609-494-5739 The recent plentiful sun warmed things up and has fish on the move. As the water temps creep up, prime time only gets closer. Before it busts open we’ve got good early spring fishing.
The white perch fishing continues strong! Most angler are scraping the bayside bulkheads scratching up live grass shrimp, the ultimate perch bait. Other are fishing small pieces of worm as well as mini grub jigs. Traditionally late in the day is best. This fishing is awesome fun for kids and adults alike.
Jacques Michot caught this nice size black drum this morning fishing a local sod bank. This is the second black drum report we’ve got this spring. Expect more to show. Usually it happens mid April on the moon and goes into May. This can last a month or more. Now’s the time to target these large creatures. Use clam!
School bass are roaming the bay. Soon we’ll see a better class. Until then the small ones are here for fun. Local Ship Bottom resident Paulie stopped in yesterday evening and geared up for a night bass session. He swung back in today to share a positive report. Paulie said, “It started slow. We stuck it out and eventually got dialed in. The bass were on the chew but they were very particular. These picky critters wouldn’t touch a four inch plastic. However, when we scaled down to the shad darts you suggested, it was on. Thanks for the tips!” You got to give them what they want. We suggest fishing small jigs (1/4 to 5/8oz – bucktails, darts, softbaits) slow and low. Let them fall and sweep though the zone. For more on the bass front see below… The Berkeley Striper Club’s Steve George has some promising words.
Currently at closing time on Thursday we’ve got live bloodworms and salted clam. Tomorrow late morning – afternoon we expect live surf clams, live green crabs and more bloods. We got our fingers crossed some fresh bunker might show up too.
To all of our blog readers… Happy Easter! PS: Easter Sunday’s hours will be cut short. We’ll be closing at 4pm.
“My spring tagging season is off to a good start and hopefully this will result in some very important information. Based on the size this year, most I caught are too small to tag. I managed to tag a few larger ones. The future sure looks bright! There is a massive amount of very young striped bass both in the surf and back bay along the Jersey coast. Right now you can find 100’s maybe 1000’s of ~12-15″ size fish schoolied up and feeding. I estimate these bass are 1-2 years old from the 2014/15 YOY Index. Things could get really good in about 10 years. Are these Striped bass are born locally? If and when they leave, will they return to our waters in the future?” ~ Steve George
News on the Hudson Canyon National Marine Sanctuary which threatens fisherman’s access to one of the best offshore fishing areas… Be sure to read Hutch Jr’s article about the situation… Fortunately for fisherman the Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted down the proposal 15-4.
