Let’s Go Fishing!
Although not quite as warm as last weekend, it looks like we are going to once again have a couple of fishable late-season days to play with on both Saturday and Sunday. I don’t know about you, but the simple fact that I am still in the water and ready to rock takes all that serious material that has crowded my brain all week and pushes it neatly to the side. Even if it is just for a little while, I am going to allow myself to be a happy camper.
Not only do I get to fish this weekend, but I also get to do something that I enjoy almost as much as the fishing itself. I get to shop for fishing stuff! It is that time for me to go out and pick up a couple holiday gifts for my buddies and the kids. Since they already have the coolest vinyl truck decals and t-shirts from my Steelfin Brand gear that you can find at SteelfinAngling.com, I’m going to throw a couple alternative ideas out to you. BTW, there is no sponsorship or “Team whatever..” thing going on here, just some good ideas from one fish-aholic to another.
Top choice for me, buy your buddy a new knife. You can almost pick a fisherman out of a crowd by looking to see if there is a clip on one of their pockets for a folding pocket knife. I carry a Benchmade for as long as I can remember and have bought a few for friends. It is nice to see they are still carrying them years later. Don’t want to drop a hundred bucks on a gift, get a knife anyway! For a quarter of the cost of the perfect gift, a new Dexter Russell fillet or serrated knife is always a welcome surprise and something guys hate to buy for themselves.
If your friends can’t be trusted with sharp objects, and we all have a few friends like that, get creative and make up a gift box that targets their favorite target. This can be done very inexpensively if you use your noodle. A Plano box, and all the rigging material you need to make up a season’s worth of flounder rigs can be put together for about $35. Hooks, quality 3-way swivels, beads, mylar skirts, little rubber squids, some shiny little spinning things—easy to do, thoughtful and useful. You can do a little tuna box with a bunch of different color dusters, a variety of circle hooks, some high quality swivels and a pack of crimps. Buy the items in bulk to save a few bucks, and make up a few of each for the perfect stocking stuffers.
Did I forget to mention you could also get them the coolest Steelfin striper, tuna, marlin or mahi truck decal or fishing shirt?
Let’s also remember that our network of local bait and tackle shops got whacked in the wallet recently and could certainly use your support. Buying from them is a gift that will keep on giving, since they could all use a little help right now.
Let’s pay them a visit and see what the news of the week is, so your weekend is filled with best fishes.
Hat’s off to Ron and the boys at Fishermens Supply for battling back from what easily could have been a knockout blow. Hammered by Sandy at all levels, the Point Pleasant shop is rebuilt and fully operational for you to go for all your fishing needs. If you can’t get there, dial them up and get a gift certificate for someone for the holiday. It is the best way to help out. Ron reports that fishing has picked up considerably since Thanksgiving both on the sand, where access is opening up a little, and from the boats. Although the surf guys are catching a lot of shorts, the action is good. Throwing plugs and metals like SP Minnows (Daiwa just came out with a bunch of new striper-specific colors by the way), rubber shads, Bombers and AVA’s with teasers seems to be doing the trick for the twinkies. Boat anglers are doing much better on the jig and are dragging both sand eel and shad umbrellas for success. Boat fish have been much bigger than the ones taken on the beach.
Capt Rich over at Jersey Hooker Outfitters in Brick is eyeballing an entire wall of surf tackle that he is ready to help you to make your very own! He is also fully re-stocked on diamond jigs of all sizes that he would be happy to make you a special deal on. If you are planning to swing by this weekend, the hours are 6am to 6pm. There are reports of bass around with smaller fish being taken from the beach and bigger fish in the boats. One of the hottest plugs that is being thrown is the Choopy sinking needlefish, which seems to be out fishing most others.
Reel Life Bait and Tackle in Point Pleasant has had some blackfish come in from guys fishing the canal. It is really late for that, but a welcome bit of info. Bottom bangers working the rock piles and nearshore wrecks are doing well using green crabs. The only real beach fishing available is Point Pleasant beach, and there are lots of shorts in the mix. One angler throwing clam had 20 fish one morning this week. Boat anglers are doing better. Rich had an 18-pound bass weighed in this week and another customer dialed up a nice school of 30-inch fish below Seaside Pier. He connected with 11 in a fairly short period of time. Reel Life is open every day.
Moving a little farther down the coast, Dave at Absecon Bay Sportsman’s Center is finding fish both in the back and in the inlet, but it is a little hit and miss. The ocean fish more miss than hit on the nearshore lumps as they are obviously on the move and not holding tight. Inlet fish are not as big but they seem to be pretty steady on the rips depending on the stage of the tide. Togging is excellent, but not many are doing it—which is probably why it is excellent. Wrecks a little deeper out are holding good numbers of large tog.
Team Tackle Direct hit the high seas this past week with good catches and multiple chiropractor appointments. Somehow in December, the forecasted 2-foot seas at 12 seconds miraculously turn into 6-foot seas at 4 seconds in reality. How do I get a job where I can be that wrong and still get paid? Anyway, a run north from Great Egg inlet to off of Harvey Cedars turned a beating into a good catch day with 3 stripers in the mid-20-pound range hitting the decks. The winner was what we call a “rubber duckie,” your basic swim shad jigged on the bottom then slowly retrieved. It was the only thing that worked. Later in the week there was a re-tooling for tog and a full out attack on the Ocean City Reef. The good news is that the tog are chewing, the bad news is you can dump a couple dozen green crabs on shorts before you get dinner in the box.
Justin from Fin-Atics in Ocean City was back in the shop after a couple days out fishing with some good fresh info. Working Great Egg inlet with fresh bunker had been a pretty good strategy in the last week or two, but things seems to have died down a little. Still worth the time, but you may want to have a back-up plan. A good one is to hit the wrecks for some classic cold water togging. If you are going this weekend, Fin-Atics has live eels, plenty of fresh bunker, clam, and they are waiting on their green crabs to come in.
In Sea Isle, the boys at Two Chums are all stocked up for the weekend with eels, a few spot, white-leggers and greenies. With the water clearing up a little some of the inshore snags have started to give up a few nice keeper tog as well.
Best Bet for the weekend is to be prepared to multi-task! Sharpen the hooks on your trolling gear for the inshore lumps, grab a few fresh bunker in case you see some nice clean water by the inlets you want to anchor up and take a run at, and bring the little cooler full of crabs. There may an awesome tog feast at your house for the family.
Let’s also remember to bring your Holiday list to the shop you frequent and give them a little bump as well. We are not even close to locking down for the winter yet, and the guys that are getting up early to make sure you have everything you need when you can get away can use the support.
Stay Tuna-ed!