S&A Education Series: Understanding back bay bait migration and fishing patterns

[DarkSkies]

Let's talk about all the worms, crabs, shrimp, and tiny creatures that represent the beginning of life, and the basic food source for all others.

[albiealert]

Bait - I notice the spearing are the last to leave. We have some pods of spearing that reside in the Sound all winter, I believe.

[vpass]

When I was in High School, I use to fish in Gravesend bay into January with bombers. I use to catch bass 15 inches to 20 inches. A few of my buds and I use to fish behind Cesar’s bay bizarre at night. and under the lights there would be tons of spearing. We also use to get sundial same time of the year. Bass would be busting on spearing all around us.

I believe the Spearing maybe here all year long. The water Temps had to be below 50 deg. and I remeber the bass slamming the plugs.

[ledhead36]

I believe the Spearing maybe here all year long. The water Temps had to be below 50 deg. and I remeber the bass slamming the plugs.

I think spearing hold in some of the deeper channels of the s jersey back bay areas as well.

This is the way I have seen the backbay fall fishing progress-
Big bunker tend to leave first.
Then if there are peanuts around, they will push out from the cricks and rivers and start to move along the surf.
What you have left is mullet and small bay anchovies and some other smaller stuff I have no idea what it's called. Maybe dace, killies and other minnows? I think the dace and killies stay around all year too.
The mullet move out around the first full moon in Sept/October, but there are always stragglers.
So what you have left is the small crabs, the mantis shrimp, and the tapeworms and creatures from the worm family.
You can catch fish on sandworms any time of year so that should tell you how important they are.

Anyone know anything about the mantis shrimp cycle? There are times in the fall when it seems the only things they are feeding on are these nasty huge shrimp.

[SharkHart]

my back bayspot right now is close to 100% on the outgoing tide. the bass show themselves (night) popping on spearing and grass shrimp. Sometimes you hear a boom and have no idea where it came from. Many of my casts bait flies out of the water (spearing) last night i caught an obeses 30" on a lighted boat slip was under the dock ambushing bait. His buddy was there too but he spooked.

[finchaser]

Heavy northwest winds usually pushes bait out drops water temperature and ends it pretty quick most years

[rockhopper]

Where do the herring fit in in this picture?

[clamchucker]

my back bayspot right now is close to 100% on the outgoing tide. the bass show themselves (night) popping on spearing and grass shrimp. Sometimes you hear a boom and have no idea where it came from. Many of my casts bait flies out of the water (spearing) last night i caught an obeses 30" on a lighted boat slip was under the dock ambushing bait. His buddy was there too but he spooked.

Tiny spearing and grass shrimp are the old reliable bait of both fall and spring back bay fishing. If you can find water that is heated up for a few days, and some bulkheads or marina structure, you will find some small bass near the lights. Throw small plastic plugs or ava oo7 and you will be surprised how many of those marina areas hold fish.
An interesting thing about fishermen is we think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Many times I have taken the boat out for a day of fishing the reefs or bay channels only to come back to the dock and find quality fishing right there under the lights.

[DarkSkies]

Let's talk about all the worms, crabs, shrimp, and tiny creatures that represent the beginning of life, and the basic food source for all others.

These smallest sources of bait, worms, small grass shrimp, and the spearing that take up residence in most back bays and estuaries, have been notably thin this year.....fishermen all along the Eastern Coast, and major Sound and Estuary areas have been lamenting this all Spring and Summer.

1. Specifically, areas that were hardest hit by hurricane Sandy last year seem to be most affected.

2. Those that do find this forage, seem to think that the populations are sparser. For example, you can't even get local spearing in some areas.

3. It's been my experience that these small creatures are the key to sustained life in many areas. Though there is a lot of fanfare about larger forage like mullet and bunker, I have seen time and time again, that the areas holding the smaller bait, are the areas that consistently hold fish.

I don't remember if I saw it in this thread dark but it's time to talk about mullet. I don't think this years mullet run will prove to be as stellar as last years.

I agree, Buckethead.
**I'll come back to talk about bunker and mullet when I get a chance.
In the meantime, would appreciate the thoughts of others here as to your findings when scouting bait, and how you feel it will affect this year's Bass Migration.

[buckethead]

1. Specifically, areas that were hardest hit by hurricane Sandy last year seem to be most affected.

2. Those that do find this forage, seem to think that the populations are sparser. For example, you can't even get local spearing in some areas.

3. It's been my experience that these small creatures are the key to sustained life in many areas. Though there is a lot of fanfare about larger forage like mullet and bunker, I have seen time and time again, that the areas holding the smaller bait, are the areas that consistently hold fish.

Definitely agree with that DS. Earlier in the year the grass shrimp were nowhere to be found. Now you can see some but it could take another year for them to get back to where they were. As for the small spearing types I have run into large schools of rain fish., but hardly any big schools of spearing.

[J Barbosa]

The storm had a huge impact on bait but something I have noticed prior to the storm is that the sod banks are slowly disappearing in NJ.

As fishing has become more popular in general and more people are fishing earlier and later into each season it is putting a hurting on all the sod!

These are critical to all of the bait Dark mentioned and serve many more purposes including water quality. How many times have you heard fisherman (myself included) complain that the water in the RB is stained badly this year. Almost a full year later are we still blaming this on nutrient runoff from Sandy?

Remember that those sod banks use to hold thousands of muscles that are filter feeders. As the muscles feed they clean the water and also provide a food source for other animals including stripers.

The sod banks themselves are also natures water filters. As the tide lowers the water gets filtered through the roots and any contaminents/sediment is then trapped in those roots.

Don't believe me??? Search some of the research papers on what use to be one of the two most polluted rivers in the country: The Passaic and the Hackensack Rivers.

The Passaic river is still very polluted while the Hackensack has made a huge comeback thanks to its huge marshes covered in sod.

They have credited most of the Hackensack Rivers comeback to the sod banks that line the large marshes.

I have to blame most of the sod banks disappearance on the shore bound anglers (myself included) because thats where the sod banks are disappearing. If you look at the areas where the sod banks still thrive they are difficult/impossible to access on foot.

Look at what has happened in the raritan bay there are practically no sod banks left on the NJ side until you move into the shallow marshes where fisherman don't fish. Lawrence Harbor to Union Beach use to be loaded and if you walk those beaches now there is little "small" bait left.

[storminsteve]

I have to blame most of the sod banks disappearance on the shore bound anglers (myself included) because thats where the sod banks are disappearing. If you look at the areas where the sod banks still thrive they are difficult/impossible to access on foot.

Look at what has happened in the raritan bay there are practically no sod banks left on the NJ side until you move into the shallow marshes where fisherman don't fish. Lawrence Harbor to Union Beach use to be loaded and if you walk those beaches now there is little "small" bait left.

Great points here. Especially where you are talking about Union beach a lot of guys used to fish the sand beaches on either side. Now check it out it is eroded in many places at least thats what I can remember from the spring. Most of the fishermen now are wading those creeks and walking wherever they want. I never really thought of that.

[hookset]

The spearing, rainfish, and grass shrimp are the glue that holds the bay and surf bite together. You can add sandeels to that too but they are not always around. Keep a good log and you know you can count on grass shrimp every year. The basic food group of most all predators. I agree the grass shrimp and spearing took a hard hit from Sandy. This has made fishing in some back bay spots a crap shoot.

Yesterday I got into a decent surf bluefish bite. The thing bringing them in close was the rainfish. Without them they could have stayed offshore.

Does anyone remember when we used to have the rainfish invasions? Massive amounts, so many the water would be dark and purple. They would run along the surf line in the Spring and then stay in the bay channels until June. Then they would come back around Sept and stay until November. We would have nights in the surf where bass and bluefish were cruising with there mouths open, filling up with rainfish and spearing. That hasn't happened in quite a few years to my recollection.

[DarkSkies]

^^ This is something I wrote today in response to a question about fall fishing....some of it probably applies to this thread so I'll park it here:



Excuses I have read for the Poor Fall Fishing so far in 2013.....
1. "We are suffering some effects from Sandy"....Yes I will agree with those who want to blame it on that,,,But how reasonable is it to blame it ALL on Sandy?

2. "The back bay bait population has suffered"....Yes I will agree and have seen it and had many discussions with others about it.

3. "All the fish are offshore", that's why the inshore and surf guys are not seeing them....Yes, valid point but only partially....there are always bass migrating offshore.......one big difference this year is that it seems a lot of us are now becoming more vocal about what we see, and trying to fit it into some notions of migration based on past seasonal patterns....

In my experience, it's harder to figure a pattern because the overall mass of fish is thinner...
Guys hear about a giant concentration of bass, off the SS of LI...not realizing that when conditiions are right.......they have been so thick they have been at other areas along the migration highway as well.....

4. "Big bodies of bass still in MA and Rhody"...Yes, but in counting on those fish....many folks fail to take into account, that many of those fish historically stage in the Eastern Sound before migration along different paths....
a. a certain % of those will winter in the Ct rivers......I have friends who are able to catch them all winter....
b. Another portion will run W in the Sound, down the E River, to enter the NY Bight area....many of the Central and S Jersey fishermen will never see or get to experience those fish.....

[captnemo]

As fishing has become more popular in general and more people are fishing earlier and later into each season it is putting a hurting on all the sod!

These are critical to all of the bait Dark mentioned and serve many more purposes including water quality. How many times have you heard fisherman (myself included) complain that the water in the RB is stained badly this year. Almost a full year later are we still blaming this on nutrient runoff from Sandy?

Remember that those sod banks use to hold thousands of muscles that are filter feeders. As the muscles feed they clean the water and also provide a food source for other animals including stripers.

The sod banks themselves are also natures water filters. As the tide lowers the water gets filtered through the roots and any contaminents/sediment is then trapped in those roots.

Don't believe me??? Search some of the research papers on what use to be one of the two most polluted rivers in the country: The Passaic and the Hackensack Rivers.

The Passaic river is still very polluted while the Hackensack has made a huge comeback thanks to its huge marshes covered in sod.

They have credited most of the Hackensack Rivers comeback to the sod banks that line the large marshes.

I have to blame most of the sod banks disappearance on the shore bound anglers (myself included) because thats where the sod banks are disappearing. If you look at the areas where the sod banks still thrive they are difficult/impossible to access on foot.

I think you make an valid point here about the sod banks disappearing. I have noticed that in the raritan and newark bay as well. I also think the increase of phosphates has a lot to do with it. That and the rise in folks who have chemicals applied to their lawns. I read somewhere that is what is causing a lot of problems on the Chesapeake. I assume some of that must be true for up here as well.