Shore Fishing 07 Overview - Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

Slingah · 11-12-2007, 04:37 PM

Well it's the end of another season for me...and I'd say it was a fairly typical one locally. I did have some good days & nights, but nothing compared to some of the seasons I have had. That is I believe partly due to staying local and not traveling to find fish or fishing "big" fish areas.
Time to explore again....I need a change.

How was your surf season??
Are you going to do anything different next year??

Back Beach · 11-12-2007, 05:02 PM

Last week of May in the canal was good for me. No fishing from June 1 to October1 due to new family addition. October was the best one I've ever had from the surf in the 20 plus years I've fished for bass. Had around 20 fish over the 30# mark, with a 42# being the biggest. Numbers and sizes I got are not real important because everyone's bar is set at a different level, but it was real good for me. Got the fish in a bunch of different places too, both MA and RI. A couple places I've never fished prior to this year, so it was equally as gratifying to catch fish in new places as it was to catch decent sized fish. As always, eels at night did the majority of the damage. Did get one 34# fish on an artificial back in May. For the minimal time I spent fishing this year, things went well in the catching department for me. No complaints.

Will probably approach things the same next year....Mid to late May day fishing, then its the midnight to 5am shift w/eels beginning Memorial day. Will try out some more new locations and keep and eye on the old standby spots too.

numbskull · 11-12-2007, 05:33 PM

Plenty of 20-28 lb fish on plugs, but I don't think I got a single fish over 30#....which eats at me more than I want to admit.

tattoobob · 11-12-2007, 07:16 PM

My season as a whole was Lame to say the least, I

I fished the Lawrence Dam in May 10th and June 20th for the herring run, I fished it 3 to 5 times a week and got skunked all but one time, no fish ever showed up except one night. I took all of the summer off

I had a fairly good fall but nothing large I didn't keep a log this year but my biggest was 29 pounds. I just put my rods up for the winter
I may have 1 more trip in me but not likely

Vogt · 11-12-2007, 07:24 PM

I had a veryy long season. I started in the middle of March and we were into good fish right away. The spring action died off around the first weekd of June, and the whole summer was a nightmare of rat blues and a few schoolies. Once September rolled around, it heated up and we were into large again, untill the full moon towards the end of the month. October new moon was good, did very well with eels. And Im still at it now, picking away for a couple more good ones.

Tagger · 11-12-2007, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slingah

Well it's the end of another season for me...and I'd say it was a fairly typical one locally. I did have some good days & nights, but nothing compared to some of the seasons I have had. That is I believe partly due to staying local and not traveling to find fish or fishing "big" fish areas.
Time to explore again....I need a change.

How was your surf season??
Are you going to do anything different next year??

You did better than me .. The people I have watching you told me . I think I would have done much better if I stayed local and fished more familar waters . I'll be exploring again next year .. Figure I'm going to die someday and there's so much I haven't seen .. Yea .. I caught schoolys at Cutty ,, twice .. still loved it and appreciate the experience.. I'll be back .. They gotta make it one fish again ... 2) 28" is too much take ..

Slingah · 11-12-2007, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tagger

You did better than me .. The people I have watching you told me . I think I would have done much better if I stayed local and fished more familar waters . I'll be exploring again next year .. Figure I'm going to die someday and there's so much I haven't seen .. Yea .. I caught schoolys at Cutty ,, twice .. still loved it and appreciate the experience.. I'll be back .. They gotta make it one fish again ... 2) 28" is too much take ..

ya know that kind of is my point...I did stay local and did have a few good nites....but thats all...a few......we can do than standing on our heads eddie, you know the weeks....ya did the right thing exploring....I wish I did more moving around. It got to be the mindset of " I know they will be there...they have to be...if I go somewhere else I'll miss it.."

Slingah · 11-12-2007, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slingah

Are you going to do anything different next year??

......

RIROCKHOUND · 11-12-2007, 08:31 PM

I had a very inconsistent season in the surf. Got to go to Cutty, very cool place.
Mostly fished my usual haunts (part of the problem

) that produced at times when they should have, and didn't produce a lot of times they should have...
Like Mike said, numbers are numbers, and all mean different things to different people. I got my share of nice fish, with not many 'big' fish thrown in. Broke or flirted with 25 on plugs, riggies and eels though, so I had some variety of methods thrown in.

As for next year? Always trying to improve, always learning...

luds · 11-12-2007, 08:54 PM

It was great. My only regret was no blues. Not one single bluefish all season.

NIB · 11-12-2007, 09:07 PM

The usuall slow spring i don't really chase em like I used to.
Late spring summer run was a little off from last yr.
I did stumble upon 2-750 lb days.
Early fall was Ok with trips to M an the canal..I did manage one near 30 in the ditch.
My fall hear in NJ has been decent with plenty of fish thru the twenties and now it seems we have some sand-eels which have not been present in yrs..
I hope they stay around..
Seemed everthing was late this yr like it's the second week in october fish wise..
bait seems to be on schedule..
Should have decent fishin for another month at least.decent means being able to break 20 lbs.My hands are already gettin cold..

riverrat2 · 11-12-2007, 09:07 PM

Only fished in the surf for around 4 months this fall the rest were spent on a boat making money.

Biggest by month
JUne-31#
September-38#
October-37#
November-20# only fished about 5 nights so far this month

September was by far the best, only got skunked twice the whole month and that was fishing 5-6nights a week. More fish than I could count in the 20-28# range. No real jumbos unfortunatly but had a good year overall.

Vogt · 11-12-2007, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luds48

It was great. My only regret was no blues. Not one single bluefish all season.

Hey , we could do trading spaces surfcasting style. You can take all of my bluefish infested beaches. I'll take your bass.

In September/October you could go down to any of the West Haven town beaches on any given evening and get into a blitz of 5-12 lb blues. They're fun for a while but it got old.....

jimmy z · 11-13-2007, 04:35 AM

It has been a good season as well, for me. I started in my usually May spots, and hit the shore early in the season with decent results. I think most of my outings to SoCo were decent nights. I think Sept. was better than Oct., but landed some decent bass in the high twenty's in Oct. I'm pretty much done for the season, unless that last pod of bass come down the coast, and I'll give it one last shot.

I enjoy the rush I get from this thing we do. If it over for me, so be it.
The Spring will be here soon enough.

basswipe · 11-13-2007, 07:11 AM

Large bass eluded me this season once again.But I did get some truly huge bluefish this Fall.

Spring and Fall were excellent for numbers of smaller bass,which is fine with me as I really enjoy using light tackle.Plus this year I discovered getting out on the rocks and battling surf is almost to much for my knees,back etc. which is probably why I didn't get much in the way of bigger bass.

Next year I'm going to concentrate on techniques and plugs that put me on larger fish in the "easier" spots that I fished this year.

JohnR · 11-13-2007, 07:59 AM

Not bad, not my best year but not bad. Mostly affected by lack of quality starts

Did NOT get out often and at the right times but I DID get out with some new people this year which was pretty cool

Clogston29 · 11-13-2007, 08:20 AM

very good season. much better than I could have ever imagined. i guess even a blind squirel finds a nut (or a whole pile of nuts) once in a while. first time i've really been ready to hang it up at the end of the season (beat myself up pretty good for a couple months). called it a year over a couple beers at club soda last weekend - not a bad way to end it at all.

phish4stripers · 11-13-2007, 08:58 AM

Well being that I dont think the season is over yet down here by far I will say this, My season was feast and famine. I put alot of time in and tried to fish what I thought were the appropriate tides. More often then not I struck out. When I hit I usually hit big only to find that no discernable pattern had developed, or at least not one I saw. I had my personal best weakfish on a jig this year and still have not acieved my goal of breaking the dirty thirty mark. Last year in the first week of december we had a huge hit of fish. hopefully this year we will see the same. Some people are still waiting for the fall run.

Matt

The Dad Fisherman · 11-13-2007, 09:00 AM

Was very inconsistent for me this year. a Couple here a couple there, but a LOT of skunks thrown in along the way. I started fishing for the striped ones 5 years ago, every year I would set a new personal best....until this year. The trips to Cutty, as usual, were awesome and I go more for the people than the fishing.

On the flip side, I had the best Freshwater season I ever had. Picked up a personal best Largemouth of 6lbs. 5oz. and also picked up another at 5lbs as well as quite a few 2.5-3 lb'ers mixed in for good measure. also got a personal best Pickerel that was a solid 4 lbs. (course the bastard bit me)

Next year I am getting that 30 lb'er that was goal for last season

fishpoopoo · 11-13-2007, 09:18 AM

i can honestly say i've been having fun so far but at the same time have picked my outings more carefully.

when the striper fishing got a little slow, i rediscovered the simple pleasures of daytime bottom fishing from the shore.

i guess the highlights of the season so far have been a few trips to the Elizabeth Islands, some alone, and some with a great crew of folks from this site.

HESH2 · 11-13-2007, 09:31 AM

fished mostly schoolies and was an off year for me.caught alot of blues.stayed in one area that was dead too long,burned alot of gas checking out new spots and got in a few nice blitzs that were all blues.fished in 3 states got fish in 2 of them.did not fish nites or eels or many rocky places all age related,happy just to be out there doing it.i've been at it alot of years and to be a surfcaster going out by you self to a spot and leaving all if any problems behind you and getting into that special zone is what i live for.

Steve K · 11-13-2007, 09:37 AM

It was poor for me. My numbers were way down everywhere that I fished. I did not put in a lot of time in July and August put I did fish more in Sept and Oct than I have in the past.

Bishop169 · 11-13-2007, 09:37 AM

This was my first year really working the surf but no keepers

from the surf

Going to try plugging next year

I even set out on a charter this year. Granted I sat and wondered what I was doing wrong while everyone around me was catching cod and dog fish

and my hooks were left untouched

On the bright side had a great freshwater year

Next year I will have to make a deal with the

and hopefully pull out some cows

The Iceman 6 · 11-13-2007, 09:42 AM

I had a great year and have no complaints. Hit 2 massive blitzes of fish (both bass and blues) that was a highlight. Will go out 1 or 2 more times b/f hanging it up for the winter.

Flaptail · 11-13-2007, 10:52 AM

The outer beach sucked, it looked good early and had a few blitzes actually in early June then went bust then the plovers and of course the seals.

Overall though I did okay even with being down a month with the smooshed big toe.

Can't break that 45 inch mid thirty's curse though the last two years. All on plugs and shared some memorable nights fishing with Numby.

Went down the islands yesterday and had a couple half hearted swirls but no fish in the boat. That N/E put the push on them to go south. Oh well time to clean up the basement, hang all the plugs back up and fire up the lathe.

Rockport24 · 11-13-2007, 11:44 AM

this is the first year I really hit it hard at night with eels and I still have a lot to learn because overall I didn't catch a lot, a few fish here and there, and one personal best, which made up for an otherwise not so great season numbers-wise. I still had a lot of fun, got to go to cuttyhunk and meet some really good guys that became good fishing partners and friends over the course of the season, and still learned a lot, I have some new spots and new ideas about next season already!

ThrowingTimber · 11-13-2007, 12:03 PM

Its not over here yet usually see a good push of fish turkey week and first week of Dec. is usually pretty good to me

just being more calculating and not so careless with my time.

overall a ton of fish in the high teens to the mid twenties, still chasing something outstanding to close out the year

EarnedStripes44 · 11-13-2007, 01:10 PM

I did lots of fishing early in the season. Got into cod to several lbs on the tail end of March, also caught several schoolies. I only caught one keeper from the shore of Boston Harbor, and that was on a false dawn on the 4th of July. I also did not catch any blues out of the harbor, but lots of skates as usual. My harbor fishing ended in July. Went to the Vineyard for a week during August, hit the surf and it was love all over again. Caught two nice keepers in a week (more than I had landed in the Harbor in 4 months), lots of juvenile scup, tons of dogfish, and even black bass. After that, it was all work and the weekends were shrouded in a purple haze of nightclubs, doubles, and other forms of vice. I regret it, always have more fun fishing the AM flood tide than rampaging and plundering Chinatown's steamy midsummer streets with the goons. Plus I loaded up on some nice gear over the 06-07 offseason and I didn't get to utilize it much. So with that said, the Harbor from the shore was terrible for me from March thru July for Bass & Blues.