On the launch pad? - Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

Back Beach · 09-09-2008, 06:23 AM

Its week two of "fall fishing."
We got the usual head fake at the end of august followed by a little slow period. I would say we're within one week of things starting to really break open for the surf guys. I eagerly anticipate the third week of September every year.

What do you expect to see in the next couple weeks?

NIB · 09-09-2008, 07:07 AM

I will check my crystal ball an get back to ya..

Mid September in NJ means the start of the mullet run..And my fall season..A early morning V wake of bait round the front of the jetty gets NIB going..
You will have snapper blues spearing in the mix also.Pluggin can produce a quality fish as they seem to get stupid when among the mullet.In general numbers of fish improve.Dawn and dusk are my favorite times.Small metal lips Bombers Yo momma crystal minnows.,poppers..Get the job done..Years ago when my rebirth started in the salt I took one close to 30 on a yo zuri on sept 16th here in NJ.It was a quality fish at the time.Took it off the bar.Talk about your tarpon.Thing went ballistic.I remember it like it was yesterday..
One other thing..In your other thread on fish jumping.The one time they really seem to get airborne is during the mullet run..
Maybe, as Mullet are a southern fish they are acting like the tarpon from FLA.

JohnR · 09-09-2008, 11:18 AM

Absent of major storms, I expect to see goooood fisihin' end of September beginning of October

Flaptail · 09-09-2008, 12:16 PM

It's still officially summer by the calendar. Every year, depending on moon phase I take two weeks (this year 2-1/2) starting 'round September 15th, this year will be starting the 19th. Right now waters around my playground are the warmest of the year, days are getting shorter noticeably ( around 7:30pm is dusk now).

If I have learned one thing Striper fishing these past 40 years it's that no two years are the same, a decade can go by between fat years and lean. Last years hot lure is a backseater to this years and some that haven't made the scene in a long long time will be re-introduced as the hot number.

Can we bet on something good happening over the next week or two? Maybe, maybe not. Oft times better days are right around the corner. To be there to take advantage of the blips about to show on the screen you have to make the time available for yourself to take full advantage and have to have a good grip on the area you fish as to when, where and what it takes to make it happen.

Ive got a plan, now we will just have to wait and see. The days are falling off of the calendar fast, I am ready it's up to the bass the bait and the weather gods now to make my dreams come true.

Hopefully all of yours will too!

Back Beach · 09-09-2008, 12:36 PM

I'm hearing the water is still fouled a bit in many locations. Will hopefully pop once we get a few days of northwest wind to clean things out. Looks like its coming right behind this front.

RIROCKHOUND · 09-09-2008, 12:42 PM

Another week or two.
Usually NFL week 3/4 it blows wide open for me.
Usually numbers with size mixed in...

JLH · 09-09-2008, 02:59 PM

Hoping for good things! I took off Sept 22nd – 30th and am hoping for a chance at some quality fish in SoCo. Have another week off right in the middle of Oct.

redlite · 09-09-2008, 03:26 PM

You missed it.......The ship took off 3 weeks ago...........Sept 21st, gear gets hung up.

tinyboatbigfish · 09-09-2008, 03:29 PM

you crazy red i have been on the water almost every day and no big action yet but i can say any day now

piemma · 09-09-2008, 05:09 PM

Sept 15th and Mr and Mrs Mullet will be around. The big push is EARLIER than you think. Straggelers after Columbus Day. I know a lot of you guys disagree but I have the log books to prove it. Sept is better than OCT.

BassDawg · 09-09-2008, 06:37 PM

with piemma i must concur!!

my limited amount of basslawgs (3yrs)
indicate that Sept is the killer AND the beginning
of the staging before the big push S which has been

last week of Sept ~Cape Ann,
1st week of Oct ~DI,
2nd week of Oct ~the AQ and beyond.

but as the wise Flappy One suggests,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
ya just never know til it gets here. question is

will YOU be there??

macojoe · 09-09-2008, 10:45 PM

Last day of Commercial was today, 30 fish by noon!! Best day of the hole season! There coming!!

piemma · 09-10-2008, 04:58 AM

Thanks Bassdawg.
Kind of interesting. I remember many, many years in the surf when I would hear "They're still coming. They're on the cape. They're on the North shore. They haven't come by yet."
All this usually after a few nights in SoCo slamming large in mid to late Sept and then the "skunk". The real truth is that the big push is usually earlier than everyone thinks it is.
Years ago we would fish into late Nov. The day after Thanksgiving was usually the closing bell. About 1998 or 99 we found that we got the biggest fish in late Sept thru mid Oct. After that it was a fish here and a fish there. Yeah, every once in awhile you would get a small blitz of large but it was usually a lot of hours with very little return.
I remember one year when my deceased partner, Gil Gullitone, hammered 35 to 40 pound fish at Deep Hole on Oct 11 and 12. A few years later myself, Ollie and Mark (Get Fish) ran into a blitz at "The River" of 40s on Oct 15th and 16th. I can honestly state that I never have hit a huge blizt of large later than mid-Oct in the last 10 years.

Back in the 80s we could depend on the Block to heat up on the New Moon in Nov. We would fish the last and first "crescent". It was always great with a guarentee of a 40. That started to change in the late 90s and we finally figured out that we "missed" the move by a couple of weeks. The last year I really "worked" the Block was with RIRockhound, Spence, #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& and Stevie Van Staal in 2003. It was late Oct and we fished it for 3 days, around the clock. There was 1, 15# fish taken in the 3 days. That's it!

The point of this post is for you guys to not wait for the latter part of Oct and Nov. Hit it hard in Sept. and you will not be disappointed.
Now if you are talking Montauk, then November....well you be the judge.

Back Beach · 09-10-2008, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by piemma

The point of this post is for you guys to not wait for the latter part of Oct and Nov. Hit it hard in Sept. and you will not be disappointed.
Now if you are talking Montauk, then November....well you be the judge.

Agreed. The next 30 days or so makes or breaks the fall season in my experience.

Back Beach · 09-10-2008, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redlite

You missed it.......The ship took off 3 weeks ago...........Sept 21st, gear gets hung up.

On Sept 21, things will be heating up at west island.

shadow · 09-10-2008, 07:58 AM

paul you are so right about the fishing later in the fall,every year they say the same thing then blame the weather or bait,yet we have seen large bunker on the beach in oct.but no bass insight.my must consistent fishing has always been july-sept. everything else is hit or miss.I fish hard right thru nov. and always have to work hard for a good fish at that time,lot more skunkings.at that time I head south there is a spot that can fish well into nov. A few years ago I saw you and #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& there walking out with a nice fish there was some other guy from the board there with a fish,I was a little late showing up cause I guess you guys did well.I worked hard as hell for one good fish.but that was late oct- nov. can't remember yet that spot will give me a good fish late if I work hard.

Flaptail · 09-10-2008, 08:02 AM

There was a sea change last night in the fishes un-cooperative mood of late, went to bed in the wee hours with a smile for once after standing alone on a beach in the pouring rain by myself, suffering a bout of my stomach suddenly starting to jerkulate then with rain pouring down needing to you know what very quickly and very far from any sanitary facilities, whereupon nescesity overtakes dignity (good thing I packed some paper towels in my pocket for lens cleaning) and then suffering not one but two braid malfunctions which caused me to loose 60 yards of expensive braid someone up stairs took pity on me and my fortunes changed dramatically.

The one bad thing was having to leave still biting fish because of, ugh, work responsibilities today.

But it was a happy hour and a 1/2 drive home. ( WMOR plays some wierd sh!t around two in the morning.

DZ · 09-10-2008, 08:31 AM

Great advice Paul.

What I've found is that in September the local fish (those that "live in your general area") start to move. When they are gone you have to rely on other fish as they migrate through your particular area and that is always a crap shoot.

There is usually a slow buildup to our September bite and it has been very slow for me lately but I've managed to drop one nice fish each night for the last three I've fished. Indications are good - just hope I'm free when the consistant bite begins.

DZ

numbskull · 09-10-2008, 08:36 AM

[QUOTE=Flaptail;619106].... after standing alone on a beach in the pouring rain by myself, suffering a bout of my stomach suddenly starting to jerkulate then with rain pouring down needing to you know what very quickly and very far from any sanitary facilities, whereupon nescesity overtakes dignity (good thing I packed some paper towels ...
[QUOTE]

That ought to get the fish moving for sure.

ProfessorM · 09-10-2008, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flaptail

There was a sea change last night in the fishes un-cooperative mood of late, went to bed in the wee hours with a smile for once after standing alone on a beach in the pouring rain by myself, suffering a bout of my stomach suddenly starting to jerkulate then with rain pouring down needing to you know what very quickly and very far from any sanitary facilities, whereupon nescesity overtakes dignity (good thing I packed some paper towels in my pocket for lens cleaning) and then suffering not one but two braid malfunctions which caused me to loose 60 yards of expensive braid someone up stairs took pity on me and my fortunes changed dramatically.

The one bad thing was having to leave still biting fish because of, ugh, work responsibilities today.

But it was a happy hour and a 1/2 drive home. ( WMOR plays some wierd sh!t around two in the morning.

Take me fishing I will bring the Charmin

Back Beach · 09-10-2008, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flaptail

There was a sea change last night in the fishes un-cooperative mood of late, went to bed in the wee hours with a smile for once after standing alone on a beach in the pouring rain by myself, suffering a bout of my stomach suddenly starting to jerkulate then with rain pouring down needing to you know what very quickly and very far from any sanitary facilities, whereupon nescesity overtakes dignity (good thing I packed some paper towels in my pocket for lens cleaning) and then suffering not one but two braid malfunctions which caused me to loose 60 yards of expensive braid someone up stairs took pity on me and my fortunes changed dramatically.

The one bad thing was having to leave still biting fish because of, ugh, work responsibilities today.

But it was a happy hour and a 1/2 drive home. ( WMOR plays some wierd sh!t around two in the morning.

Truly %$%$%$%$ luck if I do say so.

NIB · 09-10-2008, 08:58 AM

I've always been of the opinion Early Sept will see your large stragglers.Resident fish that take there time and seperate from the smaller pods of large fish for whatever reason.Then once the migration starts big pods of smaller fish will put the larger ones off.As they don't want to deal with the competition for food.Of course there is the rare occasion where U get 15 6-10 lbers then a 30..
Up there in the RI Mass area.I think it is possible to encounter your larger fish as they join together for their migration.As far as timing goes I could not say personally.In my experience first week of Oct.+/- has produced some nice fish for me..

Here in NJ in the fall larger fish have been hard to come by.We used to enjoy a late run in Nov-Dec if the sandeels where present.It was possible to score a large then.That bite has not really materialized in more than a few years..It is belief of many that the larger fish take a off shore track.Kind of a Montauk to Cape May path.. On the tails of larger baits and large
schools of sandeels that don't seem to migrate inshore as they used to..I have encountered small pods of bunker with better fish on em.It is a rarity though and a fish that breaks the 30 lb mark is a good fall score.Of course this is just this surfmans perspective..

Nebe · 09-10-2008, 09:04 AM

rockhound and I saw what I am pretty sure was mullet last night in gansett, so things may start happening. we fished a great spot at the right tide, although it was a weak tide with live eels and didnt get a tap.

Back Beach · 09-10-2008, 11:13 AM

I think we officially have liftoff in a few places.

Be sure to put a stocking cap in the vehicle. It going down into the low 40's tonight and tomorrow. My alpine bass cap went in the back seat this am...

Flaptail · 09-10-2008, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Back Beach

I think we officially have liftoff in a few places.

Be sure to put a stocking cap in the vehicle. It going down into the low 40's tonight and tomorrow. My alpine bass cap went in the back seat this am...

Scary.

RIJIMMY · 09-10-2008, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Back Beach

I think we officially have liftoff in a few places.

Be sure to put a stocking cap in the vehicle. It going down into the low 40's tonight and tomorrow. My alpine bass cap went in the back seat this am...

great, a new screen saver!

ProfessorM · 09-10-2008, 12:44 PM

i keep one exactly like that in the truck. Care more about being warm than looking stupid

RIROCKHOUND · 09-10-2008, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Back Beach

Be sure to put a stocking cap in the vehicle. It going down into the low 40's tonight and tomorrow. My alpine bass cap went in the back seat this am...

Pussy.

Block Island Jeff just smears mud on his head to make a hat if he gets cold.

Of course, only if the mud matches his jacket!

Back Beach · 09-10-2008, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RIROCKHOUND

Pussy.

Block Island Jeff just smears mud on his head to make a hat if he gets cold.

Of course, only if the mud matches his jacket!

The hat is made out of adobe. Just like my head...

DZ · 09-10-2008, 02:25 PM

Well, judging how my hook-up and land ratio has been lately I figure I won't need a hat as it seems I have my head up my a--.

DZ