The "I dunno, I think its almost over" thread

[Back Beach]

I'm seeing very few large surf fish. Guys I know are getting a single 30# fish here and there, but no numbers. I've gotten 4 or 5 fish in the low 30# class since late August and I've put a lot of nights in. Couple guys here and there seem to be getting good numbers of 20" to 30" and just above fish from the canal.Big effin deal. We want large...

The large quantities of 20#-40# fish seem to be missing so far. I hate to compare this fall to the last two seasons, but so far it stinks.

Anyways, its getting late but I'll hold off with the white flag until the new moon passes. This is just a shot over the bow..its(the end) coming...we're in the seventh inning with regard to the big stuff.

[Rockfish9]

It's 4th and goal at Plum Island ( Mass) yes there are a few fish ( talking large not dinks) but they are few and far between... last big batch seemed to have moved through on the September new moon...although I fish from a boat, I fish the same waters as the surf guy's do( and I havent seen many of either here at night the last two weeks)... 3' or less...there are fish to the north, but I expect them to take the outside route, the boat comes out the 15th, then I'm strickly a sand man and rock hopper until the November winds tell me it's over ... like I said.. here.. it's 4th and goal..

[Flaptail]

Mike, you have a problem that you need to shake off. Maybe a witch doctor or voodoo priestess or something. I have had a fabulous fall so far. I have seen four forty pound fish caught in the last week, two by flyrodders one of which was just last night under the light of the silvery moon and two I managed to luck on to. You need to branch out, try some new locales and different approaches.

I have spent very little time at the canal this year, just not worth the effort.

One thing I will tell you is that eels ( and I am not being sarcastic here just fatcual) are not doing it the way needlefish and mambos have been.

While the biggest I scored last night was just over 20 pounds, there were a few in that class for me but that flyrod guy was as happy as a pig in sh!t!

They haven't even started to move yet as far as I am concerned, I would say it will probably bust wide open come the week of the 19th.

Your getting yourself into a funk and it will consume you. Beware.

[Jimmy Fee]

90% of the places I've been looking have had an alarming absence of bait and fish.

I hope you're right Steve that it hasn't really gotten going. I've been in the same boat as Back Beach, where I've been doing a lot of fishing for a few good fish, though I have seen a few very nice ones taken recently. I've got my fingers crossed that the next couple weeks will give up some big fish.

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by Flaptail

I have had a fabulous fall so far.

Wait a minute here now… in the interest of full disclosure you’ve failed to mention a number of factors playing into your recent success. While its apparent there’s still a few fish to be had, you’ve stifled the competition by way of human obstruction. Why, that poor Numbskull looked like a beaten dog this past weekend…I know right well he’s been serving as your human shield, stumbling across the sand muttering “duh” while casting across other’s lines and rendering the competition idle…all the while you sit patiently waiting for the melee to ensue, your fearless companion is mired in sand, monofilament, treble hooks, and fists. When the moment is right you launch the offensive…unabated by other anglers it’s just you, and only you…

[Crafty Angler]

Originally Posted by Flaptail

...One thing I will tell you is that eels ( and I am not being sarcastic here just fatcual) are not doing it the way needlefish and mambos have been...

I did better on rigged 9" Sluggos last night under a 100 watt moon than I have on eels all week...

For me, locally speaking, the meter on this Fall so far has wobbled between poor and not so good size- and numbers-wise

Looking at the calendar I've got the feeling that the 2 minute warning is about to sound and I feel like I'm down by ten - so what you do is hitch up your pants and give 'em hell

I was talking to Pt Jude Joe about it last night and he said it's gonna happen somewhere sometime and if it's gonna happen to someone, it might just as well be us - so go fish. You can't catch 'em from your couch

Besides, God hates a quitter...

Don't defeat yourself by losing the faith - fishing is driven by eternal optimism

The power of positive thinking keeps you pounding the trail - and all prognostications and theorizing aside, we won't know it's over 'til it's actually over

And I don't really think that time is now...

[Plum Crazy]

Originally Posted by Crafty Angler

Don't defeat yourself by losing the faith - fishing is driven by eternal optimism

I really like that Crafty!

I have a feeling things are gonna bust wide open any day now.

[FishermanTim]

Nah, the seaason's over. Might as well hang in up until spring.

Keep in mind just how slowly the season began, and since we haven't had much in the way of "traditional" fall storms that usually spur the fish to head south, they may be here for a few more weeks before the move really happens. The only exception would be if we get a strong storm/noreaster/tropical storm or hurricane that churns up the water and chases the fish out to sea.

I'm not planning on hanging up the gear until next month.

[Flaptail]

Originally Posted by Back Beach

Wait a minute here now… in the interest of full disclosure you’ve failed to mention a number of factors playing into your recent success. While its apparent there’s still a few fish to be had, you’ve stifled the competition by way of human obstruction. Why, that poor Numbskull looked like a beaten dog this past weekend…I know right well he’s been serving as your human shield, stumbling across the sand muttering “duh” while casting across other’s lines and rendering the competition idle…all the while you sit patiently waiting for the melee to ensue, your fearless companion is mired in sand, monofilament, treble hooks, and fists. When the moment is right you launch the offensive…unabated by other anglers it’s just you, and only you…

Very true, he's been my wingman. He keeps the bogeys off of my back and on his leaving me free to hammer the bass!

Also, him being a dwarf and all, it's given me more time on the bar before him and the rest of the "normal" sized humans can get out to where I am!

[Striper_Haven_03]

Dont know about other locales close to me but my spots have produced many fish in the 25-35lb class the last week. Saturday @ 1-5am was surf casting at its finest, with 9 fish 25-30lbs taken by two of us. Throw in a couple high thirties on Sunday morning at the same rocky spot and so far this fall has been good. There does seem to be a lack of bait.....although just tothe north of me Plymouth harbor has been stocked all summer and early fall with SS, Anchovies, peanuts,etc. Found 4 fluke in the 39lber sunday. I dont let birds and bait steer my fishing. These spots produce year in and year out with ot with-out the heavt presence of bait fish.

I have to agree, the best fishing is still ahead of us. Taking vaca. all next week to pound then rock piles.

[slow eddie]

water temp is 63 at newton in narry in the early am.
na, it's over guys. stay home and watch the pats.
no peanuts though. that has me a little puzzled.

[piemma]

Well, I'm in Pittsburgh so I am on a forced hiatus for a few days but I fished Sunday night from 12:30 AM to 5:30 AM for 2 small fish. Eels, plugs, needlefish and swimmers and jigs.
I am not throwing in the towel but it is slow for the first week in Oct.

[bloocrab]

Chuck, don't give up hope yet.....U got a LONG weekend ahead of you bro...seen a handful of individual bait pods yesterday somewhere in Newport, and yes...they were getting harrassed.....I couldn't reach em' and it seemed that there weren't any stragglers near the Rox I was slipping on....I tried though,,,so hard a mini-rogue wave knocked me to the ground and slid me to the edge, luckily for jagged rocks...I was able to grab an edge.

Hopefully Large will find them pods this weekend and the Fiesta will start.

I still need to get signed up. ....I doubt I'll see you at Flo's, but hopefully Sunday, you'll be shaking my hand while congratulating me.

[ivanputski]

sometimes when I'm fishing with a buddy, having a slow night in a spot where there SHOULD be fish, my mind wanders as i utter this thought..." someone, somewhere, is slamming fish right now..." and just typing this kills me, because i just realized that as I SIT AND TYPE THIS, someone's drag, somewhere, right now, is screaming!!!

[Crafty Angler]

Originally Posted by bloocrab

Chuck, don't give up hope yet.....

Don't worry, amigo - one thing I've got plenty of from the Portuguese side is stubborn......and it's far from over

Check your PM's...

Originally Posted by bloocrab

...I still need to get signed up. ....I doubt I'll see you at Flo's, but hopefully Sunday, you'll be shaking my hand while congratulating me.

Boa sorte, Gilly - I hope you go large!

See ya Sunday...

[Clogston29]

mike, there's still some big fish north of boston so you guys are far from done down there. i pointed a 45 your way last week. no real numbers or signs of a mass movement (at least that i've seen), more of a trickle - which i attribute to a lack of inshore bait.

[piemma]

A tuna guy I met at the Cup fest told me that Stellwagen is loaded with big bass feeding on huge sandeels.

[Clogston29]

Originally Posted by piemma

A tuna guy I met at the Cup fest told me that Stellwagen is loaded with big bass feeding on huge sandeels.

yup, that's what i've been hearing up hear since june. somebody is going to get lucky somewhere along the coast this fall when they swing inshore. Montauk? BI?

[JohnR]

Every year its the same thing: Different.

[JFigliuolo]

Originally Posted by Clogston29

yup, that's what i've been hearing up hear since june. somebody is going to get lucky somewhere along the coast this fall when they swing inshore. Montauk? BI?

And WHY swing inshore when the bait is off-shore????

[Back Beach]

Good to hear the reports aren't all that bad. Seems to be fish in the vicinities, just not piling up in the big numbers you'd expect. My go to spots in Mass/RI have been much slower than usual so far. I'm betting on the upcoming new moon around the 20th. Two years ago it was poor for me in Sept./early Oct., then all hell broke loose. I'm hoping for a repeat starting tonight.

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by piemma

A tuna guy I met at the Cup fest told me that Stellwagen is loaded with big bass feeding on huge sandeels.

Those fish are a mystery to me. They seem to pile up out there and guys accidentally catch them into November while tuna fishing. They never seem to hit the shoreline though.

[Clogston29]

Originally Posted by JFigliuolo

And WHY swing inshore when the bait is off-shore????

just a guess on my part that at some point during the migration the bait will get blown in shore or the fish will move inshore lured by other bait when they leave the sandeels to head south. BI and Montauk kind of stick out into the migration routes so I threw those locations out there. obiously they may not.

wasn't the great fishing on BI years ago a result of big offshore sand eels being blown in?

bassdozer has some interesting theories on the offshore schools making land fall every few years. not saying i believe them all, but they're interesting to think about anyway.

[MAKAI]

Originally Posted by Back Beach

Those fish are a mystery to me. They seem to pile up out there and guys accidentally catch them into November while tuna fishing. They never seem to hit the shoreline though.

For a few years our crew used to finish the year with a charter trip out of harwich. The boat would steam way south of nantucket. Early to mid nov. We would hammer fish, plenty of big ones too. The captains belief was that most bass stayed offshore where all the big bait is. Hard to argue with his results.I think that only a very small fraction of fish ever swim within casting range, it is a big ocean that we only outline with fishermen. Trying to figure it all out gives me a popsicle headache.

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by Clogston29

just a guess on my part that at some point during the migration the bait will get blown in shore or the fish will move inshore lured by other bait when they leave the sandeels to head south. BI and Montauk kind of stick out into the migration routes so I threw those locations out there. obiously they may not.

wasn't the great fishing on BI years ago a result of big offshore sand eels being blown in?

bassdozer has some interesting theories on the offshore schools making land fall every few years. not saying i believe them all, but they're interesting to think about anyway.

He wrote this over 10 years ago, well before all of the reports of huge schools in the EEZ started coming in regularly:

Ghost Fish! The Stuff of Dreams...That Came True Once

[Rockport24]

Originally Posted by Clogston29

i pointed a 45 your way last week. .

I love how we glossed over that Josh got a 45?? nice fish!

[ProfessorM]

congrats to him.

[hyefisherman2]

Originally Posted by Clogston29

mike, there's still some big fish north of boston so you guys are far from done down there. i pointed a 45 your way last week. no real numbers or signs of a mass movement (at least that i've seen), more of a trickle - which i attribute to a lack of inshore bait.

nice fish...any pics of her?