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Stripers out
back
Five locations where
you'll find 'em this fall
Oct. 9, 2008 |
by Daniel Nee
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It’s
that time of year again. The air is getting
cooler, the days are getting shorter, and even
the back bay water temperatures are beginning to
dip just a bit thanks to the chilly nights.
While many dedicated anglers head to the surf
this time of year, our region’s back bays and
rivers can provide just as much striped bass
action in an even quieter, more intimate
setting. There’s nothing quite like fishing at
dusk as the sun sets behind sheltered waters –
and whether you’re fishing from a boat or from
shore, the back bays offer big fish and a myriad
of ways to catch a trophy.
For the otherwise surf angler looking to tangle
with back bay bass, knowing where to start is
key to hooking up. It’s no secret that access to
New Jersey’s waterways – especially our back
bays and rivers – can be scarce. Between
commercial establishments and residential
developments, New Jersey’s dense population,
even in the Shore area, has led to the
land-based angler being left out in the cold for
years. Luckily, there are many places where
anglers can still find a sandy piece of land to
fish from. Sometimes, even the development of
the Shore area yields the occasional
diamond-in-the-rough fishing spot that stripers
call home.
One such location, along the banks of the
Manasquan River, has been discussed as one of
the hottest locations for early season striped
bass this year. Out of a construction project to
replace the aging (and oftentimes… stuck in the
upward position) Sept. 11 Memorial Bridge which
carried State Highway 70 over the Manasquan
River came a pair of two, new fixed-span bridges
which carry traffic west and east. Most local
anglers were upset that the four- year-long
construction project would disrupt an otherwise
healthy run of weakfish and winter flounder each
year, but instead, the design of the new bridges
seems to have bolstered the local striped bass
contingent.
What’s better – the beautiful fishing pier
constructed on the Brick Township side of the
bridge. The season’s first catches of striped
bass here came in early September, while anglers
in many other parts of the state were hoping for
anything – tog, weakfish, blowfish – to bite due
to the lack of stripers. In fact, most of the
anglers who wound up “piering” a striper were
fishing for weakfish, and the stripers
represented an unlikely but welcome bonus.
Those fishing for weakies were throwing the
traditional weakfish outfit popular in southern
Monmouth and northern Ocean counties, said Dave
Arbeitman, owner of The Reel Seat tackle shop in
nearby Brielle; pink Fin-S Fish mated to
leadheads between a quarter-ounce and .75-ounce
in weight.
When fishing this area, Arbeitman says, the
speed of the river’s current will often
determine the weight used in Fin-S Fish and
similar rubber, soft plastics. The faster the
speed of the current, the more weight is
recommended. A quick look inside Dave’s personal
tackle box reveals a number of these types of
lures – which appear to be of the Lunker City
variety – mated to various size leadheads. “I
actually prefer monofilament to braid,”
Arbeitman says, explaining that when fishing
here, in a current, some stretch is preferred.
Plus, when fishing the river, lures should not
be over-weighted and dragging along the bottom.
The goal of the lure is to imitate a swimming
baitfish, and soft plastics usually are a good
bet early in the season. Fishing for bass here
is much different than chasing birds and
dropping heavy Ava jigs in the ocean to get
below swarms of chomping bluefish, so an
angler’s best bet is to prepare his tackle box
accordingly and stock up on the lures most
likely to score a hit.
There’s no reason to believe the striped bass
action (as well as some incidental remaining
weakfish hits) won’t improve here as we draw
deeper into the fall season. Lesser amounts of
boat traffic surely help make the river’s only
fishing pier more attractive to anglers hoping
for a bass. The pier, located in Brick Township
at the northwest corner of the bridge, is
designed with handicap access in mind and plenty
of nearby parking.
While the Manasquan River holds plenty of bass,
it doesn’t have the sod banks that allow Raritan
Bay and South Jersey anglers to fish from shore
easily. While waders will most certainly be
required, Fisherman’s Cove, a former dredge
spoil site inside the Manasquan Inlet known to
many as “the dog beach” due to the fact that
dogs are allowed there, can be a productive
location under the right circumstances. Old
timers will tell you live eels work best for
bass here, but as artificials have gained in
popularity in the past two decades, soft
plastics such as Fin-S Fish have become popular
as well.
Many will question why to fish the cove rather
than “the rail” just a block away at Manasquan
Inlet. The answer, as it perpetually is in New
Jersey, is space. Out of etiquette alone, not to
mention logistics, the rail at Manasquan Inlet
isn’t the easiest place to be slinging eels. Not
only can jetty rocks get in the way, but
pedestrians and fellow anglers are often close
by.
Be creative when fishing the cove. While some
anglers choose to wade out closer to the inlet
at the start of the beach near Third Avenue,
other anglers take a longer walk down the beach
and fish closer to the channel entrance to the
Glimmer Glass Harbor, known locally as Crabtown
Creek. There are paths in the cove that provide
good opportunities to access the river where it
begins to meet the cove. If you’re wading out,
be mindful of the boat channel which begins
somewhat close to shore – it’s a steep drop.
From here, you can hook your eel and enjoy
fishing in the solace of the western portion of
the cove, where shore birds often do plenty of
their own fishing this time of year.
The cove, which is owned by Monmouth County, can
be accessed near the end of Third Avenue in
Manasquan, where a former bait shop – now
referred to as the Ranger Station – marks the
entrance.
For boat owners, the area of and surrounding the
Barnegat Inlet is the area’s foremost
bass-holding location, at least as far as the
back bays are concerned. Jetty rocks closer to
the ocean lead to shallow flats alongside the
inner bay channels, and this is one of the few
areas along the central coast of New Jersey
where sod banks offer anglers the chance to land
an absolute cow.
Capt. Jack Shea of Barnegat Bay Fishing Charters
out of Barnegat Township fishes here regularly,
and knows that clams are the preferred bait for
most striped bass anglers. Still, he says, live
spot is quickly becoming the bait of choice
among locals.
“We’ve been using it pretty effectively for the
last six or seven years,” Shea says. “Fishing
with a spot is kind of fascinating, it’s a
hearty bait.”
Spot, which can be found at most local tackle
shops, are kept alive in tanks and, when
transferred to your boat, require a livewell.
Still, they are tough little fish, and Shea says
that he’s even taken them home after a day of
fishing, kept them alive in a pen overnight, and
fished them for a second go-around the next day.
Spot are normally rigged on a 6/0 or 7/0
baitholder hook and fished on medium tackle.
Fishing the waters inside the Barnegat Inlet,
however, takes more than having the right bait.
It takes, well, thinking like a fish.
“I think it’s key for people to understand is
that you need to recognize that it is shallow,
and in New Jersey, you have a lot of boat
traffic,” Shea says. “In Barnegat Bay, you’re
fishing in 12 or 13 feet of water and boats are
going over the fish’s heads constantly. That
boat traffic is going to keep the fish moving,
so position yourself where the fish will be
travelling. If you can understand where the fish
are moving, you’re doing better than most of the
people who are out there.”
The bass often move along the channels, and
after tangling with smaller bass near the jetty
rocks early in the morning, Capt. Shea says he
normally takes customers back inside the bay to
the Oyster Creek and Double Creek channels.
Here, he’ll anchor, and will often chum in hopes
of slowing those fast-moving bass down long
enough to trick one onto his hook. Finding “the
spot” means looking at a depth sounder and
searching out areas along the channel edges to
find an area of bumpy bottom.
“Some spots tend to be better than others, but
that’s largely because the bottom bounces a
bit,” says Capt. Shea. “Those spots tend to take
precedence over the other spots.”
Finally, another area to locate bass near the
inlet are the numerous sod banks off Island
Beach State Park as well as the western portion
of the bay. Fishing the sod banks at high tide
is a sure-fire way to be able to score a
striper, as boaters are able to cast out towards
the bank and then begin to retrieve their bait.
Clams are, historically, the most
commonly-fished bait at the sods. Though more
often thought of a Shore-based fishing
opportunity, the sods offer boaters an
advantage, in that they are choosing an area
that is likely to hold fish rather than “fishing
blind” in the middle of the bay.
The best advice Shea offers to anglers fishing
the bay inside Barnegat Inlet isn’t the
preferred bait or even the preferred method of
fishing but, rather, having a plan and executing
it.
“If you don’t know why you’re fishing in a spot,
you’re probably not going to fish it properly,”
he says. “I always tell people that, you don’t
always want to fish where everybody else is
fishing, but you still have to know why you’re
in the spot you’re in.”
he same goes for landlubbers. While sometimes,
just throwing a lure or a piece of bait into the
water will score a hit, it’s not an efficient
way to fish. For back bay anglers who live in
(or wish to travel to) southern Ocean County, a
pair of roads a few miles apart on Route 9 with
the same name comes to mind as an excellent way
to spend a day of fall fishing – as you as you
know what to expect.
Dock Road – Cedar Run Dock Road and West Creek
Dock Road – both jut out into Little Egg Harbor
Bay, and getting to the end of both requires
just one left turn off Route 9 South.
Both will offer anglers a mixed bag of fishing,
with clams the preferred bait, according to Skip
Deckman, owner of The Chum Bucket, a nearby bait
and tackle shop on Route 9. Bass have already
been taken here, Deckman said last week, and
surf clams have been the bait of choice. Mullet
is another popular bait.
“Dock Road can give you anything, bluefish,
stripers, they even catch winter flounder off
there,” said Deckman. Blowfish and kingfish
round out the smorgasbord of species abound off
both locations.
Fishing either Dock Road is easy – parking is
ample and there’s plenty of space. At the West
Creek Dock Road location, many anglers fish the
nearby sod banks for an edge on the stripers. On
Oct. 1, several keepers had been weighed in, and
shorts were becoming more plentiful.
This fall, when the striper run begins – or for
that matter, before it begins – head out back,
and you may be pleasantly surprised by both the
atmosphere and productivity these areas provide.
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