Two Days on the Beach by Joe Filice

Posted on May 27, 2022 by kelli

Fished the surf in Beach Haven on Thursday morning. Hit the beach at 4:30 fishing clams on a Hi-Lo rig and bunker chunk on a single 10/0 circle. Five large dogfish. Just before getting ready to leave, the bunker rod doubled over. Ten years ago, I would have gotten to the rod and landed the fish. By the time I got out of the chair and started running for the rod, it was out of the holder and heading for the surf. I dove to grab it at the last minute but by the time I got up, the fish was gone.

I went back out at 5:00 on Friday morning fishing the same setups, but with clam only. At 5:45 AM, the single 10/0 went down and the fight was on. I landed a 41 1/2″ Striper and put it back in to swim again. At 7:25, the Hi-Lo went down, and I landed a 42 1/2″ that also went back to swim. I only have photos of the fish on the ruler because there was no one else anywhere on the beach.

I’m heading down again at 5:00 on Saturday morning. Best day I’ve had in years on the beach!

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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.

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