12.01.09 It's getting cold, and a bit old!

     I have sat on a river for hours, many hours waiting for a hatch they may or may not have come. This striper fishing, is well, just crazy. I see the same guys almost everyday doing the same thing. Pulling up, getting out, looking through their binoculars, and then either parking and getting geared up or pulling away. There are so many variables in this sport, and I am still learning them. Let me name a few, fish, bait, location, wind, water, temperature, moon, tide, boats and birds. A seasoned striper fisherman will surely be able to complete the list. This fall I have been at it since September when trout fishing slowed down, that was the tail end of the albies. Then I walked and stalked the beaches from Asbury Park to North Beach on Sandy Hook. I have seen one good blitz on Sea Bright, right up on the beach, that I was 500 feet away from when the fish and bait turned right out to see, and Saturday at 8th Avenue in Asbury Park. 

     I have seen a few keeper stripers and some big blues- mostly caught on bunker chunks. Right now it's a waiting game to see if the bait and fish are out of the rivers, off the beaches, or just plain south of us. Some reports from weeks ago said the fishing from Point Pleasant and south, mostly around Island Beach State Park and LBI was good then, and now its getting better south near Cape May.  Other guys saying it might be a late bite this year, into late December or early January. So with all of that I continue to sneak down to the beach looking for the birds, the bait, and the fish. All the while dreaming of Hendricksons in May on the West Branch of the Delaware.