.....really it is, in my opinion. If I were to take you for a tour of New Jersey, a fly fishing tour, but the spin guys can come as well, and claim you can catch striped bass in our loviest, and not so loveliest cities. So we go, Hackensack and Paterson, yep, Jersey City and Bayonne, yep, Newark and Elizabeth, yep, Perth Amboy and New Brunswick, yep, Asbury Park (in the old days) and Trenton, yep, Camden and Atlantic City (once world record), yep. Would you believe me?
Now just look at New Jersey, let's say the average "shoreline" on both sides is 170 miles. On the Delaware River side you can catch a striped bass from Sussex County down to Cape May County, and on the "ocean" side you can catch a striped bass from Bergen County down to Cape May County. And then there's the rivers in between, to name a few, Hudson, Hackensack, Passaic, Kill Van Kull (kind of), Raritan, Navesink, Shrewsbury, Shark River, Manasquan, Toms, Mullica, Great Egg, Maurice and
Rancocas.
If you can catch a boat ride you have the bays to fish, Newark, Upper and Lower New York Bays, Raritan, Sandy Hook, Barnegat, Great, Great Egg Harbor, Absecon, Ludlum, Great Sound, and all those sounds and small bays in Cape May. That's a lot of places to fish for striped bass.
Everyone knows the last few years the beach fishery, well, isn't good. If you are just going to fish, and don't care about catching, then New Jersey beaches are perfect for you. You see, the fishery has changed. I'm not a global warming guy, but, to me, it seems the winters are a tad more milder these days. So what that means is the fish stay longer, or never leave, and wake up, or arrive earlier each spring, and are active, really active.
What used to be a fishery after March 1st of soaking bloodworms, clams and chunks, is now one where paddle tails, plugs and even flies can get a bite. So weather is one thing. Now Connecticut guys have a solid winter over population in their rivers, and I have seen them caught around or through the ice, but that's not what I'm talking about. Here, in New Jersey, in a few weeks this state is going to explode. And it's mostly going to be an "outback" thing. Sadly, the hammer will drop when the private, charter, and head boats starting over-harvesting just about every slot fish they catch. I hope you all have submitted your public comment to the ASMFC regarding Draft Ammendment 7 to get these "fishing in a bath tub" spots catch and release or artificial only during the spring and fall.
So besides the weather, why have so many striped bass decided to stick around the great Garden State? Water quality? Maybe, hopefully, there has been alot of work don in North Jersey, waters is still toxic for humans, but is getting better. Bait? Ah, bunker, you can thank Paul Eidman for that. Adult, peanut, and everything in between. There's bunker in the bays now, and throughout the year in can be found out front and in the back. Thank God they eliminated the snag and drop fishery, and went to Circle hooks, maybe next getting rid of those trebles, or make them barbless at least, or maybe one per lure if needed.
Back to the beach fishery. Not good. You know how I feel about beach replenishment, or "nourishment" as Frank Pallone likes to call it. It's a ecosystem killer. But its a vote getter, and it will never change, no mater how many hundreds of millions of dollars they waste, trying to beat Mother Nature at her own game. As I write, Jetty Country again, is no longer, Allenhurst to Long Branch, well, done. Before the insanity of keeping homeowners, who now claim the beaches as their own property, the groins, and the structure they helped create, was a stopping place for all predator fish, striped bass, bluefish and fluke. They would wait for the bait and then it was game on. "Blitzes", if you ever really seen one, are not the "Flurries" we see today. 10-15 minutes of mayhem and then off the beach and gone. Blitzes, I am told in the good old days, lasted for days, not straight, but every day on the time and tide, bass would push in and it would go off. I caught it 10 years go below, Marine Place, Deal, NJ.
So the problem now is, there is no structure, there is no bait, yes mole crabs, some white bait, but the bass you see are in and out of the surf, as there are no holes for them to hang. If you do find the "hole", there will be 6 guys there. It's funny to see, outgoing tide, no one to your right, no one to your left, but then in the distance to the north 6 guys are within 75 feet of each other. Guys, that's how you find a hole if you can't read structure.
In years past, maybe 10 years ago, guys lined the groins, or set their alarms early to get the groin tip spot, knowing bunker were in, and they wanted to get a few casts before the boat guys f'ed it all up by driving through them, or corraling them away from the beach into deeper waters. That is no more.
And for that reason many Jersey guys, surfcasters, made the pilmigridge to the waters of the Cape Cod Canal and Montauk. I am no expert, or even a novice on either, but I can tell you from many discussions with angers and guides, "It ain't what it used to be", and if it does happen, its way later, and here and gone. So those trips aren't made anymore, 6 hour ride (one way) for a 6 hour tide just isn't worth it anymore. Now, you know I love fly fishing Newport and Martha's Vineyard. I am just a few
So if we talk about seasons. No other state, as solid as New Jersey, has a 9 month striped bass season. If you take the open season of March 1st to December 31st in the bays and rivers, with the beach open all year, it is a 9+ month fishery, and you can catch. Not to many other states have that.
We are positioned in a fantastic place. Striped bass are anadromous, live in the salt, return to the fresh water to spawn. We have the Chesapeake below us, the Delaware to the left of us, the ocean to the right of us, and the Hudson above us. All of those fish come and go and stay and leave and pass by at different times. It would be a hoot if each strain had a different color fin so you would know who and from where you are catching. I think you need an ear stone sample, an otolith, to really tell.
We start in the spring, as the bass hit the back warmer waters looking for food, shrimp, worms, crabs, and now bunker, both big and small, they follow the shad and herring up the rivers. Then out front the big migratory fish follow the bunker, now way off the beach, either post spawn or pre sworn, depending on their natal river. In the summer, they're still here, first and last light and into the night, bass look for mole crabs, small white bait, crabs, and yes again, bunker, from on the beaches to under the dock lights.
Then in the fall, not too good lately, we have a mullet "run", now just a few good days of mullet running down the beach. But, since the fall fishery is really now a late fall fishery, their aren't many bass around, or the beaches now aren't an appealing place for them to come and eat. In the late fall the bays are choked with bait, and the bass don't wait and will go and find them. Sadly, its a boat fishery
and most days a shit-show out there. Yes, guys always claim "We were all alone", and that happens, but its not the norm. I can tell you seeing 100 boats in a spot, or over a channel or on a flat, just ruins your day even if you are a mile away, why, because you can't stop thinking of how many bass are being killed, wounded or maimed.
If the surfcaster or fly rodder is a loser or is cheap then they won't get in on the boat bite. If the bunker didn't come down the beach they pray for one thing each night in the late fall, "Sand eels". Ah sand eels, I love a sand eel bite, not those 1 inch annoying sand eel clouds in the Vineyard or Cape, but our nice 4-6 inch French fries that bass love it eat. The problem is, again, structure. Below is a picture of one of the untouched beaches in New Jersey, Island Beach State Park, similar to Sandy Hook. The beaches we have destroyed from Sandy Hook to Cape May don't hold bait like the others. So what
you get is places, like above, like this fall, where there is a bite, and there is a bunch, I mean bunch, of anglers. Driving, catching, kicking, falling, crossing, you name it. This fall IBSP had a bite, like a stupid bite, like "This is going to last for months". Tons of bait and tons of fish I think a little on Saturday, stupid lights out fishing Sunday and Monday, Tuesday, everything was gone, that I know because I was there on that Tuesday.
To be fair, there are fish in other states, there are places with prettier surroundings, there's places with better access, places with nicer fisherman, places with less poaching, well maybe not. I have tried to be fair in describing the good and bad about striped bass fishing, mostly fly fishing, in New Jersey. One thing I didn't point out, in regards to fly fishing and the bays and rivers, it is just a bitch. Why? Access to the water and access to the fish. I have been there, on a solid bite, fishing alongside some sharpies casting bottle plugs 150 feet out, and cranking them in and down, as I try and cast my 450 grain line 15 feet because there's half a garbage dump behind me with wild trees, an abutment to my casting side, and gas pipe line signs on the left. Or its a nice wide open place where you can pull up and see the water and even watch your rod which is soaking bait from you drivers seat, well casting Clouser's between the parked cars isn't really enjoyable. And the river mud, and concrete sub-surface jungle, and the debris, you get it, if you're a flyrodder.
But here's why Jersey is cool. Above is Keith Allonardo. Regular guy. I met him on Facebook, virtual friends. He's a school teacher. Wife, dog, nice guy. So a few years back in June he was walking the Cape May beaches, which I have really learned are a big 'Turn Left and Go" sign, or 'Turn Right and Go" sign for the striped bass depending if they are going south or north. Cape May used to so good, how could it not be. its where the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet? So he's walking with the wife and has his fly rod, per him, it wasn't a fishing outing, and he made some casts and caught the fish of a lifetime. A 50 pound bass on a smallish Clouser. He caught it, quick picture, and it was back in the water. He represents New Jersey's best anglers. One who loves and respects the striped bass. You can see the video below,
So for all of these reasons, in my humble opinion, New Jersey is the best place on the East Coast to be able to fish for and catch striped bass for 9 months out of the year, and actually have fish at your feet or below the bow. Again fly fishing is tough though, especially "In the back", the far back, the urban jungle back, but that's where the fish are, in the spring and in the fall. But stay in your state, you don't come and fish here, but if you do research this fishery, it will only fascinate you and make you respect striped bass even more.