NJ fishing reports for November 2010

[SurfSpinner]

Fished a couple of spots up North from 5-4pm. 12 to 35", but mostly little guys around 22". The bigger ones were caught on clam. Hooked a nice one on a swimmer who peeled off some line for a few seconds and then came loose. Felt bummed when I had to leave just when the bite turned on. It was tough casting earlier in the day.

[DarkSkies]

Fished a couple of spots up North from 5-4pm. 12 to 35", but mostly little guys around 22". It was tough casting earlier in the day.

5 to 4? You put in a lot of hours in the cold for those fish SurfSpinner, nice effort!

Every time I think that I have figured out a pattern.... NOPE!

I hear ya, the pattern is whatever they're feeding on at that moment, in that stretch of water. Time and tide aren't even consistently reliable this year. You bang them one week on the ebb, at the beginning, and the next week it's the middle of the flood.

.
Ended up with 7 bass between 22 inches and 28 inches.
At one point I had lost 4 fish in a row that were hooked, one larger one that I could not get out of the wash. Power pro line broke 4x. ... On sun up lots of bird action in my face, literally at my feet at times. This happened for an hour or so, could not catch one fish during this time ...
Bumped into Darkskies,
Was great fishing weather till the sun came up.

You definitely had the hot hand last night Monty, congrats on your persistence and willingness to try different presentations in that harsh wind. No mention of how cold and windy it was...I think if you were still catchin fish, you would have stayed there till your fingers froze off.

Killie came to visit me yesterday pointed him in the direction of the beach where it's been going down for 2 days, he scored 25 keepers to 18# between, 4PM and 6PM. This was witnessed and he was the talk of 2 shops this AM.
All were released way to go Killie

When Killie puts his mind to it, he's a fishin machine! I don't know how that talk ever arose about him shutting the bite down, unless it was a convenient way for guys to blame someone when the bite died as the tide went slack.
WTG Killie, even better on the releases.

[DarkSkies]

The early bird gets the worm, the late fisherman gets cold fingers....

Overslept and didn't make it down to the water till 5am. Bumped into C4Charlie and Monty Not a lot of other guys out in that "mild weather".

When I left my car it was a tropical 38 degrees. The 7mph NNW forecasted winds were double that, steady at 15+MPH with gusts to 20, making it hard to present. Fortunately the fish were in close, you only had to throw out 25-30 feet. I think C4 caught the last of the bigger fish as that bite shut down within 20 minutes of me getting there. No fish landed by me from 5-8am, a few hits and misses, but my googan ways took over last night.

There was then a slow pick of smaller fish until dawn, when the birds went nuts over small bait in the surf.

It could have been anchovies or rainfish. A few of us frantically tried to find the right pattern as we had bass blowing up on the bait 30' out in front of us. Some were caught, in the ratio of one bass for every 500 casts. None for me as I tried to match it with very small metal and small teaser. The teaser in this case might not have been small enough.

Monty was racking his brains as the fish were blowing up right in front. I think we threw every small presentation we had, and even switched it up with extra large in hopes of finding the right combo. No dice.

It was cool to see the action make that daytime appearance, as northern NJ action usually has been shutting off near sunrise unless it's overcast. Still looking for the days when the bite will transition to lasting for a better part of the day.

Last year by this time we had that type of action going on. I've heard all types of hypotheses for this...

the water isn't cold enough
(it now is)

too much bait in the back bays
(not any more)

waiting for all the big fish to come down from MA, RI, and Montauk
(that waiting should be over as half the fish biomass are now in Cape May and Delaware, or offshore swimming in that direction)



There are less fish around because we've been hammering them beyond the MSY (Maximum Sustainable Yield) for the last 3 years
(my guess is that this is a big part of why we're seeing less action along our surf, but there's not much beyond anecdotal confirmations of this just yet... )





Anyway, remember that the fish (except for the "resident" Hudson fish who now are available to some North NJ anglers) are swimming South every day, rain or shine, wind or not.

Get out there while you can, please be careful if yer fishin in the cold. There's no sense in getting hypothermia over a fish.

Congrats to all who got fish.
Only a few hardcore anglers were willing to brave that night cold and wind.

Killie, if I had a trophy I'd deliver it to ya tomorrow...
I know if Finchaser was out fishin with ya, you'd have twice that many...

and he would have twice whatever your numbers were.

[clamchucker]

Fished OC from 4-9am, 6 bass to 14lbs, ava17 with green tail.

[Pebbles]

Hey Dark I thought you left my house at 2:30 am, Wow I must have really been in a fog.

I had a good time the other night. Caught a skate and a fluke. I must have done ok cause I out fished Dark.

[clamchucker]

Fished OC early this morning before work. I caught 2 keepers on 30" and one 34" both on metal.

[fishinmission78]

Last night was a winner for me. Fished 4 to 6 last night. Ended up with 8 bass four were a little short and the other 4 were 28" to 32". Used a small teaser with metal. All went back to the great sea.

[buckethead]

NOMO last night. Started out with some black bombers, then changed to a yellow and orange swimmer and a white and red swimmer. Had no luck with them after about 2 hours of fishing I threw on some metal and caught myself a 34" bass.

[captnemo]

Had a hard time getting started last night. Never thought I was going to make it out. My gear was all messed up so I took the extra time to make it right.

Went out from 6 to 11. First cast I caught a fluke. Second cast I had a short bass. Then things got slow. I tried all different plugs. Just before I was going to call it a night I put on metal and hooked another bass this time 30".

[GeoffT]

Skunked last Thursday from 8-11 PM at a popular spot. Despite bassy waters, fog and a light NW, the hard S to N sweep against outgoing made presentations difficult.

Last night, on a hunch I tried a different spot far away from people for the last half of incoming with a brisk NNW. Bingo! Fishing the points where there was turbulence, I managed 18 bass in three hours. Smallest 24". Two biggest went 22 and 24 pounds. Big bombers, sluggos on a jighead and mega-shad were the tickets. I have a feeling they were onto big sandeels. The best part is there wasn't another soul besides me.

[yardvillejimmy]

OFFC and two associate members fished OC last evening. Just before dark each associate caught a keeper size bass. I myself caught a 32 inch striper on a yellow bomber and also managed to miss a fish.

[DarkSkies]

^^ Yardville, so glad to see you guys are getting out there. I guess that means you won't be selling your gear on E-Bay, just yet.

I fished hard the last 2 days.
Caught some fish.
Released some keepers.
To everyone I met out there, or bumped into, it was great meeting ya's!

The cold and harsh winds are making it tough for a lot of people to get out. The fish don't care. Congrats to all who saw some nice fish.

Even more congrats to the guys I saw releasing keeper after keeper.

[c4charlie]

Fished from 8pm until 5am. Caught the most bass I ever caught in one night. Stopped counting after 20. At least 10 keepers, biggest was 17pounds (pictured). It was so good that I went back to the car to get the fly rod out. Unfortunately, the sweep was just too much to contend with so after trying for an hour, went back to plugging. Fish were caught on blurple magnum bomber, small bomber and my hand tied teaser. The fish were not very easy to catch and they also came in waves.

Sandeels were so abundant that I didn't realize that when I brought the stripping basket to the car, one sand eel must have jumped in. Hours later, when I got home, it was still alive. Put it in a bowl for the kids before school and they loved watching it swim and playing with it until it died. Before it did, I took a pic. Here are some of the many pics including the biggest which was a memorable catch for me.

The same teaser has caught me more than 20 stripers and it still works and looks good. I just make sure not to use pliers on the teaser. Good thing these are bass and not blues or it would have been shredded on one fish.

All fish released! Now I got to figure out how to get my work done and get some sleep at the same time.

[cardoc765]

Fished OC this morning from 5:30 - 11:00. Saw a couple fish caught at the first stop where I spent most of the morning. Then tried a spot a lil south and 3 spots north of where I started and nothing. Lots of shad in the water. Will try again later or tomorow.

[gjb1969]

way to go with the bass that is a night u will not forget

[yukon]

I had a good night last night. Finally found some fish after hours of searching. At one point decided I was hanging up the gear for the year. I said that's it I'm done no more of this crap. I was freezing and soaked. Thinking to myself what other sane person walks around in the middle of night that has work at 9 chasing around a damn fish... but then I caught a bunch of fish with some nice keepers for 3 hours straight staying out to 4:30 and on the way home decided I'm going back out again tonight.

Now I just need to figure out how to tell the wife who said when I walked in.. "are you telling me you just fished for 12 hrs'... But honey I caught a bunch of fish!

I got a bakers dozen mainly on the incoming. Got 'em on the Felmlee Eel teaser of course, 3 oz SS needlefish, and a crystal minnow. The more action the lure had as it came over the bar the more fish and hits I got. Tight Lines!

[LennyD]

Nice Report Charlie and Yukon!
Hope when i go wednesday night i'll find them too.
I have a baby coming in 2 months so my time is very limited!

[gjb1969]

way to go on the fish

[SharkHart]

Big swell and crashing waves late last night, guess from that storm up the coast. was making use of my last vaca day of the week, wondered why i was out in that cross wind and pounding water , I got one bass who was suicidal. the current was very strong and manasquan was pretty floooded at high tide this am.

I saw a guy on another site celebrating the big white water, why do you want a pattern change after a 4 day bite I get mental trying to figure these guys thought process sometimes

[buckethead]

Fished OC last night 6 to 12. Caught 5 bass all keepers on needlefish with a bucktail teaser. .