NJ surf action weekend of 11-27-09

[DarkSkies]

Here's some of this weekend's action I've been shooting so far:

[DarkSkies]

Fish on

[DarkSkies]

Father and Son, times 2...

I walked onto the beach this afternoon because I saw a party boat about 300' from shore. They were in one spot for an hour. As I got out there, I was greeted by what I thought were escapees from the googan insane asylum!

There were a group of 4 guys fishin with bunker chunks, attached to heavy metals. Bunker heads, tails, and whole bunker, attached to Hopkins and heavy tins, thrown out and dunked in the troth.

I ran up to one guy and begged to take a pic, as I shook my head in disbelief. Then I started plugging and throwing tins as I cast to the boiling blues under the adult bunker.

It turns out I was the only googan on that beach today.

One of the guys Roger, turns to me as I'm pluggin and says:
"Hey dude, what you're throwin ain't gonna work, they're on bunker."

I proceed to ignore his well-meaning advice and work the bottom, hoping for a stray bass.

Then his Dad, Roger Sr, chimes in, and says, "hey sonny, ya gotta use the bunker! We tried everything else, that's the only thing they're hitting. You can have some of ours if you want."

How could I resist the advice of these well-meaning and friendly fishermen, who were having the time of their lives catching the big bluefish that no one else seemed interested in? The Dad told me he had just caught and released a 15# blue a few minutes ago.

I got caught up into filming them, and didn't get any fish. I gradually switched it up to bunker after Jim's Dad Steve landed a 15# bass livelining the bunker.

Then the OFFC came down. They started livelining too. It was a slow pick, even for the bluefish, as the fish were too occupied with the dozens of schools in front of us, each containing a few dozen to several hundred adult bunker. Fishjay from the OFFC got a bluefish around 9#.

Anyone who says bluefish will hit anything, you would have been schooled today by these 4 guys. They epitomized the true nature of what being a fisherman means to me.

They saw the situation.
They tried all the artificial presentations they had.
When that didn't work, they realized a change of plans was in order.
That's why they had bunker heads on the hopkins tins. They came to the beach without bunker snags, but weren't so set in their ways that they couldn't improvise.
Once they saw bunker was the ticket, they intensified ther efforts, and were the high hooks for that area today.

Congrats to both Dads and their sons, and to Cowboy Jim's Dad Steve for releasing that fat bass with the bunker filled belly.

It was nice to meet ya's, and fish next to ya's. I had a great time.

If you see these pics and want originals, e-mail me and I'll mail them and the original size pics out.

[DarkSkies]

Roger Jr's bluefish






Roger Sr's bluefish. Roger is a freshwater trout fanatic, fishin the waters of the Musky and S Branch of the Raritan river. He catches a few hundred trout each year. He didn't do so bad in the salt today either. I think he might have been high hook for the afternoon.




Roger Jr's bluefish, had a nice one on and lost it.

[DarkSkies]

The way I understood it, Jim is the one that invited his friends Roger and son to fish the salt. They don't come down a lot, and had a blast, thanks to Jim and his Dad.

Steve's 15# bass, nice fat belly:

[DarkSkies]

Roger Jr



Roger Sr

[dogfish]

How could I resist the advice of these well-meaning and friendly fishermen, who were having the time of their lives catching the big bluefish that no one else seemed interested in? The Dad told me he had just caught and released a 15# blue a few minutes ago.

I got caught up into filming them, and didn't get any fish. I gradually switched it up to bunker after Jim's Dad Steve landed a 15# bass livelining the bunker.

Anyone who says bluefish will hit anything, you would have been schooled today by these 4 guys. They epitomized the true nature of what being a fisherman means to me.

They saw the situation.
They tried all the artificial presentations they had.
When that didn't work, they realized a change of plans was in order.
That's why they had bunker heads on the hopkins tins. They came to the beach without bunker snags, but weren't so set in their ways that they couldn't improvise.
Once they saw bunker was the ticket, they intensified ther efforts, and were the high hooks for that area today.

The best fishermen out there can improvise on the spot. Why limit yourself by artificials alone. I been in the midst of huge bluefish blitzes on bunker when the only thing they will hit is the meat. The videos were excellent, though if I were fishing next to ya I think my ears might hurt.

[jigfreak]

The best fishermen out there can improvise on the spot. Why limit yourself by artificials alone. I been in the midst of huge bluefish blitzes on bunker when the only thing they will hit is the meat. The videos were excellent, though if I were fishing next to ya I think my ears might hurt.

I'll say! Never saw anyone fishing a bunker head on a hopkins before. You're right, those guys caught fish instead of standing around scratching their heads. Nice report and video's dark. looks like a good time was had by all.

[DarkSkies]

Some people are still dealing with older computers and mentioned they had trouble loading these videos. I compiled a list of suggestions for those people to make it easier to view.

The chief issue is having enough RAM, but you can get around that with a little patience. I'll post these helpful instructions in a day or so....