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Wow..what happened?

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adams54

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4 mins ago, 40shades-of-blue said:

According to my logs I haven't caught one since August 2002.  I was catching dozens of them in the early 2000's at this one location and a few in other spots here in NJ.  All at night and all on a small jig head with a finS.   Haven't caught a single one or seen one caught in person anywhere since. 

3 years ago in late September i was catching juvenile weakfish mixed in with snapper blues and tiny stripers. I was pretty far up the Raritan River. I haven't seen any weakfish since and the snapper bite dropped of severely...

 

Anyways in times when weakfish were around, was it common to catch small ones mixed-in with snapper blues? 

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6 mins ago, Frugal Fisherman said:

3 years ago in late September i was catching juvenile weakfish mixed in with snapper blues and tiny stripers. I was pretty far up the Raritan River. I haven't seen any weakfish since and the snapper bite dropped of severely...

 

Anyways in times when weakfish were around, was it common to catch small ones mixed-in with snapper blues? 

When I was a little kid in the mid-90s my dad and I would live line small snappers for weakfish. They were always hanging below the snapper schools in the back bay

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12 mins ago, Frugal Fisherman said:

3 years ago in late September i was catching juvenile weakfish mixed in with snapper blues and tiny stripers. I was pretty far up the Raritan River. I haven't seen any weakfish since and the snapper bite dropped of severely...

 

Anyways in times when weakfish were around, was it common to catch small ones mixed-in with snapper blues? 

That would make a lot of sense since both bluefish and weakfish fry are zooplankton that are distributed the same way in tidal waters by ocean currents. But this is coming from a guy that has never seen a live weakfish let alone caught one so take that with a grain of salt.

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3 mins ago, adams54 said:

That would make a lot of sense since both bluefish and weakfish fry are zooplankton that are distributed the same way in tidal waters by ocean currents. But this is coming from a guy that has never seen a live weakfish let alone caught one so take that with a grain of salt.

They were bigger than fry. Some fish of all 3 species were up to around 12"....they were feeding on peanut bunker

 

 

It was my 1st season of any kind of saltwater fishing. I had no idea of what kind of fish they were until i got home that first night and looked up "fish with fangs." Even the crowd of people catching didn't know what they were.

Edited by Frugal Fisherman
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6 mins ago, Frugal Fisherman said:

They were bigger than fry. Some fish of all 3 species were up to around 12"....they were feeding on peanut bunker

Well the fry would get distributed by ocean currents to the tidal area of the Raritan in your case and then mature quite rapidly. But again Im no marine biologist.

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Put me in the group that blames commercials. It was pretty well known where the large schools would hang out, and they got wiped off the planet in a frighteningly efficient manner. Yeah some of it is a cycle, and yeah guys 35 years ago kept more than they needed, but the real dropoff was 90% illegal netting.

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1 hour ago, stranded1 said:

, but the real dropoff was 90% illegal netting.

It wasnt illegal and they had no limits.  I'm pretty sure the same happened to flounder.  I recall reading the regs back then and seeing unlimited quota.

Edited by ChumSlickJon

 

Delete from SOL_Users where username like 'wasy','Seal'....

 

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11 hours ago, ridenfish said:

They were wiped out.  Just like the bass and bluefish are being wiped out now.  I miss night fishing for weakfish in the summer.  Summer fishing in Nj sucks anymore without them.  

Good lord, did you fish the springs of 2015, 2016 and 2017 for bluefish, you were hoping they would be wiped out. This spring we had one of the best springs of quality bass in our back waters in a long time. You know what the blues and bass were eating, adult bunker. You know what’s not around this fall, adult bunker. This September our shoreline was a highway of bait fish, adult bunker and mullet moving south, problem all the quality fish were still up north in the cooler waters. Hardly see any size bait fish now in shore to bring nice fish in. Weather hasn’t helped either with a lot of bait fish sneaking out during the storms. Stars just hasn’t aligned this fall. But the drama around here that we are killing off everything that swims, please take up another interest and please stop with the high school drama.

Edited by JMB

If you use eclairs in your example, he will get it right away. MikeMc

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6 mins ago, JMB said:

Good lord, did you fish the springs of 2015, 2016 and 2017 for bluefish, you were hoping they would be wiped out. This spring we had one of the best springs of quality bass in our back waters in a long time. You know what the blues and bass were eating, adult bunker. You know what’s not around this fall, adult bunker. This September our shoreline was a highway of bait fish, adult bunker and mullet moving south, problem all the quality fish were still up north in the cooler waters. Hardly see any size bait fish now in shore to bring nice fish in. Weather hasn’t helped either with a lot of bait fish sneaking out during the storms. Stars just hasn’t aligned this fall. But the drama around here that we are killing off everything that swims, please take up another interest and please stop with the high school drama.

Yes.  I fished plenty and crushed the bluefish, even this spring. But I saw people taking tons of them away for fertilizer and shark bait.  Also saw a blatant disrespect for them when they were released.  Weakfish were treated the same way for a long time and now where are they????  Look at the party boats and charters.  Boats full of limits of 45” plus Bass that don’t even taste that great.  Why do you need to kill two of them?  One is enough.  

Im well aware the last two falls sucked because of the lack of bunker on the beach.  2016 was incredible. But...... have you noticed the window of bass is shorter and shorter each fall?  I used to pick nice fish from September through December, just pitching lures from hole to hole along the beach.  Now it’s very occasional feast and mostly famine.  The “run” lasts a couple weeks tops. 

Thankfully Albies taste like ****.  They were a lot of fun this fall.  

 

 

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2 mins ago, ridenfish said:

Yes.  I fished plenty and crushed the bluefish, even this spring. But I saw people taking tons of them away for fertilizer and shark bait.  Also saw a blatant disrespect for them when they were released.  Weakfish were treated the same way for a long time and now where are they????  Look at the party boats and charters.  Boats full of limits of 45” plus Bass that don’t even taste that great.  Why do you need to kill two of them?  One is enough.  

Im well aware the last two falls sucked because of the lack of bunker on the beach.  2016 was incredible. But...... have you noticed the window of bass is shorter and shorter each fall?  I used to pick nice fish from September through December, just pitching lures from hole to hole along the beach.  Now it’s very occasional feast and mostly famine.  The “run” lasts a couple weeks tops. 

Thankfully Albies taste like ****.  They were a lot of fun this fall.  

 

 

Cannt...... resist........

 

Put a cork in it.  LoL

 

Delete from SOL_Users where username like 'wasy','Seal'....

 

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1 min ago, ridenfish said:

Yes.  I fished plenty and crushed the bluefish, even this spring. But I saw people taking tons of them away for fertilizer and shark bait.  Also saw a blatant disrespect for them when they were released.  Weakfish were treated the same way for a long time and now where are they????  Look at the party boats and charters.  Boats full of limits of 45” plus Bass that don’t even taste that great.  Why do you need to kill two of them?  One is enough.  

Im well aware the last two falls sucked because of the lack of bunker on the beach.  2016 was incredible. But...... have you noticed the window of bass is shorter and shorter each fall?  I used to pick nice fish from September through December, just pitching lures from hole to hole along the beach.  Now it’s very occasional feast and mostly famine.  The “run” lasts a couple weeks tops. 

Thankfully Albies taste like ****.  They were a lot of fun this fall.  

 

 

Lol, I don’t here anyone complaining the good albie fishing we have had the last 4 years. Ungod amout of rainfish around the last couple years.

If you use eclairs in your example, he will get it right away. MikeMc

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