New York Metro &
New Jersey

October 22nd, 2004

Frustrating Indeed...

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In my neck of the woods we’re entering into what I consider the “prime time” of the season. From mid-October until that first snowflake falls the fishing is fast and furious here, with cool water and bass going bonkers over peanut bunker. You can find them blitzing on the outside or prowling the flats on the inside. There are many options and you don’t have to worry so much about crowds, not only because many have already pulled their boats, but because the boats still out there are spread out. These are the days of crisp cold mornings where you can see your breath as you lug a half dozen flyrods down the pier. You just know that the day is going to be a good one.

But it can be incredibly frustrating when this kind of action is just starting to get going and a nor’east front blows through with some mighty stiff wind. One two or three days of this is one thing, but when it lasts over a week, it’s a real bummer! But that’s not really what I’m referring to in the title here. What ruins an awesome day of fishing for me quicker than bad weather is the unfortunate opportunity of seeing a few poachers arrogantly sticking gaffs into one 15-pound fish after another in broad daylight.

On the only fishable day this week, Richard Reagan and I were working a very productive rip, pulling up schoolies, and the occasional 15-plus-pounder. Just to the North of us was one of the “regular” poachers hand-lining some wire and what looked like a parachute jig. Every time he cruised 25-yards past the rip-line, he took a hard tug and with the boat still in gear, hand over hand, he surfed a heafty striper to the boat. Then came the one-handed pull and tug of a gaff and up flew the fish and down it smacked on the deck. The guy didn’t even try and hide the fish in a cooler. After we witnessed this scenario happen at least a dozen times while I muttered numerous cusswords; while the bite was still strong, the guy gaffed one more fish, came up on plane and headed back towards Sheepshead Bay. My guess is that he simply filled the boat to the gunnels.

How is this kind of thing possibly allowed to happen in broad daylight? I’ve asked that question for many years. I’ve even tried to take the situation into my own hands a couple of times and with serious negative consequences. (I wouldn’t recommend anyone do this.) The fact of the matter is that marine law enforcement in the New York Bight is, for the most part, non-existent. DEC environmental conservation officers not only have numerous jobs in addition to fisheries enforcement, they’ve increasingly been called upon for port security. To make matters worse, I have it from a reliable source that these hard working folks have just been denied the necessary overtime hours it takes to do their job. Working conventional shifts just doesn’t give them the flexibility to work hours where poachers actually operate.

While still much smaller than it needs to be, the DEC marine unit has some pretty good guys involved. They made quite a few busts earlier in the year and as a result, there were less poachers on the water for a time. Because they can no longer work overtime, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more poachers this fall. But there is something we can do to help these guys out. We can write letters to the commissioner asking her not to pull the rug out from under these guys’ overtime. Her address is below:

Erin Crotty
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233

Now let’s get on to the reports:

From south to north, the whole coast of New Jersey experienced an influx of stripers this week. The albies were around in the central and south areas as well. Bass schooled and blitzed in the New York Metro area both inside and outside and while there were some albies here and there they were tough. The well known rip-lines and sand-bars were particularly productive for bass. Raritan Bay exploded on Monday with birds, bass and bluefish tearing up schools of peanut bunker. Jamaica Bay got its first rush of stripers. Although they were mostly schoolies, I expect the big ones arrived during all this wind. Lots of big blues in skinny water in the bay as well. Things will only get better from here on out. In Western Long Island we saw a continuation of large blues in the Harbors of the North Shore, although the numbers were lower than last week. There have been plenty of schoolies for the flyrodder in these areas this week. Stripers are beginning to move into the South Shore areas with some frequency. Out East things are already beginning to wind down. Albies were very sporadic when you could actually get out to get a crack at them, and the bass blitzes didn’t really happen in any numbers this week.

Marginal weather this weekend, but it certainly looks better than it has been during the week. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed… Dying to get out there!!!

And don’t forget to email me your own reports. Tight lines all.

Tight Lines!

John McMurray

New Jersey

Lots of bad weather kept most people indoors this week, but the folks from Jersey that did get out did very well. Captain Bryan DiLeo from Iowa Fortune Guide checks in from the Ocean City/Atlantic city area:

This week really dished pure fall like conditions once again bringing us cool overnight temperatures and in turn cooler water temperatures and another great week of fishing. Constant high 50’s water temperatures had the Bass on the moving and tracking exceptionally well allow us to get to get out in front of good size schools as they slowly made their way across the shallowest of water giving my clients prime shots both with light tackle and those on the fly Through out the week we had good consistent Bass tailing and rolling in the shallows as the fed with out worry on peanuts. Also another common trait in the fall and especially last week is coming across of larger schools of bass lazily rolling like Tarpon in the open water. Bluefish were absent all last week replaced with smaller schoolies size Bass in the 13” range with larger fish working just ahead. The Bass this past week have all been in the 24"-30” range with a couple 13” thrown in for good measure and very aggressive and feisty. A common occurrence through out the week has been multiple Bass coming up for the top waters 5 or six times throwing it up a few feet in the air before finally chasing it down and hooking up, a very fun site to see. The cool air temperatures continue to be predicted for the next week and this should get the bass increasingly on the move and this in combination with prime tides as we approach the full moon should have the Bass and the water moving through out the SJ backcountry and willing to show themselves as they move across the shallows. Looks like the good times are here.

Mike O'Brien had this report for his trip with Reel Therapy...

I hope you had some good waves in Hawaii.
I fished from the beach on Wed. at Sandy Hook.  Tons of snapper blues
ate my fly.  The guy next to me hooked up a small striper on one of
those big rubber jigs. I then moved inside the bay near a river outlet
and hooked up with a good sized blue-they were blitzing all around us
in and out like Albies.  Today I fished the same spot in the rain with
east wind and tons of blues and stripers at my ankles.  I landed bass
up 32" They were eating a big white fly I tied.  It was nonstop action
from 10am-1pm.
Last Wednesday I fished with my buddy Ed Culhane on a charter with Paul
Eidman.  The Albies were awsome.
I've enclosed a couple of photos.  Please let me know if they come
through.

Michael O'Brien

Farther North, despite the bad weather, the folks from Shore Catch Guide service had an excellent week from both the shore and boat. Check it out:

John,

Things have totally opened up down here. Basically, the entire Jersey coast is firing! From Raritan Bay, to the outer beaches, to Barnegat Bay there are plenty of bass and blues to be had. Earlier this week before the blow, we had the largest ALBIE blitz of the season so far along the outer beaches south of Manasquan. I had out Peter McCarthy and Larry Meijer a day before in the heavy 20 to 25 knot west winds and we found pods of large (2 to 3 pound) Bunker that were holding bass and blues. The two had solid action with stripers to 22 lbs and blues from seven to nine pounds on Skok Mega Mushy's and Dino's Magnum Bunker Flies.

As of this writing the wind is blowing about 25 NE, so we are fly fishing the backwaters of Barnegat, Manasquan, and the Sandy Hook area and doing well with 22 to 28 inch bass and big blues.

In addition to the solid boat fishing, the surf and jetty guys are really cashing in on some great action this week. Our beach guides have been out in the NE and doing quite a number on the fish. We still have a few prime surf dates left as November and December are THE months to fly fish the surf here in Jersey. Hope the wind stops soon so we can get out front.

 

 

Like New Jersey, the Metro area fished very well this week during the brief periods when the wind sat down…  There were some unconfirmed reports of surf fishermen running into schools of 20 to 30-pound fish along Rockaway shoreline.  These fish were reportedly right up in the white water.  The rip-lines held a good number of surface and subsurface bass feeding vigorously.  These stripers ranged in size from 22 to 34-inches.  If you could hit the sandbars at the right tides and during the right conditions they produced some bigger fish for some anglers.  Jamaica Bay was invaded by schoolie bass and I expect the bigger bass came in this week.   

Captain Frank Crescitelli from Fin Chaser Charters reports a great start to the fall striper run.  Check it out:

Hey John, as you know the migrating Bass have finally shown up! On Monday, I had Andrew Maryniak, fly in all the way from London, just to fish! Even though the weather almost blew out his trip we opted to go out for an afternoon on Monday instead of trying to get a full day in on Tuesday as planned. It worked out and Andrew did battle with a dozen "rather rude," and "quite large" Bluefish and some "bloody hell" strong Bass up to 10 pounds. I explained that they were NYC fish and a had a "bit of an attitude" that's why they fight so hard. Way to go geezer! The rest of this week has canceled all of my offshore plans as well as anything inshore. Oh well I'll run the dog's over some pheasants, and hope for lighter winds. It's all good from here on out.... unless the wind blows, Frank

Western Long Island

Perhaps the most susceptible area to a northeast blow is Montauk…   If there’s a lot of east in it, there aren’t many places to hide.  For this reason there really isn’t much to report this week…  There are still albies out there but they are most certainly thinner and tougher to catch.  On the bass front it wasn’t so hot either.  Chalk all this up to that nor’east front.  In addition to making Montauk less fishing friendly, the fish don’t seem to like it much either.  With that being said, it’s still far from over out there.  Expect the albies to leave for good pretty soon, but for the bass action to increase significantly after this front leaves. 

From the beach, Reel-Timer John Papciak checks in with this report:

If anyone actually fly fished Montauk this past weekend, my hats off to you. Even with spinning gear, it was tough. I did see one fly boat on Mon evening off the point. He was by himself and hooked up!  The fish were there however. Between Sat nigh and Tue am I must have logged about 30 fish. The crowds are thinning as the size of the fish get bigger. A few of those reported fish were quite impressive.

The always adamant and always reliable Joel Filner reports from the Shinnecock area.  Check it out:

This is a wind condition report. I would rather call it a fishing
report but no fish to report. It seems the global warming trend is
making the last weekend a bit difficult for fly fishing in 15 to 25
knot conditions. I watched a spin caster send a 4 oz bucktail into
the inlet and into the wind and watch the line slow about a third of
the way out and then crash into the water. The fly rod went back into
the jeep. Saturday morning the doors of the jeep were impossible to
close so I turned the jeep into the wind so that i could latch them,
but then it was tough to get out, without pinching the rod. Sunday was not much better, with the wind more out of the west, south
west, and the surf and the tide filling the inlet at halftide,
chewing up the beach on the ocean and too much sea weed to feel the
line and work the fly. Even the bait fishermen quit the beach. There
were fish in the back of the bay last Wednesday, blues working the
east flats Thursday, and a few fisher folk on Friday working the
beach but to no avail. Off to Florida for work next week, and a peek
at a bone fish or permit is on the schedule.

Afraid that’s all for this week guys…  Again…  Keep those fingers crossed for this weekend.  See you on the water…  Hopefully.

Eastern Long Island

From the North Shore, Reel-Timer Bob Giordano checks in with this report:

Hey John, as you know the migrating Bass have finally shown up! On Monday, I had Andrew Maryniak, fly in all the way from London, just to fish! Even though the weather almost blew out his trip we opted to go out for an afternoon on Monday instead of trying to get a full day in on Tuesday as planned. It worked out and Andrew did battle with a dozen "rather rude," and "quite large" Bluefish and some "bloody hell" strong Bass up to 10 pounds. I explained that they were NYC fish and a had a "bit of an attitude" that's why they fight so hard. Way to go geezer! The rest of this week has canceled all of my offshore plans as well as anything inshore. Oh well I'll run the dog's over some pheasants, and hope for lighter winds. It's all good from here on out.... unless the wind blows, Frank

There’s also some interesting North Shore reports on the forum…  Be sure to check those out. 

Nothing official from the South Shore, but there has been quite a few unofficial reports of increased bass activity.