Quote Originally Posted by finchaser View Post
New breed of bass fisherman they specialize in blitzes only, other wise they can't catch sh_t. Also what Monty said
I have over 30 years in the surfcasting game. Around 2000 catching fish was easy. I would call 1998 to 2002 the golden years. Before that not a lot of guys surf fished for striped bass because it was hard. In the years after the moratorium it was almost impossible to catch a bass from the surf. You would fish for weeks on end. Maybe you would get a 20" bass from that effort. As a result most fishermen gave up or went on to pursue other quarry.

Then, around 2000, or maybe a few years before, the fishing had fully recovered and it was great. We would fish the jetties, surf, inlets. Didn't much matter where you were., the fish were there. They were there from March to December. I remember a few years catching fish in February and January if it was a warm winter. I remember one year, late December, where we each caught over 20 bass apiece, over 15lbs. for almost 2 weeks in a row. Nights where we would all catch in excess of a few hundred pounds. Those were the days.
We diidn't keep many fish back then. If you were on a jetty or front of an inlet and the action was good it became distracting to put one in a safe place till you could get it back to shore.

I think the really heavy harvesting by the surf fishermen began when the bunker boats were pushed offshore and the fish started coming in every year. You knew by your logs when they would be in. All you really had to do was go down to the jetties when the bunker were there, late afternoon, and there would be fish 20-40 pounds under them. We did it mostly with pencil poppers. Snag and drop seems to me to be recent in popularity. Maybe because there are now so many bunker you have to give them exactly what they are eating.
As it got easier to catch fish more guys came out. A few newspaper reports saying "bass all over!" and guys came out in droves.
These were mostly new guys who had never fished before.
The $49 13 foot kmart rod.
Going on the jetties without korkers, with sneakers, or barefoot.
I saw so many guys fall in, and helped a few, saved them from drowning when there was a big swell.

The internet is a joke. Dark you will forgive me for not posting my catches much but what you and others call internet heroes I call pussies. If the bunker weren't around they wouldn't catch ****. You can tell who the heroes are. They catch a few 30's in blitzes and they are instant experts. They are brimming with confidence, spouting their crap on every thread, giving the newbies their expert advice. Meanwhile they have been fishing a total of 4 years.

The bunker thin out or leave. The fishing gets tough. These guys are the ones who stop fishing for bass. Three weeks ago they ware the experts. When the bass leave they put up posts asking how to catch fluke and kingfish. I get disillusioned with the guys standing at the railings. Over the years I have caught some fish blind casting on days like that. Usually late afternoon when you know the bass are around but not stacked up. You will see occasional pods of bunker. First they are calm, then nervous, then one lone bass crashes them and nabs one. Those are the times you need to be out casting for all its worth. Yoou don't know when that bass will be in front of you, You won't ever know, if you are leaning on the railings, BSing with your friends. But thats fishing during blitz season in NJ.

I have fished in other states and have not seen the laziness to the extent we have in NJ. I think its a combination of the internet, cell phones, ego-bolstering, tackle shop boasting, that has these guys out there. Half of them do not respect the striped bass, or do not realize the value it has. The nights that we had, catching bass after bass, returned so we could catch them again another time. And the guys culling bass? don't even get me started.

Good thread, Nitestrikes and Dark I am sorry your friends had to see that. This is fishing blitzes, jersey style. Shame it has deteriorated to this. I am one of those guys who hope the bunker stocks dwindle. The less bunker blitxes the less guys fishing.