The decade past……
Montauk sand beaches at dawn and dusk, big pencil and tins equal big fish. After so many years of poor springs, after bunker boats have stopped harassing bunker, NJ beaches light up every spring for now seven or eight consecutive years. Spring storms , mainly with east winds bring big bass around Montauk Point in the June. Big fish catches in places like Cuttyhunk, Cape Cod Canal and Cuttyhunk in spring into the summer months
Fast forward to 2010
Spring 2010…insane bunker blitzes on the beaches of NJ. Boaters in NY get a shot at these fish latter in the spring. Cape Cod Canal explodes with mackerel being slaughtered by hungry stripers….
2011
Spring run in NJ is on. Rockaway boaters are killing big bass on bunker spoons. The Delaware anglers are seeing the most insane blitzes anyone can remember. From our friend and popular author Eric Burnley :” Indian River Inlet in Delaware is in the middle of the hottest rockfish bite in memory. The fish are coming in during flood tides and eating everything in sight. Very few are under 28 inches and the largest to date has been 37 pounds. Tsunami shads, white bucktails with a white worm or eels have been the most popular baits. On Saturday from 4:00 to 9:00 PM every man, woman and child had a limit and released many more. Sunday evening was almost as good and more were caught on Monday morning.
The surf is still a slow pick with cut bunker the most productive offering. A few fish to 30 pounds have been caught from the beach.”
Where am I going with this? You should be able to figure this out unless you bought hundred of tins and are waiting for the fall run. I know many anglers who wouldn’t even bother fishing in the spring at all in the past. Summer too. Around Labor day, they would get their gear ready and they would catch lots of big fish. To them , spring fishery was too difficult. Too much fishing at night, too many hours away from bed, too many days of looking like zombie at work.
But even they are coming around realizing that their shot at big fish is right now, not in the fall.
The game has changed…the spring was always a great time to catch a slob but the difference is that fall run is rapidly becoming a second fiddle to spring run. I’ve seen bad falls, and I’ve seen great fall fishing and my feelings has always been based on patterns.
A pattern is a pattern till it’s broken. Then is not a pattern any more. Montauk sand hot fishing around July 4th weekend is a busted pattern. For few years all you needed was a long cast and someone to put you up on the spot. Not that easy any more.
Fall peanut bunker was a pattern till peanut bunker disappeared. Now we have a sand eel patterns for few years in the row. That pattern is unbroken.
If you want a lot of fish and big crowds, by all mean wait for the fall. If you want a slob, your time is coming up soon and in many places its already here. If you want the crowds and big fish today… head to NJ…or Cape Cod Canal
who knows, this could be you
We have bunch of new videos for you coming up. Some clips from our winter seminar series, Rod Guru talking about new CTS blanks in the parking lot of West End 2 while freezing his butt off, a video on St Croix custom built Legend rod I am still working on, Roger is talking about using Casting Eggs and more….now if there was only about 60 hours in the day so I could get all the stuff done that I have lined up on my plate.
First up is Line Stretcher Tackle ….I, like many of you, was totally wrong about this lure. Heck, I don’t know if there ever was a lure which was more misunderstood then Surface Tension. Most guys look at it and say it’s a bluefish lure or something that can be cast long distance when cast is needed…but then you realize you have to sloooooow down your retrieve and wonderful thing will happen.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhVgL6xsz5I[/youtube]
Get familiar with issue #7…nice giveaway coming up for those who know what to look for 🙂
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Explain what you mean by slowing it down. Running it like a PP/Spook I thought was the name of the game since it doesn’t swim but “skate” on that channel similar to a PP. Slowing it down would cause it to sink and defeat the whole action other then a twitch…no?
↓That huuge cow would have registered off the scale on a Boga…I think after 60lb’s it reads….WTF!!!! lol
↓Meaning not cranking hundred miles an hour..slow it down a little
↓Z, that B&W photo provokes a lot of questions for me. Like:
↓WHO = the angler
WHERE = location (don’t want the actual spot)N.J.,L.I. So. Shore, ect. ect.
WHEN = mo/day/year
WHAT = kind of lure, bait , ect.
Weight of fish =
It was all over the internet last year.
↓I for one swim them fast , just to piss off yellow eyes :]
The blue`s get mad and pound them {jumping like tarpon}
They cast a mile, found fish and catch!
↓Go green on over cast day!
↓