NJ Fishing Reports for the Week of 9-22 to 9-28-08

Please post fishing reports here.......as little or as much detail as you want to give.

Please note: NO SPOT BURNING! Posts burning spots will be Edited or DELETED!
Some veteran fishermen have put in years developing and learning about certain spots.Some of these spots can only handle a few guys at a time. We are losing enough access as it is, due to the unfortunate behavior of a few selfish people. No sense in making it worse.

For some areas, it would be wiser to say:
OutFront (Ocean) OR -- OutBack (Bay) -- if you feel too many people will figure out what you are talking about. "Spot burning" also could involve mentioning something specific only to that area. If you do this, your post may be edited, or deleted. Remember that thousands of people could potentially read these posts. You don't want to be fishing next to ALL of them at the same time!

IF you are fishing an area that is NOT residential, being vague is less critical. For example, it's acceptable to say (Any)Park, or (Any)Bay, or mention a specific state park that has loads of parking and can handle the crowds.


If you are unclear on this concept, ask yourself:


If I name this place on the internet, will it be too crowded for me to enjoy tomorrow when people hear I got 30 fish here today?


If the answer is "Yes", then you should probably not be so specific.


We post these reports so our community will have a sense of what is working, what is not. We want to show people how to catch fish, rather than where.Even if you struck out or got skunked, it would be helpful to hear that as well.

If you have any additional details you would like to share - weather conditions, tide (incoming, outgoing, ebb, flood) water temps, bait present, or other mention of techniques or plugs used - feel free, as long as you are not overly specific about location.

Some acronyms -

SH - Sandy Hook
NoMoCo - Northern Monmouth County (below the hook to Shark River Inlet SRI)
SoMoCo - Southern Monmouth County (below SRI to Manasquan Inlet)

OC - Ocean County
IBSP - Island Beach State Park
LBI - Long Beach Island

AC - Atlantic County
AI - Absecon Inlet
CISP - Corson's Inlet State Park
CMC - Cape May County
CMR - Cape May Rips
GEI - Great Egg Inlet
TI - Townsend's Inlet

RB - Raritan Bay
BB - Barnegat Bay
CB - Chesapeake Bay
CBBT - Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel
DB - Delaware Bay

NJ WIR 9-22-08

Folks, the bluefishing has been pretty good, both in the back bays and the ocean. With the full moon, the mullet are pouring out of the bays and swimming down the coast. Bait and plugs are catching these choppers. Sometimes, when the bite is slow, bait is more productive.

Bass are still being caught at night, mostly shorts, but the good news is there is a decent distribution along the Jersey Coast, as long as you are willing to walk the sand and jetties to find where they are holding for that night.

Another great development is the increasing concentration of sandeels inshore. Bass and bluefish are gorging on them. Some captains report some of these sandeels as being the largest they have seen in recent years, and these sandeels are 1/8 to 1/4 mile off the beach. Time for the needlefish plugs and sandeel profile teasers.

Weakfish have finally been caught more consistently in the back bays. While they were in the BB for awhile, now they are being caught in the channels and near the harbors in the RB. Live or fresh dead peanuts are the preferred way to target them if they are feeding. The plain white or pink fin-s are also taking their share of decent fish.

People are still reporting exotics in the back bays and inlets, so don't be surprised if you hook an amberjack, pilotfish, banded rudderfish, or other tropical species.

Albies have finally been caught from the sand in NJ. The run is a little late in starting. With the constant NE winds we have been getting, there is no telling how long they will remain as the water cools rapidly. Enjoy the chance while you can, blink and they will be gone. As others have mentioned, please handle these Southern speedsters with care.

NY WIR 9-22-08

The bluefish bite in the back bays, inlets, and ocean has been good as long as the winds are not kicking up too many weeds. The key to a good fishing experience at this time is to have different spots you can go with different wind patterns. Bait will tend to hide in corners, pockets, and calmer eddies during rougher weather periods. Those anglers who can identify where these locations are (sometimes they change daily) will have the best shot at some decent fish.

Montauk is still producing fish, most of them being bluefish, and a few bass. Most of the bragging bass are caught deep in the dark. If you are inexperienced at night fishing, Montauk is not the place to learn. You really can get hurt out there if you don't take the proper precautions, and the nearest hospital is about 16 miles away. It would be a good choice to get there early one morning during low tide, try to learn as much as you can about the structure, make mental notes, and then return later in the night after you have fished a few areas during the day.

The NY bass bite in other places is heating up, but as I said, the places that held tons of bait last year are empty this year. It pays to scout around, as bass and other predators will be found where the most bait is.



Offshore report:

The heavy NE winds and the enhanced swell from the 2 latest hurricanes has kept many tuna fishermen at home. Some are getting out, and the success is inconsistent.

However, there is some positive news for the Hudson Canyon and some Northern inshore lumps, which until now had been very spotty. Bait is finally being seen in those areas on a regular basis. Mahi, smalll yellowfin and bluefin, and albies and bonito have arrived to give inshore anglers some action without going all the way to the canyons.


We still have a week of NE winds and swells, folks. If fishing the surf on an incoming tide, please realize the waves may become worse than you think as the tide comes in. Please be careful out there.

Fished IBSP this morning. 4 blues about 8 to 10 lbs.

Pretty good bite at SH this morning. 2 bass to 29" at sunrise on a yellow needle type swimmer. Bluefish came in about an hour after, slaughtering the mullet and bay anchovies in the wash. 8 blues to 15lbs on a27 diamond jig. The wind was intense. Big plugs or heavier metal jigs are needed.

Fished the reach and SH channel today for weakfish we had heard about. No problem netting the peanuts, but we couldn't seem to conect, little rough out there as well.

2 keeper fluke, 6 shorts (all returned), one dogfish, few robins. No weaks, bass or blues, although a friend got onto blues early morning down the beach.

Last night was tough. 8pm - 2am. Friend of mine was fishin the last of the outgoing at SH, no action. Meanwhile I was checking out some inside spots. Ran into a guy when getting coffee who bragged about a spot I know that's holding mullet and peanuts now.

He said they got an 18# bass there a few days ago. Of course I had to fish it for a while. I did see some small fish push through the peanuts, but they were probably no bigger than 5#. Nothing for me.

Met back up with my friend, we fished a river and some other inside spots, not even a tap. Wind was steady E, and got even stronger as it got later.

Earlier on, as I came down to a RB spot, I saw some people leaving, one guy said the best action inside was from 2-4pm yesterday. A few bluefish caught, no bass. The bigger bass were here on the inside last week, gotta keep moving around to find them.

Mo bait = mo fish (sometimes):D

mess of blues to 8 lbs last night rb, back to bait fishin, lol.

More bluefish early morning at SH today. Was strictly using metals, 1 1/2-3 oz, diamond jigs and crippled herring. Small bass at sunrise, then some nice blues up to 10lbs as they moved in on the bait.

Some cool people here said with the waves like this, I should be using clams. So this morning at 5am I got 2 small bass, back of RB, both on clams, both back to get bigger. Thanks guys!

Fished nomoco tonight very windy, picked up a few small bass on bucktail combo. Thanks to the guy I met on the way in for giving me the heads up.

Fished SH yesterday 2 nice blues.

Another marathon fish finding night, 7pm-2am. Started in back RB, there were school after school of spearing and tiny peanuts flowing along the shore, blown tight to the beach by the E wind. Casted small metal to them alongside a few old-timers, but no one hooked up, there was too much bait.

Then went out front, picked up a bag of clams as an afterthought after I saw all that bait around and fish not interested in artificials.

The sunset was one of the most beautiful I have seen in a while. If I could ever pick my time to die, it would be right after a beautiful sunset (hopefully RIGHT after a fantastic hour of sex with Heather Locklear).;)

I worked all the best areas I know moco, 15mins, move on to the next spot, repeat. First spot got an August legal fluke on orange mag-darter. Nothing for a while after that. Getting discouraged, it was windy with big surf. Plugging, swimmers, rubber shads, storm shads, bucktails, sluggos.

Finally got a short bass on rubber shad 1oz ledhead (not a Storm shad, but bigger). Thought this would be the spot of the night, but it wasn't. 2 more spots later, found a pocket of 8 bass, all taken on fresh clams. They were all around 26", fat, dark green, like they just came down the coast. All these fish caught between 12:30-2am.

Highlight of the night was catching a 2"x6"x4' piece of timber that pulled like a big bass in the rough surf as it got tossed by the waves. :ROFLMAO: After the adrenaline died down, I caught another one about 1/2 hour later, surf had a bunch of eel grass and timber floating around.

The hard E was relentless, maybe it slowed down for 10 mins, then kept blowin. Sucky night, but finally ran into some fish.

^ No one could accuse you of being a fair weather fishermen, Dark. Nice report, especially the part about the plank fish. :laugh:

Fished the last of the outgoing last night near a marina rb. Man was it wet, lol. Small bait all over, maybe spearing. Got a mess of nice blues, to #11, peanuts on egg sinker.

Caught 2 bass 25" at AI. Couple guys there caught some.

Some back bay exploring this morning in BB. Water very dirty and weedy, but I managed a few small blues and 3 weakies to 18" on pink finesse.

Nice bass in the pocket IBSP early this morning, got 5 to 30" on clams, kept 1.

Found some decent water nomoco this morning, 3 bass to around 29" bucktail and porkrind with a teaser, 2 on the yellow teaser. all put back in the suds. Kinda peaceful that no one was out where I was.

some small cocktails on metal up to 3lbs this morning rb, some bait around, but seems like its moving out to the front.

2 nice bass IBSP first light on stormshads, biggest 32".