Winter Fishing Thread.....

[Monty]

...when the white water is in town, enough to make Monty drool...is a good time to be out there...

I miss the white water.....Miss your fishing reports
Tired of China.
Can't wait for this..


Or this

[surferman]

Beautiful pics Monty thanks for sharing!

[mbo1971]

thanks for the warm welcome guys.

extreme - i used to think people who knew how to ride bikes didnt need to wear helmets wither. Then one day at our shop we had someone who was an experienced rider fall riding in our parking lot without one on. Yeah - they almost died and that does not involve 42* water. I fancy myself pretty fleet afoot and still think it could make sense.

Dark - yeah, conventionals are the way to go for me. They catch bigger fish. Here is just one example.

[jonthepain]

holy mackeral, that's some drum!

is that NC?

[mbo1971]

Haha - yeah, she was a pig. Est @70+. Was October 10, 2010 and our goal was 10 reds. We fell 2 short. I myself had 6 amd 4 in an hour. It was an insane day. It was not NC, a bit further north in VA. It an amazing fishery. To Dark's point, this pic was taken late in the ebb, and we were a solid 200 yards out from where we started in the am at the top of the flood. Can't wait to get back down there.

[storminsteve]

mbo that is a serious pig! How long to get her in? What bait do you guys use down there? I would love to catch a drum that size, congrats to you guys.
I fished moco last night. You would have though they were giving away strippers rather than stripers. There were almost as many guys as the spring run out there! Found a quiet place and got 4 fish on a bomber. Lots of fun. Dark, some friends of mine were out there and said there was a pretty big argument where you could hear the guy yelling all the way on the beach. Was that you or did you hear that as well? I'm assuming that was because of the crowding. Maybe someone casted a line over someone else's head?

[DarkSkies]

Steve, you know better than that.
I'm all about peace, harmony, and bird reports now...
I have no comment on what happened where you guys were...as stated,,,,I have packed it in for the year...based on Finchaser's constant gloom and doom reports...

I'm also selling all my gear and making arrangements to be a missionary in S America...

Good luck out there, catch em up....

MBO, nice fish, thanks for sharing with us.

[mbo1971]

Steve - that was a good 30 minute fish. It's an interesting spot where we are - it's on an inlet to a back bay and just to our right is a sand bar that goes out a good quarter mile. Where we are fishing is a massive pocket that has a gentle slope all the way out to the tip of the sand bar. The point of all that - there is no good structure for the fish to dig into. In other spots, we likely would have never seen that fish due to all the structure they can dig in on. 30 min sounds like a while, but really, for a fish of that size is pretty quick. Scales on her were the size of half dollars. Truly a fish of a life time. Unfortunately for me, that's not mine, but my buddy Ben.

As for what and how we bait for big drum, well most of the time it's bunker that time of year. If we can net mullet, they are like red candy, but they are not a sure thing. The rigs we run are often called cannonball rigs. Start with 8/0 and 10/0 Gami Big Eye hooks snelled with 50lb fluro to 100lb swivel - preferably spro or something low profile. The length of fluro from the snell to the swivel is short - no more than 4" and most of mine are more like 2". From there, I run a short 3' section of 150lb mono where the fishfinder rig will run. This is Albrighted (leaving a 1" tag end on the 150# so the FF does not ride up over the knot) to about 60' of 30lb mono shock leader. Big reds get ornery in the suds and will really dig in (as discussed above) and getting a few wraps of heavy on the reel when they are in close means better pressure and less chance of suds release.

One thing to note - all my big dead stick rods are 13' and have conventionals on them. I know most guys up here dont run conventionals (or long heavers). South of the mason-dixon, its rare to see an 8nbait with a spinner and most are at least 12'.

As far as drag pressures, I run about 2lbs - just enough so waves wont make the clicker fire. If its late and I cant see the rods, I will bump the drag a little so fish is more likely to hook itself.

As for spikes - here is the homebrew I like to run. Go to Home Depot - the garden section. Get some of the 3" wide and 5' tall chicken wire fence posts. Then get some 1 1/2" PVC - need about 18" of it. Through-bolt the PVC to the post and there you go - 5' tall (when set into the sand) heavy duty spike that cost you about $8.

They wind up looking like this:

[seamonkey]

Wow awesome pictures mbo1971! Thanks for sharing. That is a record drum for sure! And the pic of the poles, with the birds flying overhead, sure looks peaceful. I fish the Cape May area beaches alot so I know what you mean about flat beaches. You guys in northern nj sure are lucky to still have bass. Enjoy them while they last.

[gjb1969]

while they last its only going to get better for us spring is comeing backbays open up soon and the big girls will start moveing when the water temps get right

[captnemo]

Outstanding drum pics, mbo, and welcome. MBO or Dark Skies maybe you want to start a separate thread on drum fishing. I plan to go down there this year and would like to see more. I thnk others might as well. Just a suggestion.

[wish4fish]

Dark, some friends of mine were out there and said there was a pretty big argument where you could hear the guy yelling all the way on the beach. Was that you or did you hear that as well? I'm assuming that was because of the crowding. Maybe someone casted a line over someone else's head?

ha ha dark bet it wuz u, lol! why dont u tell them when you found 2 russian guys at the spy house peir and they wanted to keep a short striper and wat u said to them? it was awesome, if u don't tell the story i want to,

[DarkSkies]

It's mostly over now, at least for the bigger fish that some of us have seen and landed....some small schoolies left, and you have to work for them, not worth the effort for 90% of the guys out there....

I regret I couldn't be completely honest....a few guys I know are still fishing, hitting it hard, and with the warmer weather and specific internet reports a lot of guys came out of the woodwork...as has been said, it looked like a May afternoon during the Spring bunker blitzes on Fri....and while 95% of those guys who came there because of the internet reports didn't catch anything....a few of us were putting in the time and catching steadily.....and I was asked to put off posting for a while until the weather got colder...

Total for the past week...48 bass, it was a lot of fun, had a blast....



**************
2-4 Sat PM
Fished in the dark. The yakkers had done well that day. Didn't want to be part of the resulting internet fishing crowd so I procrastinated getting down there. Fishing was still good, fished for an hour...managed 6 bass to 26" on rubber.
Then the NE pattern kicked in with the tide change, making the swells constant and up to 5' high, unfishable...

For the log:
6 bass to 26", rubber
Wind NW, light seas, built to NE and heavy seas, the NE killed the bite
Temps, Air - 50-42
Water, 44

[DarkSkies]

2-5 Sun AM

I slept in the car for a chance to fish the sunrise...fished 5:30-7am.. for 1 1/2 hours...most of the water was unfishable with the big swells and higher tides...still gave it a shot..made 3 stops...at first place I had a few "lookie-Lou's" just watching me as I blind casted looking to find a stray fish or 2... I know the second I hooked up they would have been out of their trucks and rushing the beach.
No success at all in that rough water.








***************
2-5 Sun PM

Came back for the PM bite...
A better trip, some good action. The big swells were still there so I had to use a different strategy than I usually do. Fish were there but it took 15 minutes to find them at first stop. Once I did, managed 6 fish in the first half hour, that was sweet. And yes, I was howling at the moon!
Action slowed down after that, fished for a total of 3 hours, managed 16 bass on rubber.




For the log and the new guys:
16 bass to 27", rubber
Wind W, strong, steady 15+
Temps, Air 38-38
Temps, Water- 44-45, the NE did the trick of bumping up the water temp and fish were on the feed.

I gave it a shot with plugs, a few bumps, but the rubber was the key to provoking them.
They're primarily feeding on sandeels now, with small herring, squid, and tinker macks part of their diet as well.

[Monty]

It's mostly over now, at least for the bigger fish that some of us have seen and landed....some small schoolies left, and you have to work for them, not worth the effort for 90% of the guys out there....
Total for the past week...48 bass, it was a lot of fun, had a blast....

Great reports Dark, awesome catches, thank you for sharing.......Not worth the effort? LOL, fishing is supposed to be fun.

[DarkSkies]

2-6 Mon PM
" Dark, I can't catch fish on a full moon, the moon is too bright!"
Lots of guys out giving it a shot for the PM bite....unfortunately 95% of them didn't have any action as the fish weren't feeding at that time. A few friends and I came out later on...

Again, at the first stop I made it took about 15 minutes to find the fish...once I did they were pretty aggressive, it was just a matter of presenting correctly. Rubber again outfished plugs, although I got my biggest fish of the night on a plug.

A friend came out to join me. He had been somewhere else where no fish were caught. You have to remember that these fish are not everywhere, there are little pockets of them and you have to hunt for them...the locations, and feeding times, change from night to night, so that's what makes it so exciting to me...anyone coming out to fish for "just an hour" would not be able to see these things, and they usually give up..

My friend, with my instruction, fished rubber. It was tough for us as the wind was still SE...not really that great, and we had to fish into the wind, a little uncomfortable...once he got into the groove he started catching...I told him I wouldn't fish until he landed at least one, so the pressure was on...I can be a little intense at times. I knew he wanted me off his case, but the only way for him to do that was to get a fish....



And he did, I think he managed about 4 or 5 total, and dropped quite a few more. He also lost one keeper sized fish because he wasn't ready for it...after that his adrenalin level pumped up and he definitely became more animated!

The best action was for an hour when he got there...after that it slowly diminished...he managed 4 or 5 to 27"...just for frame of reference, some people are dismissing this as a "schoolie bite"...for the most part, the bigger fish have left, that's true, but his 27" fish was about 9#. fat as a carp....

I'll take those "schoolie" fish any day of the week!

I managed 11 fish to 29 1/2". If I concentrated solely on my fishing I would easily have had over 20 fish, but I wanted to make sure he got into the groove first. He's a good friend, has invited me on his boat many times, and we just never seem to be able to fish together. He was ecstatic when we left, and I could tell he really needed these fish to put a little enthusiasm back into his life. I was glad to help him out in that regard. Although I usually prefer to fish alone, we both had a blast fishin together..




(One that I kept....this was one of the skinnier ones for its size....)












Fat belly........



Striped bass aka Saltwater Carp....





For the log and the new guys:
11 bass to 29 1/2", rubber and swimmers
Released one keeper, 28 1/2", kept the 29 1/2"
Wind - SE at first, not that great, 10mph, eventually shifting to W, which made it more comfortable.
Swell - there is stilll a big swell out there, the SE did not help it either...and you really had to pay attention to the swell to consistently present the right way to get the fish...

Temp- Air - 52-47
Temp - Water - 44, fish will feed aggressively at this temp and above as long as there is food around.,

[DarkSkies]

2-7-12 good action repeated, I missed the window....


2-7 Tue

My friend, who got "hooked" from last night's action, was out there early in the dark. I had to work late and couldn't get down there. He racked up 8 before I got there, including 1 fat keeper, and left soon after. The bite at that time had trickled, so I moved to another location.



His fish.....






Fished 2 hours, not a tap for me

[DarkSkies]

2-8- Wed
Fishing a Noreast pattern
Got down to the beach and it was getting ugly. The wind wasn't that bad, but the NE swells had started, duration every 2 secs, wave height 3', not good conditions. Despite that, wanted to give it a shot anyway.
I went through all my best producers with no results. Finally started catching fish on a herring profile swimmer, deep diver, crawled extremely slow near the bottom. The water with the NE blow seemed to be warming up a bit, but still around 43.

Managed 3 bass to 27" on that swimmer, had to work for each fish. Fish were caught 45 mins apart, no rhyme or reason.

Total fishing time 3 hours.





******
2-9 Thu
Got to the beach at optimal time, good white water and clear conditions. Only problem was the S wind, which eventually turned W. I hate S and don't usually do well at night in that wind. Fished 2 hours, hour before and after the top of the tide, threw all my most productive artificials. One missed fish at the first location, that was it. At 43 degrees the fish are almost comatose unless you can find a pod that is chasing bait...and that action eluded me although I fished 2 locations.

[DarkSkies]

2-10 Fri, fish active again....

2-10 Fri
Big feed before the troops move out...
Got to the beach near dark..there were 5-6 guys on every rockpile...
Set up away from them as the tide was coming in and the swell was big...I knew a lot of guys, if they stayed where they were, would end up getting wet.
Went to some higher ground, started getting a slow pick of bass within 15 minutes. Switched back and forth between rubber and bombers.
Fished 2 hours of the flood, then went to take a break and grab pizza for the slack. Came back 1/2 hour later and continued to catch fish in various places.




It was a night where, if you love surfcasting, you didn't want to leave, because even on the slow periods, the worst action gave you a fish or missed hit every half hour. The best action gave you a fish very 15-25 casts if you paid attention to the tide and current.



There were 2 good feeding cycles during this trip. Most guys who only fished an hour would not have been aware of that. Most guys did give up after an hour, and 95% of them did not get any numbers of fish, despite the tackle shop internet reports hyping this bite.














For the log and the new guys:
12 bass to 27 1/2", rubber and swimmers
Fish were not on top - mid level, slightly sluggish unless you hit them with rubber, you really had to work for each fish...for example, the first place I went to I got 5 within 2 hours...that was half the number of fish caught in a 2 hour period for that location...a lot of guys just couldn't seem to dial in to all the things you had to do to get a fish.
Dropped 2 nice fish additionally...still mad at myself for that...one was at least mid teens....

Wind - S at first, not that great, 10mph, eventually shifting to SW, which made it more comfortable.
Swell - there is still a big swell out there, the SE did not help it either...and you really had to pay attention to the swell to consistently present the right way to get the fish...

Temp- Air - 45-38
Temp - Water - 44f - it seems the water where I was had gone up a degree or 2 with the most recent NE pattern on Tue

[DarkSkies]

2-11 Sat PM,,,harsh NW Winds and Snow shut down the bite....

2-11 Sat
Fish were caught in the morning, but in the PM, after the NW was howling all day, the ocean temps had dropped, and conditions were rough. I timed my trip to coincide with the start of the ebb, as the flood tide coming off the full moon was high and dangerous.

Even still, it was dicey and I had to pay attention to everything I did. The surf was cold, wet, and angry if you accidentally made a mistake.
Fished 2 hours of the ebb, not a tap in that cold dark night.

Someone ended up out there with me, a guy I met the other night and helped to get him into a few fish...I was real impressed that he decided to give it a shot.... as we were the only fools fishing within a 12 mile stretch at that time.
We had snow and sleet on our backs. Because of the harsh NW we could only fish half of the productive water.

The winds were relatively mild at first, but gradually became unfishable with the harsh W/NW. He left. I hit 2 more locations, with no action at all at each.









Footprints in the snow....bite finally shut down.....a sad sight to see....



For the log and new guys
Air temps 38-28, snow and rain
Wind 15 mph variable, first W/NW, building to 25+, when it became unfishable
Swell, constant, and with the NW it became dangerous to fish certain areas.
Water temps around 42,

You really had to be aware of your surroundings, and the water's action, every moment you were out there. This is why I don't encourage new guys to try this type of fishing at night, as there is a considerable amount of risk if you are not careful out there. One wrong step could cost you your life.

Catch? - no activity at all in that frigid 42 degree water.