NJ Fishing Reports for July 2014.....www.StripersAndAnglers.com

[buckethead]

I fished moco in the am. Stiff southeast wind. hookset it seems that the wind threw that bait around. It was much different than yesterday when you could see bait everywhere. No fish for me.

[seamonkey]

Wind from the south fish shut their mouth! I guess it is the same with the south east as well?

[ledhead36]

Fished for croakers last night did pretty well. We got some up to 14" nice and fat. I tried an experiment I used fishbites and my friends used fresh clams. We each got about as many. I was high hook with 2 more. I was using a high low porgy rig with bigger hooks. When you are fishing for them hold your rod they hit pretty hard. Best catches were around the first 2 hours of outgoing tide. In 8-10 feet of water.

[J Barbosa]

^ Big croaker, that size is a blast to catch.

I went fishing yesterday off the kayak for fluke.


In one spot I had a lot of action literally drop and reel up a fluke but only managed one keeper there. The fish were very concentrated in some areas we would pick at a few and then in the next area they were loaded and some spots were just completely dead. One fluke spit up a lot of small shrimp.


I was teasing my brother Manny and my friend Rui since they didn't have any keepers and I already had two on the stringer. Well guess what??? My stringer came undone at some point and disappeared then I had 0 keepers and they managed to catch one keeper each so I didn't hear the end of it on the long long trip back against the strong south wind.


My brother only caught two fluke all day one being a keeper and he's talking trash to me :headscratch:

[Monty]

Fished bayside this morning 12:45-8:30.
Weird trip.
Bumped into Dark out there....
Only managed one Blue about 8 pounds. Was around 3:00 or so and it hit a Surf Hog.
Was like the Blue was on steroids, it took line and went air born a number of times, seemed to leap a solid 3-4 feet out of the water. Great fight.
Only had one other hit, Hogy bit in half.
Water looked great, nice weather.
Had a bunch of problems, think I set a record of knots for me on this trip, had a knot stop a cast and an 80 lb leader snap and lost the plug (was after the blue).
Ripped waders in two areas, ended up with 10 pounds of water in each leg.....took 5 steps on land and was like in cement.
Was taking a short break and the surf bag dumped in the sand....tide decided to advance and had to chase a few plugs down.

The other highlight was at one point after the sun came up and we hadn't had any action for hours, Dark said to me "I wish I could manufacture some action for you", within 5 seconds of saying that a decent fish swirled on something 20 feet from us. It was like he was the horse whisperer, but with fish.
Of course still could not get anything, but Dark's timing on that was spot on.
So lots of laughs, one juiced Blue, lots of casts....mishaps.....bun still a very fun trip.

[finchaser]

Your getting just like DS with mishaps now add another 2 or 3 paragraphs to each post and you'll be there.

[DarkSkies]

Nice going on the perseverance, people....Monty, Led, John, Bucket... nice work.
We're in kind of a "summer doldrums" mode where there are fish in the channels if you have a boat or kayak...and fish are in certain areas along the bays and ocean shorelines where the bait concentrations are high...but not at a lot of places in between.....

Catching fish requires patience and perseverance....and it seems many have taken the summer off....because it is hard....
So congrats to all who are out there...and working hard to find a few......




************
Re: Monty's report.....
(You would have never known the fish were there the night before that.)
Dead water..... I fished poppers and swimmers for 5 hours, could not raise one fish. One missed hit on a magdarter. That was it for me.

**When it’s easy to catch, you tend to get a little spoiled. The true test of a fisherman’s perseverance is the ability to press on, and catch that one fish, when they are not really thick in an area.

Monty did that last night.
Since he only gets out once a week, I was glad to see him hook up. The look on his face as he fought that fish, was priceless.
Funniest part of the night was when I was lamenting the lack of action, saying "Sorry... I wish I would have manufactured some more fish action for ya, but things were really slow tonight”….within seconds of saying that, a few feet away from him, a nice fish swirled out of the water on a small piece of bait….

Kind of ironic, but funny, when he started calling me the “bluefish whisperer”.
Hey pal….that was totally random…..and the only evidence we had throughout the night of fish feeding at that location……
That’s why they call it “fishing”,
And not “catching:.

Still, I’m proud Monty got into some action, because the fishing was tough.
That fat bluefish was every bit of 8#.

Great running into ya. pal....fish again anytime......

[J Barbosa]

Nice job finding any bigger bluefish guys. I haven't seen one in almost a month now.

[DarkSkies]

^ John, those bluefish and the few larger bass that are left, have all been extremely tight to the bunker schools.....
These are the small opportunities that we shoot for when out there....
Last night there were no bunker schools...not much bait in the water....the weather and water were optimal..... but without abundant bait.......very tough conditions for catching......Monty, undeterrred.....managed some action anyway.......

Your getting just like DS with mishaps now add another 2 or 3 paragraphs to each post and you'll be there.

His mishaps were "Epic" last night...

Ripped waders in two areas, ended up with 10 pounds of water in each leg.....took 5 steps on land and was like in cement.
Was taking a short break and the surf bag dumped in the sand....tide decided to advance and had to chase a few plugs down.

I'm still thinking about the image of his water-filled balloon legs on his waders when we got out of the water.....this guy can take a beating, and remain standing.....He's got the grit that Rocky had.........Despite all that....... he still found a fish.....one of the few out there to manage that........and an aggressive pumped up bluefish, tail-walking and angry.

I'm thinking it has to be part of his MO....he's a lock for Googan of the year, again..
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...the-year-award
...I feel his antics are more entertaining than mine.....I told him that fishin with him is better than watching Comedy Central. Had a great time out there with ya, pal...despite the limited action.......

[surferman]

Funny stuff guys congrats on the catching. I have never seen an 8 pound bluefish in the summer surf you guys are lucky. I fished a cape may area jetty this afternoon around the end of the incoming. There were a lot of fluke there. Got 8 shorts with bucktail and gulp white mullet. I changed it up after remembering what you said about the snappers biting off the tails because they were there in full force. After I went through one pack of the mullet I went back to my truck and started using the shads. They definately last longer thanks for the tips.

[cowherder]

Wow an 8lb blue that must of been a real rush! congrats monty. I fished nomoco yesterday from 6-9pm. Got a steady pick of fluke all were shorts. Had 11 by the time I was done. I used the gulp mullet as well. It does seem more snapper blue were around because I got a lot of nips and not hits. Maybe they were something smaller like croakers or spot. Not sure. I would like to see some bigger fluke would sure like to bring a keeper home. Still a nice night with wind at your back. Water was clean.

[J Barbosa]

Lots of bunker in the bay yesterday. Small pods all over the place...too me that means having a hard time getting your offering to stand out so good job.

[buckethead]

Wind from the south fish shut their mouth! I guess it is the same with the south east as well?

Southeast tends to dirty the water up and bring colder water in (upwelling). It also causes different conditions at different times of the year. I believe someone was explaining this in a previous thread, maybe finchaser.

[buckethead]

Nice going on the perseverance, people....Monty, Led, John, Bucket... nice work.
Catching fish requires patience and perseverance....
**When it’s easy to catch, you tend to get a little spoiled. The true test of a fisherman’s perseverance is the ability to press on, and catch that one fish, when they are not really thick in an area.

Monty did that last night.
That’s why they call it “fishing”,
And not “catching:.

Still, I’m proud Monty got into some action, because the fishing was tough.
That fat bluefish was every bit of 8#.

Thank you for the nice words. I have nothing to report. Took the weekend off. Didn't want to deal with the crowds at the beach. Back at it again tomorrow. have to agree with everything you said here Rich. We all have good nights out there. It's the not so easy ones that show strength of character. How many folks are willing to stick with it in spite of poor odds. Nice catching monty. Always enjoy the reportsd and commentary.

[hookedonbass]

My bud and I fished some jetties near cape may over the weekend. Got some shorty bass and fluke using bucktail and chartreuse gulp. No keepers. Lots of small snappers around too and some other bait that looked like mullet but I never got close enough for a good look.

[hookedonbass]

We all have good nights out there. It's the not so easy ones that show strength of character. How many folks are willing to stick with it in spite of poor odds. Nice catching monty. Always enjoy the reportsd and commentary.

Great philosophy! I too enjoy your reports and stories monty. And thanks for the advice and insight as well buckethead.

[jigfreak]

Nice going on the bigger blue. Haven't seen one that size in a long time either.

[porgy75]

way to go monty all the party boats are catching the pee wee blues so your catch must have felt great!

[porgy75]

Southeast tends to dirty the water up and bring colder water in (upwelling). It also causes different conditions at different times of the year. I believe someone was explaining this in a previous thread, maybe finchaser.

Thank you finchaser and bucket head.

[cowherder]

We all have good nights out there. It's the not so easy ones that show strength of character. How many folks are willing to stick with it in spite of poor odds.

x2 really like that quote.