Shorts, shorts, shorts, and I'm not talking about pants!

    Sometimes I am haunted by the thought that I will never again see as big a fish as I have in the past by the side of my kayak (which truth be told isn't even that big), to slide it onto my lap and regard its beauty.  I am now the master of the 20" back bay striper!
     I can say with near certainty that no-one was fishing in N.J. this time last year.  So as I look at my records I have to go back to Oct 2011.  We were fishing the sedges from land with eels back then, and my records are vague in that they say "many fish 30"-35" for all three of us, (KGB, Steve and I) from Oct 26th to Nov 7th. 
     Almost every fishing trip has a week of planning and theorizing behind it.  So, when the time comes to fish, the let-down of unfulfilled dreams is tremendous.  What would seem to a normal person as a good day on the water turns into utter failure for the crazed and demented and addicted fishermen that we are.
    To the point: I was after big fish.  I sought structure and deep water.  I used live baits.
   
The Report:

     On Monday Oct 28th I went on an evening trip with KGB.  Our plan was to fish until 11:00 PM, but instead we fished until 1:00 AM.  I made a beeline for the N. Jetty.
Slack tide in the inlet was 6:00 PM and sunset was around 6:00 PM, a wonderful coincidence worth taking advantage of.  I trolled tube-n-worm through Snake ditch and caught two shorts.  I could have stayed and caught more fish (and perhaps larger fish), but my thoughts were stuck on the fact there would be larger fish along the rocks.  There were a few guys fishing the pocket, a diver at the end, and several boats fishing over the rocks at the end of the N. Jetty.  It was calm, and the boat traffic was surprisingly low.  I had no problems trolling  my lure out to the end of the jetty, then at the end of the incoming drifting an eel back in.  I didn't even get a sniff.

N. Jetty

     After the sun had set I fished with eels in Oyster Creek Channel along with MANY boats.  Again, not a sniff.
     Back inside I caught a few more shorts on bass assassins, all tagged and released.  We ended the trip floating eels around in Snake Ditch.
     Not a Sniff.

A short striped bass tagged fish for the American Littoral Society

    I got to hand it to KGB, he stuck it out with the big baits and got skunked, while I couldn't help but toss small plastics and catch 20" fish.

     Two days later I was back at it, only because I could.  My confidence level was WAY too high.  For sure, I thought, this time there would be big fish around, as the boats had been nailing them out front just the day before.  Steve and I fished from about noon to 11:00 PM.  He stuck to flats fishing with a popper and was able to conjure up some shorts (and tails of larger fish).  I was determined to hit deeper water, again, with bigger lures.  This time I went straight out to Oyster Creek Channel.
     I found a school of shorts out by Seal Island.  I stopped harassing them to troll my tube in deep water.  I probably gave up on this too soon.
     I paddled to the corner of Snake Ditch where a million short bass live.  I was beginning to be bored.  I started to go through all of the free soft plastic lures that I had gotten at the tournaments recently.  First was a Chartreuse bass assassin.  I watched a fish come look at it.  Next cast I  slowed my retrieve and hooked up.   I cast it a few more times, then Steve joined me for a dinner break on the corner.  As we were sitting there, I threw on a generic version of a Mr. Twister.

Mr Twister

Something I had never used before, but others do well with out there.  I had a whole baggie full of them.  First cast, fish on. (Yet another 20 inch fish)


 Once again I ended my day at Snake Ditch drifting an eel, getting no love.   The tide was really slack, both Steve and I felt satisfied with the trip.

old Barney and a calm inlet