Hit SH last night got a few blues around 8"s. before dark, fresh bunker.
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Hit SH last night got a few blues around 8"s. before dark, fresh bunker.
HIt moco this morning with plugs and metals without a hit. Guy to the left of me pulled 2 keepers on clam in a matter of 20 minutes. Go figure.
^^ Cardoc you had some of the right tools but these spring surf bluefish are sometimes picky unless there's a heavy concentration of bait around. The front that came through last night brought the water temps down as well and affected the artificials bite. This time of year you should be hedging your bets with bait unless you're comfortable reporting as many skunkings as I do. ;)
We'll talk later, at least ya gave it a shot. :thumbsup:
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G and I hit the ocean last night to fish in front of the impending rain. We fished from 7:45 till 9:15, a small window until the clouds opened up on us. The seas were building and the wave duration was increasing. It went from every 10 secs to every 7, with some double waves and some 5' ers thrown in at random. There was a strong sweep from right to left, and we were starting to get knocked sideways a bit by the building flood tide.
On the plus side, the weather and winds weren't that bad, and no rain till 9:15. The ocean temps were probably in the low 50's. Guys were walking off with one bass and a few bluefish caught in the afternoon wiith clams.
We started with small spearing profile swimmers, but that went out the window with the bigger seas. Switched to some needles, bottle darters, etc. Rubber on the bottom for awhile, and finished with bucktails of various sizes.
No fish. It wasn't bad for a quick trip out there, although we should have been there in the earlier daylight.
Also met a fellow maniac fisherman on the way out, Joesfishinproblem. Nice to meet ya Joe! :HappyWave:
I fished a nomonco beach this morning with fresh clams from 5 to 8am. the tide was coming in I think. I got one bass, it was tiny about 18", but it was still fun to catch and I put it back into the water right away so it would live to get bigger. congrats on the catches guys I hope to hook into some of those nice bluefish that are around.
CM area spot from 7 to 9 am. One 30" bass, hi lo clam rig.
In the back, 3-5p, threw some rubber, :skunk:
As I was getting dressed, an elderly gentleman jogged by and stopped to rest nearby. When I was about to walk past him to the water, he said, "A friendly word of advice, son. Don't waste your time because everyone told me there were no fish today!" Well, he was certainly nice enough to volunteer the info.
Needless to say, I didn't heed his advice and had another good night on plugs. We had blues to 15 lbs before dark and bass to 12 lbs after dark on ML swimmers (big and small), SS darters, mag bombers, and redfins. :thumbsup:
Fished MoCO with Dark Skies and Cardoc yesterday evening. Had a good time with a nice catch of bass and blues on rubber, artificials and bucktails.:HappyWave:
Caught a schoolie on a bucktail last night at the hook. Also landed a couple of nice blues.
We had some nice action yesterday in Raritan bay, we were trolling in 30' of water. Had some decent action with bass up to 20#. Kept 2 for the grill.
Porgy, Lostatsea, Geoff, Seamonkey, Basshunter, Jigfreak, Cardoc, Yardville, Captnemo, nice catches, thanks for helping out with the reports. :thumbsup: It seems we have some hit or miss fishing depending on if you're on a boat or not, and what the water temps are where you're fishin at. Hey, that's fishin. :don't know why:
In addition the spot that produced yesterday is like a barren desert today, which keeps guys on their toes. It makes you think and try to analyze, look at past logs, and presents a challenge. Things like that help to spread people around as you never know where a land bite will pop up. (Or you could just mug Finchaser, I hear the old grouchy bassturd OGB likes peanut snack cakes) :laugh: ;) :HappyWave:
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Hooked up with Cardoc last night in moco because I wanted him to get an idea of some of the nuances of plugging. He's gone as far as he can as a clam fisherman ;) Now it was time to take the step to the dark side and turn him on to what makes one addicted to artificials. :dribble:
We got to the beach before dark, and met up with Yardville Jimmy of the old farts fishing club (OFFC).
We were lucky to meet up with Yardville so early in the season. I hope his first venture out can prompt some of the other OFFC members :HappyWave: out of semi-fishing-retirement... they really know how to put a :beatin: on the young gun surfcasters when they're out there.
Conditions were not promising. The sky had pending showers looming, we were warned it would be a waste of time. What the hell, no guarantees in fishin.
We started working small profile swimmers. A few taps, no hookups. Saw 2 bluefish caught in the hour before dark.
I gave Cardoc some lessons in the different profile plugs and when to use them. Actually it wasn't that hard, he's a fast learner and and appreciative student. He's the kind of guy who makes you glad you decided to help him because he's sincerely thankful, no false manipulation here. :thumbsup: I have a great time whenever we fish with him.
As soon as it neared dusk I suggested bucktails because of the sluggish fish in the cold water. Good choice. Cardoc had never before used bucktails in the surf. Some quick advice and we were bucktailing. He banged the first fish in the dark, a nice angry bluefish. They were barely hitting so we had to slow the presentation way down.
Then Yardville was in, nice big bluefish.
Don't count your chickens before they hatch!
(My Dad tried to teach me this lesson, sometimes I need to re-think it) :embarassed:
I was next at bat, and hooked what I thought was a nice bass. After you catch enough fish you learn to recognize the unmistakable head shake of a bluefish and up and down antics vs the strong steady deep pull of a nice bass. I couldn't turn my fish for a few minutes as it pulled steady drag and I only gained inches at a time. Then it would sit there as it got strength for another run.
I was thinking I had a nice bass in the mid 20's, a good photo op C&R to make Finchaser proud. :HappyWave:
I can usually bring any fish in within a few minutes, this one I fought for 10. When I finally see the fish I see that the bucktail was impaled in its back, like it was a giant bunker. Only instead of a decent bass it was a foul hooked bluefish. If only some thresher sharks were around we would have had some fun! :eek:
The night continued to produce some nice blues up to 10#. Then Yardville hooked into a nicer fish and ended up beaching a 32" bass, around 14. :clapping:
OFFC smokes the youngsters, I tell ya! ;)
Action gradually died down as slack tide approached. By then we had all caught a few nicer blues, and lost some unknown fish after some nice runs. And Yardville had the hot hand with the only bass landed. :clapping::clapping: :plastered:
We all had a blast, I'm happy we got the chance.
I had a great day today fighting the bluefish. Slept in the car, back out on the beach by 6am. It really is a sunrise bite, and I was mad that I was 1/2 hour late to the party, but I was shot.
Tried all the things that worked last night and couldn't get it together. The bucktail came back with bottom crap on it, so I had to re-think as I fished the whole ebb and part of the flood. Fished from 6-11am.
The W/NW wind made the water choppy and cooled the water down even more, if that was possible.
I tried a pencil for a while to prove it might work. I lost a half-hour of valuable time fishin it, as that's how long it took me to get a fish on it. :beatin:
The fish really are sluggish in the ocean, guys and girls. There are a lot better choices than pencils when the water is very cold. And the water this morning felt like ice. :scared: The bluefish hit like fluke in the early morning, even the bigger ones.
So I went with a Hopkins no Equal, about 3", very small spearing type profile. I did well on that for awhile, but things slowed down, so I had to change up. Put a white grubtail on the Hopkins and my hit ratio doubled. (One of Finchaser''s secret weapons, thanks! :HappyWave:) Fished that for awhile as I got a lot of hits but landed much less than I hooked up with.
I caught everything that was stuck in the ocean today. A water sogged high end down pillowcase that weighed at least 30, prompting the guy nearby to ask me how I planned to cook it (nice meetin ya Jack :HappyWave:)
Also hooked a lot of fish as I kept changing presentations to keep it going. Hooked up to or had brief encounters with 42, and landed on the beach 12 bluefish up to 10#, and one baby bass 20".
A great day, met some cool people. :HappyWave:
Back out again in 5 mins, get out there and fish, people!
Uh.... :huh:
Hey Dark, you know what a secret is. Not sure Finchaser is going to fish with you again. I'll be happy to take your spot on the next outing.
:HappyWave::HappyWave:
Landed my first blues of the year on plugs. Got about 7 or so and lost one plug to one and also a number of on and off and also lots of misses on topwater. It was a fun night. I finally found the bait and the fish. My partner in crime caught blues and a really nice 20lb striper which was nice to see. Good night and great times.:plastered:
Hey Charlie, the white tail grubs are SOP as one part of any spring fisherman's arsenal. They're in Milt Rosko's books and many other surf guides out there. I and others have been using them for years, single and double tails. I say Fin invented that to bust his ballz so he isn't so grouchy.... :laugh:
He'll fish with me again, no one takes location scouting to the level I do. :HappyWave: And no one can find swans as quickly as I can.
The real sekrit is the snack cakes... ;)
WTG on the catches. :thumbsup: Tell your partner I said congrats, I lost his # when my phone got wet.
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Night of extreme top water explosions :scared:
Took Pebbles out tonight to test her new Finchaser-built rod on some tackle bustin bluefish. We only had limited time so we stayed close to home in the bay.
I wanted to go over different presentations and expand her skill set. She learned proper retrieve for magdarters, megabaits, needlefish, and for the first time ever....bucktails.
She's a fast learner, made me proud. On her 3rd cast using a light bucktail she nailed a decent size bluefish. :clapping: Everything after that was gravy.
Fishing the warmer bay waters brought out the natural aggressiveness of the demons. We landed a few and had many that either came unbuttoned or exploded on the plugs only a few feet away from us. It was much easier than the ocean bluefish I had been working hard for on each cast for the past few days. Almost 2 easy, these fish were very hungry. They were also exploding on scattered surface spearing. It was a cool sight to watch as we waded out to where the fish were.
Fished the last of the ebb, first hour of the flood. Fish bit right through the tide change.
Hot presentations for us were small bucktails, black or orange mackerel pattern magdarter with bucktail siwash, mega baits, and yozuri spearing profiles. We also had one hookup on a needlefish, but they generally were ignored in favor of the other presentations.
It was great action. There were times when we were both hooked up at once, bluefish to 10#. Action died about an hour into the incoming when the water got colder and the wind shifted with the tide change to N wind.
It was a lot of fun while it lasted. I'm proud of Pebbles' aptitude and committment to learning new techniques. :clapping: :clapping:
My luck was totally due to my new Finchaser rod!!:clapping::clapping::clapping:
I would say that every other catch I hooked up. Unfortunately due to my lack of skills, I lost several walking it back to the beach. Yet I had the time of my life! The fish were jumping 2 feet in front of me.
Fin, check your pm's I need to ask you something. Thanks, Pebbles.
Again, if anyone needs a custom rod contact Finchaser. I consider the rod he made for me one of my most prized possessions. It is perfect for me.
Thanks again for helpiing me to minimize my chronic shoulder condition with that beautiful rod, Fin! :kiss: :HappyWave:
Haven't had time to get out much, only on Saturdays. Today, out front, saw many Bass caught by the clammers in my area, mostly shorts/few keepers. Tossed plugs with no positive results. Picked up one short when I switched over to a salted clam very late in the am. 'an that's that
First time out this year. I fished for an hour out front from 8PM to 9PM in NoMoCo. used Bucktails and ML Swimmers. No hits. :embarassed:Will try tomorrow in the early AM.:fishing:
Fished the top of the tide near some structure this morning in occo. 2 shorts up to 27", bucktail and pork. 8 slammer blues as well.
I know this post is late, but I needed to post it.
Just wanted to say, I had a blast fishing with Dark and Yardville this week. Was great meeting you Yardville, I had a great time fishing with you. Dark kept feeding me different ideas and plugs to toss and it was great once we figured what the fish were going to hit. I have done a lot of bait fishing from shore and my boat until I sold it. I also did some artificials, but only on bluefish.
This is another stage for me and I plan to perfect it as much as i can. I got a little bit fumbled up during the bite trying to make another leader and re-tie my lie in the middle of the bite. My adrenalin was pumping and I just couldn't get it right. :laugh:
Don't give up on the bass though. They are still out there, you just have to be a bit more tactful as to when you're going to fish for them.
Thanks again Dark and Yardville. Looking forward to fishing with you guys again.