A December to Remember!
Up and down the coast, the bite is on and it is staying on! From the Hook down to Cape May, there is no question that this has been an epic fall run for stripers, and there is no end in sight! Clouds of birds in the sky and sounder screens blanked in red – sand eels all over the decks and on the beach! There have been a few years in the past where the New Years came and went and the fishing continued on. It looks like this is going to be one of them. If you check the forecast that Brian Lee does for New York, you will see that Montauk is still lit up with big stripers crushing herring, and that the bass are stacked off the bars of Jones Beach. These fish are not even close to showing up off the Jersey coast yet.
With all that bait and the water temps holding, there is no reason for them to make the big, last push yet. Jimmy Fee’s reports from even further up North still have schoolies being caught off the beaches of Cape Cod. It’s December, boys, this is not the way it usually happens. Better make sure there is an extra case of antifreeze in the dock box – your boat is staying in late this year!
Report from the beach through Ernie at Giglio’s in Sea Bright is that it is hot from the tip of the Hook right on down. Clams and bunker are doing the job when the action drops off, but mini-blitzes are breaking out on a moment’s notice at Monmouth Beach and other stretches of sand.
When it starts boiling up, it is time to break out the metals and let them fly. A17’s & A47 AVA’s, T-Hexs, Deadly Dicks…if it has the profile of a sand eel, it is getting inhaled by the bass and blues. Ernie had a guy from miles away stop in to load up on more metals because the shop he usually goes to was out…. getting the message?
Grumpy’s in Seaside says it very plainly.. it is an “epic” bite from the beach at Island Beach State Park. Grumpy’s weighed in 78 bass on Saturday…78! Most fish are in the 10 to 17-pound range, but there are many bigger fish being caught, and many of them being released. With the sand eels 6 to 8 inches long along the coast, metals are choice number one, but many bass are eating small herring as well. Plugs like Bombers, Redfins and smaller swimming plugs are working as well. Might be time to break out one of those stubby needlefish you have been saving for a special occasion.
The guys at Fisherman’s Headquarters report that yesterday (Tuesday), while everyone was striper fishing, the bluefin were blowing up at Barnegat Ridge. I’m looking for catch reports right now, but once again, hitting these areas without at least a few weapons for migrating bluefin is going to a gunfight with a knife. Anybody have a surf plug that looks like a bluefish? I think I have tried everything else! Back to the game at hand. Soft plastics on lead heads and long throwing metals have made double digit catches the norm for many of the Fisherman’s Headquarters crew. The action in Brigantine has still been a little spotty, with Wreck Inlet being a real natural obstacle for the fish moving south.
Andy at Riptide Bait & Tackle is reporting good catches off the beach with lots of anglers on the sand, but it is nowhere near what is going on up in IBSP. There was a strong fleet and a sporadic bite of real nice bass and blues off the Brigantine Hotel when conditions allowed, but nowhere near what was going on off of Holgate. They are getting ready to turn the corner boys, you have to be there when they do.
I told you it was coming… now it is here! Tackle Direct has opened its huge, new 24,000 square-foot retail and warehouse facility at 6825 Tilton Rd. in Egg Harbor Township. It is 1/2 mile south of Exit 36 of the GSP, right next to Produce Junction. When I say huge, I am not kidding. It is easily the biggest tackle store within any kind of reasonable driving distance.
Set up just below Barnegat inlet, all of us aboard Good Karma had a first hand view of not only what was happening on the beach, but the on the water as well. There were hundreds of boats stretched out from Holgate up past the Bathing Beach. Huge pockets of bird play, topwater action, and anglers with bent rods everywhere. Our crew had its limit in record time, and we culled our way through bass looking for just the right take home size. I honestly can’t tell you how many we caught between 6:30 and 11:30 a.m. when we pointed the Seavee home towards Margate.
Moving farther south, the regular haunts have started to show some good signs of a consistent bite. The Cuma Lumps, Pat’s Shoal, Avalon Shoal and the Sea Isle Lump (watch you distances from the demarcation line!) have yielded good marks and good catches, but again, not like what is happening up north.There are fish being caught from the beach, but it is still a bait bite in most cases.
Turning the corner into the Delaware Bay, it’s still all about who has the bunker. Chunking is still the best way to pull a trophy down there and although there have been some real nice catches of bigger bass on the sloughs (just look for the fleet) and some spotty but hot action in the rips.
Best Bet for this weekend… just go!
Get in the truck, get in the car, get in the boat, and find your spot north of Wreck inlet. Yes, there are plenty of fish to be found in our southern sections, but if the weather allows, you have to be out of your mind not to try and get in on what is clearly one of the most off the hook bites in many years. Stay Tuna-ed!