I was in ocmd Friday night in the yak and had very similar results with stripers in the 20 to 24 inch range with 3 trout and a bunch of small blues. It’s only gonna get better. So much bait around, peanut bunker and rain bait everywhere!This thread is for stories about this years fall run . I went out on the yak Friday night and did fairly well out back with 16 stripers all low 20”s on clousers .
Agree with Mike ^. Plus Fred wrote he was fishing "out back". The ocean temp is listed at 64* on the Betty & Nick's site. Usually "the run" doesn't start until the temp dips into the 50's "out front". Hoping for good run this season.Technically, I believe the “fall run” would not be considered an out back fishery unless one was speaking about intercepting an out-migration from various major river systems, estuaries, and bays where anglers were pretty certain that they were catching out-migrating fish. It’s just tough to know what they’re catching with any degree of certainty out-back, but chances are probably pretty good that they are summer residents. Around these parts if anglers are in “in front” (fishing the ocean) or geographically very close to the front anglers can have much more confidence that the fish are migrants.
Regardless, it’s great that you guys got into them.
Not likely. I don't take pics when I fish; I don’t own a cell phone; and I usually fish alone unless I’m with another past or present fisheries professional. The lay-people with whom I fish, those who don’t turn it into an interrogation opportunity, don’t usually take pics either. They’re too busy fishing or catching fish.It’s fishing don’t be so literal, it’s close enough. Now I want the both of you to go out catch some stripers and post the pics on here .
So you say MikeNot likely. I don't take pics when I fish and I usually fish alone unless I’m with another past or present fisheries professional. The lay-people with whom I fish, those who don’t turn it into an interrogation opportunity, don’t usually take pics either. They’re too busy fishing or catching fish.
^ Very good!!A former DWCO hit Raritan Bay, NJ one day this week via private boat. Caught 18, but had trouble catching a legal one. All but one was OVER the legal length limit.
A former DWCO hit Raritan Bay, NJ one day this week via private boat. Caught 18, but had trouble catching a legal one. All but one was OVER the legal length limit.
From an angler education standpoint here, thank you for calling them “big girls” because that’s what the vast majority of these legal and larger fish are…the very spawning stock that anglers worry about. Based on decades of tagging results on the spawning grounds, only about 10% of the males go to sea after spawning. Even the “schoolie” females (18”or so and larger) go to sea. The rest of the males spend the summers in the bays, inlets, and tidal streams as schoolies.. Those that go to sea for the summer grow very well; those that stay in the bays, inlets, and tidal streams grow very slowly and seldom reach legal size (28”). What exactly those schoolie males do in the fall and winter may be a slight mystery (to me anyway) because the ocean tag returns of Delaware R/ Estuary fish from the fall run don’t reflect a big push to the ocean in fall. I suspect that they hold position in the lower Delaware and Chesapeake Bays where they have spent the summer and catches in the winter in the lower Chesapeake seem to support that. Note that I speak of the lower Chesapeake and the Delaware Bay similarly because there is a lot of exchange between the two, particularly Delaware R fish running to the Chesapeake and back via the C&D Canal and perhaps via the coastline.All the big girls were released quickly and caught with circle hooks to go as easy as possible on them
Don’t know which bays you are fishing but if you know where the fish are you can catch 25 to 75 stripers in the 20 to 28 inch size class every trip! Been doing it for decades! Lots of fun from late September until mid March. Lots of fun on a six weight!Nice report. Fall has always been about the front and not the back. Getting skunked, catching babies and maybe the occasional just okay fish is what happens if you fish the bays in the fall.