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More Jersey Striper Action 12/4 and 12/6

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  • More Jersey Striper Action 12/4 and 12/6

    This is a little bit of a long write up but I'm sure you'd all rather read about fishing than do work on this Monday morning!

    Met up with a buddy pre dawn Friday on the south end of LBI to search for bunker and bass schools that were thick the day before. At daybreak, there was bait that turned out to be herring everywhere and a few striper marks. We trolled for a couple hours with no results and got the call a major blitz was going on but at the north end of the island. We went back to shore, loaded up, drove to the north end and relaunched just south of Barnegat light. We trolled crazy far north, past the inlet, past several blobs of peanut bunker with nothing on them. The fish had moved north and once we got about 3 miles north of the inlet we could see the birds, boats and trucks on the beach a few more miles ahead. We had to decide whether to go for it and risk a nighttime return for our surf landing or turn around, go 7-8 miles back to our launch and drive an hour north to try and get in on the last couple hours of the blitz.

    Thankfully, common sense prevailed and we trudged back south against the tide, landed, loaded up and drove north to meet several buddies who reported the biggest blitz of the year with adult bunker, peanuts and herring washed up all over the beach and stripers and blues crushing them in the wash. Even blocks away we could see the birds in the air. Thousands of birds! We got down to the beach and it was mayhem. Boats, surfcasters, bait everywhere, stripers boiling as far as you could see, gannets blacking out the sky. We quickly launched and immediately got into stripers and big blues in the 30 inch class. The action stayed hot for about an hour, until the boats drove the fish and bait further out. We picked fish until dark and went home with sore arms and everything else from an estimated 25+miles of pedaling and 3 separate surf launches/landings.

    On Saturday I rested. Sunday I woke up at 3:30 am and drove to south Jersey to meet two buddies and be on the water at dawn to try and intercept bigger bass and bunker. The launch was a litttttle sportier yesterday and my one buddy took a wave over his cockpit but didn't flip. We were instantly in to fish. I hit one trolling a bunker boy in about 5 minutes and when we got out to 20 FOW the bunker were thick and snag and drop immediately began producing. We were into fish until about 1-2 in the afternoon when the bunker disappeared and the bass followed suit. We probably caught and released 30 bass in the 15-30 lb range between the 3 of us. My one friend got a beautiful 30lb+ fish which was his new pb by a long shot.

    At some point during the day the wind shifted from NNW to southeast and the swell and thundering of the waves grew all day. We knew the landing was gonna be tough. My two friends weren't very experienced with landing in 3-4 footers. One followed me and one yelled, "I'm just gonna go for it dude!." He didn't pick a very good spot as there was no cut and 3 sets of breakers. Predictably, a wave picked him up close to the beach, pitched him forward, slammed the nose of the yak into the sand and he pitch poled in the wash. Thankfully it was waist deep water and he was able to recover most of his gear except one pretty nice rod/reel setup.

    Once my other friend and I landed, we grabbed our bunker snags and started casting with him hoping for a miracle that we could snag this rod. Amazingly, after only about 15 minutes the guy who flipped snagged something about 20 feet out and reeled in his rod!!!! We all took home nice 15 lb keepers, caught and released many nice fish and no one lost any gear in the end. A pretty solid day/weekend of fishing in what has been an excellent fall so far.
    Last edited by Romo; 12-07-2015, 09:28 AM.
    Hobie Revo 13 carribean blue

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  • #2
    Some pics from the weekend













    Hobie Revo 13 carribean blue

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    • #3
      That's quite a story of perseverance and knowhow leading to success.

      Congratulations.
      Mark
      Pasadena, MD


      Slate Hobie Revolution 13
      Hidden Oak Native Ultimate 12
      Lizard Lick Native Ultimate FX Pro

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      • #4
        Another amazing trip! Jealous doesn't even come close.... Congrats!
        Bruce

        Hobie PA 14
        Wilderness System, Thresher 155

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        • #5
          Way to keep on them!

          Hoping they come in down here this year and don't pass us by offshore again.
          Brian

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          • #6
            Thanks guys! I hope they do too, Bob, because I'm trying to stay on this adult bunker bite as long as I can! There only seems to be a couple big pods of the adult bunker but there are millions and millions of peanuts coming behind them too. It shouldn't be long now as they're starting to catch nice stripers in DE Bay and off of Delaware but pretty far out still. On a good weather day with favorable winds I feel pretty comfortable going right out to the 3 mile line. If they come close down in DE/MD I might have to make a road trip...
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            • #7
              That's what I keep reading and hearing.

              I was sitting on the beach in Ocean City yesterday surf fishing looking at the flat ocean thinking if there were only bait and fish around. It looked lifeless out there.... no birds, no bait, no dolphins/whales, a few boats out but not many, and I didn't catch anything.
              Brian

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              • #8
                Looks like my landing yesterday was rough on my masts

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Romo View Post
                  Looks like my landing yesterday was rough on my masts

                  Great story bro and great pictures!

                  Those Rods bend back easy with a good vice and ball-peen hammer. I usually cover the threads with a damp cloth and go to town on them.

                  My advice though is you make the ones you fixed your spares and get new ones to replace them in your drive. I had one snap at JBay last year that I bent back before. Once you bend it, it's totally unpredictable, but will make a great spare in times of need.
                  -Mustafa
                  ابو مسقوف AbuMasgouf (Aboo-Mas-goof ): Fish Roast Papa
                  2016 Hobie Outback
                  2012 Hobie Revolution 13
                  "Be humble to whomever you learn from and whomever you teach."-- Imam al-Sadiq (as)

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                  • #10
                    Good call man I will add that to my list of offseason priorities. I've got some holiday parties this weekend and we have some heavy south winds coming in so I'm guessing my season is just about over. Got some gopro video to edit and some serious cleaning and maintenance to get done.
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                    • #11
                      Hobie Revo 13 carribean blue

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                      • #12
                        Wow, awesome day!
                        Looks like you were about 2mi off shore??? Or is the distance deceiving coming through the camera
                        14.5 ft Sand colored Malibu X-Factor "the promise"
                        2010 Hobie Outback "the Gift Horse II"

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by kevinfry View Post
                          Wow, awesome day!
                          Looks like you were about 2mi off shore??? Or is the distance deceiving coming through the camera
                          You're right on the money with the 2 miles. This was off Ocean City, NJ which is pretty far south. The south Jersey beaches have a much more gradual slope so it took about 2 miles to find 25 feet of water. Off camera there was a sizable boat fleet riding the 3 mile EEZ line. Our best action all fall no matter the spot came in 25-30 FOW. In central or northern NJ you can get to 30 feet in a half mile and 50-60 feet in 2 miles.
                          Hobie Revo 13 carribean blue

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                          • #14
                            how rough was uour beach launch?
                            14.5 ft Sand colored Malibu X-Factor "the promise"
                            2010 Hobie Outback "the Gift Horse II"

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                            • #15
                              The launch was reallllllll rough that second day in particular. The shallow beaches make it real dicey. There were three of us and I launched first and a wave broke right over my head out of nowhere as soon as I jumped into my seat. The water came through my unsealed neck gasket and gave me a nice ice bath down my chest and back. I hauled back out to dry out and regroup and we all did some soul searching. I tried again about 30 minutes later and was successful. After that my buddies followed and everything was good until the landing
                              Hobie Revo 13 carribean blue

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