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Myself and two erstwhile PnS regulars headed up to Sandy Hook NJ. It was my first time, and I had my eye on throwing plugs and metal at feeding fish if I was lucky. We had some bad omens en route. We got there late, the tackle shop didn't have fresh bunker (we had some cut spot...not ideal), and the sun was high overhead when we arrived without a cloud in sight. We went to the northern-most access point at Sandy Hook, and we hauled bait rods along with casting rods out to give it a shot.
10-15kt NE winds created a 1 foot chop and clear water. We soaked the spot, and threw plugs when a couple of birds came by. We caught a mess of huge sea robins, a couple of skate, and Fishbait got a flounder that would have been a keeper in season. I wanted to help fill some buckets, so we went to the bayside to look for porgies around noon.
The porgies hate me. We landed 3 keepers, over 4 hours. We then wiped out the lobster buffet, and headed home with tails in between legs.
I would love to get some imput on how to fish, as I have landed a big drum, so the prospect of driving south to soak bait is not as intriguing as the prospect of getting a gator or striper on an artificial. Sadly, it looks like most folks are tight lipped on info, so here are my assumptions.
1) fish calm days, around jetties, at low light. If you use topwater, use black or a dark solid color
2) look for birds (we didn't see any concentrated masses of birds)
3) fish current
Besides some luck at OC MD on the bridge on schoolies, and the occasional rogue rock on the beach at AI, the nuances of fishing above the Mason Dixon have escaped me.
10-15kt NE winds created a 1 foot chop and clear water. We soaked the spot, and threw plugs when a couple of birds came by. We caught a mess of huge sea robins, a couple of skate, and Fishbait got a flounder that would have been a keeper in season. I wanted to help fill some buckets, so we went to the bayside to look for porgies around noon.
The porgies hate me. We landed 3 keepers, over 4 hours. We then wiped out the lobster buffet, and headed home with tails in between legs.
I would love to get some imput on how to fish, as I have landed a big drum, so the prospect of driving south to soak bait is not as intriguing as the prospect of getting a gator or striper on an artificial. Sadly, it looks like most folks are tight lipped on info, so here are my assumptions.
1) fish calm days, around jetties, at low light. If you use topwater, use black or a dark solid color
2) look for birds (we didn't see any concentrated masses of birds)
3) fish current
Besides some luck at OC MD on the bridge on schoolies, and the occasional rogue rock on the beach at AI, the nuances of fishing above the Mason Dixon have escaped me.
