Anyplace BUT Island Beach....Contest....

[fishinmission78]

The weather shouldn't be too bad to bring the kids out and get them some fish. There are small bluefish on mullet all over IBSP. Wondering when the fish will be here in numbers this year. It has been very spotty.

[bababooey]

Results of the Governors Cup, not too many big fish weighed in.


Governor's Surf Fishing Tournament results:

The 20th Annual Governor's Surf Fishing Tournament was held Sunday, October 2, 2011 at Island Beach State Park. Sixty-seven fish were entered into the tournament in four species categories: kingfish, blackfish, bluefish and striped bass.

The grand prize and tournament cup winner is Michael Nightingale of East Windsor, NJ who caught a 33 3/8" striped bass. Mr. Nightingale received two rod and reel combos, and will receive a plaque as well as have his name engraved on the Governor's Cup, which is permanently on display at Island Beach State Park.

NJ Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin attended the awards ceremony to assist Division of Fish and Wildlife Director Dave Chanda in awarding the rod and reel outfits to the Governor's Cup winner and the additional twenty-two anglers for their prize-winning fish in the various species categories. Also, everyone who registered for the tournament was entered into a raffle drawing, which was held prior to the awards ceremony. Pre-registrant entrants were also able to enter a raffle to win a surf rocket, a specially designed compressed air casting cannon. This year Sherman Chin won the surf rocket.

The event was sponsored by the NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife and Division of Parks and Forestry, the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, Jersey Coast Anglers Association and the New Jersey Beach Buggy Association.

More than $130,000 has been raised since the inception of the tournament for conservation projects and improved beach access.

A complete list of winners follows:

Kingfish Category

Child (Female)

First Place ? Tiffany Bates, Jackson, 10 3/4"

Teen (Female)

Second Place ? Lindsey Nordaby, Mays Landing, 10 1/2"

First Place ? Kimberly Mazar, Brick, 12"

Teen (Male)

Second Place ? Billy Bates, Jackson, 10 3/4"

First Place ? Nathan Hagaman, Egg Harbor City, 11"

Adult (Female)

First Place ? Kaitlin Mazar, Brick, 13"



Adult (Male)

Third Place ? Jared Talarico, Sicklerville, 14 3/8"

Second Place ? Penrose Hallowell, Ottsville, PA 14 3/4"

First Place ? Abel Paroski, Elizabeth, 15"



Blackfish Category

Teen (Female)

First Place ? Kaitlyn Bach, Toms River, 14"

Teen (Male)

First Place ? Justin Subramanian, Pennington, 17 1/4"

Adult (Male)

Third Place ? Zoltan Egyed, Trenton, 18"

Second Place ? Robert Campi, Flemington, 19"

First Place ? Russ Knapp, Middlesex, 20"



Bluefish Category

Teen (Female)

First Place ? Peyton Waters, Robbinsville, 16 3/4"



Teen (Male)

First Place ? Vincent Altamari, Tabernacle, 21 1/2"



Adult (Female)

Second Place ? Amanda Caskey, Harrisonburg, VA 15"

First Place ? Janet Stone, Succasunna, 20"

Adult (Male)

Third Place ? Andrew Ciok, Seaside Park, 19" caught at 9:00 am

Second Place ? Marcio Broday. Elizabeth, 19" caught at 7:30 am

First Place ? Joe Csenteri, Columbus, 23 1/8"

Striped Bass Category

Adult (Male)

Second Place ? Patrick Mickles, Maple Shade, 32 1/4"

First Place and 2011 Governor's Cup Winner ? Michael Nightingale, East Windsor: 33 3/8" Striped Bass


http://www.nj.com/shore/blogs/fishin...tournam_2.html

[DarkSkies]

Yep it's no secret....
big fish, I've seen em and got sent some of the pics......

But there is also a tremendous amount of hype.....
exaggerations galore, superlatives such as "epic" used every day....as what was a very solid bite diminishes as part of a natural, late season progression.....

So I'm putting a challenge out there.....who's got the balls....
Are you a follower....or a leader....?

[SharkHart]

I started to wonder today since the bite was slowed down did those fish start to move on or did most just get filleted and fried by now. Everyday for ohh 3 weeks now 300 boats and 1000 or so surf guys hit em up and taking hundreds of fish a day. Is it like a Stocked trout pond that is nearly fished out?

[DarkSkies]

I don't care where ya got em...
I don't care what county you were in....
I don't care about how big they were...
(If ya wanna add that, fine, but not necessary, I already know most of the other places where fish are being caught, an admittedly slow pick, but there are still fish out there, other than at Island Beach...

Even if ya went someplace, and got rats that were 16", that's worthy of this thread...
because it shows me, and others, that there are some folks out there who....

don't run with the herd of lemmings...
may be sick of the muggings, disrespect, discourtesy, and general Viking-like attitude that happens when the bite is hottest...

and are so sick of it that they are actively seeking "anything other than Island Beach" fishing situations......



The folks I'm targeting this thread towards....
are the folks I'm meeting every day now....
who realize that although the fishing has been incredible....all good things must eventually come to an end....

These are the folks who go fishing for the sake of fishing...
who love being out there....the fresh air, the aspect of being in the midst of nature, and enjoying the goodness that God gave us, without it being a race to beat every other guy to the pot of gold.....


I did it today and yesterday.....today I was in the center of the hottest action...the pot of gold...yesterday I missed it by a mile, and sucked wind all day chasing after fish...






And please understand one thing here, as much as I'm griping here, I may be back there soon....but definitely not on a weekend....the discourtesy today was too much for a night guy who relishes my alone time, out on the jetties, or points, with maybe a few others....

It just ain't nacheral to have all those guys squeezed to tight together.....I moved 10 feet to the side of where I was to have a brief conversation with 2 idiots who looked like models from the Orvis catalog..and within 1 1/2 minutes a guy was so close to me I though he had some sort of unnatural interest in my backside....

So many stories...so little time....








*******
In the past 2 weeks, there have been limited spurts of activity, few hours here and there, fish as big as 25#, and as small as 14" , caught by guys who are out there, just for the sake of being out in the surf......those are the guys (and gals) I'm saluting here....

And those are the stories I want to hear....

Feel free to disclose as little or as much info as you are comfortable with...
I really don't care where......I'm happy, as others are, to hear that they are out in other nooks and crannies.....

We'll make this a multi-year thread....if a post is entertaining or funny enough, once a year I might pick the "best of" and throw a plug or 2 at that person...
but most of the guys who will be reporting in this thread...probably don't care about the plug as an incentive anyway....they fish,...just to fish....and to get away from the crowds....not to run towards them......



Thanks for reading....and good luck....

[SharkHart]

Well i was into a good bite last night in the Bay around Atlantic City with fish formerly known as slots, I was alone and had 11 fish and I could have moved 5 miles to spot B there for a few more. They were violently striking zooms worked slow and were nice fighters. With over 2 hours of beautiful darkness left i decided to nap for an hour or so and head up the parkway for the allure of bigger fish in the park, I forgot Friday is the new Saturday and I missed the now confined bite by a 1/4 mile or so and due to the crowds its hard to make moves without squeezing in on someone. So i did the classic move and left fish to find fish

[DarkSkies]

I started to wonder today since the bite was slowed down did those fish start to move on or did most just get filleted and fried by now. Everyday for ohh 3 weeks now 300 boats and 1000 or so surf guys hit em up and taking hundreds of fish a day. Is it like a Stocked trout pond that is nearly fished out?

That's a great observation, Shark.
I've seen threads elsewhere where folks try to count the fish have been harvested...I don't know how accurate you could be, there are lots of variables...and numbers can be manipulated anyway folks want them to be manipulated...

For example, someone mentioned the bass biomass is 23 million fish, and no way could these fish ever have their numbers impacted by any type of fishing.....
If I had enough time, based on where the bass are now geographically and their range out into the ocean, I could "prove" to anyone who would believe me that the real biomass is probably half that...with simple geometric calculations....but in the end, that would be all speculation, some might call it delusional....

the point here being that it's extremely hard to get concrete, accurate numbers of fish if they aren't contained in a specific "pond" or "lake" (Lake Atlantic?)




****

Some folks I know who have been harvesting numbers of fish say that there are at least 2 groups of fish down there now....
The ones who have been there for the last 30 days, (as evidenced by the half digested sandeels, different coloration, and absence of sea lice....)

And the one who have just rolled in from the Mud Hole,, fresh with sea lice...different coloration, and either empty bellies or bellies full of fresh, non-digested sand eels....

Again, I'm no scientist, just someone who's good at observing and collecting anecdotal data from the folks out there.....




But you're right on the $$....
there is an end to the supply of bass that have been migrating to that area...
there are no massive schools of bass still hiding at Moriches, Montauk or the Sound that are gonna miraculously appear out of the blue just because the folks at IBSP, are wishing for them....or just because some internet tackle shop report says so....



What we are left with, is a few real nice fish....and a lot of the table scraps of the fall season...all converging for a big feed...numbers diminishing every passing day....I wish some of the shops were more honest in reporting it.

[finchaser]

Fished this AM 6 to 7:30 released 2 fish to 32" in a nice unpopulated area with my friends and didn't have to put up with crowds of mostly idiots and the minimal so called bite at IBSP yesterday and today.

Way to go Dark over 36 hours to catch 6 or 7 fish now thats some bite. I am starting to believe you are not firing on all cylinders and have some major issues.

Hundreds of guys and B&N only weighs in 15 fish.

[ledhead36]

I fished the back bay last night, got 3 fish on clams at the top of the tide, 1 a keeper. Dark after hearing those stories I think it would be aggravating to make that trip to island beach while there are a few fish by us. Nice going finchaser, looks like you are tired of it too.

[DarkSkies]

These were caught by a friend and site member, NOT at Island Beach....

[surferman]

Got some bass to 33" last night on the outgoing in southern oc, needle fish with a teaser. Total 9

[vpass]

Nice going BSC. Thank god they where there or we would have heared of another drowning.

Nice going Surferman.

Fished last night with the fly rod. There was a ton of bait, and the birds were working little pods. I believe most of it was shad/herring, did see some bass roll. I seen 2 fish landed and heard of keepers caught. The fish stop hitting as soon as the sun went down. I got there to late, but what could I do work is going to get in the way. Still love to be in that environment.

[vpass]

Nice going clamchucker. Is it still crazy in the park?


Fished this afternoon I got to the action alittle to late. My second cast and I got a short. A few fly fishing guys had a real good time on the last of the incoming. 1 guy got 3 keepers on the fly rod.

Attachment 14458

[cowherder]

Awesome catch on the fly rod vpass!

[zev]

wow they do still exist in my local river. two to 25" outgoing black bomber

[cowherder]

Nice going zev!

[storminsteve]

Nice fish Zev.
Got 4 to 28" this afternoon, moco. Bomber and megabait.

[ledhead36]

Still trying in the bay. The water is like an icickle, and colder than a witches ***. Nothing tonight, shooting for the ocean next outing.

[ledhead36]

Way to catch em up guys.

[DarkSkies]

Keep advertising IBSP and it will get worse

I wonder if the tackle report hype has anything to do with the crowds there, Ol Grouchy...
Some of the hype VS honesty from an answer I gave to someone....



"down there...

1....they are catching a fish on every cast... (I wonder how many thousands of fish that translates to, a "fish on every cast", if 400 guys fish there on a weekday for 6 hours)...there is extra credit for those who get this answer right...

2. ....it's "epic fishing" every day, and guys (every one of them) has freezers so full of fish, and arms so sore, that they are actually tired of catching those saltwater carp...
Reports:
Mon:Fish on every cast!
Tue: Epic fishing!
Wed: Get down there now!
Thur: Rods bent all up and down the beach!
Fri: The whole island is on fire right now!
Sat: Guys have stopped fishing their arms are so tired!
Sun: The fish are all over, get out there NOW!





The real intel...
There is a morning bite, not necessarily around sunrise anymore, which can start around 7:30 am and last for an hour or so, depending on where you set up.
If it's sunny the fish move out and the bite dies.....so much for "a fish on every cast"

If it's overcast there is a better bite, and you may be able to pick at fish throughout the day...there is another 1/2 hour bite, usually before dark.


There have been other times of activity, but the ones I described above are the most consistent, and honest...

There are still fish around, but despite the hype (a 33# was actually caught today, nonetheless there were many guys who got nothing)....the quantity and size of fish has greatly diminished since Thanksgiving..

To get the highest numbers, you will have to be out on the bar, with the biggest crowds,,,,,it becomes a casting contest....and most of us who got fish took waves over the head over and over...wear your drytop and put your Viking uniform on..."









*********
Thanks for your efforts, and your posts, guys, way to buck the herd mentality.