Following the Night Tides......Do You have What it Takes?

[DarkSkies]

Some of my night tide trips from the last weeks of June.....
Fishing last weeks of June 2014
Estuary fishing..... back bays, and alternating between bay, inlet, jetty and ocean bites....some bait around, I have been chasing after it as it moves from place to place.

6-18-14 AM
Fished 2 hours.
2 short bass, 8 small blues.

The bass hit a swimmer, and light bucktail with cabelas eel. I took the pic of this small bass to illustrate that.
Bluefish hit bucktail and metal. Misssed quite a few as the fish were tentative and focused on small bait. Pretty good action for 1 1/2 hours.

6-19-14 AM
Fished 3 hours.
One 9# bass, released. 15 small blues, poppers and mag darter. The blues were real aggressive....lots of fun seeing them smash the top water plugs.

6-20-14 AM
Based on the good action from the night before....Fished from the dark into sunrise, no action at all. 5 hours. N wind blowing all night. Hate that freaking north wind for NNJ!

6-22-14 AM
Fished 4 hours
13 small blues , one short bass, multiple locations.
Blues hit poppers and very small bucktail.
Bass hit hopkins shorty.
** Am seeing more small bait around, though most places are still not holding any reasonable bait population. Today I noticed rainfish and shrimp that they're feeding on. There are also some very small baitfish fry (1/4" to 1/2" in the water)

6-23-14 AM
Based on the good action from the night before......Fished 4 hours, no action at all. Bad wind and rough water again.

6-24-14 AM
Fished 3 hours total, one 12# bass on swimmer, one bluefish on swimmer.
Left and went to another location. Got another 5 small blues on poppers. All fish released.

6-25-14 AM
Fished 2 hours, back bay. 9 small blues, poppers.

6-26-14 AM
Fished 2 hours, back bay. 3 small blues, poppers.
Moved to the ocean for another part of the tide.
Found lots of bunker, Snagging them every few casts, high concentration. Some others were snagging and dropping with no success.

I was snagging them while trying to work a northbar bottle. No fish for any of us. Got chased off the beach by the pending storms and lightning.
The wind also kicked up too,, was lots of white water, but no fish.

6-27-14 AM
Fished 2 hours back bay, 5 small blues, poppers.
SouthEast wind was building and up to 20mph as I left the bay to go to the ocean. Because of that I bagged the trip and went home early.

6-28-14 AM
Fished 1 1/2 hours back bay, 4 small blues, poppers.

6-29-14
Took one night off. As luck would have it, that one night a friend out there fishing artificials (who fished the whole night) did pretty well. This is one of the things that drives the compulsion ......... the "no rhyme or reason" to the pattern fishing we try to do.

The fish have been so scattered that unless you're out there every night you can't consistently catch them. Drives me absolutely nuts. On the other hand if someone only fished once or twice a week, it's easy for them to mis-calculate that there are no bass left.
What is left, is the dribs and drabs, the remnants of a late Spring bite, still hanging out in the area and tight to the bunker schools at night.


6-30-14 AM
Fished 3 hours, one bass -- 24 # -- on Northbar bottle, released.






It was the only fish on artificials that night. Lots of bunker around, but no indication of bass under them. Was getting discouraged at the lack of action and tremendous amount of bunker.
Went through many different profiles and presentations. At one point I was bouncing a light bucktail on bottom. Getting hit regularly but not able to hook any of these fish. My best guess is that a lot of croakers or spot had moved in that night. Fish with small mouths. I was puzzled by these small fish and why they could be there in so many numbers that night, but they were. And no reasonable amounts of bass (or bluefish) chasing them, other than the one I got. Was very happy with that one bass, she put up a nice fight.