NJ fishing reports for April 2011...www.StripersandAnglers.com

[DarkSkies]

NJ fishing reports for April 2011...www.stripersandanglers.com
Important when registering on our site -- use an active email address so you can activate your account to be able to post.

Please post fishing reports here.......as little or as much detail as you want to give.

Please note: NO SPOT BURNING! Posts burning spots will be Edited or DELETED!
Some veteran fishermen have put in years developing and learning about certain spots.Some of these spots can only handle a few guys at a time. We are losing enough access as it is, due to the unfortunate behavior of a few selfish people. No sense in making it worse.

For some areas, it would be wiser to say:
Out Front (Ocean) OR -- Out Back (Bay) -- if you feel too many people will figure out what you are talking about. "Spot burning" also could involve mentioning something specific only to that area. If you do this, your post may be edited, or deleted. Remember that thousands of people could potentially read these posts. You don't want to be fishing next to ALL of them at the same time!


IF you are fishing an area that is NOT residential, being vague is less critical. For example, it's acceptable to say (Any)Park, or (Any)Bay, or mention a specific state park that has loads of parking and can handle the crowds.


If you are unclear on this concept, ask yourself:


If I name this place on the internet, will it be too crowded for me to enjoy tomorrow when people hear I got 30 fish here today?


If the answer is "Yes", then you should probably not be so specific.
More discussion on this:
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...ead.php?t=3763

We post these reports so our community will have a sense of what is working, what is not. We want to show people how to catch fish, rather than where.Even if you struck out or got skunked, it would be helpful to hear that as well.

If you have any additional details you would like to share - weather conditions, tide (incoming, outgoing, ebb, flood) water temps, bait present, or other mention of techniques or plugs used - feel free.






Some acronyms -

SH - Sandy Hook
NoMoCo - Northern Monmouth County (below the hook to Shark River Inlet SRI)
SoMoCo - Southern Monmouth County (below SRI to Manasquan Inlet)

OC - Ocean County
IBSP - Island Beach State Park
LBI - Long Beach Island

AC - Atlantic County
AI - Absecon Inlet
CISP - Corson's Inlet State Park
CMC - Cape May County
CMR - Cape May Rips
GEI - Great Egg Inlet
TI - Townsend's Inlet

RB - Raritan Bay
BB - Barnegat Bay
CB - Chesapeake Bay
CBBT - Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel
DB - Delaware Bay

[DarkSkies]

_Jigfreak,
you won the plug in the March random drawing!
PM me your address so I can send it out to ya!




We post these reports so our community will have a sense of what is working, what is not. We want to show people how to catch fish, rather than where.

If you struck out or got skunked, it would be helpful to hear that as well. Anyone who posts a report can win a plug even if they got skunked!


This month we're giving out plugs from Ace Baits, or something similar.
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...splay.php?f=83

Thanks for posting and helping to make this a great site!




















***********
Fishing recap:
More action in the bays, Delaware bay fishing heating up.
Fish awake in the Hudson, with some migratory stragglers moving in.
Fish starting to feed in other NJ bays, action for March 2011 hampered by cold water runoff from rain and snow.

[lostatsea]

Was out this morning in moco bays, 5-7am. One short bass, 23", on clams.

[hookset]

Fished 2 hours of the ouitgoing, OC, nothing honey. Water is a little cold. Nothing that a few sunny days won't take care of.

[wish4fish]

fished clams last nite rb 7-10, 2 shorties to 22".

[SharkHart]

Fished last night in SNJ backwater, a few go to spots are just barren, I think its the cold streak but this slow start has mean thinking of every negative scenario on stripers.

Found a few working a creek on the outgoing though, picked up a short and a keeper sized fish on zooms. A few others were high in the water column so i switched to a black mirror and immediately had two on but both came undone and that was all she wrote.

[rip316]

RB last night in the back. 7pm til 1030pm few taps on snot. Saw one fish caught and heard of another.

[hookset]

I fished last night back of BB, got the skunk too. Hoping the water heats up soon, or else we will have a cold spell, and all of a sudden the 70 degree weather will be here. I like a gradual transition myself. I think it keeps the bluefish away from the surf for a little longer in the season. Just my .02

[wish4fish]

fished clams in rb last nite fished the whole outgoing, got 4 bass to 31" toward the end of the tide had to wade out.

[ledhead36]

In the back 7-10:30pm, 5 bass to 33", clams. Bass are definitely on the feed, fellas.

[bababooey]

wtg, ledhead good to know.

[wish4fish]

awesome nite of fishin we got over 20 bass between 3 dudes, biggest 32"! i got bass thumb lol and the bass arnt hitting soft any more even the small ones smashed the rigs like bluefish its on dudes!

[Monty]

i got bass thumb lol

for Bass Thumb, nice report

[DarkSkies]

I don't want to hype this up too much, but last night was the one night to pick and be out fishin.
I had to work late, and finally made it out there for a few hours.

I understand quite a few faces were happy. The good thing was that the bite was distributed thoughout the bay, although not all places held fish. Remember, people, these are the resident fish finally waking up.

Mis-handling them, keeping them out of the water for extended photo ops, and not using circle hooks will have a great affect on their release mortality. I don't mean to nag at people because most people are responsible. But if you see any of this going on by the guy next to you, please don't be silent about it, and then come on the internet to rant.

Instead, being as diplomatic as possible, gently try to educate them about release mortality. I know this isn't always feasible, people don't want unsolicited advice.

But for the most part, except for last night and a few other limited exceptions, right now these are our resident fish, the babies and juveniles. Practicing good release with these short fish goes a long way to making sure they're around for tomorrow.

That being said, I also want to congratulate all the members here who keep these reports as general as possible and don't partake in the whining, moaning, and complaining that is so apparent today on internet sites. There is so much negativity in posts out there, criticizing, and whining, that some threads become too troublesome to scan through.

Although controversy, internet views, and internet fights are why some people tune into certain sites, I don't have the patience or the time for that here. I have too many things going on now to pay attention to every post, babysit people, issue infraction points, or time-outs. I sincerely thank you all for your maturity and restraint from attacking others when posting.













**********************
Fishin report:
I have a friend I talk about on here sometimes, the guy lives to fish. I call him "Mr Weatherman" cause he's a nut about barometric pressure changes. Last night he was predicting good action. He called this one well, though not in his neck of the woods.

So knowing that, and that the last time we had a pending front coming in, some nice fish were caught in front of it.....I was compelled to be out there. The strategy of doing that with the change in barometric pressure, should be part of any fisherman's mind set and help you set patterns in your head when you should be out there.

I started out tempted to fish bait. Actually, bait fishin was the way to go last night. You can't argue that it wasn't working. There were no fresh clams available, so I went with the artificials instead after getting some calls how aggressive the fish were hitting. First place looked promising, but no bait was visible, and it was the wrong tide stage.

Made another drastic move, found water slightly warmer, stlll only no more than 45 degrees. Threw small rubber and light bucktails. Managed 3 shorts.

The weather and wind was nothing like predicted. It was bearable on the inside, S winds maybe 15 steady. Congrats again to all the die-hards who were out. Those conditions and catches might not be repeated for a while, after the cold and dirty water from the rain washes out again.

[storminsteve]

I fished the bay last night, 4 bass, the 2 biggest were 30" and 32". Clam sandwich. Like dark said, it wasn't that bad, and the fish were hungry.

[ledhead36]

Same place and tide, 4 bass to 33", throwing snot rockets. It was cold and they were hitting hard, you have to hold the rod in your hand. And forget about fishing more than rod at a time.

[storminsteve]

Fished the back 9-12 with fresh clams, got 3 bass, biggest 34". Like ledhead said, you can't fish more than rod with these fish.

Funny story about that tonight. There were these 3 Mexicans lined up together on the beach, They had 9 rods between them. When we started catching, within 1 minute 4 of their rods got blasted and they were about 50' away. They did a mad scramble to reach their rods and almost fell flat on their faces. They ended up with one short bass from that exercise and lost the other 3. Googan squad.

[fishinmission78]

I have been fishing hard the last 3 weeks at night, nothing much to report or show for it. Finally got into some bass in the back of OC. No real sizes, but the activity is getting better. For those guys are waiting for the trophy bass in the bunker blitzes, do yourselves and me a favor and stay home, or play internet hero for a while longer. Those of us who fish for the sake of fishing are already out, taking the skunks, and pulling down a few at a time. Biggest bass so far was last night, about 9lbs. Rubber, small plastics are working. Time to fish, lads.

[seamonkey]

Good deal to those guys who are catching! I couldn't stand it anymore and had to get out on a CM beach before work this morning. Fished 2 hours of the incoming with clams and sands. 2 big skates. Well at least they saved me from the skunk!

[DarkSkies]

Fished some back areas tonight looking for spearing and small bait. Couldn't find any, but did manage 2 short bass on light bucktails during the first 2 hours of the ebb.