Arbutis
04-13-2017, 08:48 AM
I jumped on the Fisher Price III open boat today for my personal opening day of 2017 striper fishing and Capt. Derek and 1st mate Jimmy did a great job keeping us on the meat!
We took a run to the back of the bay somewhere and had two "just short" bass right away. Then a little lull but we kept at it until we had a steady and then almost nonstop bite.
We had multiple hookups all morning. Mostly shorts at first but after that almost all were keeper size ( some over 30") . We had our limit by mid morning and played catch and release until we came back in ( keeping only our legal limit). We trolled and bait fished ( fresh clams) and did equally well on both.
It did get pretty crowded out there by mid morning. Couple of party boats, other 6 packs, lots of private boats and I don't know how many kayaks! ( some were pretty tricked out too!)
New York marine police or fish and game was out there on the NJ side for some reason checking boats, ( Striper season is closed in NY waters right now.) :)
Weather was just phenomenal by mid morning,practically shirt sleeve fishing! And the fresh striper we just had for dinner was delicious!
I want to thank you for your detailed report AND send out a thank you to NJFISHING.com forum. I was out for the first time yesterday (4/12) and as I was entering Sandy Hook Bay from the Shrewsbury River I saw some amazin Nat Geo style aerial divebombing gannets. They were everywhere. Circling around and then diving like a squadron. It was really cool just to see it. Anyway - I read a lot of marks (presumably herring) and put out a troll of 2 Mojos. No bites. Ran west of Earle and tried some more - no bites. Many clam diggers out there in about 30 ft of water - but nobody fishing. I couldn't locate a single party boat or other sportfisher for miles. I jumped on my phone to check NJFIHSING and read this report that mentioned going WAY up into the bay somewhere. So I took a little ride and rest assured I discovered where most people were fishing.
I managed to get one nice hookup to save the day! A nice 38 incher that was 18+ pounds. Great start to the season.
I was lost in a dessert of water until I pulled up this report. For me - and other recreational anglers out there who only get the occasional opportunity to fish between work and family life - it's so helpful to have a resource like this so that we can turn what would have been a 'skunk' into a nice story. It's amazing how one nice fish can turn the day around.
I know that talking about spots and fish locations is generally frowned upon but I wish that more reports (like this one) would give just some vague information about the location and the style of fishing used to catch. I was lost without it.
We took a run to the back of the bay somewhere and had two "just short" bass right away. Then a little lull but we kept at it until we had a steady and then almost nonstop bite.
We had multiple hookups all morning. Mostly shorts at first but after that almost all were keeper size ( some over 30") . We had our limit by mid morning and played catch and release until we came back in ( keeping only our legal limit). We trolled and bait fished ( fresh clams) and did equally well on both.
It did get pretty crowded out there by mid morning. Couple of party boats, other 6 packs, lots of private boats and I don't know how many kayaks! ( some were pretty tricked out too!)
New York marine police or fish and game was out there on the NJ side for some reason checking boats, ( Striper season is closed in NY waters right now.) :)
Weather was just phenomenal by mid morning,practically shirt sleeve fishing! And the fresh striper we just had for dinner was delicious!
I want to thank you for your detailed report AND send out a thank you to NJFISHING.com forum. I was out for the first time yesterday (4/12) and as I was entering Sandy Hook Bay from the Shrewsbury River I saw some amazin Nat Geo style aerial divebombing gannets. They were everywhere. Circling around and then diving like a squadron. It was really cool just to see it. Anyway - I read a lot of marks (presumably herring) and put out a troll of 2 Mojos. No bites. Ran west of Earle and tried some more - no bites. Many clam diggers out there in about 30 ft of water - but nobody fishing. I couldn't locate a single party boat or other sportfisher for miles. I jumped on my phone to check NJFIHSING and read this report that mentioned going WAY up into the bay somewhere. So I took a little ride and rest assured I discovered where most people were fishing.
I managed to get one nice hookup to save the day! A nice 38 incher that was 18+ pounds. Great start to the season.
I was lost in a dessert of water until I pulled up this report. For me - and other recreational anglers out there who only get the occasional opportunity to fish between work and family life - it's so helpful to have a resource like this so that we can turn what would have been a 'skunk' into a nice story. It's amazing how one nice fish can turn the day around.
I know that talking about spots and fish locations is generally frowned upon but I wish that more reports (like this one) would give just some vague information about the location and the style of fishing used to catch. I was lost without it.