Post Thanksgiving Report
First, some community news: While last Friday is known as “Black Friday” and the Monday after Thanksgiving is called “Cyber Monday”, the Tuesday after is known as “Giving Tuesday.” We at Grumpys have a local in need that we would like everyone to help. If you have gone for breakfast or lunch locally after a good day (or a not so good day) on the surf out on Island beach State Park, you have likely eaten food cooked by Earl. Earl has experienced some medical setbacks and could use our help. His daughter opened a Go Fund Me to help him pay his expenses as he recovers. More details are in the Go Fund me page. If you would like to help, please go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-take-care-of-earl. No donation is too small. Thank you.
Now, Shop News:
We have added the very popular No Live Bait Needed (NLBN) Screw Lock 4x Tuna Super-Duty Jig Heads. One of the more recent poorly kept secrets is the bluefin tuna are hitting NLBN 8 Inch Straight Tail Stickbait rigged on the heavy duty jig heads. Pro tip: if you cannot find the 8 inch stickbaits, the 8 inch NLBN paddletails can be made into a stickbait with one slice of a knife (though I bet they would work as-is).
Don’t have a beach buggy? Or did you not get a buggy pass this year? Getting tired of lugging all your stuff up to the surf? Have you been eyeing your kid’s little red wagon as a solution? Don’t steal from your child. We have the answer. We now have available online the Tsunami Pro Beach and Pier cart.
“Epic”, “All time”, “Off the hook”, “Incredible”: These are only some of the words used to describe the fishing this past weekend. We had fish reports coming in all weekend. We heard fish were on adult bunker, peanut bunker, and sand eels. Almost every lure thrown was working, but swim shads, SP minnows, and Avas with teasers seemed to be getting the most press. The fish were actively feeding, so a piece of bait on the bottom was mostly being ignored, but a few fish were fooled by anglers soaking bunker chunks.
The weather that moved in put a pause on the fishing for Monday morning, but Monday afternoon it kicked back into high gear again out on IBSP.
And, for those who don’t want to deal with the surf and the crowds up there, there are blackfish being caught on the local jetties and the canal. Striped bass are also being caught in the back bay, mostly small fish, and almost exclusively at night. Small lures like the Rapala X-Rap, small swim shads, or Vudu shrimp.
Some recent notable catches:
Our cover photo: Jack Burdge throwing the shaka because he caught a 29 inch, 8.6 pound bass in the surf on IBSP using an SP Minnow.
Anthony David with his first needlefish bass.
James Budish with a nice one taken on a Bill Hurley sand eel.
Our very own Sean Smida catching double headers Friday morning on metals and teasers.
@wally891 with a teaser fish.
Rich Swisstack of Shark River Anglers with a nice 31” striper caught on a Yo-Zuri Twitchbait.
Donna Pombo with her first striped bass ever, 31 inches and 10. 9 pounds. Caught on a popper.
It was a crazy weekend at Grumpys, between the excellent fishing and the weekend sale. Poor Ray, his head is spinning. If you come into the shop in the next few days, please remind Ray to calm down. A simple "calm down Ray" should do the trick...
