Let’s start first by announcing the winners of past week giveaways
Toby Lapinski guessed my favorite picture and for that he will receive 2 lures from Ace Baits
JohnR ( jsrusso@comcast.net) is the winner of the Guides Choice Bunka Boy giveaway.
Both of these gentlemen should contact me at info@surfcastersjournal.com and send me their mailing addresses. Congrats to both and yes, there will be plenty more chances to win I the future, so stay tuned to SJ Blog.
I should have mentioned in the blog post, right off the bat, that I cranked up the volume on the guides choice swimmer so you can hear it better. That is not the actual sound level but instead it was meant to give you an idea of what rattle sound like underwater. I will try to retool the video in so you can hear what I came out of the camera, although that won’t be an accurate decibel level either as camera is recording trough waterproof enclosure which muffs the sound….complicated, isn’t it?…lol
Anyway, I think you guys understand what I was trying to get across.
In other news…to say that I am surprised that we only have a handful of entries so far into the STRIPERTHON contest would be an understatement. You mean not one of those cows beached during NJ bunker blitzes or Canal mackerel madness made its way to us? Weird, but its definitely making us think about what to do in the future. It could be that fishing for our readers has been awful. That is not out of the realm of possibilities. I know that personally, besides few days in Cuttyhunk, this has been by far the worst spring ever for me. But then again, I am not a good barometer of what is going on this year as I had much less time to devote to beach than usual. However, when I did get out, I usually caught…nothing. Or very little. What, you expected me to be like some other fishing celebrities and give you “wink,wink, I had a great year…as always” speech? Sorry to disappoint but that is not my style. I get skunked as often as most others and this year it seems maybe more.
The lack of weakfish is putting a serious dent in my willingness to fight through mosquitoes on a warm ,muggy nights. Damn, when they say you don’t know what you have till you lose it, they are not kidding. I can still see it my head clearly: half ounce lead head with red Man’s eight inch jelly worm. Flip it twenty feet in the inlet, place the seven foot St Croix parallel to the water and twitch it. One ,two, BAM ! That unmistakable headshake, those burst of energy, those gorgeous colors illuminated by moonlight ! It was almost automatic too. I remember taking a 10 plus pound tide runner at noon, on a 99 degree day with hundreds of boats in the inlet.
And now? Those same rips give up an occasional three pound bluefish…on a good day.
Anyone else has a love affair with these fanged creatures?
I’ve only encountered weakfish as a bicatch while snapper fishing when I was younger. I wish I knew what all the hype was about. Judging by the way everyone speaks about them, it seems that they are one hell of a fish.
↓I fish the Virginia Eastern Shore(bayside and seaside)..october thru november..for speckled trout and the grey trout bycatch during years previous to 2009 had very high numbers/day. It was not unusual to see the depth sounder blacken with schools of small grey trout. In years 2009 and 2010 the speckled trout catch was excellent and the grey trout catch was single digits for 2 continous months of fishing. Also in 2009 and 2010 I saw 0 schools of migrating small(15-20″)Striped Bass attacking schools of bay anchovies/glass minnows in the shallow water of the lower Virginia Eastern Shore(bayside).It does not look good for our side and the Virginia/Maryland/North Carolina Departments of Natural Resources are twiddling their collective thumbs.
↓You’re not the only one that misses those yellow and purple vampires! I hope they make a comeback…
↓Tight lines
This past memorial day, I hooked into a 28″ weakfish, she was very fat and i estimated her weight to be around 7lbs. It was my biggest weakfsih ever beings that im only 17. I was pretty excited and i was even more happy when i saw her swim away. Ive caught some weakfish this summer while fluke fishing. Nothing big but fun to catch. Lets hope it gets better. Actually last night, there was a mix of weakies and blues gorging themselves on rainbait in south jersey. I just couldnt connect with them, but they were fun to watch.
↓They are too susceptable to nets! Gill nets purse seines (think “bunker boats”), haul seines, draggers; you name it, they are suckers for it!
Worse (?), each fall in the New York fish market (what used to be Fulton), there are pallets and pallets of tiny weakfish that are/were (? I don’t know anymore because I haven’t been there in 15 years) sold because of a loophole in the law. You see the commercial size was 16 inches “whole” and 11 inches “dressed”; the intent of “dressed” was supposed to be head and tail off but that was not clear in the wording of the law so draggers (mostly out of Montauk and Shinnicock) were legally getting away with simply snipping off the nose of 12 inch fish to make them 11 inches “dressed”.They were caught by the millions and the practice probably still exists!……..JC
↓My friend caught a small 19″ weakfish in Northport Harbor Friday evening. This was the first one I had heard about. The fish was safety returned to the water.
↓Had a nice fish, got a pic, released it, and then tried to grab it again as it swam aways so i could get a “thumbs-up” pic… I just forgot… hahah hopefully I will get one soon.
↓Back in the olden days(1975)we Weak fished the Delaware Bay and we boated 78 Weaks and they ranged up to 19 lbs.One of the best in shore trips i`ve ever been on.
↓Carl
P.s.
I have pictures but not sure how to post them.
Flipping small plastics under the pier at night, watching a weakie come up and open up to inhale the tiny lure was a sight. I miss that.
↓I remember those days carl. It’s a shame we may never see them again. I haven’t caught 1 in about 8 years but maybe cause I have stoped targeting them.
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