NJ fishing reports for May 15-31, 2010

[Monty]

My weekly Sunday AM outing was great this week.
Met Pebbles for first time.
Chatted with DarkSkies.
Caught nice Blue on a 14 inch Hogie.
Caught a couple smaller Blues on a Rip-Plugger swimmer and a SS popper.
Caught ~28 inch Striper on a Salty Pencil I assembled/painted and clear coated the past couple of days. Inspired by Surfstix in attempting to assemble/paint/finish a couple Salty kits.
No boats or surfers inter feared with my fun (frieking miracle).
Had a bunch of hits throughout and did not loose any fish that I had on (another frieking miracle).

[buckethead]

Fished the backside from 4:30 to 6:00 this morning. I had two keepers on metal and both of them went swimming back.

[surfwalker]

3-9am-front-plugs. Nothing in the dark. First light-one short on a popper. Getting too crowded for me. Dead stickers pulled some keepers, but very sporadic.

[speedy]

My weekly Sunday AM outing was great this week.
Met Pebbles for first time.
Chatted with DarkSkies.
Caught nice Blue on a 14 inch Hogie.
Caught a couple smaller Blues on a Rip-Plugger swimmer and a SS popper.
Caught ~28 inch Striper on a Salty Pencil I assembled/painted and clear coated the past couple of days. Inspired by Surfstix in attempting to assemble/paint/finish a couple Salty kits.
No boats or surfers inter feared with my fun (frieking miracle).
Had a bunch of hits throughout and did not loose any fish that I had on (another frieking miracle).

W..T..G.......BRO

[DarkSkies]

WTG on the persistence, Monty!

Nothing in the dark. First light-one short on a popper. Getting too crowded for me.

Surfwalker, talked to one guy last night who had 2 short bass on artificials, he confirmed those first light comments. It seems to me there's a point to that as well. People have been catching fish in the dark on artificials, but after a lot of effort.

It seems for now the first light bite is a better than the night bite, unless you're fly fishing grass shrimp patterns at night. I try to reason things like this in my head all the time, talked with Jim Cousins at Giglio's this morning to get his take on it.

There is bait galore in the back bays, rivers, and some ocean inlet areas at night. We were saying that there might even be too much bait at times. The times I've been getting fish are when the bait becomes more sparse and thins out a bit. That's what seems to work for me. Maybe others have different experiences.


I fished last night last hour of the flood, first hour of the ebb. Late tides. 1 short bass and small bluefish on small plastic swimmers. Both fish on the incoming. There were bass all over popping on grass shrimp for awhile. The bite seemed slow, even for the bait guys. (Yet I did get a pic of a guy who got a 21 last night, slack tide, bunker head)

[voyager35]

We launched yesterday for a 2-10pm trip out of point pleasant. We found bunker shortly after getting out there, and managed bass of 20, 27, and 31lbs. Kept the 20 as it was bleeding heavily. The action was short lived and we didn't have much success after that. Moved to the north a bit for some fluking and managed 2 keepers 19 and 20", many shorts, gulp. Still a great day on the water.

[DarkSkies]

Rangers out there in force giving tickets to 2 seperate groups with short bass and over limit. Also handing out tickets to a few guys who didn't register. That made for a very exciting morning between the crapload of muggers and the tickets being given out.

Very glad to hear that Rip. There are scores of guys complaining about this on the internet. I have to wonder to myself how many complain about it in a post but never manage to make that call, or don't have the incentive to try and open their mouths and let people know they won't stand for it.

Yet there was one lady yesterday who had enough. She was disgusted and called and made the report. She probably didn't belong to an internet fishing site, she is just one person who got so angry at what she saw she wasn't going to take it anymore.

Good for her.
I hope that more people will follow her example and take the time to get involved.

Remember, if you're only ranting about it on the internet and not doing anything else, it's possible you're part of the problem.

[wish4fish]

we only got 4 bluefish last nite the bite really sucked, some of the fish were so small we thought they were bunker, rip we were in the back bay by a marina.

[rip316]

Gotcha. Thanks wish4fish. I never ended up going.

[DarkSkies]

Went out with G last night, fished the last hour of the flood, first of the ebb. The heavy rain hours before made us lean toward the incoming.

When we got there bluefish 6-10# were busting on bunker. The frustrating thing is the bunker were moving so fast. One minute fish were exploding on them10 feet away, the next minute they were 100 yards away.

Looking back, we would have been better using chunks. We didn't bring bunker, and snagging them was improbable as they were moving so fast. We met one guy out there, he was yelling at the fish as they came in and out.

It was tough. G hooked and lost a nice fish on an Ace Bait bunker profile big swimmer. Small swimmers weren't producing. With all the spearing around as well, he figured a spearing profile rubber bait would work, and finally nailed a bluefish around 7# using that.

As the bunker moved out they took the predators with them.

We moved to another area where we had been catching bass, popping on grass shrimp, with small swimmers.

That area was dead water for the time we fished it. Couldn't manage to raise one fish on artificials. Called it a night after that. Hey, that's fishin.

[cardoc765]

GReat to hear that the rangers are not just checking anymore, they are actually ticketing. I have made a point of putting the phone numbers in my phone so next time I see poaching I will be the one calling.

Yesterday was a blast for me. We had 3 guys with their kids (5 in all) ranging from ages 5 - 7. The kids had never been on a boat before in the ocean much less fished for bass.

I set up 4 rods and dead sticked them. The dads agreed the kids would do all reeling in. First stop within 10 mins a nice 32" bass was reeled in by the oldest of them (FIN). I coached and helped hold the rod. Once i was sure the fish was hooked well I let dad help him. The look on his face and joy he had was one for the books. Afterwards he thought he was the fisherman of the day and none of the others could do what he did. Later we had another 30" bass hit and one of the girls was near the rod. I set the hook and handed it to her and asked dad to help hold the rod. She was so stoked she had dad text mommy all kinds of stories on the size of the fish lol. They also got to see a doggie, jelly fish, snails, and skates. It made for a fun day just to show the kids different species of fish and letting them see and touch the fish before releasing them. Reminded me of when i was their age and my dad took me out and got me hooked. He didn't know i was gonna become a maniac about fishing !!!!!

All in all, the kids had a great time. One of the girls got a lil sea sick but stuck it out and kept a smile on her face. Especially after dad allowed her to have a coke to settle her stomach and the others had to drink their juice boxes.

Haven't had a chance to get out in a week now but I will. I've had lots of fun teaching others how to fish lately and helping them catch a fish for the first time. From kids to elderly folks, it's been a blast. Nothing like seeing someone so happy after reeling in a 25# bass and it being their first fish ever.

BTW. There are several schools of bunker out front, out back, and just entering the bay. Sometimes they are not popping or being chased, but you will notice a ripple in the water that wasn't there a minute ago. My tip of the day.

[DarkSkies]

I've had lots of fun teaching others how to fish lately and helping them catch a fish for the first time. From kids to elderly folks, it's been a blast. Nothing like seeing someone so happy after reeling in a 25# bass and it being their first fish ever.

Cardoc, that was an excellent report. Informative without bragging, entertaining, and conveying to the reader what your experience was like out there, without needing 25 paragraphs to do it like some of us.

I think in another life you might have been a teacher, because you do such a great job of teaching others. WTG, bro.

[rip316]

Nice job dude.

[Pebbles]

What a great report cardoc. Sounds like the kids had the time of their lives. You're a good guy!