bido

Never gets old.

Yes probably that it. Although big!

Thats what i was thinking at first but they would be living in a landlocked pond. Alot of them I always figured they needed to migrate in and out. They also dont have the black dot too though on their side.

4-5” long Freshwater pond central NJ. Near tidal river, but no egress to river for fish. thanks

No not the inlet. But yeah those jacks are very hard.

Used to spend alot of nights on a jetty in SoMoCo that we called the JOD- Jetty of Death. Incredibly scary scramble to get to the tip, but there was a massive underwater boulder field that always held better fish. There was one rock that was at an angle and if you didnt get on and off it quickly to the next one you would end up “skiing” down it in your korkers into a giant hole. Probably a 6 foot drop onto more rocks. I ended up down in the hole once at night trying to climb myself out. I dont think i would ever attempt it again.

Im right there with you, surfer, snowboarder, etc. Im not saying anyone should lead a sheltered life. But theres alot of guys on kayaks that look like they aren’t necessarily prepared for what can go wrong. Just because you surf fish doesnt mean you are ready to paddle a piece of plastic a half mile offshore to fish. Add in the danger of boats not being able to see you well and in the congested waters in NJ and it just carries alot of risk to catch a fish. The news headlines seem to be more and more each year… Just know your limits as you say!

Coffins on the water as my friend says. Never underestimate how dangerous kayak fishing is.

Slow pitch rod and Nomad streaker, Gypsy’s, and Ridgebacks are my favorite. As stated the best jigging is when there are sand eels around. I rarely ever bring bait now. Sometimes that means fishing a little harder with the jigs than others fishing bait, but you also save alot of money by not buying clams. ive also seen sea bass stacked up on one wreck that arent interested in the jig, while a wreck a half mile away they are suicidal. Strange fish sometimes.

Very cool. I feel bad for the ice boat guys.

throwback to late November IMG_4475.MOV

Fall day time, yes perhaps. Had days in the late 90s like this fall but not consistently for two months. Right spot, right time. Could be a half mile away, much less a county away, and catch nothing this fall. Most night fishermen would prefer a sand eel bite in fall i would surmise. Best daytime NJ fishing ive ever seen was the mid 2000s Jetty Country blitzes, but that was spring. It was kind of like this fall, just add 20-30 lbs to the bass.

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/foss/f?p=215:200:8556566774170:Mail:::: You can sort by year, species, rec, comm, etc. The data is all here. I do wonder how less fishery pressure during the COVID peak may have actually helped the striped bass population. 2020 and 2021 were significantly less landings from prior years. Or was it only due to stricter regs/lowered state quotas?

West winds and a ton of peanut bunker on the beach is a surfcasters friend. Killing 20 million less lbs of bass than normal in the past two years coast wide also tends to help the bass population.

The 10 minute exhange with the guy in the blue boat and the surf guys was next level.