See any herring?

[torchee]

Went to belmar/shark river inlet
This morning and made 50 casts but couldn't find any herring

At least 6 other fisherman there bout didn't see any fish

I was only there 6-8


Please post if you see anyone catch some herring......
I'd really like to get my yearly pickling/bait stash


Until then I guess I'll have to hop on party boat for New Years !

[NJ Dave]

Ocean county ibsp area held em on Monday
Gannets on top of em, bass under em.
Today nada!

[Deepdeckhand]

Saw some while waiting for PP railroad bridge to open today...8 am on w side/ 3 pm east side...Hope it helps/ catch emm up!!!

[shrimpman steve]

Saw some in cream sauce on Christmas morning:D

[MVP]

Heard today that they were catching bucket fulls out of Carteret Pier

[torchee]

Saw some in cream sauce on Christmas morning:D

Exactly!

[NJ219bands]

I made 100 casts on the Manasquan Inlet north jetty yesterday and saw nothing.

[tautog]

They have been at the Manasquan inlet jetty. Even had a whale right there last Sunday.

[dakota560]

Fished MI this morning. Bust on the outgoing, no bait no fish. Left to check out the surf further south and didn't see any action. Went back to MI to check on the incoming. Was there 15 minutes or so, saw a few splashes, birds started to gather and in a matter of minutes all hell broke loose. First two fish were hickory shad and everything after were herring. Had to catch over a 100 in a few hours and left them biting. Tons of spearing which seemed to be what the herring are feeding on. Saw a guy there Tuesday hook a herring on a sabiki and a bass grabbed it. Got it to the wall and broke his line. Pretty cool sight. Lots of gannets diving a quarter mile or so off the beach on outgoing. Think bait and herring go outside during outgoing and come in with the warmer water during incoming. Either way it turned on like someone flipped a switch, you could have had as many herring as you wanted. I almost left without going back for the incoming and would have sworn there wasn't a herring in the river.

[scooter1010]

Fished MI this morning. Bust on the outgoing, no bait no fish. Left to check out the surf further south and didn't see any action. Went back to MI to check on the incoming. Was there 15 minutes or so, saw a few splashes, birds started to gather and in a matter of minutes all hell broke loose. First two fish were hickory shad and everything after were herring. Had to catch over a 100 in a few hours and left them biting. Tons of spearing which seemed to be what the herring are feeding on. Saw a guy there Tuesday hook a herring on a sabiki and a bass grabbed it. Got it to the wall and broke his line. Pretty cool sight. Lots of gannets diving a quarter mile or so off the beach on outgoing. Think bait and herring go outside during outgoing and come in with the warmer water during incoming. Either way it turned on like someone flipped a switch, you could have had as many herring as you wanted. I almost left without going back for the incoming and would have sworn there wasn't a herring in the river.

Exactly the same today

[torchee]

Fished MI this morning. Bust on the outgoing, no bait no fish. Left to check out the surf further south and didn't see any action. Went back to MI to check on the incoming. Was there 15 minutes or so, saw a few splashes, birds started to gather and in a matter of minutes all hell broke loose. First two fish were hickory shad and everything after were herring. Had to catch over a 100 in a few hours and left them biting. Tons of spearing which seemed to be what the herring are feeding on. Saw a guy there Tuesday hook a herring on a sabiki and a bass grabbed it. Got it to the wall and broke his line. Pretty cool sight. Lots of gannets diving a quarter mile or so off the beach on outgoing. Think bait and herring go outside during outgoing and come in with the warmer water during incoming. Either way it turned on like someone flipped a switch, you could have had as many herring as you wanted. I almost left without going back for the incoming and would have sworn there wasn't a herring in the river.

thank you greatly for the info

[NJ219bands]

I made 120 casts on the Manasquan Inlet north jetty yesterday evening with a Storm Shad and teaser rig without a hit. Another fisherman said that he caught and released 2 undersized blackfish. Heard that a fat 32" striper was caught on the first jetty north. Northern gannets were diving into the ocean at the end of the jetty. A dredge was working the inlet. Saw no bait or fish breaking.

[dakota560]

Torchee,

Hope you were able to catch a few. With this cold snap not sure what impact it's going to have on the herring but I assume if water temps drop significantly they'll be gone. May give it a shot today although it's brutally cold just to see if there still around.

[bunkerdan]

i have waiting for it to get a bit colder as water temps have been above normal for this time of year, they should be around between christmas and new year's but this year i figured they would show a little later. whats surprising is the amount of bait still in the rivers {spearing}. as long as they are here and swimming in and out with the tides the herring should stick around. heck i saw pods of peanut bunker , real little ones off the beach three weeks ago they should have been gone third week of november

[RBC67]

Ocean surf water today was 44 degrees small patches of ice were coming down thee Manasquan river those spearing just got here they are winter spearing.
Beaver Dam Creek is frozen