Last Two Trips of the Season

Well we had our last two trips of the season. It was a tough call but I decided to pull the boat next week. With all the warm weather and lack of threat from freezing temps it was a tough call. After getting some house work done if it is still warm I will put her back in early (end of January) if there are good reports of fish hanging around similar to earlier this year.

Saturday we fished from the bathing beach up to Lavalette. The entire ride down from Manasquan to the bathing beach there was absolutely no bird action. We marked a lot of bait and some fish. Trolled south from Lavalette to the bathing beach, picking up and running to our usual spots along the way. Our total for the day was 13 fish to just about or just over 28". Since they were so close and our recent visit from a conservation officer we decided not keep any. Most fish were caught trolling from North to South or West to East and all fish were on blue and white shads. We tried chartreuse as well as pearl and neither got touched except by a few blues.

Sunday we had Bob out (a fell BFH'er) and decided to run North to the rocks after hearing great reports on Saturday about the action up there. If only we had decided to run up their for the afternoon bite instead of having lunch and hanging out down South for it. But, let me tell you...it was worth taking a slight beating on the ride home with that stiff south wind. We had a rough total of around 75 fish. Yes most were school fish of around 20 to 24 inches with a lot of 26 inch fish thrown in. It was typical December jigging action with tons of bird action. The fish were so thick you could feel the jig bouncing off them. Bob had some great top-water action with small poppers (wish I could have gotten a photo of the boils and blow ups) there was mid water column jigging, bottom bouncing. The fish were everywhere. There were so many boats it made it hard to troll which was producing many larger fish. We saw 1 30 pounder landed and heard reports of several in that range as well as one that was estimated around 50# and according to the captain the largest bass he had ever seen. The bigger fish were reported to be on spoons and plugs. Once we got on the troll again with only the blue and white shads seeing action it took less than 10 minutes to boat the only keeper of the day...a 10lb 13oz 31.5" fish. Not long after that the bite died off. Due to commitments on Monday morning we had to cut the day short otherwise I think we could have put a few more keepers in the box trolling with the fleet thinned out once the tide changed. After cleaning the fish back at the dock it was loaded with blueback herring, and they were 8-10".

Blackfish Off the Rocks

The blackfish are still inshore. I headed over to the canal and there was no action so I figured I would try the jetties at Manasquan Inlet. Had several shorts and keepers in a couple of hours. Kept one at 18.5" and 3lb. 7oz.

So far all the blackfish I have caught this fall are on clams. I have had no action in the canal or on the jetties with green crab.

I'm glad I went by my own thoughts on the weather and not the weather man's...3PM and only a drizzle, the whole time I was down south there was barely a breeze and no rain. The fog was something to be reckoned with. A few times you could not see across the inlet.

Only three more days till the bag limit goes up!

Second Striper Trip of the Fall a Bust

We headed out late due to other committments...Broke the inlet about 11:30 and arrived at the Casino Pier a bit before noon. As we were slowing down and getting ready to setup the troll we passed over a couple of enormous bait clouds, repositioned the boat and trolled over the edge of them, nothing. We continued to troll out to deeper water (50-55') and continued to mark huge clouds of bait but no marks under or around them. We trolled south down to IBSP where there were a few birds circling and one diving here and there, same thing no good marks and no knockdowns at all. At about 4 PM we picked up and headed back North. We thought the sight of dozens of birds working just outside the inlet would save the day but once we got there there were no marks not even bait on the scope and no one out of the 10 boats or so with bent rods. We jigged for 10 minutes to be sure there was nothing there and headed in. It was a gorgeous day on the water and I felt bad for those guys out in center consoles freezing their asses off while we were inside the cabin, warm and dry.

More Canal Caught Blackfish!

Well I hit the canal again this afternoon and had more fish. I fished with my cousin and between the two of us we again had probably over 25-30 fish not including the pesky cunners. It was once again a clam preference, with them also going for clam and mussel Gulp! baits. I would try fresh mussels next time as they seem to hit the Gulp! mussel bait pretty hard. And once again the action did not heat up or even start for that matter until the current started moving pretty good. Tonight's keeper was 15.5" at 2lb 5oz. If I don't get out striper fishing on Sunday you bet you will find me along the banks of the canal. And yes another limit catch! That makes it two in a row.

Blackfish in the Canal

Well I could not get a crew together with a last minute notice to take advantage of a small striper blitz I was told about. So I decided to give some of the inshore blackfishing grounds a shot. I picked up some clams and green grabs to have a variety of baits and headed over to the Point Pleasant Canal. I got there about 3 PM and at first the action was non-existent with the crabs. I switched over to clam and had some short blackfish and bergals. The bergals became a pain but the blackfish did not seem interested in green crabs so I had to deal with it. Once the current picked up to near max velocity for the incoming the blackfish turned on. I had over 30 fish most being shorts and kept one 15" fish. All in all it was a great first blackfish trip of the fall and a limit catch!