Tight Lines

A cold west wind is usually good for striped bass at this time of year. but that didn’t seem to be the case today.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar had fine striper fishing with lots of topwater action yesterday. but the fish they located today didn’t want to hit and only a few were caught.

Vinny D’Anton reported that he only got into one 15-minute flurry of stripers yesterday afternoon — but nothing this morning in the Monmouth County surf even though schools of peanut bunkers were present. He got the same reports from his friends.

Bob Correll checked the Bay Head surf, and also didn’t see a fish caught despite the good surfcasting conditions with peanut bunkers available.

The forecast continues to be favorable after a gale warning through late tonight which should ensure a flat surf with a west wind dropping to 10-15 knots plus gusts to 20 by morning. There will be a shift to southwest at 20-25 knots in the afternoon.

Tony Arcabscio has found white and yellow to be the most popular colors in his Tony Maja Mojos, so he’s now added a combination of those colors.

A small craft warning is up from late tonight through Sunday evening. West winds in the morning at 25-30 knots plus gusts to 35 are fine for NJ surfcasters, but will force boaters to fish very close to the beach — just as Capt. Dave DeGennaro did this morning with his Hi Flier from Barnegat. He had two hours of no fish and 20 miles of running north before getting into explosions of school stripers which produced great popper action. See photo below.

Capt. Ron Santee had to work harder to put together a catch on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands before it got really nasty on the change of tide. With even more wind and temperatures in the thirties, he’s decided to take a pass tomorrow.

Capt. Alan Shinn said Royal Miss Belmar went out at 6 and had a boat limit of stripers by 10. It took a few drifts to get them turned on even though there were lots of marks. The first two finback whales of the season were spotted on their whale watching trip. Miss Belmar Princess had a tougher time getting the stripers.going, but got into them eventually and stayed out later.

Though boat fishing for stripers has been almost a sure thing recently, surfcasters have had mixed results until this week. The fall migratory run now appears to be well underway with quantities of peanut bunkers along the beaches to hold them inshore.

Vinny D’Anton moved further south in Monmouth County today to get into bass on poppers before they got fussy for a while. He got their attention back with an SP Minnow before they started hitting anything by early afternoon — when he even caught them on a Tsunami Sand Eel despite the lack of that bait in the surf so far. Best of all, the bass are large schoolies with a few lunkers mixed in . Vinny released one that measured just short of 41 inches.

The location changed, but striper fishing was red hot again on the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands. It was the ocean yesterday, but results were the same in the bay today. The high hook caught 25 bass, and a 36-incher won the pool. Everyone went home with a keeper and a slot Shads worked best.

Capt. Alan Shinn reported an early striper limit on Miss Belmar Princess, followed by plenty of catch and release.

Water Proof had a boat limit of blackfish yesterday by 9:30a.m.

Capt. Dave DeGennaro has a rare open weekend on Hi Flier from Barnegat from Saturday through Monday with which to take advantage of west winds providing calm seas under the beach. Smaller stripers are now abundant enough to almost assure some keepers rather than just releasing big bass. Call him at 732 330-5674.

A small craft advisory is up through Saturday morning with west gusts to 30 knots, but that’s down to 15 knots with gusts to 20 by morning. Ideal for surfcasting, and fine for boaters close to the beach!

Tom Lynch of Angry Fish Gallery in Point Pleasant took this shot of John Tidemann landing a school striper in the Jersey surf this week

Though ocean stripers were “turned off” a couple of days ago. it was an entirely different story in NY/NJ Bight today.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported an “epic” day as follows:

“We had an early start with a crazy amount of fish on top in numerous areas with STRIPERS working on peanut bunkers. There was whitewater everywhere with so many piles of fish you didn’t know which one to go to along with top to bottom readings!! The fish were hooked up all around the boat and everyone had their KEEPER along with their SLOT FISH. It was outstanding fishing and a great day was had by all on board the Golden Eagle.“

Capt. Ron Santee said west is best for stripers as it blew a steady 25 knots all day with non-stop action on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands. The pool bass was a 36-incher by a fare who caught 18.

Small raft warnings are up through Friday afternoon, but just like today with 15-20 knots plus gusts to 25. Anglers should be set up with a sure thing as long as they dress warm and can fish “out of the wind” close to the protection of shore.

The N.J. tautog bag limit is up to five per day, but this giant 18.8-pounder was caught by John Johanson on the Fish Bound from Ocean City, Md. earlier this week. It was 31 3/4 inches long.

Mike Monte reports from Nantucket that the bunker schools which had been holding stripers and blues there for weeks finally moved out during recent storms. — though not before a surfcaster beached a 22-pound bluefish.

Monte noted that it’s been his experience that those late big blues move out into the Atlantic after leaving Nantucket, rather than over to the Jersey Shore as the stripers do on their migration to the south.

That 22-pounder was probably stuffed with bunkers as blues are prone to do when forage is abundant. When I was trailering my first “big” boat, a Mako 19, to Cape Cod over half a century ago, I decided to make the run to Nantucket on a calm day — and arrived in a bluefish blitz on big sand eels. Those blues could be caught on anything, but I wanted sport and cast the biggest Stan Gibbs Pencil Popper at them. It was immediately engulfed by a 15-pound blue that still had several of those long sand eels in its throat and no room in its stomach that was so distended I could see every sand eel within. Talk about greed!

Rough waters have posed a problem this week for striper anglers, and even Chuck Many had to work at overcoming conditions on his Tyman from Highlands:

“Hadn’t been out in a few days, but had high expectations with all the good reports as we rounded the hook yesterday morning. Conditions were significantly worse than I expected, but went down the beach a bit hoping to run into that crazy bite. Didn’t happen for us, so worked our way into a little deeper water and decided to drift some eels in the hard northeast. First drift, absolutely crushed by Dogfish. 2nd drift, not many dogfish, but only 2 bass hits and landed zero. Ugh! Wind backed off just a bit, so decided to pull the eels to keep them a bit higher in the water column. Decent action with Bass to 48 pounds. After the morning ass whoopin decided to run to more protected water and chase those little fish. Fun stuff, but will always take one big girl over those. any day.”

No reports today, but the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands headed to the ocean yesterday morning after having scored there with stripers the previous two trips, but the fish weren’t biting. A long ride ended up producing another great catch.

A small craft advisory is up through Thursday afternoon. The forecast is for west winds at 20-25 knots.

Dave Lily has been fishing in Shrewsbury River all his life, but he’s never seen anything like what’s been happening since yesterday as there are stripers feeding all the way from the Sea Bright Bridge to Buoy 2 — which he estimates to be about four miles! Best of all, they are all legal bass, mostly in the 30-inch range. Lilly says they are feeding on something very small, and ignore large lures. Yet, they hit anything small.

Ironically, the Golden Eagle from Belmar had exactly the opposite experience in the ocean today as they saw bass on top and read them on the fishfinder — but they wouldn’t hit. Only a few bass were boated. That boat will be taking a pass tomorrow due to the weather.

A small craft advisory is up for from this evening to Wednesday afternoon. The forecast is for north winds at 15 to 20 knots with possible morning showers and 4-6-foot seas before going southwest in the afternoon.

Jim Gilmore was in on that surf striper blitz in Sandy Hook yesterday, and noted that there were rods bent everywhere up into Monmouth County. He only measured one 30-incher that he took home, but estimates the bass were from 24 to 32 inches as he released 15 to 20 of them. The bass were on peanut bunkers. Surfcasters from southern areas had to make an unusual drive north to get in on the bite.

It’s not often that I can get both boat and surf reports from the same source, but that was the case today as Capt. Ron Santee of the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands had his anglers into whitewater action with 30-to-38-inch stripers while finally seeing surfcasters also getting into the bite. He didn’t specify exactly where that was, but I suspect the surfcasters may have been at Sandy Hook.

Surprisingly, Santee didn’t have enough fares to sail — but he didn’t want to disappoint the few customers and sailed anyway. The high hook caught 15 bass up to a 44-incher. Best of all, Santee didn’t have to go far and avoided rough waters by staying close to shore.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported limiting out quickly with keeper bass and some bonus fish while releasing many trophy stripers that were hitting both lures and bunkers.

Though there’s a shift to northeast winds in the forecast, only 10-15 knots is predicted.

Those wanting some variety can try blackfishing as Capt. Cal 2 from Belmar will start that bottom fishing tomorrow.

Chuck Many always fins big bass for release from his Tyman out of Highlands by fishing eels off by himself

Anglers who have been enjoying great striped bass fishing in NY/NJ Bight with summer-like temperatures got a dose of reality today.

Capt. Ron Santee said temperatures were dropping all day even as his fares on the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands were catching lots of 30-34-inch bass with very few small ones among them. He had to run-and-gun with all the boat traffic, but the results were worth it. Santee suggests anglers should dress warm for tomorrow!

The Golden Eagle from Belmar didn’t have to go far from the inlet this morning for lots of stripers that hit pretty much anything cast to them. See photo below.

Vinny D’Anton got into a few school stripers this morning in the Monmouth County surf as the waters started to clear. With the cold front in place, he expects the overdue fall surf run to begin at a higher level tomorrow.

Small craft warnings are up through late tonight as northwest winds to 30 knots continue. The morning forecast has that wind dropping to 15-20 — and then to just 10-15 in the afternoon.

Following up on yesterday’s blog about the scarcity of bluefish this fall, I should have noted that what we’re seeing now isn’t unusual.

When I was growing up in Merrick on Long Island’s south shore, the catch of even a single adult blue was newsworthy though we caught lots of snappers with our bamboo poles every late summer.

A neighbor kept a boat in Gardinars Ba,y far out on Long Island, where some small blues had appeared, and it was a thrill for me when I got to troll with him for a few 3-pounders.

There were tales of great bluefishing during the 1930s, but they just seemed to disappear after that. The leading authority on bluefishing at that time checked historical records and determined that bluefish had seven- year cycles. Small blues started appearing around the time I graduated from high school in 1954, and they got steadily larger and more abundant every year after that. Most anglers concentrated on blues rather than the wary striped bass, and expected to see the fishery crash again at the seven-year mark. While there have been many ups and down since, the cycle theory has been forgotten as blues are now managed without regard to any mysterious cycle beyond our control.

Blues made their great comeback in such quantities that anglers started taking them for granted, but I’ve never forgotten how great a gift they were when reappearing during my youth. With the conservation now in place, I ‘m confident that what we’re seeing this fall is just a glitch.

It eems that many boaters gave in to rough conditions today, but Capt. Ron Santee ran his charter for the IBEW 457 anglers on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands. With wind against current it was hard to find stripers and got nasty. It took hours of searching to get on the fish when the current turned, but everyone was in on the hot bite which has been a daily blessing. The Fishermen will be back to daily open boat fishing in the morning.

Vinny D’Anton reported a very dirty surf and no action this morning, but he did see gannets flying for the first time this fall, possibly indication the arrival of herring.

The Jamaica from Brielle will be sailing for striped bass at 6:30 a.m. They will then be sailing a canyon tuna trip at 8:30 p.m. Reservations can be made by calling 732 528-5014.

A small craft advisory is up until late tonight. The morning forecast is for cold northwest winds at 10-15 knots which increase to 15-20 in the afternoon and should clear the surf. There’s a chance of morning showers.

I hope my fellow vets are catching something special like this swordfish aboard Capt. Nick Stanczyk’s charter boat at Bud ‘Mary’s Marina in Islamorada, Florida Keys.

Even on a rough day, Chuck Many was able to get his crew on Tyman from Highlands into many striper releases without another boat in sight.

While NY/NJ Bight boat fishing for striped bass has been as good as anyone could hope for. there’s been hardly any reports of bluefish among them as we had expect as a given just a few years ago.

Though the decline in bluefish during recent decades has been met with conservation regulations t that seemed to be working as the summer fishery was up to expectations, surfcasters have noted the small blues which used to be a fall staple just aren’t showing this year — nor have the blitzes of big blues been occurring despite the abundance of bunkers for them to feast on. It wasn’t many years ago that November was my favorite month for jumbo blues which provided great popper action around bunker schools with an occasional large striper. Now it’s exactly the opposite with stripers completely dominating. Most of us would prefer that arrangement, but the lack of blues is still a concern — especially for surfcasters who haven’t been getting into striper action as has been the case for boaters.

Vinny D’Anton also noted a lack of snappers this fall when he was surfcasting for fluke with Gulp. Normally that’s a good method during the summer until the year class of snappers invades the surf while nipping the tails off the Gulp every cast. Yet, that didn’t happen this fall.

Vinny is still waiting for the surf to turn on in Monmouth County. He did see some large bunkers with birds hovering over them in the north pocket of Manasquan Inlet this morning. Party boats went to them on the way out, but Vinny didn’t see anything caught. He’s hoping that the coming cold front will trigger the first significant run of migratory school stripers down the beach.

A gale warning is up at 3 p.m. through Saturday morning. The Saturday forecast is for southwest winds at at25-30 knots plus gusts to 40 with 8- to-11-foot seas. However, that will switch to a calming west at 15-20 knots in the afternoon.

Capt. Ron Santee reported more great striper fishing on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands. He had two hours of tide with steady striper action on shads and jigs before it slowed on the change. Catches ranged up to 20 as everyone got in on the surface bite. That boat is chartered Saturday.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar had great striper fishing yesterday, but has cancelled for Saturday due to the weather.