NJ fishing reports for April 2011...www.StripersandAnglers.com

[finchaser]

what's an ebb and how do you find one?????????????????????

[DarkSkies]

^^Awesome question, Fin. I set up a thread just to address that.
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...o-you-find-one
Anyone who can shed some light, feel free to chime in.

[Monty]

Congrats on catching on artificials

Fished some back areas tonight looking for spearing and small bait. Couldn't find any, but did manage 2 short bass on light bucktails during the first 2 hours of the ebb.

[DarkSkies]

It ain't easy, Monty, but you know it's rewarding. I cycled through a lot of presentations to get those fish.

When I find bait, my chances of catchin on arti's go up 100%. There hasn''t been the small bait concentration around that usually is, this time of year, even though there are scattered schools of bunker in quite a few places. I'm poking and prodding every nearby early spring crevice and drain. And the water is still a bit cold.

I can say there are juvenile bass feeding in a few places where small bait has appeared, but this is often just out of reach. Some kayakyers I know have been doing well. Again, it's still hit or miss. And the guys I know slinging bait have complained it's slowed down in the last 2 nights. The water temp has dropped, but the overall trend pattern is still rising.

Like FnM said, it makes sense to put the time in now while a lot of people aren't crowding ya. Last night I was all alone where I was fishin. That solitude is a big part of what fishin is to me. I'll never understand the need of some folks to go out in large groups to fish the surf. To me, that takes away from the whole experience. To each his own, I guess.

The end of a sunny or warmer day, right before dark, would be the best chances of someone catching on artificials at the early spring places. But that all depends on the tide. Last night best tides were later at night. Someone like you who doesn't mind casting 600 times for one fish would catch 1 or 2 as well. But the arti bite really hasn't blown up yet. It's a lot of hit and miss, still rewarding to me, anyway.

[skinner]

I'll never understand the need of some folks to go out in large groups to fish the surf. To me, that takes away from the whole experience. To each his own, I guess.

Me neither dark. Last night on the way to a place I like to fish, I stopped at another place and there were 30 cars in the lot. Not my kind of fishing, I would rather fish away from the herd as well.
Got 2 nice keepers last night, 30" and 32", clams, fished RB from 8-1.

Here is a pic of the one I kept.



I gutted it there and threw the guts far out into the water for the fish to eat. I brought the rest of the fish home with me. I felt that explanation was needed because of the rants about leaving carcasses in front of peoples houses. I have never done anything like that, but I do like to take the guts out and throw them into the water before I leave as it is less to deal with and less problems with my wife.

[wish4fish]

yeah we had nuttin but a runt last nite and a few taps. i wuz fishin by myself after work tonite picked upsome fresh clams and was sikked but it was slow one hit and nothing else i think the cold water got them off there feed a bit. nice catch skinner wtg dude!

[storminsteve]

Good deal skinner, I'm about to head out now and am trying to convince myself not to go and wait for better weather. But you never know unless you try.

[wish4fish]

my buds punkd out last nite but i wuz there got 9 bass in the rain fished the last of the incoming and the whole outgoing, only 1keeper 29" the rest were shorties, clams were on the menu. how did u do steve did u get out?

[fishinmission78]

Fished the front early this morning, IBSP, one 31" bass at the change of the tide, around 6, clams.

[storminsteve]

Yes w4f I did get out, check your mail. Back of rb last night, nasty cold rain but the fish were active. 7 bass to 30 1/2" using phlegm.

[yukon]

Got shorts on clams in RB last night end of incoming. Guys to my left had 4 rods and there friends to my right had another 3 rods. They sat and watched instead of holding there rods and caught nothing

[storminsteve]

Yeah yukon can't stand when guys do that. They take up a lot of real estate and don't catch any more than the guy who is paying attention. Also the guys who go out there and drink their asses off and leave bottles all over the place. If you want to party go to a bar or stay home. If you want to catch fish you have to be on your game.

[plugcrazy]

Way to catch them up guys!

[wish4fish]

7 bass to 31 1/2" tonite they hit on the incoming

[rip316]

Only shorts for me last night. Haven't been able to get a keeper yet. Congrats to you guys that are getting them good.

[storminsteve]

Nice w4f! Thanks for the cell phone pic, looks like you got 2 nice fish. Me, only one legal size, 28" on the nose. The rest were like cookie cutter fish 23-25". Most of the fish hit later on. I fished the whole outgoing. Beautiful night to be out, hardly any wind.

[ledhead36]

Good deal on the catches guys. I moved around a bit last night as the Sat night crowds were too much in one of my usual spots. Sat night is the worst night as plenty of folks think combining fishing and drinking heavily is perfectly natural. Yukon I hear what you are talkiing about, the guys with 3 and 4 rods do nothing but selfishly take beach space away from others. Finally found a quiet area, but got smaller fish. Fished 10-2:30, totalled 5 small bass to 26".

[finchaser]

Dogwoods are blooming and fish are biting

11 bass last night for 2 of us all on jig and rubber,biggest 31" all released

[cowherder]

Way to go finchaser, cool on the releases!

[Monty]

First time out this year, picked up the skunk, was great getting out. Saw 4 seals, seemed that they would come closer to me till I made eye contact, then they would skedaddle. Worked out the first time out issues (too much line on reel ). Fished from 3:30 to 10:30, got to spot at 1:30, after 2 red bulls I fell asleep, woke up, 2 more and I was wired. Wonder if they watered them down? Saw a small white snake? 6"-8" long. See pic, no idea what it was. Also tried these new rubber eels, Surf Hogs, casted nice and seemed to have nice action. Small bait was getting hammered at times by small birds, never closer than 300 yards from me. Was good to get the kinks out, try some new stuff out and see what the structure looked like at low tide.