Jersey Shore Fishing: Lots of bunkers, few fish

It sure looks good a mile off the beach with schools of adult bunkers showing in many areas, but I'm not getting any reports of big bass in them. Bob Correll of bay Head was out there with a friend this morning and they never saw a fish caught among about 30 boats working bunker schools. Correll took his Boston Whaler out of Manasquan Inlet in the afternoon and got into birds working and little tunny breaking. He released a couple on a Deadly Dick before coming into Fisherman's Supply in Point Pleasant to pick me up. In the few minutes it took to get back out the inlet the birds and fish disappeared. We only saw scattered birds and tunny after that, as the fleet charged after every break to no avail. We only got a couple of shots, and never saw a fish caught before coming in after sunset.

The Crisdel from Brielle Yacht Club trolled Shrewsbury Rocks and other hot spots on Wednesday, but only came up with one 20-pound striper.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar only had a pick of jumbo blues today, though they read lots of them. The blues ran from 5 to 18 pounds and were caught mostly on Run-Off Hammer jigs.

Bob Matthews reports that their Atlantic Highlands store had a report from the the Peggy Lee of a blackfish catch up to 12 pounds that was all released.

Grumpy's Tackle in Seaside Park weighed 32.5-inch surf striper that Jerry McQuade caught Thursday on an SP Minnow. It weighed 12.84 pounds.

I cast into great looking waters at Manasquan in the morning, but didn't raise anything to my popper. A big swell persists, but isn't a problem at high tide.

Jim Hutchinson Sr. reports as follows for the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association:

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"Cooler weather has come to Beach Haven, and the striped bass are beginning to show up. The captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are ready to troll spoons and fish live bunker on a "snag and drop" basis. These bass are good sized already with 20-pounders and even a 40-pounder or two coming across the gunnels.

In addition to the stripers, the black sea bass season re-opens on October 22, and that should be a true bonanza if recent catch and release results are any indication. These sea bass are big and in good numbers on structure and artificial reefs within a short trek of the inlet. The daily bag limit for black sea bass is 15 fish, and limit catches are a distinct possibility. These fish make great eating and freeze very well.

At this time the BHCFA captains are finding a great deal of life in the ocean within a couple of miles of shore. There are large schools of bunker along with lots of bird play working over feeding schools of bluefish and false albacore. These false albacore, or little tunny, make poor table fare but they fight very well for their size with 5-8 pound fish common. There have also been some spotings of whales."

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