New Jersey fishing reports for April 2009

[amboyangler]

WTG, Amboy!!! (the night I didn't make it was a good night, that's fishin) You put in your time, man. I have never heard of a trip out where you spent less than 6-9 hours hittin it hard, you deserve those fish, congrats!


For people who don't know Amboy, he fishes till he drops, one night last Oct or Nov he spent 23 hours in cold and windy conditions wating for the only fish caught that day, a 20-25 class bass that he won an American Pride Bait and tackle tournament with.

Thanks Rich lol... I believe it was 36 hours in November.. Can't wait till the Fall... To tell you the truth I would trade those fish from last night for a chance at a school of those blues.....

[mick2360]

This site is on the move, Rich. You've got some fishermen showing up!

[gjb1969]

i am looking for the blues to aa i fished today i got one rat but it was nice and fat so now i just wait till grandma come a calling i know one thing i am going to hit the blues hard this year my plugs are going to take a a @@ whooping and i am going to love it tite lines and good fishin to all

[LennyD]

Hit RB just about sunset, 1st cast = bluefish, 2nd cast = 2nd bluefish, then they were just playing with the lure, no serious hits.

[DarkSkies]

Lenny, lotta short hits out there. Swing it hard and stick em in the eye next time.


Fished last night and made every googan mistake in the book, in fact I think I invented some more. I had a plan, but got sidetracked.

Lots of short bass and blues around, but I wanted another species. Throwing swimmers, bunker profile plugs, and rubber jigs, got a few taps on the bunker profile, swung, missed.

I knew where I had to be, low tide, waded out to England, wasn't paying attention, got wet.

After regrouping & dry clothes, decided to leave with a friend to another spot, hundreds of blues were doing cartwheels there hours before. I figured I could salvage the night for us with some, I was wrong. The water was dead on the ebb where we were.

Lessons for whoever's interested:

Water is significantly warmer in parts of RB, up to 10 degrees warmer. Find that water and look for where the worms live if you can't find bunker, and you'll find fish.

For right now, there is a good late afternoon bite for all 3 species, centered on flood tide in some places. If you're not looking for bass or blues, and don't want to cast 500 times for one beautiful fangfish with the weak mouth, some guys are gettin them on clams, Ripley's believe it or not!

We ran into more guys catchin on clams last night than anything else, go figure. When in Rome, do what the Romans do.

Me, I'm working on being an even bigger googan, we should have a googan contest, I'll place in the top 3.

I did spend a little too much time helpin a newbie who was buying tackle in a store. If he reads this, I would add to the advice I gave you - fish with those lures in the late afternooon, clam at other times using a fishfinder rig for your sinker, and you'll catch. Let me know if you hook up, I would like to think I did one thing right last night.

Next time I won't deviate from the plan when I know it to be agood one.

[GeoffT]

Maiden voyage in the salt this year. My buddy and I found a spot in RB with not another soul within miles. It was probably the last place anyone expected to have good fishing but we received a tip that made it a good possibility and it was. Water was clean and relatively warm. We started at one hour into incoming with the wind having already turned south, unexpectedly since they were predicting E winds. There was no visible sign of bait or fish so it was all blind casting until we hit the sweet spot. The feisty, hungry blues and the one bass (moi, first SW fish of the year, naturally) cooperated for some great topwater action, mostly on poppers. Oftentimes, they kept swiping and missing the poppers, following them all the way within a yard of the shore before turning away. Good fun stuff. Predictably, the bite shut down after it got dark.

No clam, bunker or worm were harmed in the process.

[hookset]

Went to RB last night got

[chas527]

fished s.h. this morning cool east wind. got eight shorts two blues.and one keeper striper 29 inches. all on clams. would have caught more blues but i didn't feel like jigging.

[SharkHart]

tonight i got quality over quantity, 3 fish over 28" In the back bays behind oc on zooms, had to put in some time however.

[clamchucker]

Nice work sharkhart. It looks like very clear water where you were fishing. I had a good morning at Ibsp, 2 bass up to 29", and quite a few shorts, all on clams.

[voyager35]

We had a good night in the back of raritan bay, 4 bass, biggest 34". We had almost 20 shorts as well. We were chumming with clam bellies in 10' of water. We also got 2 big bluefish on the clam bait. Go get em guys.

[bababooey]

^^ What he said. I didn't wet the boat yet but was out with a friend in raritan today. We had so many small bass you would think the official figures are underestimated. One small bass went about 17" yet inhaled a clam piece. He got one nice fish 36", the rest were 26-30. We picked up some blues throwing pencil poppers, damn they are feisty!