Bunkers/Boats/Bass

[Billfish715]

There are no secrets about the bass fishing this week in the ocean. You can see the fleets of boats with your naked eye if you are on the beach. The fish are just out of casting distance from the beach. We did very well on Thursday catching fish up to 39 pounds on bunkers. One pass over some marks with our trolling gear and three rods went off at once. That didn't seem too sporty so we stowed the rigs and broke out the jigs. I spotted some gannets diving about a mile off the beach and we headed toward them. When I found the marks we dropped the heavy Tsuanmi shads as well as the Shimano flat sided jigs and pulled fish steadily for an hour. We could not use a bonus tag even if we wanted to or if we had any. All of our fish were over 28". I even caught one with a US Wildlife pink tag which I tagged with a Littoral Society yellow one. In fact, I ran out of tags so there are quite a few large, keeper sized stripers swimming around with tags in them.

[Hunter 2]

Thanks, looks like the Fish Monger was in the mix

[dakota560]

Looks like the Hudson at 100 square during this year's big eye bite...........only worse! It's amazing with all the fishing pressure bass are under at every stage of their migration that the stock would be as strong as it seemingly is. Just goes to show that recreational fishing pressure, albeit regulated, on it's own will NEVER decimate a fishery the way the bass fishery was decimated back in the 70's.

[SplitShot]

I was in that parking lot Tues, Wed & Thur..... Crazy Great Fishing everyday... and every fish over 28" too..... and even in those close quarters with all the action, I give credit to all the Captains for being courteous and doing a great job keeping all the boats from hitting each other at times! :D

[Striperswiper]

Nice report

Thanks for tagging and releasing. You're helping to keep the stock healthy.

Capt Brian

[Billfish715]

The captains in the fleet were great. Only once or twice did I see anyone charging through to get to another school of bunkers. I chalk that up to their excitement but given the number of boats, there are likely to be a few discourteous skippers. The pictures were only of a small group of boats. There were others just like it up and down the line. I must admit, the schools were headed south pretty quickly. The only other bait I saw were rainfish. Those big bass will follow and eat the entrees and turn their noses up on the appetizers. The good thing is that the bunkers from Raritan Bay have to move south sometime so the bite may continue for awhile as they migrate. One last thing.....if you are headed toward the bunker schools on a party or private boat and intend to jig, the traditional diamond jigs are not as productive as deep, heavy shads like the ones from Tsunami or the flat sided Shimano jigs. Match the hatch as they say. The AVA style jigs resemble sand eels and I didn't see any of them in the water or inside the fish we kept.