No Stripers Yet but a lot of small Weakfish by Ed Valitutto

Posted on October 19, 2023 by VHFC

Fishing the day after our club dinner was tough, but I couldn’t say no to John Stuebing’s offer to search for Striped Bass. After rounding Holgate, we headed north and quickly found schools of bunker – but no predators were bothering them! We trolled, threw topwater plugs and jigged to no avail.

We headed further north towards the pipeline and saw some really heavy returns. Our jigs barely hit bottom before they were hit by small weakfish (10-11″). We kept thinking a keeper was in the mix, but all fish were identical in size. We continued our search following small bird action and I caught a small bonito that was released. We ended the day trolling back towards Little Egg Inlet without success.

Despite our small success, it was still a great day on the water! Back at the John’s dock, I spoke with a someone cleaning off their boat. He had traveled solo up past Seaside Heights – quite a trip from Tuckerton – and had caught three large stripers 42, 44 and 47″ via snag and drop close to the beach. That blitz was also reported in tonight’s On The Water email report. Sounds like the fall run is starting!

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Fishing Facts

Of the fifty United States, thirty-eight have a striped-bass record. New Jersey has the largest striped-bass record—a 78-pound 8·ounce whopper that was caught in 1982. The state with the smallest striped-bass record is Iowa. That landlocked striper weighed only 9 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in 1983.

There’s something fishy about beer these days. Fish Tail Ale is popular as ever, and New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewery is one of the state’s largest specialty breweries. There’s also Washington’s Wild Salmon Organic Pale Ale, Florida’s Land Shark beer, Delaware’s Dogfish Head beer, and two versions of Stingray beer—a lighter version from the Cayman Islands and a dark beer from Canada.

The triangle fly is probably the most unusual of saltwater flies. It’s one of the few, if not only, flies tied to a treble hook. It’s also barely a fly at all, because hardly any material is used. It is complete after tying the two straw pearl twinkle flashes and the tiny tuft of natural squirrel, leaving an entire hook fully exposed. Incredibly this barebacked treble fly is a knockout when it comes to sea trout.