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.

April 12 & 20 - Raritan Bay, by Alexi

   After years of resisting the lure of fishing Raritan Bay in the Spring, with a few mis-attempts in the past, I went on a tip from a friend who had grown up along the shores of New Jersey's side, and decided to try my hand at what is a known early spring Striper fishery.

   Perchman and I had driven to Sandy Hook in the past, only to abort the plan and drive south to Barnegat.  Besides that trip, we had fished the Jamaica Bay Tournament eons ago.  That is the extent of our collective experience in the waters surrounding New York City.   This time we had better local intel from a friend of mine, who showed me some spots on the maps app on his phone to launch a kayak around Union Beach.  I did a little internet research and found a tackle shop that would be open, and a plan began to emerge; the NOAA charts show that that area is void of any channels or structure, so why not just troll around a tube-n-worm and see what happens.


   On the 12th we got a late start.  I pedaled (that's Hobie for paddled) straight out into open water until I saw a fleet of boats off in the distance, and then I headed straight for them.  It's my open water tactic that works in the ocean for catching fish, as lame as it may seem, it works.  I was into some fish pretty quickly.

one of several 

   I believe it was my first fish that came unbuttoned boat-side, and it was probably the biggest of the day.  This happens more often with the Tube-n-worm lure than others for several reasons:
1) The tube gives the fish some leverage to twist off of the hook,
2) (And this my own undoing) Because I've caught many shorts with tube n worm in the past, I've filed down all of the barbs on my hooks for an easy release, and
3) I tend to bring the fish boat-side green (not tired).

   Suffice it to say that I was more careful after that.  I caught and landed a few more around the fleet, and marked MANY fish on my fish-finder.  And one of the many more fish was a 30"  keeper.  Others were almost all 27"....close.

raritan striper

   I had fish early and consistently, but  Perchman, who was waylaid at the boat ramp by ghosts and had a late start had only caught diapers.  As the day wore on, however, we were both into a steady pick of fish.  We returned to the ramp around sunset.

April 20th.

It was rainy and colder than the previous week.

   We made an attempt to fish early.  It was  a repeat trip in many ways, only most of the day I was skunked.  I had the same plan, go out to the middle, look for the fleet, go to the fleet, only this time they were WAY further away.  I was marking fish and watching other boats pull big fish across the gunwale, but I was not hooking up.  Perchman was having consistent action with the 27" fish, and lost a keeper at the side of his boat.  I was pretty beat so I took a long overdue land-break at Union Beach.  Re-vitalized, and inspired by the prospect of fishing the magic hour (sunset)  I went back out to "the middle."   That's what we called anything that wasn't close to shore, since this part of the bay is just empty.

In the last hour I had consistent action, three fish, all very close to 28"

27" bass

   The waters around New York Harbor are likely cleaner than they've been in the past 100 years, and efforts to re-seed the bays with Oysters along with more waste water  treatment plants are making it better and better, despite the occasional diaper, dead seal, or trash that we see.