Tom Godfrey invited me to join him Tuesday targeting striped bass. After getting a good report from charter captain Bill Haluska on Monday, I was chomping at the bit to go. I met up with Tom at 6:00 am and we headed out. As soon as we hit Barnegat Inlet, we saw boats loosely lined up and in close off Island Beach State Park. We also immediately noticed large pods of bunker but they seemed mostly unmolested by predators. Tom worked us Northward along IBSP fishing as we went but we had no luck. Along the way we saw a few fish caught but things were generally slow, so we decided to push further North. When we got to the wheel in Seaside it was dead, so we kept going. Finally, at Bay Head we found the fleet and the action.
Tom and I spent the next several hours chasing huge early migrating fish which were moving Southward at great speed. Tom expertly leap-frogged groups of boats positioning us ahead of exploding bunker that signaled chasing bass below. The bunker pods were so thick and seemingly stretched for miles so it was easy for us to snag, transfer to a circle hook and drop bunker on a weighted rig. Or in Tom’s case, use a circle hook snag and drop (similar to the one pictured in Jim Freda’s presentation) to do it in one step. We ended up catching six fish: two 44”, two 42”, one 39” and one 33”. In addition, I hooked up and lost two.
Aside from having an epic fishing experience, my biggest take-away from the trip is optimism based on observing what must have been millions of mature bunker. It’s a key indicator that we are in for a great fall season.
