Early Season Bass by Dave Spendiff

Posted on March 30, 2018 by VHFC

Ed Valitutto and I made a very cold ride in my boat to the Oyster Creek power plant outflow to do some striper fishing. We marked schools of fish hugging the bottom in the creek and I kept feeling hits but couldn’t hook up. Ed hooked up and landed a nice 21″ bass as I continued to execute empty hook sets. Finally I hooked up on what turned out to be an adult BUNKER! Yep, I snagged a bunker. What a surprise to have adult bunker in the bay this early. Ed picked up another bass, I snagged another bunker – this is not good! Finally I hooked a bass as did Ed as we watched a cormorant choke down a huge bunker – amazing! A bit of a slow day but a fun day on the water.
The 2018 fishing season has begun!

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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.