What is the worst surf fishing fall run you remember in recent years? I say 2009

Quote by Darkskies:
"I wish I could tell ya's that fish were jumping all over, but the fishing was somewhat lacking...
Also lacking was the participation, hardly anyone out there. That's a blessing sometimes, but we couldn't help feeling a lot of people have given up on the fall run so far.
There were some places where the white water was so fishy looking I didn't want to leave and move on, but sadly they held no fish, not even the small schoolies that were so abundant.

It was a beautiful night out, when many people seemed to have taken a vacation from fishing. It seems the bulk of the fish are on vacation in Mass. right now as well. ;) "


:huh::huh:
As I was reading this I thought to myself you have a really colorful way of saying the fishing sucks this fall. I fish the NS and SS of Long Island, and have hardly made the drive to the NS this year because imo the fishing is so spotty up there. Sure there are fish, and I have been getting some, but why are some guys afraid to say it sux?
Last year we were crushing the bluefish and small bass for weeks at a time. And yet Dark you say the fish are in Mass? How can all the fish in the whole run of fish be centered off Massachusetts?
It doesn't make sence to me. All I know is the fishing sux this fall so far. They aren't even crushing em in Montauk like they did last year.

So where are all the fish, and the bluefish?
Is this your worst fall surf run so far, lets hear some opinions.

How can this be your worst?
It's just starting.
My worst? The 2 years before the shut down in the 80's
Stand by, when the fish head south it's going to be nuts down there. Still large schools here feeding up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stripercoast1

How can this be your worst?
It's just starting.
My worst? The 2 years before the shut down in the 80's
Stand by, when the fish head south it's going to be nuts down there. Still large schools here feeding up.

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Yeah, you are probably right about the 80's, but I'm talking about the last 10 years. Things are late this year by almost a month, last year we had great action in August. I can't understand why the north shore is so bad, and in Montauk they are having one of the worst years also. Last year they got them at Montauk in the third week of August, and it stayed strong. This year no one is crushing them in the surf at Montauk, and if they say they're catching them every night, they have to be axaggerating.
And you are talking about when the schools from your area heading south? You're in Rhode Island, so if that is the total of bass that we have to look forward to, just the bass from your state, I think we are in big trouble. Just my .02

Maybe some of it has to do with the gill netters and the purse seiners. There were some boats off of PP to Lavalette for the last 3 days, purse seiners. They take everything they catch, I didn't see anything get thrown back.:2flip: As for fall runs, this one seems like the run that wanted to be a run, but couldn't. Every time things heat up, we have big blues and some bass for a day, the next day is a crap shoot.

Just because the fish haven't been here en masse doesn't mean they are not here. You just gotta do some hunting.

I think maybe the fish just forgot to check the calendar. Hey Gunny you seem to be on a first name basis with a bunch of them up there, could you tell them what the date is? Thanks

Seeing as the Bass are holding on big pods of bait up north of LI in RI and Mass, plus the fact the water is still somewhat warm may have something to do with it. Rhode Island is a small STATE, there is ALOT OF WATER in RI.

You can't write the whole fall off yet. Or better yet, maybe you can, more room in the lineup for me. Everyone should just give up till next year, See you all in the Spring!:rolleyes:

According to my logs the activity is a little late this year. We have had relatively high temperatures, and the storms last year were spaced more closely together, which cooled the sea down quickly.

Also, I don't mean to preach here, but we have have more anglers taking and killing 50+lb bass. This year was a banner year at IBSP for that. Betty and Nick's slid a record number across the scale, as well as other shops in the area. You can't have that kind of consistent harvesting, year over year, without having negative consequences. Many of you younger anglers don't remember the moratorium and the conditions prior. I feel we are headed that way again, in the not too distant future. Only time will tell. I will say this fall has been rather slow for me.

That is the same for Block Island and boats off of Montauk. It really is sickening.

I guess some people just don't get it.

I haven't had a good start to the season yet. Maybe like Frankie said the run has not started here.

IMO the stripers are in a decline mode anyhow has been for the last several years.

Now that I have your attention, the above statement is true. The guy who caught them, caught them last week Tue, Wed, and Thur nights. He was fishing the same area in the surf, in NJ.

Does that mean the fall season isn't poor so far?
No.
Does that mean that all people who say the fishing is poor can't catch fish, and therefore any discussion of this will be skewed?
No.
This guy happens to be an exceptional fisherman, who correctly analyzed the bait pattern and decided to fish the area hard, as he has been doing for many years.
Does that mean that the relatively mild temperatures this fall don't have anything to do with whether fish are around or not?
No.


The reason behind my comment is that any one perspective, taken by itself, can show whatever you want it to show if you back it up with stats. :learn:

This is a good thread so far, a collective conversation of opinions where people talk about experiences past and present, and see if there are any trends. So while I agree with Rockhopper's premise. I think the important thing to figure out here is if these things seem to be one way, why is that?

Are all the bass offshore feasting on sandeels?
Are all the bass in Massachusetts and Rhode Island right now?
Are there thousands of 40-50# bass swimming in some secret place that we don't know about, to replace all the 40's and 50's that have been taken from the biomass in the past 3 years? :don't know why:

I'll weigh in more in this thread when I have a chance, for now I appreciate the respectful discussions. :thumbsup:

I don't think fall last year was all that great either. The storms washed out a lot of the bait, also making it hard to get out there and fish. By the time I did, the fishing seemed slow.

I think its way to early to judge the fall fishing.
In the past, does anyone have records that show when the migration is in full swing?

I agree with DS it is way to early the water is warm the bait is still in the bays and has not been moving yet we need a good nor'easter to kick things into gear stir up the bait and get it moving.We also need cooler temps at night to put a little chill in the water it's coming no one says it will be great but thats fishing.

Water temperatures are much warmer this year. But--- the bait is finally moving, to the south and west, from the east.;)

We have cooler weather all across the board by the end of the week. I'm hopeful for a fall blitz or 2. I could really use the action.

Still large schools of Bass north of the Cape, and regular runs of fish coming through the canal. The water is full of bait up here and the water temps will hold the fish for some time Back in the day the Fall run would last into November up here, I'm going out on a limb and going to say its gonna be inshore and more like that.
If your looking to put up your stuff your doing it at least a month early.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stripercoast1

My worst? The 2 years before the shut down in the 80's

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I think if people could be transported in a time warp back to those 2 years a lot more people would be on board for fighting to keep bass around.

It's like it wasn't that bad after all guys, there were a few good weeks. It took forever before the fish were finally concentrated. I don't know what that's about.:huh:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nitestrikes

I think if people could be transported in a time warp back to those 2 years a lot more people would be on board for fighting to keep bass around.

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Yessir! I was looking at some of threads and noticed this. I caught some nice fish this fall but would say there seemed to not be a lot of big fish in the surf, on the whole. There were concentrations for sure, but not in many places. I would have to say that 2010 was my worst fall in the past 10 years. The times of no fish far surpassed 2009. Just my .02.

I definitly would say this fall was my worst in 10 years. I almost caught no bass in Nov.I had 15 straight skunks in a row, I had 2 good days in Nov. and they were all small fish. My Oct. was better then avg. with many keeper fish. The last time I had a good Oct. better then this past Oct. was 2003.

This year you could see a difference, and it was for the worst. Even the blitzes of little rats didn't happen that much. They say all the bass were out further, but what about the little ones?:huh:

This year, by far the worst in a very long time. And I cover a lot of ground when I fish, from IBSP to Sandy Hook.

I would kind of agree with clamchucker. The last great run of fall bass and bluefish I remember was about 3 or 4 years ago. I was commuting once a week to NJ to help take care of my uncle, who was very sick, so I was fishing every weekend in NJ

We had some fantastic bluefish action starting in August. Then it was pretty good bassing in the back bays and rivers from August till Oct.There were a lot of peanuts around. When they left the bays, the action died down around Columbus Day. Then the action started up in the surf, massive bluefish blitzes on the peanuts. I don't remember catching a lot of big surf bass then, but there were schoolies galore. And so many bruiser bluefish we got tired of catching them. I think at that time Oct and Nov were hot, and it slowed down a bit in Dec, but we still caught a few bass. I think it was also a little warmer that Dec, I remember fishing around Christmas and I didn't need a heavy jacket, just neoprene waders. I wish we could have that fishing back again.

Thought I would bump this thread to the top. Some interesting trends are starting to develop here...


The old timers I met on the beach last week said the following..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarkSkies

Conversation with Ed & Wally....
They have over 85 years experience fishing the salt between the both of them. Both remembered the moratorium, and when fishing was something so good that you didn't have to drive all over to chase the fish, they were just there, running up or down the beach, Spring or Fall....
Some comments....

Striped bass -
"We have a friend who fishes almost every day of the fall. He keeps a log and fishes the same area we do. In 2009, he caught over 100 striped bass (keepers). In the fall 2010 he got 20. "

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I remember before the stripe bass moratorium and how it was before and after. Seems back then it was easier and a bit more bait around then today.

I remember fishing before the moratorium too surfplug and I definitely agree with that. The years 1980-82 when they mandated the moratorium were pretty poor for me. Checking my logs I see that the numbers started to decline about 5 years before that, which is what we have currently.
And the same thing is happening in Montauk right now. I read on the internet where some folks describe these blitzes as spectacular, the best fishing they have ever had. You tell me, there is a day or two of extreme blitz fishing, followed by days where there is only a slow pick.
You want to call that the best fishing you ever had?
When I read that, I know the guy saying it is a newbie.

Even the captains hype it up to a degree. I think there is some brutal honesty in some of the threads here that some people should be aware of. The blitzes at Montauk used to last for days, and there would be wave after wave of fish passing the point. Fish were available 5 miles N or S of the point, blitzes as far as the eye could see. Now you have a concentration of fish, 30 boats and kayakers hard on them, and a pittance of fish for us surfcasters. The fish are getting smaller too.

15 years ago my logs show the average size of the bass caught in the day, was in the 15-20lb class. In the night we had fish 30-40lbs regularly. It was so good that if someone got a 30 at night they would know not to weigh it in because there would be at least 5 in the 40 or better class that would be caught that night. And that was almost every night during the fall.

Now the fish range from 6-12lbs in the day, if there is good action, and from 15-25 at night, with a few bigger ones thrown in every now and then. Ask any old salt at montauk how 2011 has been so far and you will get an earful.

And that was when there was real blitz fishing and good overall action day and night. What you have today is a mere shadow of how it used to be 15 years ago. Same for the south shore. A guy gets a 30 at night and everyone knows it. 15 years ago it wasn't that impressive because we were seeing 40's regularly, on eels in the surf at night.

Great perspective bass buddah. Thanks for that.

I know most of you northerners had a great fall, but for those of us who fish Ocean City and south of that it was terrible except for some action in the Cape May area in December.
I had a poor fall but don't have as extensive a log book as some of you guys do. I did catch some nice bass but had to drive up to LBI and IBSP to do it. Here is a post put up on another site referring to our area that I thought spelled it out remarkably well-


"Worst last fall/spring/ and current fall/winter in recent history. 3 years ago this time I caught over 75 fish, with 14 keepers. This year I put in more time and got 1 hit all fall on a bunker tail, and pulled in a 37 inch/18 lber and other than that got an 8 incher on a hopkins as that was only hit I got on a lure all year. happy for those who got on some, but awful year for catching fish here.. "

I met an old timer this morning....
He's 68, been fishing the salt for 60 years.....
Said this year has been his worst year surf fishing in a long time....

We talked about some of the things he's seen....
This thread
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...t-striped-bass


has some of his observations, and others of the old timers I run into.

Well I don't have a lot of years under my belt. Still consider myself a newbie. I would nominate this year. I read that some of you got bigger bass before Sandy. Then it seems like the hurricane washed everything away even a lot of the baitfish. I hope next season is better at least for me. I have only caught a few. Would like to see more and some bigger ones.

2013 for me. You can't count 2012 because Sandy threw a monkey wrench into the catching.

what he said^^^^^^

This has clearly been the worst season for me from the surf. Top to bottom (though I haven't hit bottom yet :D)

This year and it still suxxxx...

I'm still trying to keep a happy face on fellas but have to agree with surfstix. My worst year in over 10 years. Fish just not hitting the surf zone in NJ. Look at the Grumpys weigh ins for Sun and Mon. Holiday weekend and no weigh ins. Betty and Nicks only a few weigh ins. This despite heavy fishermen presence over the Holiday. What does that tell you?

If something is not done next year will be worse

I'm not one to follow these but a buddy who fishes IBSP weekly texted me to check the Grumpy reports.

Fishing has to be horrible down that way also especially if not one fish was weighed in over a holiday weekend...

Weigh-Ins

Wednesday, November 13, 2013
No weigh-ins logged...

Tuesday, November 12, 2013
No weigh-ins logged...

Monday, November 11, 2013
No weigh-ins logged...

Sunday, November 10, 2013
No weigh-ins logged...