The payoff is in the back, By alexi

     November on the New Jersey coast is absolutely THE month to fish for striped bass and everyone knows it.  Almost everyone, anyway.  As I awkwardly  unload my kayak for the third (maybe fourth) time from the top of my truck in the past ten days a passerby asks me "Why are those boats out there? is there a tournament or something?"  No, it's just the first day where a calm ocean has coincided with a weekend.  It's Sunday.  The fleet is already there when  I arrive.

the fleet

Where am I? Spot-burn, the Jersey coast in November.  One giant spot-burn. ( For those unfamiliar with the term: a spot-burn is when you give away a good fishing location.) This whole blog is one giant spot-burn.  The Jersey Coast in November.  Day or night.  Any bridge, any canal, any jetty, any beach, any inlet.  One giant spot-burn.

I tried North.

Keyport Municipal boat ramp

I fished Raritan Bay 2, maybe 3 times.  I lost track.  I was skunked.  It was too windy one night, I was a day late the next trip...Just missed the "bite"  I tried the ocean in Northern Jersey, around Belmar - I saw a dogfish caught one trip, out of a thousand boats, one damn dogfish.  That was funny.  On another trip I was between two boats and they both hooked up with bass on snagged bunker, but I didn't.  So my skunk was persistent.  The wind has been un-predictable.  Two or three times I've had to call a trip short because it was predicted wrong.  Gusting up to 25 or 30 when it was going to be a barely tolerable 15 mph.

I tried drifting eels in the back.  (After catching innumerable shorts in the day) only to come up dry.  No fish on eels.

I tried out front AGAIN, only to be called off by the wind.  Now?  What next?  That's what I asked myself.  Here it is, god-damn November.  The month I should be leaving my Kayak on the top of my truck.  The month I should be leaving my gear ready at the door.  I should be catching fish.

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sedges sunset

Half over.  November 14th.  I start later, I fish later, after reading my own damn blog!  I needed to chase my own reports.  My own spot-burns from previous years.  So I launch at sunset in the Sedges.

...and then the fishing begins...

fishing in the dark

The eels had been collecting in my pond from various trips between Steve and I.  I didn't need to stop at the tackle shop.  I even left a few behind.  I had all of my gear, but once the sun set it was one eel, one rod one circle hook.  I drifted, and I drifted, and I wasn't getting any action.  I made my way to Oyster Creek Channel where I encountered a USCG (Coast Guard) boat with whom I had a peculiar encounter.  The captain thought I was two people on a jet ski.  He said there were no personal watercraft allowed on the water after dark.  I didn't argue, and agreed to head back, which is what I'm always doing once I start fishing.  There is a beginning and an end.  Once I start, I'm on my way back.  And so I made my way around, back through skinnier water that by now I know even better than the back of my hand at any tide.  The night grew long and my toes were cold.  Just as it usually happens with Striped Bass fishing, as the night goes on the fishing improves, and in a very specific rip with a hump and some deeper water I found a school of 26-30" bass that wanted my eel presented in a VERY specific manner.  Finally, a pattern.

night stripers, one of 5 right around 28"

It was just early enough that if I called it a night I wouldn't have to sleep in my truck, so I headed back.  Finally, fall has begun for me.

the end

P.S.
According to the USCG's own website the only requirement to kayak at night is a white light visible 360 degrees.

Curses, By Alexi

I don't believe in good luck, bad luck or curses.  I eat bananas in my boat.  I wear clothes with fish prints, and sometimes I don't.  I don't have a lucky lure, or a lucky rod, or any of that crap.  BUT, if there is one thing that may verge on the superstitious, it is that IF I have fish in the fridge, I will not catch a keeper.  Maybe it's just a confidence issue, I don't know, but it seems to be true.  Last week I still had some striper steaks in my fridge and all of my fish were 27".  I ate the Striper steaks, and this week I managed to land a 33" 12.5 lb Bass.

And now for the report:

   This was a solo trip, and I wasn't in a rush to get out of town.  I've fished Raritan mid-day, and morning, and wanted to fish sunset this time (without having pedaled all day.)  I got to the Keyport Boat ramp with bloodworms and a cheese hoagie around 3 p.m.  It was a little on the windy side, and there was a nice chop on the water when I set out.  I had my Humminbird fish-finder working, and while during the past two trips I had marked fish,  this time I was not.  Things were different, and all rumors pointed to a flush from the rivers into the bay of fresh water from heavy rains.

   Within 45 minutes or so I had a big blue on, .....and off at the side of the boat.  Whenever this happens I get it into my head that I am going to be crushing big  blues all day.   As the day wore on, what seemed to be this inevitable truth became less and less likely to the point where I was  going to be skunked.  I hit a few new areas.  I passed by some other kayakers who told me they were on the fish, and I was in a good spot, and I kept going passed them.  I was getting fatigued, and starting to hate Raritan Bay when, as I approached the area that I had the Blue on at the beginning of the trip, I hooked into another big fish.  It felt like another big blue, tight head shakes and all, and I was so sure that it was, I was a little cavalier about the fight.  As it got closer the boat it sounded in ways more like a bass.  And then I saw stripes.  I immediately changed my tactics to "Land this fish dammit!"  And as is the case with sunset fishing, it's always the hail Mary, end of the day "getter-done" fish!   (Or I was just lucky)

33" 12.5 lbs

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