NJ fishing reports for April 2010

[DarkSkies]

Important when registering on our site -- use an active email address so you can activate your account to be able to post.

Please post fishing reports here.......as little or as much detail as you want to give.

Please note: NO SPOT BURNING! Posts burning spots will be Edited or DELETED!
Some veteran fishermen have put in years developing and learning about certain spots.Some of these spots can only handle a few guys at a time. We are losing enough access as it is, due to the unfortunate behavior of a few selfish people. No sense in making it worse.

For some areas, it would be wiser to say:
OutFront (Ocean) OR -- OutBack (Bay) -- if you feel too many people will figure out what you are talking about. "Spot burning" also could involve mentioning something specific only to that area. If you do this, your post may be edited, or deleted. Remember that thousands of people could potentially read these posts. You don't want to be fishing next to ALL of them at the same time!


IF you are fishing an area that is NOT residential, being vague is less critical. For example, it's acceptable to say (Any)Park, or (Any)Bay, or mention a specific state park that has loads of parking and can handle the crowds.


If you are unclear on this concept, ask yourself:


If I name this place on the internet, will it be too crowded for me to enjoy tomorrow when people hear I got 30 fish here today?


If the answer is "Yes", then you should probably not be so specific.
More discussion on this:
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...ead.php?t=3763

We post these reports so our community will have a sense of what is working, what is not. We want to show people how to catch fish, rather than where.Even if you struck out or got skunked, it would be helpful to hear that as well.

If you have any additional details you would like to share - weather conditions, tide (incoming, outgoing, ebb, flood) water temps, bait present, or other mention of techniques or plugs used - feel free.






Some acronyms -

SH - Sandy Hook
NoMoCo - Northern Monmouth County (below the hook to Shark River Inlet SRI)
SoMoCo - Southern Monmouth County (below SRI to Manasquan Inlet)

OC - Ocean County
IBSP - Island Beach State Park
LBI - Long Beach Island

AC - Atlantic County
AI - Absecon Inlet
CISP - Corson's Inlet State Park
CMC - Cape May County
CMR - Cape May Rips
GEI - Great Egg Inlet
TI - Townsend's Inlet

RB - Raritan Bay
BB - Barnegat Bay
CB - Chesapeake Bay
CBBT - Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel
DB - Delaware Bay

[DarkSkies]

Cardoc765 you won the plug in the March random drawing!

We post these reports so our community will have a sense of what is working, what is not. We want to show people how to catch fish, rather than where.

If you struck out or got skunked, it would be helpful to hear that as well. Anyone who posts a report can win a plug even if they got skunked!


This month we're giving out plugs from Ace Baits.
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...splay.php?f=83

PM me your info so I can send it out. Thanks for posting and helping to make this a great site!

[DarkSkies]

Hit up some places in the back with the OGB last night. We were dying to get out, find some more "artificial bass" and see if they would be hungry after the noreaster.

I started the night with my usual scout duties. Because it was dark, I couldn't find the swans so I concentrated on looking for any signs of bait or decent water.

I was able to play the bird dog well after a false start at one place that had produced in the past, and where the water was too dirty. A few more stops and we finally found some cleaner water, and some potential....some bait.

I had located some grass shrimp and tiny spearing in the water. With the additional spotting of a lone 5" jumbo winter spearing, I was psyched. Honestly it wasn't that great. The bait was spread out over a wide area. I heard a fish pop and pushed for us to make a few casts.

That's the extent of my prowess for the night, it was all downhill for me from there.

The master angler, harking back to his Stevens Surfsters days, got up to bat and scored a triple play.
(or at least a double, if you don't count RBI )

It took us a while to figure out the pattern. I was using rubber, very small needles, small plastic spearing profiles, no soup for me. The OGB figured out a small yozuri was the ticket, but he had to tweak the presentation for that place and tide to get the fish to hit the artificial. His first fish he had on for a sec, then came unbuttoned on the crushed barbs.

He then nailed a decent keeper sized fish, about 32", maybe 13, probably a resident. It pulled some drag, nice fight. Quick pic and back into the water.



The last fish was a short, but feisty and fat as the rest, probably a migratory fish.


In all we had about 1 1/2 hours of sporadically feeding fish to present to as the tide filled in.
1/2 hour before the top, the bite died as the water calmed, and the wind died as well.

It's a privelege to watch the grouchy bassturd at work when he's working an angle in his head, all fishing poetry in motion in the pursuit of getting the strike.

He felt sorry for me as I couldn't dial in to them like he did. So I fished the first 20 minutes of the ebb, but as he correctly predicted, the bite was done for the night. The water temp reading we did as we left was 48, prime territory for an artificial bite, as long as you can find the bait.

It's all good, I was happy to play the bird dog, nothin wrong with that. I don't mind getting schooled by the Master, as long as we can tell Killie what he missed out on.

[finchaser]

Your photo shop work on my smaller fish makes it look like a mutant cross between parrot fish and a bass

[DarkSkies]

We were so far south that could have been a peacock bass.
Wasn't that the White House in Washington we saw looming in the horizon?



As you reeled in the last one I thought I saw Dr Lubchenko with a clipboard in her hand counting the fish. Maybe I was just over-tired...

[cardoc765]

NIce job there OGB. Sorry you didn't get any Rich. Hopefully you will soon. Mrs Cardoc and I went out last night. Got there and in the water at 7 and left at 11. There was 1 guy who caught 6 fish about an hour or so before we got there. 2 of which were keepers. There was another guy who had a keeper as well. The park ranger was out randomly checking for registrations and measuring fish. He seemed to be a really cool guy. Going to head out again today around 4. We'll see what happens.

[storminsteve]

Nice fish OGB, that one looks like it's pretty fat. Dark still waiting to see you hook into a nice one. I haven't been doing much of anything lately except taking up space. Hope to get out there with the mongrel hordes this weekend. Let's hope this nice weather lasts for a spell. Good luck to all.

[jigfreak]

Fished last night for a few hours.

[clamchucker]

The master angler, harking back to his Stevens Surfsters days, got up to bat and scored a triple play.

Steven's surfsters, now there is a name you don't hear much anymore. Well-written report Dark, I enjoyed reading that. I have not been out yet and feeling a bit under the weather. I do look forward to reading the entertaining reports here. Congratulations to you both.

[wish4fish]

6-8 rb today, got one tiny fish with clams, there wuz a bunch of guys, only one other fish, water was dirty. grats on the nice fish ogb, dark it looks like u got schooled!

[buckethead]

That's a great fish Fin! I was hoping to head out the SH this weekend. Has any heard if is any action there?

[rip316]

OK. I met up with my buddy T this morning for 3hrs til the tide was full. One really nice hit on a baitholder. NADA. Being a glutten for punishment I go back out to the same area different spot with my other new buddy Cardoc and his wife Deb. ( really cool people. I am happy to have met you both. Good time shootin the chit with you guys and can't wait to do it again.) As we are sitting there complaining of the lack of action and start to get ready to leave, What do we hear. BELLS! Me and Cardoc jump up as if Saint Nick himself was on our roof. I, jump to my rod, set the circle hook home, and the best part, hand the rod to my 9yr old son Aaron. This kid gets pumped when fighting fish. He gets the fish close a couple of times and we hear the sound of the drag screaming as the fish refuses to come in. Finally the boy brings the Keeper in. 29inches of beast. I will post a pic in the morning.

[finchaser]

Fished with DS and Pebbles tonight felt bad for Pebbles she didn't christen her new rod .Found fish feeding on spearing I got 2 bumps early on and later released a 28" fish on a needle fish. Wind picked up from the south and shut it down like someone flipped a switch. I'm sure DS will comment and probably post a picture.

[cardoc765]

Went out again yesterday from 4-10:30 with Mrs cardoc. Met up with RIP later.Got 1 short and I will let RIP post his story. Another great day on the water and great company. Had a blast. Water was still very dirty in the bay and lots of logs and weeds to watch for. Will do it again today I think.

[Pebbles]

Maybe I did not christen my rod with a fish, but I had good company and practiced my casting. As far as I am concerned, I still had a successful night.

[DarkSkies]

What do we hear. BELLS! Me and Cardoc jump up as if Saint Nick himself was on our roof. I, jump to my rod, set the circle hook home, and the best part, hand the rod to my 9yr old son Aaron. This kid gets pumped when fighting fish. He gets the fish close a couple of times and we hear the sound of the drag screaming as the fish refuses to come in. Finally the boy brings the Keeper in. 29inches of beast. I will post a pic in the morning.

Another great day on the water and great company. Had a blast. Water was still very dirty in the bay and lots of logs and weeds to watch for.

Rip, congrats on Aaron's fish. I'm sure he will remember these moments when you're old and grey in 5 years. Rip and Cardoc, the water is dirty in a lot of areas, may not clean up for a few tide changes. The S wind won't help it either. The record air temps this weekend may not affect things as much as people are hoping for. IMO at this time of year it's more about feeding opportunities, mud temps and mud creatures, and bait moving in.(Your strategy to fish the incoming to the top was smart, BTW. More on that in the Turd thread.)

Yet you still had a blast anyway. Glad to hear you did, that's what fishin is about for me too.

Fished with DS and Pebbles tonight felt bad for Pebbles she didn't christen her new rod .Found fish feeding on spearing I got 2 bumps early on and later released a 28" fish on a needle fish. Wind picked up from the south and shut it down like someone flipped a switch. I'm sure DS will comment and probably post a picture.

You said it all and saved me some words, (most of them anyway ) thanks, Fin.

We tried some places in the back that had seen bait. Fished the last 2 hours of the flood. There was a magic 10 minutes of action, during which Finchaser's amazing skills gained him 2 sluggishly hitting fish within minutes of him starting to fish, and the keeper (released) on the brown root beer needle.


Other presentations, (the productive Yozuri spearing profiles we used the night before, small rubber on 1/2 oz ledheads, mambo minnows, small magdarters, small bombers) went completely untouched. This was despite larger groups of small and larger winter spearing being around.

For the first few minutes when we got there, fish were popping on the surface. We were excited, thinking it could be a good night. The original mild S wind picked up to a steady 10-15. That was enough to turn the bite off like a switch, as Finchaser mentioned. Bait was still around, but it scattered, the water became dirty, and not one of us got a tap despite trying everything for the rest of the 2 hours we fished.

Tried a few more places that were less affected by the wind. It didn't matter, the bite was completely dead for that part of the incoming. Water temp reading was 48 degrees when we left.

Pebbles did get to try her new rod out, an amazingly light stick built by Finchaser, and she said her shoulder didn't bother her at all.

She also got some fishin tips from one of the best fishermen out there, a guy who could pull a fish out of a toilet bowl if he had to.

[fishinmission78]

..one of the best fishermen out there, a guy who could pull a fish out of a toilet bowl if he had to.

Watch out for the brown trout.
Fished today from 5-8am, back of Bbay, nothing.
Nice catch finchaser.

[surfwalker]

Been out front 3 or 4 times so far, mostly just a walk. Water still cool, discolored and a little weed with the SE breeze early this morning. Threw the regular routine, small Rebel plugs, and shads and then various other goodies, feels good to cast after the long winter. When the walk was over (5 hrs. later), and I got back to where the bait guys set up, I was shocked to see how many were there. They also were shut out. Some areas are really getting crowded. Between the plovers and the crowds, the walkers are getting squeezed out.

Happy Trails

[bababooey]

Watch out for the brown trout.

Yes but some of them can be trophy sized.
Nice catches guys.

[wish4fish]

trophy brown trout, lol. i fished today in the back with clams, nada