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

[seamonkey]

Fished a back bay area last night, clams, one 24" striped bass.

[jigfreak]

3 bass in the dark this am to 30", and one bluefish bite off. Rubber, way in the back.

[c4charlie]

A couple bass Mon night in RB with one being 18-19lbs that put up the best fight yet, at least 5 long drag screaming runs. All my bass on bunker heads so far this year. That is all I am fishing until I get a big one.

I am wondering if being hooked at the inner bottom of the fish mouth had something to do with how pissed off this fish was. The fight was like a bruiser blue fight minus the head shakes. Bass did not give up until totally exhausted.

Both bass released, had to revive the big one for 30 sec. Slower night than I anticipated with all of the bait around but the eerie fog and the bigger fish made it totally worth it although I got home after 5am again.

[c4charlie]

This is a report from last week that I forgot to post... I put the recipe in the cooking forum http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...-with-tomatoes but somehow forgot to post a report. Too busy working, fishing and not sleeping.

Buddy and I caught 15 the other night up to 20lbs. I landed 7 and did NOT get the biggest of the night. Almost all of the fish were in the 13-17lb range according to the boga. All released except for one (pic attached). First banner night of the year. Bunker was the ticket.


Fish are out there, just need to find the bait and you will be rewarded. I still have not run into any bluefish yet.

[hookset]

Nice catches, fellas! Dark way to go for getting into it with that guy about keeping the short bass out of the water. Fish cannot stay alive for hours. As the water gets warmer it's critical to get them back as soon as you can. It's scary to get into a fight with drunk dudes, though, be careful. But thanks for having enough balls to speak up. Too many sissy Marys say nothing, and then you see their whining posts all over the internet. By the way glad you put a stop to the whining here. It's much more pleasant to read these threads now. Keep up the good work.

[storminsteve]

c4charlie and others, way to get out there! I have been fishing as much as I can in this bad weather. Found some bunker schools in the back to the future waters last night. Fished the incoming tide and the slack till 5:00am. We threw heads and chunks. Bass took the heads, and one big angry blue took the chunk. I got 5 bass to 21lbs, it was sweet!

[yardvillejimmy]

Fished MoCo with a friend yesterday evening. Had a total of 16 stripers to 36 inches. Caught ten myself on bombers and megabaits.

[madcaster]

Fished RB last night in a spot were my log book has a record of me catching blue fish in this spot for the past 3 years. Last night I got ........

[c4charlie]

Fished MoCo with a friend yesterday evening. Had a total of 16 stripers to 36 inches. Caught ten myself on bombers and megabaits.

Very nice.

The stripers were around big time last night. I caught as many as I wanted to on bunker. Will be back out tomorrow night. Hope this rain did not mess up a nice pattern.

[VSdreams]

Wow gret catches guys! I fished a moco beach today for a 1/2 hour, it was weedy and windy, I don't think the stripers could find theclams if they wanted to at that spot, got the skunk.

[c4charlie]

I treat bait fishing almost the same as I treat plugging. If the tide is right, there is enough water and I don't get a bite in a half hour or so, I will pick up and move to the next spot. I would rather find the fish than pray that they come to me. Also when you find the fish, you usually find more than one or two whereas, I feel when you wait and finally catch one, it could just be a stray and you will be waiting a lot longer. That is what I do and it is more work to move but it has worked for me. Sometimes, I stay way longer than I should at a spot and while I am catching at the next spot, I think, "Why the heck did I stay at the first spot so long."

I will be back out tonight, hopefully finding some fish. Incoming has been better for me than the outgoing which is a bit odd to me for this time of year.

[DarkSkies]

Fished MoCo with a friend yesterday evening. Had a total of 16 stripers to 36 inches. Caught ten myself on bombers and megabaits.

Boy you guys really know how to jazz up a story, dontcha???


Yardville, I'm honored to have been able to point you guys in the right direction.

There are no guarantees in fishin, some don't understand that. We figured a slight pattern was developing. You guys were able to be there in that time frame, and lo and behold,,,,they weren't exactly where we thought they would be. So you had to do some scouting and eventually hooked up. And, to add, were high hook among the few that were there that day. Imagine that, the old farts crushing all the young turks at the beach.

Glad you finally got in on some good action. You pounded the surf for many a skunk and certainly deserve it..

And... I owe you guys a debt of gratitude for all you have tried to impart to me, conservation and otherwise.
BTW, when do I qualify to be in the Old Farts Fishing Club? Let me know.

Congrats to all getting out and getting into fish. It's not easy this time of year. As I mentioned... without varieties of bait, there is lots of dead water. You won't know that until you fish it!

Some water may hold fish when it looks like there is no way they will be there...anecdotal stories of bass in the middle of the day last week, guys who caught bass while fishing for flounder, and guys catching bass where other guys are coming only to get their bunker.

It's certainly frustrating, but from now until a week after the new moon, will be prime time to fish. Pick an area, learn it well, including optimal tides. Often what you think you know about an area, or what's in your log book, will need to be updated with seasonal variations.







**************
2 day report

Thu - fished from the end of the night into the day. The fishing was fantastic! The catching sucked.
Time, tide, and bait did not line up. So often this spring the alignment of these 3 is important to catching fish on artificials. (Truth be told, even the guys throwing clams didn't so so well on Thur.) The overcast skies and scattered rain should have helped the activity, but lack of bait variety (other than bunker) has made spring fishing hit or miss, feast or famine , so far.
I did run into a few people I haven't seen for several seasons, though, good to see ya's again.

Fri - same time frame, started a little earlier. Stopped at a few spots, nothing. Another place, managed 4 small bass to 28" on small swimmers. Water was slightly colder today. Next 2 stops, nothing, then a small bass on metal at sunrise.

[basshunter]

I went to a nomoco beach. Fished it from 5-7a. I think it was outgoing. I used clams, caught one big freaking skate, I wish you could eat skates.

[fishinmission78]

Good advice on moving arouind, c4charlie. Way to go, old farts.
Dark are these guys really old, or is this another of your exaggerations?

[DarkSkies]

Fished artificials, on and off, through 2 tides last night. Not much to show for it but one 32" bass on rubber.
the hard NW has dropped bay temps a bit, and the S/SE pattern from last week kicked the ocean down 1 or 2 degrees from it's high. Clams and bunker are still taking bass, small and large, and some angry, but sluggish, bluefish.

Started at ground Zero. It was crowded. Some people were drawn there from as far as 90 miles away by astutely reading between the lines of the reports of good fishin, or just being part of the intel chain. The anticipated action did not seem like it would develop, though, and many left after realizing that.

I ran into some members of the Old Farts Fishin Club. We were BS'ing for awhile. I went to scout some other water as they left. Great to run into ya's again!... best wishes for good health and good fishin.

First stop I was alone for awhile until a guy I knew from last year decided to fish there too. I worked bucktails and he worked shads for 2 hours. No action for me, and he fought and dropped one nice fish..

Moved to a few other locations with nothing to show for it.
I took a short nap, as the building hard NW seemed to have made the water colder in our area and shut the artificial bite down. After I woke up I was talkin to SharkHart, who earlier I had advised that the night would probably be a bust, and it would be smart to cut the losses and call it quits early. Lo and behold, he managed to pull a few fish on artificials where he was.

I was a lttle embarassed at that, the NJ guys napping on the job, and the Philly guys coming into our state and getting the job done by fishin hard.

So before heading home I decided to hit a few more places. One stop I made it there around the change of the tide, and managed a 32" bass on rubber. Based on that success, I spent another 2 hours out there trying to get something going, but not even a bump after that.

Still not ready to call it a night, I drove to another previously productive night area. My plan was to plug for an hour in the deep night hours. I got there and lost my steam. Closed my eyes for a sec.
The next thing I know it's 5:30 am and a friend is outside my car watchin the King of the Googans sleep.
(The kayak on the vehicle is a dead giveaway. I gotta learn to take it off when I want to travel incognito.)

He was plugging at night as well, but got blanked. Undaunted, he went home, got some sleep, and was back out at 5:30 with clams for the 3rd shift.

I missed the artificial window at that place. It's strictly deep in the night bite, nothing there lately on artificials for dawn, so I bailed and started on the way home.

15 minutes after I left, I get a call from him that he's into fish, clams, top of the ebb tide.
WTG, dude, and way to be persistent.

[DarkSkies]

Fishinmission, the Old Farts are older than dirt!
So is Finchaser!

But they run circles around guys 1/3 their age. They have the stamina to stay out in the nasty or cold weather long after the younger guys call it quits. As long as there is the possibility of catchin something, they will hit it hard until one of them dials into the pattern. They're like the fishin Borg (Star Trek), resistance is futile. They cast and cast until one of them finds the color or profile that works, and the other ones follow suit.

And they, along with Finchaser, have been hammering it into my head for years that there are less fish around, and pointing out verifiable examples of that. They saw how greed and mis-management contributed to the collapse of the striped bass stocks. They lived through the years when you would go out every night, and possibly catch a striped bass once every few months. Over half of what I know about fish conservation, I owe to these Old Farts and Grouchy Basstards.

When ya see me bust their ballz here, and if it appears I'm insulting them, please realize that I'm insulting them with the deepest respect and admiration one fisherman can give to another...

[GeoffT]

First time out this season and broke my cherry last night. The hard NW was a bait guy's dream but a plugger's nightmare as the pattern born of S/SW winds of the last week got thrown out big time. I knew that coming in but I had to get out there.

Fished during the outgoing. It looked like most, if not all, pluggers struck out but I did manage to coax a couple of 15 pounders to take the white XRap after throwing everything else in the bag with not even a tap. I love how the XRap will entice stubborn fish. It's also a great bait to throw with wind in your face. That's why it's always in my bag regardless. It was wonderful to feel the tug and head shakes of a bass again after a long hard winter.

The bait guys, especially those who chunked, hammered fish to 20 lbs.

[ledhead36]

The bait guys, especially those who chunked, hammered fish to 20 lbs.

Nice effort Dark and Geoff! The wind was irritating last night. The bunker were there but the wind was too. Got 3 bass to 17 lbs and 2 blues about 10 lbs each. Incoming tide.

[c4charlie]

Yukon and I did really well last night with some very healthy stripers up to 17lbs, also some blues in the mix. Incredible fights and lots of drag screaming. We were in the back for the outgoing, got fish the entire tide.
Yukon was on fire last night with largest and most fish! They wanted bunker, (chunks and heads). Couldn't get anything on plugs or soft plastics.

Made it home after 3am and had soccer games for the little guys in the early am followed by a nice fishing derby for the kids where they caught a couple trout.

Are all the stripers between 12 and 20lbs so far this year? Haven't caught any smaller fish and I am not complaining, but wondering if there is a decline in juvenile bass.

[seamonkey]

Hey nice catches, men! I fished a Cape May area beach from 3-5 with clams. One 27 1/2 inch striper and one skate.