Winter Fishing Thread.....

[storminsteve]

Wow dark awesome catching! Hope I didn't mess things up with my comments. Wasn't aware at first you wanted things on the QT. Congrats, it looks like you def put your time in.

[gjb1969]

cone on march i am going nutz i need to get a fish its getting to me now when i see ds getting bass and i hear of other fish cant wait till the back opens up evan if i am broke i can still wet a line and i mite get lucky

[basshunter]

Wow dark you are on fire! I dont think I ever caught 48 bass in a month let alone a week. Congrats it looks like you are having a great time, and thanks for the details to help the new guys. Keep up the good work!

[jonthepain]

Striped bass aka Tom Brady

Attachment 14848

looks like he swallowed a football

[mick2360]

Dark, It has been great to know that you are out there slamming fish....in February for Pete's sake! I've been buried in a rockpile of work, reports, etc. It has been great to check in here and see your reports. I may catch a cod trip soon. See you in the spring. BTW, there was a report in Montauk about some yahoo with a kayak on top of his vehicle stripping down to his skivvies on Main Street. You don't know anything about that, do you?

[DarkSkies]

See you in the spring. BTW, there was a report in Montauk about some yahoo with a kayak on top of his vehicle stripping down to his skivvies on Main Street. You don't know anything about that, do you?

Mick, that could have been me, back when I was drinkin'.
As for the present day, I would say it isn't likely.... I think you are trying to create legendary stories, where none exist....
in much the same way that someone asked me if I was yellling at someone on a jetty last week, and I denied all knowledge of the incident (alleged).....but in the final analysis....I don't think it's a good idea to try and slide between 2 guys fishing when there is only 5 feet between them and a big sweep that affects presentation,,,,do you?

Really wish ya could make it down here...bite has slowed for now but if I call ya again, you may be able to give those Korkers a workout.....miss ya....hope we can fish a tide this Spring......





*******
**Disclaimer.....Folks should know, when I do have good nights out there, that I may take 3-4 quick pics of one fish (out of a dozen fish), and then at home switch them around on the axis with Windows Explorer photo program before posting.....rest assured that with the Finchaser rod I'm using, which is made like a pool cue, that most fish are reeled in, lifted out, unhooked and back in the water within 60 secs, as anything longer than that would interfere with the catching and affect their mortality.....

When I do take a pic, the camera is already out and wrapped around my hand in position to snap the shot as the fish is brought out of the water....

I would ask any of you guys who are taking pics and posting them to have the same concerns about mortality...remember the longer a fish is out of the water the higher it's mortality possibility will be...thanks for reading,. folks.

[DarkSkies]

I was looking at the weather for the next 3 days....not that great for bass from the surf..so I decided tonight was the night to be out there.

Hadn't been out fishing in 5 nights.
I can usually locate my Grundens by the stench, but tonight, to my surprise, there was no stench, first time in awhile......

Fished 4 hours of the ebb. Not a tap....

The water when I started out was a little too calm for my liking....SE swell was welcome as it churned up the surf a bit...even so the water was the cleanest I've seen it in weeks...it reminded me of when you go on an offshore trip and leave the inshore waters...the water out there is a beautiful deep shade of blue-green, that's what it looked like tonight....clean and clear..blue-green...

Herring were in the area...I saw a loon come out of the water with one.
Apparently the bass weren't at home....later on I confirmed some bass have been caught in the last few days, but only by guys hitting them on the head.

The 42 degree water has given lockjaw to the fish that are left, and pushed a lot of the fish that were here in NJ, into the NY Bight/Hudson migration track..(A friend confirmed tonight it's 45 on the Brooklyn side at the base of the Hudson.)..which is where they should have been heading 2 months ago before they got sidetracked by the abundant bait....
Bass are being caught on bait by the Russians there, but those details are best left for another thread.








I may be out there again, but probably not until we get more current flow from next Monday's new moon...
For all intents and purposes, I think the robust bite we had for the last 8 weeks is over. Although there are still some small schoolies around, that great action is not likely to be repeated this month....

It was a blast while it lasted..... ... I have no regrets....


And, despite no action at all from the fish, it was an incredible night to be out there, Feb in mild 43 degree weather....fishing that cold clean beautiful ocean.....


For the log....
Air temps 45-43
Water temp 42
Swell, not much, the mid-period swell of 2' waves was a welcome chance to churn up the water a bit.
Winds, 0-5mph, E/SE, turning S, with light rain throughout the night.

[mick2360]

WTG, Rich. Glad to hear that you have done so well. I'm thinking of heading out on the IC next weekend to apprehend some codfish. You can use your stinky grunden's and you could make yourself useful and tape my new cod jigging video.

[crosseyedbass]

Bass are being caught on bait by the Russians there, but those details are best left for another thread.

The russians and the asians are notorius for keeping short bass and blackfish. I wish the DEC would check them more often. Congrats on the bass, looks like you had a good run.

[jonthepain]

around here it's the illegals with castnets. they've pretty much wiped out the black bass in my stretch of the Cape Fear, and decimated the spring striper run.

had to laugh when a couple of them netted a monster gar last year.

I was rooting for the gar.

[DarkSkies]

^^ Mick, I might hold off on the IC trip if I were you....
I hate to bring a negative slant to anyone's fishing enthusiasm, especially yours, which seems boundless....

The BI codfishing is pretty poor right now....
Reasons that have been given for that range from..

...warmer Winter water temps...
...scattered forage fish they usually feed on (I'm trying to decide how this could be true if we have such an abundance of herring and mackerel now...)
...invasion of dogfish much worse than it's ever been...


Or the simple fact that since the fishery was opened to us Recs a few years ago, we've been taking more than we should, and have crushed the biomass once again...
More on that here....
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...cod+overfished

I don't know which it is....but I'm leaning toward the fact that it's our fault ...you can't blame it on the Comms or the Russians this time....







*****
Jon, some of those gar can get to 5 feet, would have love to see something like that unfold....

[rockhopper]

^^ Mick, I might hold off on the IC trip if I were you....
I hate to bring a negative slant to anyone's fishing enthusiasm, especially yours, which seems boundless....

The BI codfishing is pretty poor right now....

What dark said. This was on the internet. From a guy who just went:

"Drove up to Rhode Island Friday at midnight for a 5AM cod trip. The reports were slow with mostly small market size cod being caught this year but I wanted to get in at least 1 trip this year. The fishing was poor. 1st drop I picked up 1 keeper cod and thought I could have a decent day. That was the last cod I was going to catch all day. The entire port side of the boat only managed 8-10 cod at best. It was elbow to elbow - the boat was jam packed with 65 fares. My buddy and I did manage a nice spot on the boat away from tangles.

Dog fish were a major problem in the morning and got a little better through the day. The entire fleet was on the move searching around. The mates were very friendly and worked hard chumming all day. The capt and mates did everything you could ask for to get a bite going. 1 drop had the starboard side with 15 cod - port side 0. Every drop was a few cod here and there and mostly doggies coming up. "

[DarkSkies]

Thanks for that Rockhopper.

Mick, thanks for the compliments. We don't always score, as evidenced by my results below, but at least we're tryin....



*********
Been fishing the last few nights, nothing at all to show for it...
There was a small flurry of activity on Fri, where some who were standing in front of isolated pods of fish got into a few, congrats.

Sat and Sun the weather and winds made things difficult, though the yakkers did get into some fish about 1/2 mile offshore. They told me the fish were into sandeels and herring where they were.
Those fish, for the most part, never came in to the surf zone.


Last night I found a good amount of sandeels. Another compulsive nut-case and I worked that area hard with no results. Hit a few other areas until the winds shifted N/NE at 20+ mph and made fishing impossible....Hey, that's fishin....






**Don't believe the Hype....
the internet tackle reports and mis-information in reports has reached an all time high for February....where 5 to 10 guys are now standing on each rockpile in the afternoons, and 95% of them ain't catching....


I just want people to know that it's more than difficult now, and the real intel is that the fish are very scattered, isolated pods of smaller fish, and you may be lucky to catch a fish or 2..If you really want to learn it and put in the time, you will catch fish...but you won't learn that from the internet or someone telling ya's the fish are still there in the same numbers.....because they ain't...not at these temps, where the artificial bite, as it now stands (real intel) is about 1 degree away from shutting down.....That's the reality that guys need to be aware of, and the difficulty....

Some folks are driving great distances to get to the areas where some fish have been caught, and I feel we do them a disservice in hyping it up to more than it is...

I understand the cabin fever, sometimes ya just need to get out and wet a line....and being out there, is just the tonic ya need to refresh, recharge, and deal with the hassles of everyday existence...just that one fish,, even a schoolie., to put a bend in your line is enough to make your day.....

[storminsteve]

Fished yesterday afternooin, threw the bag, skunk ola.

[cowherder]

At least you are getting out there dark and storminsteve. I have been too much of a wuss lately. It is cold and windy! If the weather warms up a bit I might give it a try. Thanks for the reports.

[DarkSkies]

Cowherder, I don't wanna hear any lame excuses from you...too much of that going around lately....
If you want a fish you have to put in some time like the rest of us,...and lately it's been hard, real hard...the weather and offshore storms have made it extremely difficult and dangerous the last 2 nights....

A lot of guys, encouraged by the sunny days, have been coming out to fish, but the conditions have not been conducive to actively fishing at all....the swell killed it Tue, and the S wind killed it last night....


Tue PM -
Got out there for the ebb, it was more dangerous than challenging...there was a constant 4 sec swell, 4'...with a mid period swell
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...t=groundswells
of 2 waves that were 6-7', frikking intimidating and dangerous for sure....
This severely limited the options as to how and where you could fish...your casting window was only a few seconds once a minute, if you missed it you had to wait for the next one,....very inefficient way to fish....


Wind was not bad at all, and air temps were so mild I had to take a few layers of clothes off....
Still, by moving around to 4 locations, and working at it, I managed 5 bass to 26" in a 4 hour period, rubber and bombers. Fish were not concentrated anywhere, the only way to get one was hitting it on the head.....







Wed PM -
Got to the beach and the S wind was howling 20+ mph,,,,the South wind is usually terrible for NJ fishing, unless you can hide in the bay or the tip of the Hook, closed until March 1...so I toughed it out in the ocean.... not a touch in 4 hours of fishing....the NE pattern from yesterday had turned the water dirty and murky...which severely limited presentation choices and colors....hey that's fishing....

[jigfreak]

^ Oh, back to reporting again, are we?
Monday got 2 to 30", Tue got 1 rat, the swells like you said were insane. Last night goose eggs.

[DarkSkies]

People emulating others....
One of the reasons for trying to help build this site was for me to help spread my ideas about Fishing Conservation, Respect for the Limited Resource that we all must share, and to bring my fighting and support for Fishermen Access throughout the Northeast Coast to the minds of more anglers.....

To some extent I feel I have been successful as some of the most experienced surf fishermen here, too numerous to mention, have chimed in and tried to tell you folks just entering the game how important these above issues are, beyond what you are catching or not catching.....today and the day after.....

I never felt my voice or style would be emulated here or on other sites, anonymously, but as I have seen over the years, that has happened.

I don't personally know the angler referenced by some of you folks.
I do appreciate the head's up, however.









I hope some folks can understand that I make the following points without ego, they can all be verified independently, they are simply, to me, a re-statement of facts and things others have pointed out to me...

1. As I got better in this game, I did have my mentors, and my gratitude and humbleness extends to the philosophy that I feel compelled to help those just starting out. Some may disagree, as you won't see me helpful if you are asking me questions at 3am in the surf line....I value that alone time and am not really looking for company or a "chat" at 3am, I'm looking to fish....

2. It has frequently been pointed out that as the administrator of this site, and with some of the things that I've tried to promote, that some folks look up to me, and that I am an example for some of them.

3. I've had it mentioned by me more than once by different people...and to further explain the uneasiness with which I view this...I have to tell you that I'm not completely comfortable with it....I see myself as a regular guy who loves to fish (I am somewhat obsessive about the fishing, though... )

4. Furthermore, I have taken steps so I won't be recognized out there.

I don't post bragging pics of me smiling and holding a fish on the internet...most of my pics are cropped or sans head shots....
I don't weigh in fish for video weigh ins.
You won't see me weighing in fish in a tackle shop...Although at times I have reported a catch to a tackle shop that I know to help them with their business..and when I do, I use a psuedonym because I'm not in it for the publicity...I have my own goals when I go out there each night, and when I achieve those, I'm extremely happy.


5. I don't need to give surf seminars (though I try to maintain and foster friendships with those who do)...I respect their right to make a living, as long as they aren't giving GPS coordinates to the places I love to fish, (and have come to learn and understand through sweat, many hours, and putting in the hard work to learn them on my own)....
I truly feel for guys like Rich Swiss, Shell E. Caris, Crazy Alberto, John Skinner, and all of the other long-time surf fishermen, too numerous to mention here, who tend to be mugged and "shadowed" every time out because some guys feel they know where the "magic Red X" is that you need to stand on to slay the fish...

6. Speaking of those who are "famous", there seems to be some hatred out there for guys who do well in the surf...instead of feeling happy when a guy catches a lot of fish, some secretly hate him. or think that he is lying....this all has bo be taken into account...when you fish out there if you're fishing for the approval of others, you can end up disappointed when you start to catch a lot...and others may not be....fish for yourself, be true to yourself, and you will be happy...

7. I have developed a certain style, or internet persona, that I feel is both informative and entertaining to folks, and helps get the message across.
That's why I don't mind comments about smelly waders, googans, googan buckets, or googan behaviors...I think one measure of a man is his ability to laugh at himself, and you will find a lot of us doing just that, daily, here at www.StripersAndAnglers.com....

Those who would tend to copy that, I feel sorry for... because to me, it indicates they don't have enough self-esteem to have confidence in their own words and phrases...how sad....




8. Beyond that... I know that some have come to emulate some of the things I'm now doing...and if they do, I'm glad that I am able to have a postive influence in their lives....I get e-mails and texts all the time from those who I have helped to see fishing from a different perspective...those are honestly the kinds of things that make my day, more so than any video weigh-in I could ever do....and I hope to be able to continue to do those kinds of things, and help folks when I can...as long as God allows me to....








**So, please, let's put this issue to bed, guys, get out there and do some fishin, it's the tonic for the soul.......

[mick2360]

It's 10:30 Saturday night. I have just spoken to DS who is perched on a Jetty as I type this. Dark, you are one of a kind and a great friend. Knowing that you are out there in a howling 40 mph wind makes me hope that King Neptune sends the one stray 50 on the east coast your way tonight.

[DarkSkies]

^ Yup, been catchin a few small fish..(and the wind wasn't really 40mph, it was around 30....)..Mick I wish ya coulda been there, hope to see ya soon...I'll try to have some reports up tomorrow when I get a chance.....