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

[DarkSkies]

Bunker having a bad day!

[DarkSkies]

Steve's 15 bass, catch and release Caught livelining a bunker.

[jessica7591]

thanks for a great day at the beach and taking the video so my family can enjoy this too roger sr and Jr jim and steve

[storminsteve]

Bunker having a bad day!

It's a baaaaaad day to be a bunker! Classic, Dark, you should do stand-up. You really know how to report a story. I enjoyed that and it sounds like you all had a blast. Great story.

[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.

[yukon]

Great Videos Dark!!!

I almost talked the wife into coming home a day earlier so I could get out today... Looks like I should have tried harder!!!

[DarkSkies]

Thanks Yukon, hope ya enjoyed watching them at least half as much as I enjoyed shooting them. Meeting a group like the 2 Rogers, and Steve and Jim, was a lot of fun. No elitist attitudes, it was all about catching fish and havin a good time.

Ya didn't miss much today, though. The greatest action was Thu and Fri, with some scattered good catches Sat, though it was much harder. Today it was all about the area that held the adult bunker, or the 30 minute window after sunrise when some decent fish were landed. We missed it, that's fishin.

Tomorrow the forecast is for a building NW. If you "had a Dr's appt " so you could fish 1-4, it could be worth your while. But the main body of horse bunker have moved S, so you would have to strategically try to intercept them for the best action.

Anyway, family is always more important, hope ya had a nice Thanksgiving with them.

[DarkSkies]

We were kind of throwing metal, kind of fooling around with bait, weeks-old stinky bunker, to be exact.

G had casted a Ritz cracker sized piece of bunker, and we were out on the bar plugging as well. All of a sudden his rod (on the beach) started to bounce.

That crazy emmeffer did the 50 yard dash in 10 secs. He made a superman LEAP over the trough at the last minute from the exposed sandbar, He Almost made it, but failed to clear the last 2 feet of deep water, and got a little wet.

He's my good friend, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy a laugh at his expense when things fall apart. And I did have a good laugh. You'll notice the water dripping off him as he reels the fish in.

But..... he saved the day at the last second, grabbed the rod before it went in the water, and landed the fish. So he gets props for that, it's all good.

We had a blast even though not many fish were around.

G, ya can make fun of me anytime, feel free.

Here's the video:

[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....

[mick2360]

A classic line from Rich in the above video: "I've got some (leader) back in the van". Those of us who know Rich would never bet against him having any fishing related material somewhere in his van!

[Pebbles]

I love that video! The clarity and sound turned out great!

If you guys think the back of his van has fishing tackle, you should see his house!

[7deadlyplugs]

Nice videos Dark, you should come up next year and shoot some videos where I fish. You did a good job of focusing on the water and not the background. I might be in touch with you to see if you could please video my grandpa fishing. He's getting older and may not be able to hit the surf too much longer. Keep up the good work.