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

[storminsteve]

Same thing for me. Put in an all nighter with nothing to show for it. Then finally right before dawn I got a solid hook-up, i was so excited I nearly S**T myself the fish was running up and down the beach! It seemed like forever (it was only about 2or 3 minutes) I get the fish into the wash it takes another couple of small runs, I finally get it onto the beach! IT'S A FRIGGIN DOGFISH! .

Wow mike great story esp the part where you almost shat yourself lol! I didn't fare much better. Fished nomoco last nite between 5-11pm last of incoming and most of outgoing. Not even one fish. The wind died down and it was nice out, no one told the fish.

[SharkHart]

I know what you are going to say but no it's not a result of the dark skies mentor program, you just need a rich uncle with boat right now. I was in Brielle bait and tackle at 6 am looking for 9" Tsunami sand eels and they have none at all, gotta step the game dudes its a sand eel bite, shoulda went to reel life. All i had was 7 "ers but long casts were needed today. Got to the SSP grounds 7 45 and there was a good amount of fish n birds spread out as far as you could see but they were moving with tuna speed, would just be a random pop on the surface or sometimes 3 or 4 fish crashing on surface. At time it was national geopgraphic type stuff fish doing cartwheels and jumping clear out of water. The problem was they would only hit on surface and within 5 seconds of surface blast. saw a lot i couldnt reach usually just one fish then off it goes. Never the less put 4 in the boat this way. Someone had mono and couldnt cast so we dropped some tube umbrellas and they were all over it. a freak fog front rolled in 11 30 am and ruined the fun just totally shut things down and we had to leave it was so dense


The good news is the bad news all the fish were over 12 lbs, where are the shorts? not a good sign, I seen this with weakies they kept getting bigger before vanishing. If the motherload of cookie cutter bass 25-27" doesnt come in soon I am concerned. Seems like teh surf guys in this area had a shot at fish at first light based on the weigh ins.

[finchaser]

Did the boat thing again today in the 2nd part of our club tournament scored another 29 bass only 1 short with 5 over 20 pounds largest 23 and 24 pounds the rest between 10 and 19 pound range. All but 2 were released. All fish were caught south of governors mansion( 5 miles further south today they Friday) between 6 and 10 am in 60 to 70 feet of water with 3 people on board. Then the pea soup fog set in so we quit do to less than 50' visibility we set out for a 3 hour ride back to Manasquan. Fish are staying off the beach where there is tons of bait. Sorry to report guys but friends of mine chasing Bluefin tuna in the mud hole are encountering bass headed to the SE from the NE by passing the coast.

Like shark heart said there are no small fish very . There will be no more Tsunami sand eels in any size until next year. Was told that by my friend who is head of sales for them they are sold out.

[cowherder]

The good news is the bad news all the fish were over 12 lbs, where are the shorts? not a good sign, I seen this with weakies they kept getting bigger before vanishing. If the motherload of cookie cutter bass 25-27" doesnt come in soon I am concerned.

Like shark heart said there are no small fish very . There will be no more Tsunami sand eels in any size until next year. Was told that by my friend who is head of sales for them they are sold out.

Well if the meatmen like ****** ********* keep their limits and all the charters keep theirs soon we will be fishing for dogfish thats the only thing that will be left!
I fished NoMoCo from 2-9pm today. I walked all over, did the long walk short walk and dear God please help me find a fish walk. It was real nice out and the fog coming in made me think of the nights that you old guys talk about when you bailed 50 fish or more. It even smelled fishy like bunker were out there or something. I thew everything in the bag and nothing. Was wondering maybe next time I should throw the bag in and maybe hit a stray striped on the head so I could say I came close. The only thing I came close to today was the skunk smell. Man it is depressing out there as most guys I talked to said they were not catching either.
Rob sorry to hear of your accident if you need to borrow anything I could come up with a spare rod to lend. MikeO that story was funny you should put it in the story of the month thread. Sometimes you are the bird sometimes the windshield.

[porgy75]

The OFFC went to NOMOCO yesterday. After trying many spots we settled on on spot with no people around. after trying for an hour or so some bait and birds appeared in front of us.
One of us hooked up and out of the sand came about 20 of our closes friends. They really wanted to say hello badly and almost didn't allow my friend to land his fish . This fiasco lasted about 15 minutes and my freinds did catch about a half dozen small bass. Finally it was over and almost dark and our freinds faded back in to the sand where they came from.

We then could go back to fishing unmolested which was what we were hoping for. By this time it was dark and we started to throw bomber plugs and low and behold we got lucky and had a good pick of bass to 18# for about an hour. It felt really good to get rid of the skunk that had been riding with us for a long time.

Wow great report 18 pounds I would be happy right now catching one bass at 8lbs! ds talks about you on here all the time and says you wont give up. Great job on the catching. Since you were mugged its even sweeter that you caught and they didn't. Hope to meet you on the beach one day. Thanks for the report. Maybe there is still some hope.
fished 2 days and nights this weekend. Fri I went to island beach. did a lot of walking and casting. Nothing but a few shad on a bomber. Today I fished sandy hook south to belmar.It was like no one was home in the surf. I saw tons of people fishing and no one hooking up. Fished from 4-12 tonight. Fished lures, rubber shads, tryed a bucktail, and also some vision eels. How could things be so bad that I couldn't even get a bump? You are right there are not even some small fish around. If this keeps up I might not get a keeper. I just want to get one nice striper and then ill be happy.

[robmedina]

Thanks to everyone for your well wishes! I did manage to get the tailgate open and get my stuff out.

Short Version- I got skunked again!


Long Version- I hit the surf sunday morning at 4am worked my way down into IBSP. It was crowded. My buddy Mike and I managed to find a spot further down which after a few minutes became our only little stretch. Casting practice up until about 7:30 when the action started picking up. There were boats out about 1/8 mile and we could see them hooking up and landing bass. Mike kept saying- we should go back to his house and get his kayaks. anyway- a school of shad starts busting sand eels in front of us. I try hooking up with one of them to at least bend the rod. Nada.

Mike snaps his needle off ( he has lost the same SS needle about 3 times this fall due to snap offs) so he ties on a yellow school bus jointed bomber. he threw that for awhile and then hooks up but looses it. then 20 minutes later hooks up again and lands a 13.5lb bass. As he was dealing with his bass on the beach- there was a pod of bass right in front of me hitting the sand eels. I threw a bone SP minnow (as that what I had tied on) then switched to a tsunami sand eel. not a touch! so frustrating.

I did not see anyone else with fish, as we got many looks on the long walk back to the truck. Mike weighed it in at Betty and Nicks- there were at that time 10 weigh ins.

[surfstix1963]

All rats on the beach in NY w/ very few keepers.Nice fish SH.And at the rate things are going you had a good day Fin.

[Blazin420]

Fished ALOT of hours this weekend with very poor results!! Fished IBSP with a group of guys..I stayed down sat night at the motor lodge and fished the N end of the island walked and walked and walked from 8pm till 12am not a thing!! Water was calm and it was clean..So get up in the am meet the guys about 530 on the beach by 6 and by 630 birds and bass rolling in front of me i thought FINALLY gonna get some fish..Well i managed to hook up when they were close hooked up with a good fish but my drag wasnt set right(from not catching a bass in 5 trips)So i dropped him next cast i find a short about 26-27in on a SP..had 5-6 guys land some nice keeper size fish by me..After that they were gone only lasted about 15mins maybe enuff time to get 5 good casts in and POOF gone!!The boats were all over about 150yrds off the beach..For the next 1hr or so fish were swirling here and there in the wash just couldnt hook up..This happened in a few spots on the island at first light but that seemed to be the bulk of the action!! A few of the guys in the group got some decent fish but nothing spectacular..So we BS'd on the beach for a while but the action was gone ...it was a morning of mostly casting practice!..I went for some breakfast..and decided to hit a few towns N of IBSP..Water was right conditions were right but i still skunked out! While out there i was thinking of falls past in this spot, and like you guys mentioned above, i used to go here and catch short after short on a day like today the fish would be in the 24-27in and there were alot of them then..This year i have not see ANY small fish AT ALL!! The large majority of fish have all been 28 or better..Not a good sign at all its getting me a bit worried about the next few years doesnt look good! No small fish and all the big gurls are getting taking....So my weekend was kind of a bust 1 short and a dropped fish for well over 12hrs of fishingIm the worst!!! Hahaha....

Oh the highlight of the day was while me and 3-4 other guys were BSing on the beach we see this lady struggling with her rod,it looked like she was snagged pulling and backing up on the beach we all thought "she is snagged or has a big ole skate"..Her cast before this could not have gone more than 20ft into the wash..So next thing you no she gets it in wouldnt ya no it was 20lb BASS!!! I was amazed she didnt snap the line..But here is the kicker......She was DEAD STICKING A PINK FIN S on a fishfinder rig!!!! I wouldnt have belived it but saw it with my own eyes and we even went up and asked her what she was using!! Unreal!! That was a first for me to see!!! She weighed it in at B&N the video is on his site!! Proves i **** even more lol!!

[DarkSkies]

s. I threw a bone SP minnow (as that what I had tied on) then switched to a tsunami sand eel. not a touch! so frustrating.

Rob, IMO in the past it has been a pretty sure thing fishing the sand eel bite as long as you give them the right presentation. I think one variable that some may not realize is that even though the bass are gorging on the eels. they are also chasing rainfish in the very near surf zone at first light. I'm not saying this is exactly happening where you fished, but often we are not aware of the abundant schools of rainfish at this time. I had to point them out to a fisherman today because he didn't think they were there....They were, just not many fish feeding on them. Rainfish are more abundant than they have been in the last few years (for the Fall)....

I feel (JMO) that it makes presentation difficult when they are really keyed in on the smaller rainfish/bay anchovies....and on Sat felt your same frustration.

Fished ALOT of hours this weekend with very poor results!!
.....For the next 1hr or so fish were swirling here and there in the wash just couldnt hook up..

This happened in a few spots on the island at first light but that seemed to be the bulk of the action!!

.....While out there i was thinking of falls past in this spot, and like you guys mentioned above, i used to go here and catch short after short on a day like today the fish would be in the 24-27in and there were alot of them then..This year i have not see ANY small fish AT ALL!! The large majority of fish have all been 28 or better..Not a good sign at all its getting me a bit worried about the next few years doesnt look good!

No small fish and all the big gurls are getting taking....!!

I had the same thing happen to me on Sat....Blazin, we both know how to catch fish..but for me it's even more embarassing when the fish are there and I'm trying frantically to dial in to that type of bite, for that particular day. I felt like a failure on Sat as I knew time before sunrise was limited...and I searched for the one thing they would hit.....feeling very lucky to manage 2 short bass before the bite ended just as quick as it started...
It was a very humbling experience......

Some friends who fish for them every day said
a. one day last week, there were a lot of fish...and they wouldn't touch artificials or flies in that specific area
b. and yet, the next day, they were hitting pencil poppers and big pike spoons....





Nice reports from the rest of ya's as well....
MikeO and Blazin, those were great stories you shared......it's the bizarre and unusual that sometimes keep us coming back...

[DarkSkies]

**************
Last night was a severe barometric drop of 0.6...a very significant drop (more on that in another thread)
I knew I had to be out there....fished in the rain and darkness,...getting cold and slightly wet despite my rain gear as the bulding S winds drove the rain sideways......

7 hour trip...
There was a limited 15 minute feeding window at first light....bass again feeding at my feet...only one other angler and I out there.....him being a fly fisherman and having a competent understanding of presentation and profile...neither of us could catch a bass...or even tempt a missed hit....

In the blink of an eye it was over......



** Some of ya's have made some very valid points about the sizes and quantity of bass we are seeing, more on that in another thread...

[hookset]

Great stories blazin and mike. Fished somoco from 5-8am. ds I'm jealous. I didn't even have a 15 minute window. there was nothing going on at all. Total deadness. Water a little dirty from the storm or the dredgers.

[clamchucker]

Good fishing in the park today. Some bass moved in and I picked up 5 to 14 lbs released. Loaded redfins in the dark and diamond jig with redgill teaser in the daylight.

[basshunter]

Happy to hear stripers have touched down. At least now we may have a chance instead of finding the skunk when seeking the striped ones. Will try to get out during the week and post a report. Congrats gents. shark, finchaser and dark it doesn't surprise me there have been no large amounts of small bass. Even most of the inlets are dead. The fish are not there. We have to stop this bonus tag filling. It's just wrong.

[storminsteve]

So nice to hear about bass being caught from the beach. Thanks for the report clamchucker and way to go! Nice job on the releases as well.

[J Barbosa]

I am finding that these fish are very picky right now.

I had the yak out front Saturday morning and had to work hard for every hit and fish while bass and bluefish were swirling and busting all around me on sand eels. They were pushing sand eels to the surface in 30-35ft of water. I was seeing mostly smaller bass up to 30" the biggest before the bluefish around 8-10lbs moved in and took over. Even the bluefish we're picky! Released everything

On Sunday I waited out the fog a bit out front but it never cleared so I decided to change the plans and launched in the back where the fog wasn't that thick.

Check this fatty out...39" and 26-27lbs on the boga.




Someone call fish and game this bass has has a real taste for short blackfish and he is way over the legal limit.



All this and he still inhaled a plug DEEP!

Fellow yakkers please use some common sense. No good minded person would launch a yak out front in Sundays fog. You don't want shark harts uncle or fin chaser running you over...

[baitstealer]

wow awesome catch!

[VSdreams]

Thanks for sharing good job. JB that fish looks like it swallowed a basketball.

[SharkHart]

Well it looks like 2011 is repeating with dead water to the left and right, and I am desperate enough to go!!

[fishinmission78]

^^^^SH the morning bite was slow today. Picked up 3 bass on ava and redgill. One was a keeper and came home, others were 27.5". You are better off coming down in the pm. The am was about 45minutes. Also a few fish at night, fish the cuts w needles. Good luck.

"All I have time to tell you right now is that the entire island is on fire again today on pretty much everything you throw at them. "
Not true - I left for work by 8 and it was slow. Maybe it turned on after I rolled out of there. Take everything you read on that site with a grain of salt.

[J Barbosa]

Well it looks like 2011 is repeating with dead water to the left and right, and I am desperate enough to go!!

Anything but this again...

Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Angler	Species	Length	Weight	Bait
Grablachoff, Brenden	Bass	29″	9.05lbs	T-Hex
Schweeder, Bud	Blackfish	30.5″	10lbs	Teaser
Schweeder, Bud	Bass	35″	15.35lbs	Teaser
Tees, Rich	Bass	33″	15.1lbs	Teaser
Tees, Rich	Bass	29.5″	9.95lbs	AVA
Swift, Butch	Bass	30″	9.85lbs	T-Hex
Swift, Butch	Bass	34″	15.8lbs	Teaser
Sutyinsky, Lou	Bass	33.5″	13.05lbs	AVA
Sutyinsky, Lou	Bass	34″	13.95lbs	AVA
Malone, Kevin	Bass	30.5″	11.35lbs	AVA
Malone, Kevin	Bass	34.5″	15lbs	AVA
Crabtree, Jeff	Bass	31″	10.75lbs	AVA
Kenny, Jim	Bass	33.5″	14.2lbs	AVA
Black, Tom	Bass	30.5″	10.65lbs	Sluggo
Bajek, Jeff	Bass	34″	13.25lbs	Teaser
Bajek, Jeff	Bass	32″	13lbs	T-Hex
Tony S.	Bass	38″	21.45lbs	T-Hex
Tony S.	Bass	35″	16.15lbs	T-Hex
Nebus, Ray	Bass	34″	13.1lbs	AVA
Nebus, Ray	Bass	30.5″	10.8lbs	AVA
Jensen,Dan	Bass	30″	9.5lbs	AVA
Jensen,Dan	Bass	31″	12.7lbs	AVA
Slager, Bruce	Bass	34″	13.95lbs	AVA
Mack, Bill	Bass	36″	16.25lbs	Teaser
Mack, Bill	Bass	32.5″	13.4lbs	T-Hex
Wagner, Paco	Bass	29″	8.9lbs	AVA
Wagner, Paco	Bass	32″	12.9lbs	Teaser
Molyneux, Dan	Bass	31″	11.1lbs	Teaser
Molyneux, Dan	Bass	34″	11.25lbs	SP Minnow
Maclunski, Robert	Bass	32″	11.8lbs	AVA
Maclunski, Robert	Bass	35.5″	17.15lbs	AVA
Spence, John	Bass	30.5″	10.4lbs	AVA
Spence, John	Bass	35″	15.55lbs	AVA
Sundt, Kris	Bass	34″	11.8lbs	AVA
Sundt, Kris	Bass	32.5″	11.8lbs	AVA
Moore, Brendan	Bass	30″	10.9lbs	AVA
Dishon, Jim	Bass	34″	12.45lbs	Grumpy Clam
Worth, Don	Bass	33.5″	15.15lbs	Felmlee Eel
Worth, Don	Bass	30.5″	12.15lbs	Felmlee Eel
Callan, Dennis	Bass	35″	15.15lbs	Popper
Callan, Dennis	Bass	37.5″	18.55lbs	Popper
Ratshin, CJ	Bass	34″	10.25lbs	T-Hex
Ratshin, CJ	Bass	36″	17.9lbs	T-Hex
Eggplant	Bass	39″	20.4lbs	T-Hex
Derusa. Lou	Bass	34″	13.1lbs	T-Hex
Stilton, Don	Bass	39″	18.9lbs	AVA
Stilton, Don	Bass	34″	16lbs	AVA
Serano, Miguel	Bass	29″	8.2lbs	AVA
Serano, Miguel	Bass	30″	9.55lbs	AVA
Vanderploeg,Rich	Bass	30″	9.9lbs	AVA
Vanderploeg,Rich	Bass	31″	11.35lbs	AVA