October Reports

October 30, What a windy weekend, but for those brave soles who fought the elements some really nice fish were caught. One of note from the inlet yesterday was a 27 lb. bass caught in the AC inlet by Joe Ricciardi. I'm on my way out this morning so I hope I fare as well. I'm putting up more pictures and some e-mail reports so this may be all I have time for.

From: <PellTrout@aol.com>
To: <david@abseconbay.com>
Subject: Fishing Safari
Date: Friday, October 27, 2000 7:14 PM

Hi Dave,
Thanks again for a great trip. Cindy was pleased to see her name
mentioned in your fishing reports. She's going to take a copy to work with
Her so she can show her friends about the stripped bass She caught. They
can't believe she caught such a large fish in the bay!

We had a really good time even though the fog got you messed up for a
while. Thanks also for keeping us out extra long so we could score the fish.
That was real nice or you. Ok, i don't want to bore you with chit chat. Well
see you on Monday at 8:00 in the morning. Thanks again. Rich & Cindy Pell

From: "Jim Snyder" <jim@jvncomm.com>
To: <reports@abseconbay.com>
Subject: Stripers
Date: Friday, October 27, 2000 10:37 AM

Fished the bank at the mouth of broad creek thursday evening. I had to
try the Stillwater lure dave has been talking about. It seems to be
for real, because we hooked up immediately. We kept three fish, the
lagest one 31".

Jim S.

October 27, The weather this week has been beautiful and the fishing has been picking up accordingly.It really is bass season even though the water temperature has stayed above 60 degrees. Lots of fish have been caught and several really nice ones. I'll make this report a little short so I can post some of them on the picture page.    I did get an e-mail for another fishing reports page so you may want to stop by and check it out. These reports are important to me so I haven't had a chance to see it myself yet. Any comments good or bad , drop me a line. Tim's Fish Pages.

     Back to the real thing. I did get fishing a couple times this week and always got my bass. Real quick, Monday I was goose hunting and when I got the hunters hid between the decoys at Black point I went to check out the back of little bay where we had watched several hundred geese take off and fly into the refuge. I didn't find any goose activity, but I picked three nice stripers up to 28" off the bank at the intersection of Betsy's Channel , Little Mud and Little Bay. They all liked the Stillwater Lures Clatter Shad. Later in the day I had a lot of time to fish eels around Meadow Cut and the north end or Reeds Bay, but never got a touch.
    Wednesday Night I finally got to fish a hot bite that Drew the Bay Pirate discovered over the weekend. The exact spot shall remain nameless in deferance to Drew being the one that found it and caught lots of bass up to the 20 lb fish i put on the picture page. Basicly, we were fishing the end of a long bar where it ended at the inland waterway. We passed the channel marker and when we got to 6 feet of water dropped anchor and casted lures into the deep and swam them up onto the bar. Drew was in his boat thirty yards away and scored first while I was the first one in my boat to hook up. I still had on the same rattler so I proved that one worked in the dark. Big Dave got into the act with a matching 26" fish. He favors the black bomber and he proves it worked. His son Little Dave was throwing a #17 black bomber and had some smashing hits, but never got his fish to the boat. Things never peaked like they had for the several nights prior so we went hunting. The tide was just getting right for meadow cut so I made the ride and we got out on the bank on the North end. Little Dave made the first cast and got nailed with his first striper as the lure approached the bank. That looked like all the action when Little Dave threw up so far on the flat I thought he would get hung up, but instead hung onto a nice sized striper. The fish moved a lot of water in the shallows and we knew it was good, but in experience let the line get slack enough to let him throw the hooks.

     We worked our way back drifting eels and bunker and never got touched so we went back to the original plan. We heard some fish rolling in the darkness so we went back to work. Before Long Little Dave hooked up on his big bomber . This fish ripped him around the channel marker so to get him in we had to start the boat and pull anchor. Anyone doubting the abraision resistance of Power Pro line wouldn't after seeing that fight. Anyway we got under control in time to boat a 16 1/2 lb 35" fish. We hadn't found a blitz, but we had a good solid night of fishing.

    Yesterday I had a chartered trip and got myself imbarraced by getting severely bewildered in the dense for that laid in all morning. My GPS is on the way back to Lowrance and a bad attitude kept me from putting a compass in the boat I only use in the back bay. (BAD MOVE) I wanted to hit Little Beach at the high tide, but it took me most of an hout to find Steelmans which suprisingly was dead, same with the mouth of Broad Creek. I tried to make the run to Meadow Cut using my keen sense of direction and depth finder and knowlege of the marshes and waters. Over an hour later we were fishing again. but not where I had planned. Nothing happening there so finally I poked along the waterway to Black point and almost noon I could see the next island and the weakfishermen in the ocean said it had opened up off the beach. I gave it a shot across Little bay and hadn't gone 400 yards when the back of the bay was completely open. However I had missed the top of the tide I wanted to fish. I did mark fish in some of the holes, but they must have had full bellies because the only fish in the boat was the 5 lb weakfish we had caught on an eel in Meadow Cut.

With the tide approaching low I headed back and figured to keep trying to get a fish who had dropped int the holes at the bottom of the tide. Cindy finally got her first striper as we drifted the eels past the 167 marker and got a good workout with a 15 lb class fish. Rich got his first as well as we continued thru the rips around the 174 in reeds bay. A bookend to the first, we finally gave it up when the slack tide had taken movement out of the water. A very Strange Trip, but successfull and the crew will be making aother with me next Monday. Hopefully we'll encounter more normal conditions.

General fishing Little Egg Inlet is turning on for bass, particulary at night. Lots of big catches comming from that spot. Weakfish continue to fill the Ocean Side fisherman's boxes. Yesterday the hot spot was off the Ventnor Pier. Looks like high winds this weekend could put a damper on getting outside. The tog fishing is also very hot right now. I weighed in fist to 7 1/2 lb. from the T-Jetty this week. Try hooking up by a bridge , jetty or sod bank with some crabs and hook into some of these fighters. you'll be out of the wind and catching fish. Please keep up the e-mail reports, I may be a little slow, but I'll get them up.

Now I have to get ready for a big weekend. All the bait is coming in today. Fresh Bunker is on its way, I have a shipment of 15,000 eels arriving and the frozen stuff is already here. Lures are going out fast so I have more boxes to unpack whatever your fishing plans stop by and get what you need, I"ll be ready.

From: "Phillip Fors" <Phinatil@webtv.net>
To: <reports@abseconbay.com>
Subject: Brigantine, North end
Date: Thursday, October 26, 2000 5:12 AM

Hit the beach about 4pm on Wed. Found a weed-free spot at the North end
and hooked a 3lb Taug. On the next cast I had a giant hit and the fight
was on. 1/2 hr later I landd a beautiful 43.4lber. I had the fish
weighed for the derby (best one so far). Great evening. Phil

October 22, It's been quite a weekend so far To buzy thats as far as tthis report got I'll start again above.

October 20, There were a lot of flounder stories on the radio today and with beautiful weather comming tomorrow we should hear from a lot of people who have to throw them back because the season is over by the time you read this. The weakfish have re grouped since the east wind that we had most of the week. Lou Polisano had a great day today with a Mega Bait Jig he bought which was a perfect immitation for the spearing they were eating.. He said there were some big ones and he will be back for more of the Mega Bait metals tomorrow to try and repeat. Give the Polly O a call on channel 68 to find out where they are biting.

For those of you who would rather catch a striped bass than eat it is getting time to get fishing. I'm still having great luck with my Stillwater Clatter Shad. I woke up at 4 am this morning and found a dead calm night. I jumped in the boat and brought back a 31" fighter caught on the clatter shad off the west point of Mankiller Island. I released a couple slot fish too. not bad to be back at work by 6:30 am. Wednesday I had a goose trip which was not too bad considering the weather, but for me the best part was catching five stripers at meadow cut on the shell pile by the refuge creek. Two fell into the slot and one of them came home for dinner. All were caught on the same lure. Actually catching probably almost twenty stripers on one lure is strange for me since usually I make some mistake and loose the good ones, but the finish is holding up great and if I don't break off on a backlash or something stupid I expect to catch twenty more.

It looks like everything is happening this weekend. I have weighed in a lot of real nice bass today with Rich Reed making a short trolling trip with his girlfriend and bringing in a 17 1/2 lb beauty along with another 33" fatty. The big fish fell for a jointed bomber in read head silver flash which as you will see in the following report is one of Riche's favorites. I have a load of pictures to post, but I won't get to that tonight. I expect to be buzy tomorrow , but here are a couple reports sent to me. Please send in yours whenever you can.

Dave, First chance to hit your site. Excellant reports. Rich from Egg
Harbor here, always get my bait and tackle at your place. Thursday night
10/12, hit the banks behind Little Beach, at high tide. The moon was full,
the tide was up and it was around 9pm. I boated two keeper bass on pearl
bomber. My cousin boated one keeper and my other friend had eight fish on
but, only boated one. They were hitting his teaser above his bomber and the
hook was too small. Friday morning we trolled the bank with crystal bomber
with red head, boated one keeper. One striper was filled with shrimp and one
was filled with small crabs. So they must have individual tastes also.
Planning on going out this weekend so you will see me buying at the shop.
Rich AKA "Captain Crusty."

From: "dannheath" <dannheath@email.msn.com>
To: <reports@abseconbay.com>
Subject: Stripers
Date: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 8:33 AM

Dave,

Came in Monday to buy eels drifted two with no luck, I started plugging in Broad Creek and caught my first Keeper Striper, on the bomber you sold me. See ya today at around 1300 hours.
Thanks for two years of great fishing!!!
Danny
From: <Bentrod5673@aol.com>
To: <Pictures@abseconbay.com>
Subject: world record true albacore
Date: Thursday, October 19, 2000 3:38 PM

caught on 10/14/00 aboard the tail dancer out of brigantine .....captained by
capt. jim fowler........also on board was stan iwanowski who caught the fish
which wieghed in at 133.0lbs. and capt. joe whitmore of sea tow who caught
another true albacore which wieghed in at 124.8lbs.

October 17, The fall sure is getting to be a buzy time of the year. I can't believe how hard it s to get here and update the web page. The last week has been fantastic for fishing because of the fish and because of the weather. The stripers have made great improvements over the last week I even got to catch a few which I will get to shortly. Probably the biggest news has been that the bait has begun to run down the beach and is being pursued by ravenous weakfish and bluefish. The blues are mostly small, but along with a good number of spike weakfish there are some real slammers. Saturday and sunday were fish circuses on the north end of Brigantine in 20 feet of water. Birds boats and fish were bunched the whole day . Metal jigs such as Hopkins, bucktails, top and bottom rigs with squid all caught fish just as fast as they were dropped to the bottom, hopefully, because you had to get thru the pesty bluefish. To catch the biggest weakfish baiting up with live peanut bunker seemed to make them bite better. It definately wasn't necessary, but you could avoid a few spikes by using the large live baits. There were similar reports from farther south, but for last weekend Brigantine seemed to be the hot spot.

Fluke were available and the die hards that had to get in a last weekend before the season closes on the 20th did fairly well. fish were found from the beach to the wreck areas however not that the wind has turned to the NE again the season is effectively closed. Tog are around in big numbers and more anglers are taking advantage of these ugly fat fish that pull on your rod and eat extremely well on the table. all the bridges, jetties and sod banks are giving up keeper fish so for something completely different giv tog fishing a try.

to the true afficionado the fall means fishing for only one kind of fish. That is the Striped Bass and they seem to be comming right on sceduel. I took out several supposed snow goose hunting trips last week and with the blue bird weather only had limited success on the snow birds. I did get into my first striped bass of the season. My best luck came at Meadow Cut and I found a new favorite lure in the process. Tuesday morning after setting out the goose decoys I took a coffee and fish break before settling in with the goose hunters. With the tide rising, my favorite spot is on bank of the south east corner of the cut. I tied on a Stillwater Lures Clatter shad, which is a lipless crank bait , basicly a rattle trap knock off, but with a heavier weight super saltwater hardwear and a really lifelike holigrafic finish. On about my third cast I was slammed and had my first fish of the season. This was a slot fish which was released for good luck and I proceded to land five more in the next twenty minutes. All on the rattler and all from the bank. One just passed the 28" mark and that was my dinner fish. I did a little more fishing thru the day and did release a couple 20" fish from Little Bay.

Thursday was my next chance and I took the hunters on a fishing break . One of them had a slot fish at Little Beach on an eel from the bank and as I set them on the geese and basicly drifted within sight on this beautiful indian summer day. No fish came my way so as the outoing tide slowed down I basicly gave up and pulled my boat to the bank on the NE end of Meadow cut, threw out the rods already baited with eels and picked up the newspaper. A rattling noise in the back of the baot proved to be the rod in its holder and I was fast to a nice 26" slot fish. this got my attention and without moving I boated three more fish in the next hour including a 28 1/2" keeper and lost a slightly bigger fish with a pulled hook at the side of the boat. It just goes to prove it's never over until it's over.

Friday was another day to do some fishing and one of the hunters had a 31" bass of the same point in Meadow Cut along with one slot fish I caught early in the morning. I felt the warming water had slowed the bite but fish definately were available. Reports throughout the weekend seemed to make this point that those anglers who put in the time and tried different tactics put fish in the box. Now that we are past the full moon I feel all we need is another cold front and we can start to rack up some numbers of nice fish in the back bay. The surf report had been good as well. I sold out of black Yo-Zuri mag darters to beach fishermen who were racking up fish off Brigantine beach. These fish must be shadowing the schools of weakfish during the daytime but pushing into the beach at night. I've also had some good beach reports on fresh bunker since I finally got a steady supply. Harrah's also seems to be picking up on the bass action as well as the weakfish under the lights. If the bait comes into the inlet this may turn into the hot spot it was two years ago. This is a really easy spot to give night fishing a try.

I got a couple reports and a new area fishing site which looks interesting including a local message board. so take a look and please share your successes or failures with your fellow fishermen. REPORTS

Love your site and love the all the different types of bait you always
carry.We are docked around the corner and have come in to get bait that
is not available were we go out.We have added a link to your site and
hope you will do the same for us.PS lets try to make it to work this
Friday lol.

Thanks
Nick
Atlantic City Fishing
http://www.acfishing.com

Name:		Thomas Caterina
Vessel:		Mighty Ming
Date:		October 13, 2000
Where Fished:		Brigantine Sod Banks
Weather:		Sunny
Wind:		less than 10 kts.
Sea Conditions:		less than 2 ft.
Report:		Live lined peanut bunker on a float while chunking near the sod bank. Hooked up with two Bass early morning incomming tide, boated a 10 pounder. Friday the 13th, good thing I'm not superstitious.

October 9, The fall weather sure blew in fast. The temperature and northwest breese really made changes start happening. Weakfish continued to be the big story over the weekend, however most of the news was along the beach front. I had a Brigantine customer come over to pick up 100 eels early and he said the surf fishermen were blitzing small and medium weakfish with birds along the beach front yesterday morning. On Saturday a customer kingfishing close to the beach was doing well on the tasty silver fish when he let himself drift out to where the birds were working in about 20 feet of water. The weakfish loved his bloodworms as well and this fishing pair filled their cooler with six pound class weakfish. When the school changed over to big croakers and spike weakfish they decided that they had enough and brought in quite a catch. If I get time I'll post pictures of that one. .

Stripers continue to be a slow start, but the right tide after dark is producing well. I've had reports that Harrah's is the hot spot and it seems that the bass are just beginning to push their way into the back. The amount of baitfish back here is still amazing so if we can get them in the door we should have a great supply of fat sassy bass to play with. But with all this bait around it will be a job to fool them. As long as these baby bunker are thick they will probably be the ticket along with lures to catch yur fish. If you don't have a livewell and cast net it may be time to make the investment. Taking a little time to catch your bait and take care of it can ad a lot to your fishing pleasure.

I have an awful lot going on today. , at least the eels don't take as much care as shedder crabs, but I have over 10,000 swimming around the tanks so I do have to check on them. It seems like a lot of customers are planning a big year because I've sold a lot more 100's already this year than I did last year. It may be because of the better price. Buying these big loads allows me to sell them to you at $60.00 a hundred which is less than I paid two years ago. I also have to get my Goose Buster boat back in the water and loaded up for the season's first Snow Goose Trip tomorrow. Saturday there were a total of 28 geese on the refuge and according to crabber and fellow goose guide Al Kurtz yesterday morning the sky and marshes were full of them. He said that there seem to be lots of families with young birds so maybe this year will bring better luck fooling the snow birds. Anyone interested in a trip hunting the snow geese or any of the local waterfowl give me a call. If I ever get s couple hours time free I will get information on the hunting trips posted and keep a hunting reports page. With the late season we have been given this year it should be a very good duck season and for those outdoorsmen who enjoy both hunting and fishing I can combine the best of both worlds with combination waterfowl and striper trips. As I said until I get a chance to post complete information call 609-484-0409 or 800-352-2524 or e-mail safaries@abseconbay.com

October 6, We've had a breeze out of the north east all week long which just hasn't put a lot of fish into the area. By fish I mean Striped bass as everything else continues hot. Weakfish are still the best bet and they have been gobbling the peanut bunker as fast as they are put down, if you can get them thru the bluefish. They are still choking the Absecon Creek and the back bays and are readily available for anyone with a cast net. They are the only weakfish size live bait I have in my tanks as I have been completely frustrated in my search for finger mullet. The knowlegable word has it that this east wind will keep them migrating off the beach where they can avoid the pounding waves and keep away from the predators which take advantage of those kinds of situations. Another hot method of catching weakfish is floating bloodworms under a bobber along the jetties. One regular customer has been going thru a couple dozen worms every morning on the Brigantine Jetty catching best in the dawn just around sunrise. Besides weakfish to over 3 pounds yesteday he began catching the hickory shad, also known as ocean herring. These fish should be making their way into the back bays and when they do is always the time I begin to get consistant striper action.

There are lots of other fish avaliable I've had some very satisfied customers picking over the last of my shedder crabs and taking them and bloodworms to catch some big perch , monsters is the way they describved them with a lot going to 1 3/4 pound which is good eating. Kingfish continue to make a showing and I have had a lot of interest in tog. The full blown season starts October 10. but I've had requests for green crab already, so now have them in stock. I had one afficionado tell me he caught and released 60 on a trip last weekend. Fishing a bridge or sod bank after an early morning striper trip may be just the thing to ad some variety to your bag. Broad Creek has also been giving up some slab porgies which are especially favored by some of more descriminating fish dinner devotes. To catch the biggest the best bait seems to be cut spot which you have to catch first. That is one more reason to have bloodworms which are suddenly one of the most popular baits. I guess it is a good season for them as well as my supplier has been bringing me the biggest livelest worms I have had all year.

Off shore has been more than a little off I believe which is due to the almost constant easterly winds. When we finally get thingsd to calm down it doesn't last long enough to give the fish a true chance to settle down. It appears a good sized high pressher area is starting over us now which will cool things down a bit and hopefully heat up the fishing. I had a call forn Sayerville last evening and Joe Albin was out catching school stripers when the first big Snow Goose Migration began and was passing over head. Quite a nice evening to see the geese and catch school stripers. He counted 28 releases on fish up to 22" on the Raritan River and his partner Tony had 20 mostly on the fly rod. Joe also wanted to mention how good the new Clatter Shad lure from Stillwater lures was working. This looks like a Rattle trap , but comes thru with a holigram finish and truly heavy saltwater hardware. The 1 1/4 oz size is just about perfect with a faster sink rate than the rattletrap. The price is also a little better which makes it attractive as it will definately attract its share of bluefish along with the bass and they like nothing better than to separate yopu fron your tackle. They aso are making some fantastic looking poppers which I suggest you take a look at next time you are in the store.

With the snow geese on the way It is time for me to get ready for the hunting parties. After the dismal hatch last year there has been a definate lack of interest in trying to fool the white birds this year, and I can't blame anyone for not wanting to bother, especially when the bass fishing is picking up so well. I did finish giving the Goose Buster Boat it's annual going over yesterday and it is ready to go for Geese, Ducks, Brant , Stripers or whatever the game is. I guess it's time to break out the decoys which is another giant project. If you are interested in getting out in the marshes for some waterfowl hunting or just hunting up the bass give me a call and well get a date set asside.

One last note the Web Master from Bass Barn.com stopped by to introduce himself and check out the store he mentioned that they havea new message board up which I checked out and it does seem quite active. I suggest you stop by and give it a look see. Here's the link www.thebassbarn.com There are a variety of boards which is different than the surf boards which so far are the most active NJ boards I have found.

Its time to quit and get ready for antoher big weekend. A lot of nervous anglers have begun to search for the bass so I have another big load of eels comming in today and I should have a load of wooden eel boxes comming in so you can stock up on my price of $60 per hundred and save money as well as always have bait available for last minute trips.

From: "Phillip Fors" <Phinatil@webtv.net>
To: <reports@abseconbay.com>
Subject: Brigantine surf
Date: Wednesday, October 04, 2000 4:13 AM

Hit the beach on Sun. Things were slow till 10am. Landed 2 between 10 &
1030. One was 28" and the other 30". Went out again yesterday and got
another 30"er about the same time. Using Clams. Phil

October 3, 2000, We are now truly into fall fishing and with the good weather the back bay fishing has been just about super. It definately was a weakfish weakend especially since the constant North east breese has kept almost all of the boats in the bay. The northeast wind and heavy surf was the only thing that put a damper on the weekend. The rough surf has the effect of keeping the bait off the beach because they cannot negociate the waves, Oviously this also has the effect of keeping the fish off the beach in search of their dinner. I have put hours on my boat this weekend looking for finger mullet and oviously they are off shore. I did get a last good hit on the big corncobs so I should have them well into the bass run. however peanut bunker have been the only available weakfish live bait over the weekend, but they have been working extremely well. As a mater of fact I am just finishing up with the last of the years shedder crabs, but the fishermen using them have had only limited success compared to tle live bunker.
If you want to try the live bunker for bait wether you buy it from me or catch it yourself, remember that it is extremely delicate and unless you have some sort of areated livewell they will not live more than a few minutes. Another point to remember is that with the vast schools of baby bunker we have around if you are throwing a cast net it is tempting to really load up on them. Unfortunately these small baits do not hold up well fresh or frozen and really loose most of their effectiveness. Remember no resourse is unlimited so catch what you need and leave the rest undisturbed. You can always go back and catch more if you run out.
On the bass front things age gradully improving every day. I got a fantastic report sunday of a regular customer named Darryl who caught a 53 inch striper at Harrah's Saturday night. Big Dave was in the store and saw the pictures, unfortunately I was out catching mullet so I could not scan them to post them on the site. A couple of locals are quietly fishing the back of Absecon Bay where I have been catching the corncob mullet and have been doing it too consistantly to not be hooking up, so I have to suggest looking for fish far back where they are eating bait. Just about everyone has begun to pick up fish if they are getting out after dark. I also have had reports of the bloodworm fishermen catching more and more eels so you can bet that the stripers will start filling up the rips and eel baits will turn them on quite well. The big problem especially during the daylight will be to get the eels past the bluefish. You'll have to be ready to sacrafice a few eels if you want to try this fishing in the near future.
As you can see I put the old reports in an archive so the page will load faster if you want to go back go to , summer reports, I also have word of another striper tournament, the MICA club is running a three day tournament October 27th, 28th, and 29th. see details on the tournament page. Remember I am looking to post info on any other tournament and also appreciate any fishing report you would send. I'm also starting a new picture page for the month so bring your fish to the shop or e-mail me your pictures so you can brag over the internet.