Well the storms of this week have passed. The first two, the menhaden and then striped bass ASMFC meetings come and went leaving their paths of destruction. Although the menhaden outcomes bode better for the forage fish than the results for the striped bass. Then on Mischief Night, well day, the rains came coupled with some steady winds. And today we can expect stronger winds, which will surely topple trees rooted in the now soggy soil holds. There will be power outages. There will be homes and cars damaged, and people injured, or sadly killed.
As far as the striped bass after the blow? Who knows. Most say that before or after a blow the fish turn on as their inner instincts react to the drop in barometric pressure. They eat as that feeling of impending chaos, or doom, sets in. But it will be a wait and see, or go and see, game to see if all that bait, and I'm hearing the peanuts are stacked in the back, begin their journey out into the ocean. As always, if you don't go then you won't know.
The questions is did the blow kind of signal all those big fish to head south. I think it can truthful to say they really never hit the beaches, like they did in 2024. There will be the next round of fish, I'd like to say there's three big pushes. Will the next find the bait and camp out along the Long Island South Fork and southern beaches? Will they camp in the Bermuda like triangle, or Striped Bass Triangle, of the New York Bight for a while? That triangle I'll call the Rockaways down to Asbury Park back to Perth Amboy.
I hate to bring it up again but each yer I reflect on one of my best days of stripped bass fishing on foot. I had found the fish, was then joined by an army of anglers, and left when I couldn't get my shit together when the fish were in front of me. I left pouting, and the fish biting. I went and made a stop more south of where I had been and the Mother Lode of bass showed up chasing peanuts, weakfish, and butterfish on the beach. It was game on, and it lasted for a long while before it ended.
I caught and released 16 bass to 25 pounds that day with fish to 41 inches. It was a day I'll always remember and may never duplicate again. You can read about that outing, if you already haven't,
HERE.
With all the rain we had I'd think the back of the Raritan is a hot mess and it'll take a few days for the beaches to settle down and clean up. Then we'll see if the temps have dropped and the bait has started moving. Then the big question is, will the bass show up to intercept?
The goal for any Jersey Shore angler should be to find them before the report and beach cam watchers get wind that the bass are on the beach. There's nothing like finding your own fish alone. That's hard if you don't go and put the time in. As I get older it becomes easier to find excuses on why not to go. That's lame. Yes, it's an hour to an hour an a half to the waters edge, and that sucks, but I'll never encounter the above if I always wait and negotiate if to go or not.
I spoke with my friend Mike Ferraro yesterday. He's a fellow Jones Brother's owner and takes the hour and forty five, and $200 trip, from eastern Pennsylvania to either the Raritan or Chesapeake several times each spring and fall. He's due for a day, after finding the skunk or a fish or two when he goes. At 81 he's a stud. For me at 57, I'm not. He's heading out Sunday to the Raritan. where I hope he has a day like Blitz-O-Ween 2014.
