This is some advice I gave today back channel to one of our newer members.
I don't want to be as specific as I was with him, so I edited it a bit for posting here.....

Right now - 9-11-14- Advice for Fishing Artificials that Catch....NNJ

1. You can't go wrong with fishing a bucktail/rubber or BT/pork right now.
Rubber would be good too but will get chopped by the bluefish.

2. Fish, if any, are down and deep as the bait that was around 2 weeks ago has really thinned out.

3. If you have plugs, try some 5" or less..., SP minnows (or smaller) white or yellow, or small bombers with shiny foil blue colors or white with red heads, the best mullet representations out there....

4. TEASERS are a MUST as most of the forage is 3" or less, but tough to fish when weeds are in the water.

5. You cannot throw those small plugs in rough water though...Poppers would work at first light in the ocean when mullet run the coast as they are doing now.
6. As I said most of the mullet have cleared out of our back bays, not only here, but raritan river, shark river, and barnegat bay and manasquan river - they are 90% gone already, except for the new schools that may come in at night to rest from up north.

7. Your window to fish the ocean is the first half hour before and after first light every day, or the last 2 hours before dark at and of day.
If you can find a few mullet you will find fish at those times.

8. Pickings are very slim right now. No one who is fishing from shore now is catching more than a few, if that many.Party boat just started catching in the channels, What few bass there are, are either scattered, or deep and on the bottom

9. And...this is the best of it, right now IMO, this full moon weekend....By Monday if no more bait arrives,, it could get worse,,,,as we traditionally every year go into an October waiting period until some resident bass start to move into the usual places by the mid to 3rd week of october...and we will start to see a small portion of the migrating bass......

































** Remember that during the Fall, bait migration is very dynamic and unpredictable. Capt Al reported 28# bass being caught in the surf outside of SRI as of Sept 7. Within 24 hours those fish were gone, together with most of the mullet and small baitfish that were in Shark River and the creeks back there.

Similar occurrences in the Barnegat Bay and Manasquan Rivers and inlet, and Shrewsbury/Navesink Rivers and SH Bay....the amount of bait in those areas is now a shadow of what it was 2 weeks ago...
If you fish at night you would know that....

All that can change on a moment's notice....one of our members reported netting a good amount of 6" mullet this morning...which will probably not be there this afternoon.....

The important thing to note here....
is "musical chairs"...
The term I use to describe fall bait behavior where the bait that was holding empties out of an area completely...what you are left with is transitional patterns, if any, as bait jumps in your area or bay to take refuge from the various Fall weather systems....

In my experience, this usually doesn't happen in many areas until Columbus Day....but for 2014 this has happened very early, more than a month early....and may significantly affect your chances of catching fish from land this Fall.

That's why, IMO, when there is no or little bait, you can either
A. sit it out.....wait for better fishing in November....
B. Or when you learn of bait in an area,....or see it on a scouting trip...make a commitment to fishing that area aggressively until that bait is no longer there....







With all the talk about the early mullet run this year, I thought some folks might like to read this, and add any thoughts they may have....