South Jersey Report FRESH TAKE ON FRESHWATER

The Fall Run is gaining steam as more keeper stripers are hitting the docks, weakfish and croaker schools are amassing the inshore waters, and bottom fishing for wreck beasties such as sea bass, blackfish and triggerfish is a solid lock. Water temperatures are dropping into the mid 60s now, which should usher in more schools of stripers with each passing day. Remember, the sea bass season is now closed until Nov. 1.

Dave Showell, Absecon Bay Sportsman, Absecon, said he's been finding stripers in the Brigantine ICW channels. "The 6-inch Gulp twister tail grubs put on jigheads are scoring bass averaging 26 inches or so. There are definitely more bass showing up each day, a lot of 24- to 28-inchers." The waters are now at 63 degrees in the back, perfect to bring those bass inside the bay. Rob Switzer lucked into a 13.5-pound striper on Brigantine Beach. Showell also noted that the huge bait schools seemed to have moved out after the recently passed new moon.

"Fishing was good on all fronts this past week," said John Gryzmko, Fin-Atics, Ocean City. "Blackfishing has been prime, especially by the Longport Bridge, Beasily's Point bridge, and 9th street bridge where tog were weighed in the likes of which went 8.69, 7.79 and a few others over the 6-pound mark." Green crabs have been best baits to hook a whitechin, but you can get away with using bits of fresh clam too. A solid presence of weakfish up to 16 inches long have shown up and they have been stacked at the Great Egg Reef and off the Ferris Wheel in about 40 feet of water. Croakers are also mixed in with the weakfish and larger model hardheads have been hanging out deeper in the 70-foot depths.

"Small spike caliber weakfish have been loaded up in the waters from 1 to 5 miles off," said Wes Bandy, Gibson's Bait and Tackle, Sea Isle City. "Chopper bluefish of 3 to 4 pounds are also mixed in with the weakfish, and both species are hitting jigged thin profile metals. Some of the weakfish are coming up bitten in half by the blues, it's pretty nasty." Bandy also reported that savvy anglers are heading to the Sea Isle backwaters around the Ludlam's Bay area to set up on anchor to clam up stripers as well as kingfish.

Captain Jim Cicchitti, Starlight Fleet, Wildwood, reported that the Starlight's 6-Hour trips are catching plenty of big porgies to 3 pounds and over. The big fish for the week were caught by Hank Lisotto, who had a pool-winning 3-pound 14-ounce porgy -- along with a mix of 20 sea bass and porgies.Wilma Birchmeier, Cherry Hill, counted a 7-pound blue in her day's catch. The vessel also has the special sea bass permits, which are good until January 1st, or when the quota is filled.This week's pools were claimed by Isabel Helfrich, Essex Junction, Vt., for her 4-3/4-pound sea bass and 18 others.Also with a big day was Emmet Jensen, Fairbanks, Ark., with a 3-pound humpback along with 20 other keepers.

"Sea bass fishing was excellent over the weekend at the reefs, before the temporary shutdown took affect," said Cathy Algard, Sterling Harbor Bait and Tackle, Wildwood. Meantime, anglers can focus on tog fishing, which has been excellent off the jetties, bridges, and inshore wrecks according to Algard. Green crab has been the bait of choice to tempt tog. The Delaware Bay has been holding weakfish up to 20 inches long, especially near the No. 1 Buoy. Try dropping Deadly Dick or Ava 007 metals and jigging them off the bottom.

Matt Slobodjian, Jim's Bait and Tackle, Cape May, reported thatsea bass were biting very well at Reef Site 11 and even thoughthe season is closed for now,they should be there when it opens back up on the 1st. Big bluefish were also hanging around the area, snapping off a lot of the sea bass as they were being reeled in.Those aggressive chopper blues can be taken on jigs or bucktails. Croakers began to move in strong to the Delaware Bay and also at the Wildwood Lump, and they can be caught on squid strips or small pieces of clam dropped down on top and bottom rigs. Striped bass haven't shown up in any real numbers yet according to Slobo, except way up in the Delaware Bay,at Reef site No. 1 and No. 2.Slobodjian warns, "Down in the lower bay, the dogfish sharks are killers and it's hard to keep a clam or bunker bait on the bottom."A bit offshore, the 19th Fathom Lump was the spot to find false albacore on the troll as well as a handful of bluefin tuna that hit metal jigs dropped to the bottom. Offshore, the Wilmington canyon is holding a few yellowfin in the 80-pound class.

http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20101015/LIFESTYLE05/10150360