Quote Originally Posted by vpass View Post
I believe the Spearing maybe here all year long. The water Temps had to be below 50 deg. and I remeber the bass slamming the plugs.
I think spearing hold in some of the deeper channels of the s jersey back bay areas as well.

This is the way I have seen the backbay fall fishing progress-
Big bunker tend to leave first.
Then if there are peanuts around, they will push out from the cricks and rivers and start to move along the surf.
What you have left is mullet and small bay anchovies and some other smaller stuff I have no idea what it's called. Maybe dace, killies and other minnows? I think the dace and killies stay around all year too.
The mullet move out around the first full moon in Sept/October, but there are always stragglers.
So what you have left is the small crabs, the mantis shrimp, and the tapeworms and creatures from the worm family.
You can catch fish on sandworms any time of year so that should tell you how important they are.

Anyone know anything about the mantis shrimp cycle? There are times in the fall when it seems the only things they are feeding on are these nasty huge shrimp.