NJ Fishing Reports for June 2014.....www.StripersAndAnglers.com

[finchaser]

Here you go jigfreak

After some serious testing of many hook combinations we found the best hook combination for an SP still retaining its action is. Replace belly hook with a VMC 2/0 (4x strong) crushed barbs on a 5.5hd (80#) SS split ring. For the rear a 4/0 SS Swiash nylon dressed hook. In a side by side test the modified swam as good if not better and caught like the stock on both bass and blues. Single rear made unhooking the yellow eyed demons easier

[cowherder]

Awesome reports guys keeping me chomping at the bit till I can get out this weekend! Congrats on the catches I am jealous. even better on the relaseing big bass. finchaser thanks for sharing your old school knowledge will have to try that.

[buckethead]

Nice work gents. ++ for the C&R. hook you could have placed in the top part of the berkeley c&r leaderboard with your biggest bass. big prizes and glory.

[hookset]

Thanks bucket and everyone else but not into tourneys. This was the only one I have ever had a remote interest in because its cpr. I won a trout fishing contest once when I was in the boy scouts. Kind of felt bad that I had to kill the fish to be the winner. Hopefully the berkeley one will be the wave of the future and other clubs will follow suit. Besides I think you can't enter after you catch a fish you have to enter before. It just wouldn't be honest. A 25 isn't that big anyway. About 20 years ago no one gave em a 2nd look cause there were lots of bigger ones. Oh those were the days.

[finchaser]

Took my my old friend Killie fishing tonight and hammered on the bluefish SP and jig with rubbbbbba

[SharkHart]

Few days off this week, started out great with this true slob on a Sp Minnow blind casting a piece of water that finally connected after 3 earlier attempts in the season, got a few more 20 to 25 lbs over 2 days made a really bad choice to move 50 miles north to stay at the beach house and fish bunker fish and Kayak which was the plan back in jan when i scheduled the off days, got caught a pricey skunk boat trip missed a bite to the south.




The see saw effect with quick waves intervals i finally got this fish on the sand after maybe ten tries and it took off a replacement spilt even

[Blazin420]

AWESOME report Shark!! Nice job!!...I was out last night and it was all the blues you wanted from 2lbs to 8lbs got most of mine on a BT w/pork...Stayed into the dark hoping the blues would leave and some bass would show but it didnt happen just more blues...Oh and the birds have there nesting spot to themselves now......Taking my boss and his son out Sunday morn hope to find at least some blues for them..The kid is dieing to get something off the beach...Im sure head be happy with skates and robins but i wanna get him something with some fight so he knows what its all about...

[DarkSkies]

blind casting a piece of water that finally connected after 3 earlier attempts in the season, got a few more 20 to 25 lbs over 2 days made a really bad choice to move 50 miles north

I think you and I must have passed each other on the road in the previous few days....
Glad to see you able to get some of those fish......very nice....



Nomad Marathon......
The first 2 weeks in June can offer opportunity for some nicer fish.....
This year it's dwindled to a handful of places throughout the whole state, with no real consistency.....making it that much more harder if you have to travel......I have noticed that participation on even the biggest internet sites is down overall......What's left for striped bass from land.....is not easy....and when the fishing ain't easy....most will give up or target other species......

I did a Nomad Marathon for the last 2 days...travelling througout the state.....sleeping in my car..... targeting bigger bass, bluefish, weakfish....didn't do so well...... got some great stories...some opportunities for big fish.....fishing still inconsistent.....


Highlights....

*Thurs pre-dawn June 5
Got into a pretty aggressive bluefish bite on top water.....Managed 9 to 8#....missed a lot more....still feeding on those shrimp on the flats....I believe I could have had better numbers on the other side of the tide...but the storm and N wind shift killed the bite on those back bay flats....had to get out of there quick.


*Fri pre dawn June 6
Drove a long distance to find some bigger bass at night.....The water had changed a lot and I was primarily trying to learn it.....fished a few hours into the dawn, nothing for me. Skunk.



*Fri end of day June 6
Ran into the OFFC in my travels.....they managed to bucktail one stray bluefish where we were....then nothing but dead water for a few hours....we decided to find the highest concentration of bait in the ocean, and then work the water hoping something would shape up by the end of day.....
I have become pretty adept at finding which areas of bunker will develop action....but to me it's frustrating because no matter how much you look at it with reason,. in the end it's all about luck and standing in the right spot when it happens....and the resulting crowds, elbowing for position, and chest pounding adrenalin is just not my kind of fishing......

Highlights of the day....
1. Watching some long fish breach the water like marlin.........First one about 3' long ..25 yards in front of us....the 2nd one I saw out of the corner of my eye and only in a flash....500 yards out.... about 3' long........
Our best assessment was that we saw either skinny long bluefish, or sturgeon breaching, common for this time of year.....

It's the first time I have seen one 25 yards out...usually they're in much deeper water.....Again, not sure exactly what those fish were.. it added some excitement to our tough day..

2. Watching the OFFC glass, observe, and analyze bait patterns.....as mentioned, my skills are not even close to the ability these Old farts have....after some driving around, they correctly identified the one area of bait, in 2 counties, that was likely to come ashore yesterday......although the bait and action did come closer to us, it was never closer than 1000 yards out...we gave it our best shot....Skunk except for that one stray bluefish.

Always a pleasure running into ya's....
More of a bonus that we had the whole beach (mostly) to ourselves....even the bait guys had no action other than skates....






Sat - June 7 -Deep night shift.....till 3am....
Went back to where I was Thu night......hoping for opportunity....no guarantees...but some real nice fish had been in the mix,,,,,,
since it was Fri, I opted to fish away from the crowds......on some rocks that had a tremendous rip 50' out....I was sure they would hold one bigger bass....as they were in the area......
My hypothesis failed.....

Highlght of the night...fishing next to a Dad and his 10 year old son...he had the kid out trying to get him a big bass.....
I was praying to King Neptune that this kid would hook up....but it was not to be......they left and I continued casting 2 hours more until there was no energy left......made it home by sleeping at the different rest stops along the way......

Even though it was a skunk, I was fishing beautiful clean white water.....and felt invigorated with every cast....

[buckethead]

Well ds you definitely put your time in. I hope it pays off for you. Thanks for the statewide report. I fished moco this morning, zip for me on the reliable bucktail and grub. Even the small fish did not cooperate today. sharkheart nice effort and fish.

[finchaser]

] Even though it was a skunk, I was fishing beautiful clean white water.....and felt invigorated with every cast....

Now that's funny^^^^maybe should drive home with a bottle of white water on your dash to keep you invigorated so you don't have to stop every 15 minutes to sleep.

[Monty]

Now that's funny^^^^maybe should drive home with a bottle of white water on your dash to keep you invigorated so you don't have to stop every 15 minutes to sleep.

You are able to bottle White Water?

[robmedina]

I met my fishing buddy Mikey at the bait store at 6am. High tide was 6:14 so we would catch the outgoing from outback. We bought Killies and squid to go fluking. after a brief stop at wawa we were at the bay to launch the kayaks. Water by the powerplant was 75 degrees. We drifted with the current and I caught a 14-1/2" sea robin. We continued drifting but nada. Chatter on the radio was no one was catching flounder.

I said to Mike we need to be by a drop off if we want a chance, so we moved closer to the flats while we were heading that way we saw a small boat with 2 guys and their rods were bent over. Turns out they were catching small blues in the 3-5 lb range. I had to relive myself anyway, so I anchored in the flats and hoped out and did my thing. The buys in the boat moved on. Maybe I scared them??? anyway, so I moved into their position and anchored up and through a SS popper and about my third cast I was in. I was using a very light action spinning rod and man that little 4lb blue was a ton of fun.

We moved around for awhile on the flats. I would stand up in my yak and can see the blues cruising. felt like I was in florida fishing the mosquito lagoon, lol! I could see channels cut through the flats and was able to guestimate where the fish were on a few occasions. Mike only hooked one blue , I got 4. they were all 3-5 pounds, lots of fun.

While we were on the flat Mike noticed a cloud of birds by the BI. Must have been a bass blitz- we heard a 47# bass and a 40# bass caught out front. Mike wanted to go there but I reminded him that he has a screw loose because there was no way we were ever gonna make it by kayak from where we were and we still would have had to go through the inlet- not a great idea.

I tried to catch blues on the fly rod but it was not gonna happen. I need to make some pencil poopers for the flyrod.

Here is a quick video- not promising it's good- but it is what it is.

[DarkSkies]

Glad to see ya got into some fish, Rob......looks like ya's had a blast......

The blues have been active on the flats up by us as well....in 4' of water at the shallowest......for me, getting them has meant wading out 1/8 mile at the bottom of the tide....it would be a lot easier to find them via kayak...but I'm stubborn.....
good call on choosing size of the popper......they can be picky at times....today I casted for 1/2 hour with no action at all until I downsized to one of my smallest poppers....similar to the one you used......

I'm surprised they wouldn't hit a fly for you....by me they are feeding extensively on these shrimp, about 2-3 times larger than grass shrimp.....
I bucktailed a few with a light weight bucktail the other day.....but stopped after they chewed through my leader....and switched to small poppers.....it seems you have to Pi** them off a bit to get them to hit...at least where I'm fishing.....

What kind of fly are you casting? White bucktails seemed to work the best, and not with long grubs....the shorter the profile the better....it seems the closer your artificial resembles these shrimp size, the better they will respond....and of course to the poppers as well......

** For Rob and any other fly fishermen out there....
This Fri, June 13, will be the full moon cycle.....the cinder worms should be spawning again......for those who have gotten them using flies to match this hatch....you can be successful casting those flies......bass and weakfish will respond as well....and if you're out there....while some of the rest of us are getting skunked....matching the hatch could be a blast for those among ya's who love to catch bay and river fish on the fly.








Report - fished the bay flats this morning, had to wade out pretty far....only had an hour to fish......
No action at all for the first half hour....
When I switched to very small poppers I began to pick at a few.....
I found it tough fishing today, as opposed to the other day when they were extremely aggressive before that storm moved in,. cloudy skies, snotty weather...


Only raised 2 fish, one on metal bait tail,
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...els-are-around

other on popper....and caught 2 additional bluefish to 7# by pissing them off with the small popper....

[robmedina]

Here is the fly I was using



Thanks for posting the info on the cinder worms. Can you fish it during the day?

[J Barbosa]

Shark nice fish!

I fished off the kayak yesterday targeting bluefish.

We got a bunch of them all in 3-6ft of water.

Seen more bait yesterday than I have seen all season. Adult bunker, shrimp and small rain fish/spearing type bait. The bunker were in deeper water and unmolested.

Small plugs like a Surfstix egglet swimmer were key to catching these bluefish. I did catch a few on a 2oz pencil but I had way more blowup and miss on it (single rear swish only).



My buddy Rui got a nice weakfish he released.


We probably fished closer to shore than Darkskies did.

[J Barbosa]

One of my bluefish from yesterday...not really sure if this is from disease or a shark/dolphin bite. Marks were on both sides but much worse on this side.

[captnemo]

We gave it our best fishing for bass today. Unfortunately the bass did not cooperate. Started just E of the hook where we found and netted bunker. Tossed one out to have it chopped in half by a big bluefish so we decided to move down the beach. We worked bunker pods from the shrewsbury rocks to asbury. No luck. We did see a group of boats clustered off monmouth beach past the shrewsbury rocks. They were way over the line. From the looks of it they were fishing bunker for bass and I did see some busting when I checked with the binocs. We ventured out further and saw they were fishing for bass. Saw some of the big name sponsors and advertisers on some of the fishing websites out there as well as a party boat. The party boat advertises as a bluefish trip but the other private boats and charters were not bluefishing. I put a call in to the CG and hope they did something about it. It is not fair that some of us have to play by the rules and others feel they do not.

[cowherder]

Wow great catches on the kayaks rob and john! john that is one scarey looking bluefish! captnemo thanks for taking a stand and calling those scum in! You are right the law should apply to everyone. to the idiots that think they are above it.

[SharkHart]

Skunkaroo for all where I was Either lost the body of fish or the low water all night kept em quiet.

[hookedonbass]

Hey you can't bat 1000 every day shark. rob that is an awesome video like how you show the teeth of the blue before you put it back. Fished island beach all morning. One blue on metal at 6am otherwise no takers. Jbarbosa that is one nasty looking bluefish what do you suppose did that to it?