The 2017 Fall striped bass season continues to provide good to excellent action with a smaller grade of bass but with scaled down light spinning tackle the rod bending fun continues strong with fish up to 30″ !!
I know it’s hard to think about fishing when we are experiencing an Arctic Blast right now, but better days are coming….and soon. High temps in the 40’s and even a few days in the 50’s once we get past tomorrow (Fri) for the next week or more in the long range forecast. Along with that we have west and northwest winds dominating the marine forecast making this the longest stretch of that desirable direction all season. Calm seas and warmer temps. The stripers are still here and we are trolling them as well as casting swim shads under birds or on heavy readings. Everything from shorts to 15 pound fish in the mix. A lot of 28 to 30 inch fish now.
|
Unfortunately, the current laws that govern federal saltwater fisheries are out of date and have never taken recreational anglers into account. This has led to shortened or even cancelled seasons, reduced bag limits, and unnecessary restrictions.
The good news is – there’s a new bipartisan bill making its way through Congress that should fix those problems.
The Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act, or Modern Fish Act for short, has been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives with broad, bipartisan support. Rather than focusing on commercial fishing, the new bill is a comprehensive package specifically aimed at addressing the needs of the nation’s 11 million saltwater recreational anglers.
The Modern Fish Act will improve access to America’s federal waters and promote conservation of our natural marine resources. Simply put, that means more and better fishing.
It’s cold but fishing continues on fire! Numerous reports flooding in from customers. There’s lots of fish on the beach all over the island and hammering baits. Barring any severe weather these bass will be hanging around for the rest of the year.
Here’s some reports we got today…
Khaled Chapl stopped in to pick up some frozen bunker. He said his last trip out he got a 30″ bass. Heading back up to look for another dinner fish.
Tony Cucinotta stopped in for a Penn Reel part and a pack of white Storm Shads. While here he said the beach is alive with fish. Find a cut and fish!
Most anglers fishing lures are using rubber shads, small bucktails and sand eel imitations like Red Gills or Tsunami Sand eels.
Store staffer Willie helped set up Peg who recently moved into Ship Bottom. Welcome To Town Peg! She stopped in today thank him, “Willie was a big help. Yesterday afternoon was my first time striper fishing from the surf. Coming from fresh water fishing… What a fun time it was! I hooked six fish and landed four. Two of them spit the hook rolling in the wash. I was fishing salted clam off the mid island surf.” Peg is heading back up there this afternoon.
Yesterday Captain Alex of Lighthouse Sportfishing stopped in to share a report. He caught a bunch of bass yesterday afternoon off the South End surf. He said the bite was very good.
I had a great day on the water yesterday aboard the Tightlines with Captain Jeff Warford. We headed out and started trolling right where we’ve been fishing for the last three weeks. In minutes the screen was on fire and we were doubled up. The activity continued all morning. Some bird plays came together and we hammered some bass on lures both jigging and top water. With 100’s if not 1000’s of bass this year I was focused on the fly. While the conditions were not prime, I worked at it and managed to get one bass to fall for a large clouser.
The Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic is over and the final details are wrapping up. Congrats to all those who put in time and fish their butts off! While fishing was not epic there were some good catches.
All special prizes offered by Fisherman’s Headquarters have been issues and mailed. All other prize distribution is in the works and will be done directly by the LBI Fishing Tournament.
The snowy owls have made their return to LBI. After their long flight south from the Tundra there are relaxing on the dunes of LBI. I was on the hunt shooting (with the camera) this past weekend and found four different ones.
The 2018 Fall Fishing continues to get even better with casting a mix of artificial shads and poppers at breaking and swirling striped bass that are in hot pursuit of evasive schools of herring!!
Clouds of birds have finally started pointing their feathery fingers to giveaway the feeding frenzy of late! Double and tripled up anglers have been the norm with angler endurance stand between the sheer numbers that are caught and released . The trolling gear has been stowed while working under the massive bird plays , spinning tackle has been our go to weapon of choice to maximize our anglers experience.
With the weather getting colder there’s no way of telling how long the season can last but for now the action is as hot as it gets!! I have this Friday and Sunday available for open or private charter. Please join us and “like and follow us” on Face Book and Instagram view video and photos. We will continue to fish until the end of year targeting Stripers in both the ocean and bays in some our local “hotspots”
Wishing everyone fair winds and calm seas,
Captain Steve Purul
Reel Fantasea Fishing Charters
609-290-1217
I had another awesome day on the water yesterday (Friday)! Evan and his buddy Mark (both from the greater Philadelphia area) were in for a four hour morning session. We got on ’em working the same area that we’ve been pounding for two plus weeks now. What a great time catching bass on bunker spoons, mojos and plugs. We had to head in at 11am, right as the top water bite exploded.
Most of the fish stacked up are schoolies but there are some good ones still around and in the mix. We got a couple beautiful fatties. Here’s one of them that pulled the Boga to 30+ pounds and was respectfully released to grow up some more. We kept a couple teens for the table.
Brendan Craig and Todd Luber were on the water yesterday and got into the action! They reported having a blast with bass on top! Below is Dr. Todd with a linesider that fell for a Super Strike Popper.
Local angler Kemp was also in the bite aboard Captain Jeff Davis’s Let It Fly. Kemp reported, “Lots of fish on the feed today! We got them on plugs right off the local Township beache. All fish were caught up on the surface with over forty boated. Medium size pencil poppers, specifically the fluorescent green/yellow was the MVP getting bit just about every cast.”
Today I had fun at the Barnegat High School Fishing Flea Market. Despite the weather it was a good time and we were happy to support the HS Fishing Club. While at the show I got the call from Rick Bragg. “The bite is on in the snow! Where are you? Spoons, mojos and plugs… we are doubled up on everything. Great fishing just no overs.”
Another report today came in from from Due Fratelli was also out today. He reported, “It’s snowing and we caught our limit and threw back dozens!!!”
The surf has bass. Seems like the past week as been the most consistent action of the entire fall run. Numerous reports in the shop as well as verbals while talking to anglers at today’s show.
Rob Swift stopped by this evening and shared some positive news from the mid-island surf. He reported fishing mackerel and got a small bass, “Another anglers fishing beside was dialed in on lures, catching fish after fish. All small size bass.”
Today Bill Montrey got a 8.4 pound bass off the Harvey Cedars surf. Yesterday there were a pair of bass checked in for the LBI surf fishing tournament. One was 9.18 pounds by Matthew DiFilippo out of Surf City. The other was out of Loveladies at 8.46 pounds by Donald Tharp.
Just a heads up tomorrow the tournament ends at 6pm.
We all knew it had to happen sooner or later. Yesterday (Thurs) afternoon we trolled our limit of 28 to 34 inch fish as well as the slot fish on umbrella rigs and Mojos. Two and a half miles due east of Barnegat Inlet. Later in the trip right after the tide started moving the gannets were hitting the water hard and concentrated. We dropped in some swim shads and retrieved them and the bass instantly responded. These were the biggest fish of the trip, as well, all 15 to 18 pound fish! That we couldn’t keep, but it was a blast to get them on the drift. I heard from a few other captains that today was another epic day. I cancelled tomorrow, (Sat) because the forecast changed to 20 knots of NE with this one day snow storm that’s passing through. Sunday and Monday look great for sea conditions so we are sailing Open Boat or Charter those days, 6AM to 1PM.
Next week we will be sailing Tues thru Thurs, Dec 12-14 9:30AM to 4:30PM and Fri thru Mon, Dec 15-18, 6AM to 1PM.
Get ’em now!
Fishing continues off the beach and boat…
Chris Masino stopped in the shop this afternoon and reported picking some bass off the south end surf today. He reported there’s bass on the beach but most are undersized. He mentioned another anglers got a nice keeper.
George Sowney I got this beautiful girl last night off the surf. It was 38″ and in the mid 20 pound class.
Chris O’Neil was out on the water yesterday. Here’s his report, “Crazy day of fishing! Three guys and we were limited out in two hours. Three fish were really nice fish in the mid 40” range. All trolling in 50-55′ of water off of LBI. All white spoons and mojos.
Today, I had a fun morning on the troll working the grounds. Got a late start but managed to find fish in the same area I’ve been fishing for the past week plus. Only a handful of other boats and it seemed most were picking fish. Nothing like the red hot bite as of late but lots of fish still around.
This Saturday December 9th (9am to 1pm) is the 9th Annual Fisherman’s Flea Market hosted by the Barnegat High School Fishing Club. Location is the Barnegat High School at 180 Bengal Blvd, Barnegat, NJ 08005. Admission is $4 per person (kids under 12 are free) and all proceeds help supports the High School Fishing Club. There will be tons of deals on all sorts of fishing tackle. A couple of the guys from Fish Head will have a table with some awesome deals. Be sure to stop by and say hi!
What an incredible Fall run of stripers we are having. 12 to 20 pound fish are common. That is not the norm for this time of year. We do have to troll to catch them. Jigging and casting has not been productive, though, that can change any minute. No real bird play lately but I always have the jigging and casting rods on board for when it’s time. For now, you just troll Mojos and bunker spoons over readings at about 3 to 3.5 knots and the rods go off. We are doing great with big 20 ounce single MagicTail Mojos and #4 Tony Maja bunker spoons. White is working the best on both lures, to the point where I am dragging four white lures in a four rod spread. Wireline on the bunker spoons and braid on the Mojos. We’re using our smaller wireline rods that only have 150 feet of wire on them instead of 300 feet. The rod and reel is a lot smaller, too, so you don’t get worn out by the gear and you enjoy the fight more. That 150 feet of wire is putting the lure right in the hot zone. These short rods with less wire were custom made for a technique we employ this time of year known as jigging or bucktailing. We tie on a 2 or 3 oz. bucktail with a strip of pork rind (yes, we have some) and you hold the rod and sweep it while we slow troll. Very effective on the size class fish we have right now and it is a train wreck of a hit.
The 2017 Fall Striped Bass season continues to reward anglers plying our local waters with sizes that range from “Bonus” [ 24-27.999] to 28″+ and “overs” or aka “Trophy” with some days favoring one or the other . When the planets align we are mixing it up between all size categories for our anglers aboard the Reel Fantasea.
Techniques have been trolling a mix of mojo’s [ volume of “smaller” 12lbs – 35lbs bass] and Tony Maja Custom spoons with a heavy leaning toward the spoons for the classier size cows! Live bait and artificials have also scored solid numbers of bass as well!
I have This Friday [ Dec 8th] morning [ 8am- 12pm] and afternoon [ [1pm-5pm] and Sunday [8am-12pm] [ Dec 10th] morning available .
Wishing everyone fair winds and calm seas,
Captain Steve Purul
Reel Fantasea Fishing Charters
609-290-1217
609-494-5739
