NJ Fishing Reports for May 2013....www.StripersAndAnglers.com

[cowherder]

Awesome reports guys have to get out there soon and get me some more blues!

[Mike O]

Got the blues last night in RB on bunker. Not much size to them, but quantity made up for that. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. Good luck to all and have a good season.

[madcaster]

Fished were I was told too ..RB. . to crowed to get to the action. managed 2 blues. next time I'll put my waders on and try to get in line

[vpass]

Fished from 5 to 8pm. I casted the bag and found what they wanted. Caught 1 fluke about 16 inches, 1 bass around 20 inches, 2 blues around 18 inches. I was hoping for a weakie for the grand slam. With all the plugs and plastic I carry the fish only wanted 4 inch shads reeled in really slow. They were right on the bottom.

[finchaser]

This morning 5 to 8 PM released 15 bluefish all 3 to 8# worst day in 2 weeks but I had an excuse was mugged by DS he tracked me down again

[DarkSkies]

5-8-13 report PM
Last night I overslept and missed most of the tide. Got up and realized I would only have at most one hour of good water, made the drive anyway.
Got to the bay, and conditions seemed different, water a little colder.
Dropped one fish, missed another, big swimmers. That was my shot for the night and I blew it.

Decided to move one county down and went and mugged the OGB. He and the old farts have been crushing the bluefish, up to 50 a trip. All good things come to an end, and maybe my visit brought the Dark Cloud....
It seemed even the bluefish were sluggish, and we had to work hard for each one, with 5 minute spurts of activity and then you had to try a different presentation. Fish were caught on bucktails, metal and rubber.
I managed 13 to 7# (had to stay till the last bluefish left the area to get those numbers) .



I think the OGB was high hook among all his pals. The grouchy basstid can throw a piece of rubber unlike anyone else.
Always a pleasure and honor fishing next to the OGB and the other old farts in his crew.

[finchaser]

thanks for the kind words, but the slow fishing was due to the south wind . Even the head boats had a slow day today. Can't crush them everyday at least most of them are still alive.

[madcaster]

Fish RB managed a few more blues ....some good gators. camera was full didn't get a pic of them I was able to take a pic of this thing a snagged ....needle fish ?

[J Barbosa]

I fished from 3-10pm with the fly line in deep moving water. Small blues to about 5lbs but not for me. My casting is not holding me back as I was well within range but I believe the full floating line was. My buddy was catching all of his blues down deeper. I am going to put the fly rod away for a few days and will pickup a sinking line sometime next week after doing some research. On the way home I made four spots in the bay looking for activity and just saw the same thing....small blues everywhere.

[hookset]

My buddy was catching all of his blues down deeper.

Fished the bay from 6-9pm incoming tide. Few blues to 5lbs on metal. They were coming on the end of the longest casts would not come in closer for some reason even at dark. Was using ava oo7 with green tail and dragging/slow jigging it. JB as dark and others have said they have been hard to hook on artis. Dudes throwing chunks are catching them regularly. Very frustrating.
MC that is a needle fish or gar as they are sometimes called down south. Good sign sometimes bass will follow them. More signs of food showing up there were small blues breaking on rainfish right before dark.

[buckethead]

Nice. I fished the surf in somoco. Sunset till 1am. 4 small bass on bucktail and pork rind. Tried plugging and got one bass on the sp but it barely nudged the plug. Water felt pretty cold but it was clean. madcaster that is a needlefish.

[dogfish]

I. I am going to put the fly rod away for a few days and will pickup a sinking line sometime next week after doing some research. .

Try a sinking line. Early season up here it takes a long time for the water to warm up. The fly guys do pretty well with sinking lines.

[basshunter]

Try a sinking line. Early season up here it takes a long time for the water to warm up. The fly guys do pretty well with sinking lines.

Good call dogfish there is a local guy the average angler he was reccommending that too and said the fish were on the bottom lately.
"The fish are low, and sinking lines with Clousers taking the mixed bag of fish the last couple of days. "

[basshunter]

I fished the beach in occo from 4-5:30 am the last of the outgoing and the slack. Conditions were beautiful and the surf looked great. Snagged one skate tossing a diamond jig. I was excited for a sec because I thought it was a nice bass as it was pretty big about 10 lbs. Then I realized it was a skate and was like At least I avoided the skunk beautiful sunrise out there.

[porgy75]

Went to sandy hook and fished the ocean side last nite from 6-8m. It was nice out and the surf was not too bad. I was throwing pencil poppers at first no takers. Then I was throwing a 2 oz krocodile spoon and got 2 bluefish to 3 lbs. Feisty little creatures and a lot of fun!

[DarkSkies]

Last night one almost legal bass in monmouth county on a big swimmer. Missed a few others and for the first time in a while had some limited feeding activity. Fun but frustrating as the fish were very sluggish and tentative.
Went down to ocean county and mugged Finchaser again for the bluefish action.
He again dominated the field as he had or missed fish on his first 3 casts. I landed one on my 2nd cast. Then, just like that, after a scant 10 or 15 minutes of limited activity, the bite died before sunrise...and the fishing window closed....

Fish were caught to 12 lbs but it was a contest of wills (or insanity) to stay and cast for the waning amounts of bluefish running through the surf zone there......

Fin left and one of his slightly addicted friends and I kept bucktailing, saying we were leaving, only to get sucked in for another 15 minutes at a time when we missed a fish.

The bluefish were the most sluggish as they have been this season.
It appears that over-hyped bite, great while it lasted and allowing Fin and the Old Farts to get numbers in the hundreds....is rapidly slipping away...until conditions change or new fish come in from offshore.....













When people say how easy they are to catch,,,,,,you would be chastized if you saw all that we were doing this am to try to catch just a few on artificials....
They are still taking bunker, but for the demented anglers who want to purosely make it hard on themselves, try catching double digits on artificials when the water is cold....it was humbling to see surfcasters with decades of experience rummaging through their surf bags every few minutes to try to hit them with something that they would attack aggressively....when you have a dozen grizzled surfcasters, weather worn hands and faces, knowledge of the ages, fumbling trying to catch "the easiest fish to catch in the book", you know the water must be cold or they are staging to go somewhere else as those numbers there 2 weeks ago have dwindled......




Hoping things will turn around this weekend for some of you anglers out there....they are a blast to catch....bluefish on the flats are probably a better bet than those in the ocean now...but a few sunny days could change all that......They are out there, catch em if you can,, tons of fun......

[finchaser]

tonight 5:30 to 8pm 26 bluefish to 8 pounds all on metal all released

[hookset]

26 very nice finchaser. Spent a few hours hiding from the wind. Picked up a few blues on bucktails and a 27" bass nomoco.

[J Barbosa]

I fished with my dad and a good friend of ours from around 7:30pm to 1:30am. There was some lightning off in the distance the whole night. I was worried we were going to have to pack it in early but luckily it stayed far away until we were on the road.

I left the fly rod home and went back to the chunking setup. I brought a snag/plug rod with me and messed around with the smaller blues as the sun went down. About an hour later the bass started showing up, it was a little slow at first but it really picked up on the outgoing. We had steady action all night fish ranging from 12-18lbs. I found an acre of bunker on our fist and only stop and that made snagging them ridiculously easy. There was also some big swirls on those bunkers and fish under them

Before anyone asks...the boga is leashed to my belt, LOL!

This 18lber was released and we kept two smaller fish for the table.

[Monty]

I fished with my dad and a good friend of ours from around 7:30pm to 1:30am. About an hour later the bass started showing up, it was a little slow at first but it really picked up on the outgoing. We had steady action all night fish ranging from 12-18lbs.

Great report! Sounds like an outstanding outing with your father and friend.