jsarosi, How far off the beach were you guys?
Thanks for the info. Was talking to one of my fishing buddies that was on a boat down that way and he said he did about as good as you did. He also said that some of the blues were spitting up tinker mackerel? Did you see that too?
The OFFC managed to get to OC around noon and get on the peanut bunker train and get rid of the three peat skunk. All fish, except a couple blues, were bass 24" to 30". Followed the birds and fish thru a few towns. Sometimes the fish were close, sometimes the fish were only caught on a long cast. The action slowed down around 4 pm, so we picked a spot to plug before it got dark. We saw a few birds but could not walk fast enough to catch up to them, so we just stopped in a cut and plugged and started hooking up. We had good action till about 5:30 pm.
Nice going gents. Heard of a lot of action today that I missed out on while at work. Have followed your reports over the years and have been reading of some strike outs lately. Good news that you found em congrats.
Haven't been able to go fishing in a while. Fished island beach this morning. Had to move around a bit but managed an even dozen stripers and a few nice big blues. Bucktails at first then poppers around sunrise. The dropping tide seems to be better from the incoming from what I am hearing from my friends. Very crowded today, be safe folks.
OFFC congratulations on the catches.
Great going looks like some of you guys really got into em! I missed it at every place I stopped at today. Either they told me it was great yesterday or great this morning. I must of made 10 stops just to cast and try. Some where other guys were casting other places where the water looked fishy. Nothing for me. I kept hearing about sandeels from guys but did not see any. Seems to be a lot of peanut bunker blitzes. I missed every single one of them. May try tomorrow. It was a beautiful day to fish today.
Did the boat thing released 26 cookie cutter bass to 29" all on pencil poppers also released 6 huge bluefish. No signs of any type of life until Lavallette going down and coming back life ended in Lavallette.
Largest concentration of fish was Seaside to bathing beach Island beach lots of herring, tons of peanuts and some butterfish. Fish were chasing peanuts at a fast pace south.
Hopefully this coming weeks Northeaster will make the fat lady sing.
Pay attention to what history has taught us or be prepared to relive it again
Fished yesterday got a few on shads right at sunset. Spent a lot of time chasing. Miles and miles of guys out there. Good for the seaside economy.
Finally broke the skunk! Was out for the last few days and no catches not much to report. Got to oc yesterday afternoon looked for where the most cars and trucks were parked. Got to the beach and there were so many standing there I had to walk half a mile before I could find a spot. Picked up 4 short striped ones on white Storm Shad. Thank you fish Gods!
Dude have you been living in a glass bubble? This is probably the last hurrah for the season. There are no more fish "coming down from Montauk". There are no more stripers left up in the Raritan Bay. All those guys are fishing for blackfish. There are hardly any stripers left in moco. All the action for the last week has been LBI to Squan. When you can see the Belmar boats off the beach in Seaside, you know it is a huge dead ocean out there. There's hardly any fish left to catch. Last week they boats were nailing 30lbers and bragging of full boat limits. Now the reports talk of fish in inches not pounds.
Sorry to be so blunt but only someone living in an isolated box would not know this. Maybe you don't fish a lot so maybe you just don't know. This is it, dude. The whole shebang. The whole shooting match. The only thing behind this will probably be the tiny runts 12-16". The death rats at the end of the season.
Time for a fishing report. Fished a popular county, the only one with decent fish in it, last night in the dark. Dropping tide, 6 hours, into part of the incoming. Tossed mag darters and m/l swimmers. Managed 5 bass, only one was a keeper, about 15#. Released. Worked for every one of em.
Fished ocean county in the AM. Sunrise got a blue and short striper about 24". Fun bend in the rod. Didn't see anyone catch mega numbers of stripers. I must have picked the wrong spot. Still it looked promising with the peanut bunker in the water. May try later on hoping it will be better.
I have to agree with you on this point. I have been fishing cape may for the last 4 weeks, trying different tides. They are definitely not here yet. We did have some resident fish in the back and have been having a little luck with them in the meantime. So if you are saying there are no fish further up north, and that is what you guys are seeing I hope there are some left for us. From what I am reading everything is in ocean county.
Also boat reports say the boat guys are crushing them. There must be a lot of fish being taken out of the gene pool with this high localized concentration of bass.
I fished this morning CM and got the skunk. I am now thinking I should have made the drive up but its a 75 mile trek for me further north.
This is true I can confirm this. And before thankgiving Island Beach was very slow. My friends who are retired and my age fish every day. The bite at Island beach state park has been terrible for most of November. Not worth coming down. Now there are a lot of bass and blues because of the different varieties of bait. The sizes have decreased noticably in the last 10 days. As was said if you want to catch you really should not make any excuses and make time to fish now. There is no telling how long this will last. It reminds me so much of conditions before in the late 1970's with all the hype and many dead areas. Don't want to bore you with an old man reminiscing so that's all I will say this time.
Also wanted to say that I got up early today and got a few bass this morning at first light on a SS bottle plug. They are still catching sporadically and it may get better this afternoon. I don't like that crowded type of fishing and from what I saw the park will be a madhouse today. This is the time when mistakes are made like people hooking each other because they are too close. Crossed lines also. Be careful folks.
Finchaser congratulations on your catching it seems like the fish may be here for a spell until the bait moves. A boat, or weekday fishing might be the best way to catch now to avoid the crowds.
I got 3 yesterday, wished i left after the first shot, only seen them come in briefly 2 more times into spot i was boxed out, few spots did slightly better. Then looked all over and they never came in all day with birds in distance many times. at least 2 fish were the better sized ones 28-29" last min decision but WAS gonna start where i found these, heard a few guys that knew what they are doing had closer to 10 to 12 fish
Pay attention to what history has taught us or be prepared to relive it again