Though I suspected the surf might have been dirty this morning, Frank Manzi reported that it was quite fishable at Belmar where the regulars picked from one to three small bass this morning. Jerry Lasko fished there later in the afternoon and Maren Toleno caught one bass while they had a few other hits. Steve Mirande tried Bay Head this morning to no avail.

The Big Mohawk from Belmar reported it turned out to be a nice day at sea with decent blackfishing and some limits up to 8 pounds. They’ll be sailing at 6:30 Sunday morning.

I’m sure there were very few anglers who even took a look at the ocean today, but Vinny D’Anton found a report online from “Two-pole Mike”  that he caught 28 stripers from 14 to 24 inches early this morning at an undisclosed location along the northern N.J. surf. He got there just as the storm was starting, and it was very fishable in green water at dawn as he caught the bass steadily on his home-made sand eel imitation plus a teaser.

Chances are that the surf is now badly discolored, and that it will take quite a bit of west wind to clear it up.

The forecast is for 20-25 knots south winds with gusts to 35 today before a switch to 15-20 west in the morning with gusts to 25. That won’t last long as the Sunday forecast is for northwest at just 5-10 knots.

Even Jerry Lasko didn’t fish this morning, but he reported reading a mild enough 47 degrees yesterday in the IBSP surf.

South winds will be bringing warmer temperatures, but with rain and rough seas as a coastal storm arrives.

Surfcasters probably won’t be missing much. Jerry Lasko said Maren Toleno did catch two stripers this morning at Point Pleasant, but he didn’t hear of anything up at Belmar and found nothing after moving down to IBSP during the morning. Even the loons that had led him to some bass there yesterday were missing.

Bob Matthews, at Fisherman’s Den in Belmar Marina, said the Big Mohawk, Ocean Explorer and Capt. Cal have been doing well with blackfish whenever they can sail. Several 10-12-pounders have been weighed in. Small bass are still a possibility in the surf, but few anglers are working at it.

With good weather forecasted for Thursday, the 100-foot Paramount is running an “overflow” trip tonight  to the far offshore wrecks for jumbo sea bass as the  Big Jamaica is fully booked. The Paramount will leave Brielle at 9 p.m.  This trip is limited to 25 anglers at a fare of $195. Call 732 528-5014 for reservations. The return is at about 6 p.m. Thursday.

The Mimi VI at Point Pleasant will be sailing open for blackfish at 7 a.m. Saturday through Tuesday — as well as Thursday, Saturday and Sunday of next week. The fare is $75, and reservations can be made by calling 732 370-8019.

The surf was calm this morning, but Jerry Lasko said he only caught one striper at Island Beach State Park. He had picked at bass there during the morning on Christmas by casting to the loons as they chased sand eels. Those birds rarely make a mistake, but a loon did hit Lasko’s Tsunami 6-inch Sand Eel  before shaking the lure out. Lasko shot this photo of Maren Toleno with the bluefin tuna that washed up at IBSP recently. It definitely didn’t hit the Tsunami Sand Eel in its mouth.

Carl Grano tried Bay Head this morning with a swim shad and teaser, but had no hits. Vinny D’Anton only heard of one bass caught by Tommy Cox at Belmar this morning. The forecast is for north 5-10 knots in the morning before shifting to east in the afternoon. That’s the start of bad weather, with southeast winds gusting to 25 after midnight tomorrow — before 20-25 south on Friday along with rain.

Here’s hoping all of my blog followers are enjoying a very merry Christmas! With west winds prevailing, fishing prospects for the week are good.

There was some life in the surf to the north this morning, but no good news to the south.

Jim Louro caught five small bass at Belmar on his custom paddletail jig, and others also picked there early.  However, Jerry Lasko reported that it was dead in IBSP despite clean waters there. The waters remained dirty from beach replenishment at Lavallette.

The northwest wind is predicted to still be blowing 15-20 knots Christmas morning, but should diminish during the day. Hopefully school stripers will be back at Bay Head this week.

Merry Christmas!

The gusty west winds did the job of knocking down the big swell, and curfcasters worked in a fairly flat surf. The problem was dirty waters after the storm, but they should be cleared up by tomorrow.

There were no fish reports today, but Jerry Lasko said he and Maren Toleno had a few hits while casting in Island Beach State Park.

Vinny D’Anton only had negative reports from his crew casting in the Belmar area into discolored surf. The forecast is for light NW winds in the morning before they become gusty in the afternoon. Hopefully the stripers will be back in some areas.

It’s unlikely that anyone was ishing in today’s west gale, but N.J. Shore striper fishing wasn’t always as poor as it’s been lately.

Indeed, one of the most memorable days I ever had was on Dec. 22, 2004, when my personal release count was 106 stripers while casting with relatively light spinning tackle. I also had Capt. Hans Kaspersetz and Hani Fares aboard that day when my Sheri Berri II was based out of Manasquan Inlet.

Shortly after turning south from the inlet, I saw birds dipping off Mantoloking. The bass were feeding on both peanut bunkers and 7-inch herring, and were moving to the south in a 20 mph west wind. I was able to catch so many because I was using a Joe Blaze teaser fly in addition to a Tsunami Shad — and was catching mostly doubleheaders of the bass that ranged up from 16 inches to one that was 30 1/2 inches. Hans and Hani stuck with just the shad, but still caught about 50 to 75 bass each. John Green and other surfcasters were also in on the action most of the time.  We ended up off Seaside Park in the afternoon before running back.

About 10 years ago there was also another strange occurrence during Christmas week as Capt. Joe Massa decided to make a last trip with his My Three Sons from Morgan Marina. I joined him along with my son Mike and nephew Bob Correll. Joe was having trouble with his fishfinder as we neared Shrewsbury Rocks, but I told him not to worry about it since birds were up at the inner buoy. Mike was hooked up right away, but it was a cod that had the jig. Though the others caught mostly cod, my rig was producing stripers in a variety of sizes plus bluefish — and we also jigged a blackfish and saw a large bluefin tuna jump right near the buoy. I don’t think that odd mixture of species in shallow waters has occurred since then — but you never know in December!

Yesterday’s  storm left us with a big swell and dirty waters, but the west winds should clear that up in the next couple of days. The forecast is for gale warnings to come down this evening before tomorrow morning brings west 10-15-knot winds with gusts to 20.

The Big Mohawk from Belmar will be blackfishing at 6:30 a.m. on Dec. 23 and 24.

The Modern Fish Act represents the best efforts of a coalition of sportfishing groups to make the fisheries management process fairer to  recreational fishermen. Though enjoying wide bipartisan support, it was fought by some so-called environmental groups involved in an unholy alliance with commercial fishing organizations.  I haven’t been able to get the roll call vote on this House passage as yet, but on a vote last year Rep. Frank Pallone was the only N.J. Democrat to vote for the act. Not only was it vital to get this bill finally approved by the House before having to start from scratch in the new Congress, but it’s quite likely that the new Democratic House will be less likely to protect the public’s right to fish over their commitment to the environmental groups.  The American Sportfishing Association press release follows:

 

Modern Fish Act Headed to the White House

First-Ever Sportfishing-Focused Legislation to Pass Congress Heads to President’s Desk

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the Modern Fish Act. Officially known as the Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2017, the passage is a major victory for the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) and our coalition partners, who worked closely with lawmakers to get the bill through Congress. The bill now heads to the President’s desk for his signature.

“This is truly a monumental achievement by the ASA and its members, our partner organizations, and anglers across the country,” said ASA President Glenn Hughes. “I want to personally thank Mike Leonard and his team who have worked tirelessly for more than three years to accomplish the goal of passing this historic legislation for recreational anglers and the sportfishing industry. Without the dedication and leadership of Mike and the hundreds of meetings and phone calls, this legislation would not have made it to the President’s desk.”

“From its initial introduction almost two years ago, the Modern Fish Act has had many champions in the House of Representatives, most notably Reps. Garret Graves (R-La.), Gene Green (D-Texas), Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), Rob Wittman (R-Va.) and Marc Veasey (D-Texas),” said ASA Vice President of Government Affairs Mike Leonard. “These legislators deserve a tremendous amount of gratitude from the recreational fishing industry for their leadership in supporting this important bill throughout the legislative process.”

“The recreational fishing industry has long been frustrated by the sudden closures and wildly fluctuating fishing regulations that have come from the nation’s federal marine fisheries management system,” said Gary Zurn, senior vice president at Big Rock Sports and ASA’s Government Affairs Committee Chairman. “Through passage of the Modern Fish Act, Congress is providing direction to NOAA Fisheries on a variety of policies that will ultimately lead to more stable fishing regulations, and better management and conservation of our marine fisheries.”

The version of the Modern Fish Act passed by Congress did not contain some key provisions included in the original bill, such as requiring periodic examinations in the southeastern U.S. of how fisheries are allocated between the commercial and recreational sectors. However, the bill still helps to address many of ASA’s top priorities for improving federal marine fisheries management, including:

• Clarifying the authority of NOAA Fisheries to apply management approaches more appropriate for recreational fishing;
• Improving recreational harvest data collection by requiring federal managers to explore additional data sources that have tremendous potential to improve the accuracy and timeliness of harvest estimates, such as state-driven programs and electronic reporting (e.g., through smartphone apps);
• Requiring a study on how mixed-use fishery allocations can and should be periodically reviewed by the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Regional Fishery Management Councils; and
• Requiring a study on limited access privilege programs (catch shares) including an assessment of the social, economic, and ecological effects of the programs.

“To my knowledge, never before has Congress passed a bill focused entirely on the saltwater recreational fishing community,” Leonard added. “Passage of the Modern Fish Act proves that the voice of the recreational fishing community is being heard on Capitol Hill. The Modern Fish Act is not the end point, but rather a major step toward evolving federal marine fisheries management in a way that recognizes the importance of saltwater recreational fishing to the nation.”

Needless to say, there were no fishing reports today in SE winds gusting to 40 mph and heavy rain at times. Gale warnings are continued through Saturday afternoon as tonight’s 15-20 knot south wind with gusts to 35 plus seas up to 10 feet switches to west at the same speeds Saturday. The clearing west wind continues at 10-15 knots with gusts to 25 on Sunday — and will be down to 10-15 Monday as seas diminish to 2-4 feet. It may take the surf a few tides to clear up, but surfcasting should be practical by Monday or Tuesday. Don’t expect those miracle peanut bunkers at Point Pleasant to still be around, but school stripers normally come-and-go in the surf through December — and often into January.

 

 

The news probably isn’t going to do anyone any good just before the storm hits, but the long-missing peanut bunkers finally showed up in the surf today. There hasn’t been a peanut bunker run in the Shore surf all fall, but the few anglers who worked the Point Pleasant surf today were rewarded with larger school stripers than we’d been seeing — 24 to 27 inches.

Jerry Lasko spent the day at Point Pleasant and caught eight, while Maren Toleno totaled 18. Tsunami swim shads matched the hatch, though Maren also got a couple on snag & drop. She also took the water temperature, and it was up to 48 degrees.

Vinny D’Anton checked with his crew casting to the north at Belmar where they reported sand eels in the surf but no fish caught. Kevin Kuriawa had a close call this evening as he decided to fish Bay Head and found some bunkers in the calm, clear waters — but couldn’t get any hits among them.

The rain just started this afternoon, but there will be plenty more plus wind. Gale warnings for southeast winds gusting to 40 knots are up for Friday morning.  We’ll be lucky to get back to the surf by Sunday.