NY Fishing reports for November 2008

[stripercrazy]

Dentist appointment this afternoon, so I went fishing at Long Beach in the morning. 7 schoolies, one almost hit 28, but not quite. All on bunker storm shad. The surf is a little rough, but the fish are there.

[bunkerjoe4]

OK folks, the winners for the September and October NY fishing reports plug giveaway are DarkSkies, and Stripercrazy.

I have been a little busy, and it was pointed out to me I forgot the drawing last month. Sorry.

Additionally, I wish to inform you that in months where I get a number that has won before, I will run the random numbers again to target a contributing member to these reports who has not won a plug before.

If after 1 try, the number generator does not produce a member who hasn't won a plug, the plug will go to the original number as indicated in the first run. I am doing this to be fair to all members.

As site administrator, I feel it's important to explain the steps I go through to make sure things are fair. You all deserve to be informed when a change is made, although I want to state clearly here that I reserve the right to change these rules or cancel this giveaway at any time, for any of the regional forums (the lawyer made me put that in).

Please e-mail me the address where you want it sent. The plug will be a Davis topwater swimmer, similar to the ones fishlipper is using. If anyone has not yet checked out the thread for Davis lures, go take a look. He's a good plug-builder, sells them at reasonable prices, and as shown, they do catch fish.

http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=78


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[rockhopper]

Some structure in the FI area this morning. It was a little foggy before the sunrise, and some weeds on the beach. Got one bass 35" and 3 bluefish using bunker chunks.

[bunkerjoe4]

NJ WIR 11-10-08

Folks, again it has been a good week for surfcasters targeting striped bass. The bigger bass are few and far between, but there are plenty of sub-legal bass to give fishermen the reason to go out and have fun fishing. Many of these smaller bass are being caught on clams. Many are also being caught by surfcasters working the lower half of the water column with metal jigs and deeper swimming slim profile plugs.

The bulk of the large bass are being caught in the night or low light hours by surfcasters. This has been a pretty consistent pattern. Eels, live or dead, are still producing their share of bigger bass for those who use them strategically.

Boaters are getting bigger bass when they are finding them under schools of bait in the channels or 1/2 to 2 miles out in the near shore areas. There is an abundance of bait, particularly sandeels. This sometimes works against fishermen, as their presentation is competing with all that natural bait. When you find bait that is highly concentrated, your chances improve.

Herring and shad have made an appearance in NJ coastal waters. This appearance, for some 3 weeks now, is slightly earlier than usual. So far the bigger bass have not started the wholesale slaughter of these forage fish.

Additionally, the peanut bunker still remaining in our bays and rivers have not made the mass movement down the coast that surfcasters wait for in anticipation. Instead, you have isolated days where there are strong showings of bait of many kinds, great fishing for a few hours, and then a few very slow days after that.

I feel the sustained fall fishing will not be something that everyone can participate in until we have a steady stream of peanut bunker traveling south in the surf zone. These peanuts stimulate the big bluefish to come in for an easy meal, and the bass after that as they lazily swim in to pick up the pieces. If you are lucky enough to get a day where this is happening, cancel all plans if you can. Fish conditions like this hard, because you don't know when you will see them again.


NY WIR 11-10-08

There is still great fishing to be had on many of the South Shore beaches. The bass are still coming down from New England. The most significant development is that some of our members in Massachusetts and Rhode Island have informed me they feel the bulk of the big bass have made their way past. There may be one more last push of big bass, but the run up there is nearing to a close.

Montauk is still producing, but now the boaters have the edge as sometimes the fish are too far out of surfcasters' reach. Sometimes this begins to happen toward the end of the run. Although you may be able to catch bass well into December in Montauk, look for the run up there to start winding down as well.



Offshore:
The offshore bite is not the spectacular one we have seen in past years at this time in the fall. Sporadic tuna catches are being made. There are some Captains who are still having some great days, but not consistently. I'm still hoping for an increase in the success out there, although a lot of guys have devoted their tuna catching energies to the Carolinas at this point.




Fall Striped Bass Run:

What this means is that a significant amount of bigger bass are now in the NY/NJ area. Fish hard for these fish, folks. What will be left at the end of the run will be thousands of small schoolies in the 20-22" class. These fish, though abundant, are not considered by some to be much of a challenge. As they make their way down the beach, if bait is available, it will be a matter of just casting metal out to the distance they are holding, and reeling them in so you can get another.

That would be a great time to take the kids fishing, as it's almost "can't miss" fishing. You will also have picket fences of fishermen lining the beaches at that time in the late fall, as word gets out.

So get out now and catch some bigger ones! Your time spent will not be wasted. - bunkerjoe

[stormchaser]

Fished the early am near Shinny today. There was a lot of blues between 5-13lbs. Bucktails or diamond jigs were the ticket, dragged on the bottom. Some of these blues were so fat I wondered how they could swim straight.

[nitestrikes]

Outgoing at LB last night. Tried plugging, very weedy.

[BassBuddah]

RM area this morning for the sunrise bite. Got 3 shorties on white bucktail, white grub. Weeds were there, but clearing up a bit. Beautiful sunrise.