Many Striper "sharpies" keep a tight log. Indeed, there are instances when said log will plant your feet in the sand or your boat on the waypoint from that exact day or night of the previous year. And the fish will be there. That said, the title of this particular scribbling of mine is a significant contradiction. The title is meant to strike up a thought or conversation about the changes occurring year after year in our fishery.
I will not call the changes negative, as we have a tremendous fishery in the inshore waters of NJ. Fall runs for the record books, Giant Bluefin just off the beaches, the list goes on. But with the fisheries proliferation comes changes. Although for the better, sometimes the increase in the abundance of fish can be startling. When striped bass gets into big schools, sometimes they will hold in an area for a while, and sometimes they will vanish like ghosts. Whether to spawn or to feed…. Mainly from the boat, I have noticed this year vast areas of blank screens on the fishfinder, only to find fish holding in numbers in places I have not previously found them at that particular time of year.
These types of occurrences fascinate me almost to an obsessive degree. I have always intended to try and understand the fishery intimately, so tough days or skunks rarely get me down. This spring, I have learned a ton about a fishery (Raritan Bay) I thought I knew inside and out. That, to me, is cool; it keeps me interested. I have always been obsessed with stripers. I fish for anything and everything, but Striped Bass have my heart. One must keep up with their habits and range as they evolve due to environmental changes. It never bores me.
Late March and April held fish in areas where they wouldn't typically be. The new moon in April had the fish on the move and shut down. The fishing was odd between the new moon in April and the full moon in May. Sure, plenty of fish were being live-baited in a few particular areas, but I was not finding fish in places I expected to.
After that May full moon, the fish had come off the spawn when it seemed like they all went upriver to spawn simultaneously (although they didn't). The big fish were coming up from the south. The bunker had begun to show themselves plentifully in the bay again and out front along the beaches. I have seen stacks of fish in the back of the bay where I would not expect them to this time of year, at least in the numbers I have witnessed recently. It is no secret that the beaches are holding large Chesapeake fish. When they meet the Hudson spawners, both bodies of fish are hungry, and sometimes the magic happens. The bait is there, and the fish are there. Will they stay and devour the bunker for the next month? Or will it be a pick of fish if you work hard enough to find them? We may never know; that is the only point of this rambling. However, time will tell, and as long as you have the mindset of learning and taking it all in…. You have already won. But I hope this lesson can be learned while catching large Striped Bass before they decimate the population of them.
1 comment
Neil Mortimer
Thanks Nick, Always enjoy reading your column!
Thanks Nick, Always enjoy reading your column!