Hey, Maybe Now Its Over
We are going to give you a reprieve from shop news and get right into the fishing report. But first, shop news. (heh heh heh).
We are working on our Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale and will have an announcement later this week. Keep an eye out here or on our social media to see what we will have going on.
Ok, now the fishing report..
The fishing over the weekend slowed down a bit. The bass bite in the surf was still happening, but it slowed down to a pick. Bait (specifically fresh bunker) was still getting the occasional fish, but the anglers fishing bait had to trudge through a lot of spiny dogfish before they got a striped bass. The good news is the striped bass hitting on bunker were generally larger fish.
The anglers fishing lures in low-light/no-light conditions were doing a little better than the bait anglers, but it was still slower over the weekend than it was last week. Plastic swimmers like SP Minnows, Mag Darters and Hydro Minnows were doing the dirty work. We also heard of the occasional fish taken on an ava jig with a teaser.
There still are small bass in the bay and they will likely be there until we get a really long cold snap. Small swim shads and kettle creeks have been getting them.
Boats fishing between the beach and the three mile line were also having trouble finding bass this weekend. A few boats got into some fish, but there were also a lot that struck out. Of those that scored, chartreuse mojos or bunker spoons seemed to be the hot lures, assuming you could figure out the hot lure from such a small sample. At least the boats had a nice day on the water. Those that we spoke with reported bait everywhere.
The best bite this weekend seemed to be the blackfish bite. From inside in the Point Pleasant Canal to the nearshore wrecks a few miles off, we heard of plenty of good tog bites on green crabs and white chin wreckers. This weekend jigs out fished rigs (sorry rig traditionalists).
There was also one very interesting catch. Virginia Jack sent in this picture. He said he got two bass off the surf before hooking something that felt different. He ended up landing a squid. For size reference, that is a 6 inch bone SP Minnow.
So, in all seriousness, its not over. We have heard some good reports of fish up in the Raritan area, plus heard a good bite of schoolie fish is occurring on Long Island beaches right now. It's just beginning...
So Virginia Jack is a good friend of the shop. He stops in nearly daily while he is here on his vacation. He puts his time in and gets his share of fish. But Ray is curious. Why is the current best angler on the Jersey shore someone from Virginia? What going on with you guys? Ray says shame on you all for letting an out-of-stater out fish you…
