Well, my LONG streak (my life of 32 years) without landing a fish from the surf more than 3 pounds has finally come to a finish!
Fished the surf in South Jersey Monday from 11:00AM - 7:00PM. Pulled up to the beach at 11:00 during the last 30 minutes or so of the outgoing tide. Found some really nice structure with an exposed bar. So my dad, brother, and myself decided that it looked like it might hold some fish:
At dead slack tide, we decided the hole close to the beach had nothing going on as it was crystal clear and no signs of anything going on at that time. That hole in front of the bar was actually quite deep! The water was up to my belly line at dead low and the bar just rose from the depths in a matter of being 36" deep to NO water on the bar in one step. That hole will usually hold alot of fish, but we had no luck there and went out to the main bar and casted well over. There was a report that some other guy(s) walked out to that bar and at low tide and nailed several keeper Stripers a few days prior, so we figured we'd give it a go.
Here is the scene at low tide facing South:
And now facing North. Note the deep slough to the left (yes, that narrow area is quite deep!). Sorry for the bad editing btw. No spot burning here
So now, we are on the bar casting out past the breakers. My bro to the left, me in the middle with two rods out and my pops to the right. We are mainly going with clam, both frozen and fresh since we had gotten some Striper shorts earlier in the week and others were hitting them on clam. But we picked up some fresh bunker to have on hand. On an old rod of mine, I had the clam on a 9/0 Octopus Circle in front of a FF. On the new Tica rod / Shimano 4500 baitrunner setup, I have a chunk of bunker with the same setup.
We are fishing for about and hour and the tide just starts to creep back in. I go back to shore to get a bottled water with both poles still out in the water. Not much is happening. I had a skate a few minutes earlier. None of the other fisherman were doing anything either. My dad toyed with the bait bucket, my brother was casting out his old conventional.
Just then, as I am walking back out the bar, I hear it! TZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ, TZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! The Baitunner with bunker on it is SCREAMING, and my dad looks back at me while I am wading back through the slough to get out to the bar and just screams , "STEVEN! STEVEN!". Needless to say, I plow through the slough and onto the bar, knowing full-fledged what was happening. I ditch the bottle of water and race over to the rod which is still humming! I yank the rod out of the sandspike and override the baitrunner. As I start to reel to main drag takes over, it hit like a ton of bricks. The drag was set JUST right and for the first time in my life, I had myself a fight with a nice sized fish (for me anyway) and the hook felt like it set perfectly!
This fish was decent size, and it was aggressive. With rod tip up, I start to reel in and fight the fish. So far, so good. This fish seemed to just stop fighting and felt like dead weight for about 5 seconds. As I got the fish closer to the breakers, he started to run for open water. After losing a nice one last week by letting the fish take control, I fought back this time. I could feel every single thing this fish was doing. The rod and reel was so smooth, I could literally feel this fish's jaws trying to spit the hook. I kept tension on him and tightened the drag 2 more clicks. I could feel I had something nice, but had no clue what it was. I just assumed another skate, maybe a cownose ray.
It was at this point, I felt the line begin to run quickly and at about 30 yards distance from me, the fished showed itself, full body out of the water. It was a slammer blue!! My dad and the other fishermen's eyes were glued on this fight and let out several ooohs and ahhhs as the blue continued to break water on the way into the breakers. I gently rode him in on the waves while keeping tension the entire time. Finally, I had a nice fish!
When I landed the large blue, I looked to the sky and thanked the fish gods for this catch. She was a beauty! Measured 28" and weighed 7 pounds, not bad for this day!
Couldn't get it in the cooler
Well, the blue tore up my fluoro leader pretty good, so I changed to a fresh rig and started fishing again. Still out there on the bar, the tide is starting to come in now and the slough behind us is getting pretty deep. We figured a few more casts and we would move back to shore and try from there.
I'm standing next to my rod when my brother says it looked like something was nibbling on my bunker. I pick up the rod and felt what seemed to be a crab nibbling. It wasn't strong because the baitrunner wasn't even doing anything and I had it set fairly loose. Right then, about 5 yards of line went out very slowly. I felt the nibble again, so I figure maybe a late season croaker is playing around trying to chew off the bunker. That was exactly what it felt like, something small. The line starts to move out slowly again, about 5 yards, and I figure I'll wait and let whatever it is take my bait, maybe I'll get lucky and foul hook a croaker with my big 9/0
The line continues to slowly move and I decide that I am going to attempt to set the hook. Worse thing that happens is I scare off a small fish or crab. I set forward and slack the line so whatever is eating has free access to swim off a few feet. I saw the loose line start to become taught. I pull back the rod, shift to the regular drag, and I feel the hook set into something. The line does nothing. It feels like a dead weight to me. I slowly draw my body back, good tension on the reel, and start to draw whatever is on the end of my line closer. I reel in the slack. I repeat this for half a minute before I see a plastic bag filled with water stuck on my line. It was suspended at the surface of the water and now I knew it couldn't be a fish. But something is odd with the dead weight on the end of my line. It it moving to the left, opposite the direction the bag is taking my line. Then it starts to run towards the deeper water. I did indeed have a fish on my line. The line starts to let out and this fish means business. It went out about 35 yards into fairly murky water with scattered seaweed and seagrass on the surface. I tighten my drag a bit trying to cut off his escape out into the sea. I get him to the breakers and the fish shows itself in the wave.
Another slammer blue! This one much bigger than the first. The fish and I make eye contact when in the wave. The fish clearly sees me and makes an immediate run for deeper water, but I was not having it. I tighten the drag a quarter turn, fight this monster, and finally surf him onto the sandbar (yep, we are still on the sandbar at this point!).
Here is what he looked like:
This blue measured about 32" and was clearly much fatter than the first. I estimate the weight at around 9 pounds!
After all was said and done though, that was it for us on fish. Nobody else did anything, all was quiet on the beach.
So, not really the Striper I was hoping for, but that was alot of fun and a good practice for when the time comes.
Tight lines!
Steve