. The one shad I got was giant it must have went 18 inches. Was fun to put a bend in the rod.
I saw the same thing. Rainfish all over and no fish feeding on them. There is so much bait out there and hardly any fish! I was in moco around one hour after sunrise and you think you can get a few stripes around that time. Like you said there are a lot of hickory shad. I got one on a teaser and missed a few others. No stripes for me or anyone else I saw casting. Very frustrating for sure.
Boat report, trolled to the rocks and back this morning. A bit breezy but good bass water. Temps low 60's. One bluefish.
Fished south of the capt. in a boat nada on the bass
I read on another site how the boat guys are killing them. One gent said the raritan bay is loaded with bass. I guess there must be a few bass in the ambrose channel up there. I haven't seen any boats really lay into them by me in moco in the morning. They could be doing better in the PM and I'm not seeing it. Otherwise it seems like a limited slow pick for most of us.
Congrats on the catches gentlemen. Thank you for the kind words about the redgills. cow I see you got one on the redgill. Some one else asked how they can hit the redgill if there are no sandeels around. The key is the profile. There are a lot of tiny fish they are feeding on. When you present that profile to them you will tend to be successful. Of course the shad will hit it too. They are just like getting skates and stargazers part of the fishing experience.
I arrived in the dark this morning and worked hard but could only manage one bass. A few hickories as well. There is a tremendous amount of bait around and very few bass. My .02
You can't hit home runs every time right? Well I had off today and tried my luck all over moco. Thought I would look for breaking fish but I found none. Casted a pencil popper for an hour and tryed a bucktail, also a shad. Had one bump on the shad. Otherwise skunk. Beautiful sunny say. Good luck guys!
Seeing the same thing. There ar nights in the back when I have seen 4 different kinds of bait, the spearing, rainfish, gars, and peanut bunker. There is so much food. Then you will have the "bigger" fish come in to feed. lol that means the 10 inch blues and 19 inch bass are on the feed. Very far cry from when 15 and 20 pounders would come in and you would hear thrashing in the sod banks like someone was getting dumped in there by the mafia. When you find the bass they're in schools. Not a lot in between.
Fished early this morning and landed 5 bass on bucktails. Didn't see many caught this morning but still lots of bait around.
The bass are mixed in with the hickory shad, take off the teasers guys. The hickories are much more aggressive and beat the bass to your offerings.
Just my observations from this morning. Everyone seemed to be fishing teasers and catching hickory shad every cast. I fished just a bucktail and got 5 bass and a few missed bumps (only seen about another 6 bass caught between a dozen guys).