Fishing Around: If Your Boat’s Still in the Water, Read On
Maurizio LoPiccolo caught this big striped bass off Avalon a few days before Christmas 2017.
With the first cold snap of fall behind us, there are two types of fishermen: The optimistic ones with our boats still in the water, and those who won’t worry about their docklines again until Memorial Day. The Chuckwagon’s looking forward to a fall full of striped bass and an extra spring line or two.
Motivated by shorter days and colder nights, 20-to-36-inch striped bass have already invaded our local bays to feed on peanut (juvenile) bunker. Migratory stripers binge on these oily 3-inch baitfish during their six-week South Jersey pitstop. Get permission to fish under your neighbor’s dock light and cast a small soft plastic bait on a ¼-ounce jighead to catch her pet striped bass. Float into shallow water and make long casts with topwater plugs to elicit the year’s most aggressive bites. Dad and I drift live eels and live spot through our favorite flounder holes to catch the back bay’s keeper bass. These fish will be in local bays until a frigid cold snap drops the bay’s water temperature below 50 degrees.
By Thanksgiving, a massive biomass of adult bunker will have moved somewhere between Asbury Park and Atlantic City. The largest striped bass follow these baitfish like a pride of lions follows the wildebeest migration. Because these fish sometimes do not arrive in Cape May County waters until early December, many local charter boats have moved to Atlantic City or Barnegat Inlet to increase their opportunities to catch 30-to-50-pound striped bass for their customers. You can catch these fish trolling Mojos (oversized bucktails), bunker spoons, and diving plugs, all available in local tackle shops. Trolling is an effective tactic to explore specific lumps but not waste all day in one location. Once you locate a school of bunker with striped bass underneath, put the trolling gear away. Snag a bunker by casting a weighted treble hook into a school of bunker, whether you see it on the surface or on your fish-finder. The weighted treble hook encourages your bait to swim below its friends, where the striped bass lurk. Last fall, Ted Leonard and I were drifting snagged bunker just north of Townsends Inlet when I hooked a massive fish. As a good friend, Ted encouraged me to “not screw this up” and made no promises as he slipped the biggest striped bass in my life into my big net – a fish in excess of 40 pounds. After a quick photo shoot, we put her back in the ocean to spawn again this spring.
But the day that I’ll never forget was Dec. 22, when Ted and I joined Maurizio Lo Piccolo on a slick calm afternoon. Head-ing south out of Townsends Inlet, we found gannets diving among a fleet of boats. As the boats and birds dispersed, striped bass exploded on 6-to-8-inch herring on the surface. Every cast for two hours resulted in an immediate bite with fish ranging from 5 to 35 lbs. and we barely beat the sunset under the bridge. Days like these keep my holiday calendar flexible so I can take advantage of the phenomenal fishing!
Late September saw the best white marlin fishing in years!
WHERE WILL YOU FISH THIS WINTER?
Have you already put your boat away? Are you still itching to fish? Here are a few wintertime destinations that you might or might not have considered.
Lose Feeling in Your Feet: Each February, I watch the weather for a 24-to-30-hour window of light winds south of Block Island, where thousands of codfish converge to feed each winter. I’m not alone as hearty fishermen board party boats across Long Island and Rhode Island. With air temperatures below freezing and water temperatures around 40 degrees, this is not a summertime cruise, but fresh panko-crusted Atlantic cod makes the road trip worthwhile. I fish on the 140-foot Viking Starship because of its size, galley, and heated bunk room.
Catch the Biggest Fish of Your Life: In March and April, giant bluefin tuna congregate off North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where the Labrador Current and Gulf Stream collide less than 30 miles from Oregon Inlet. They feed on baitfish as small as your TV remote and as large as 10-to-15-pound bluefish. As seen on “Wicked Tuna,” boats catch and sell as many of these 400-to-800-pound tunas as they can until they fill the general category quota. Once unable to sell bluefins, local charter boats take anglers like us to the Gulf Stream to catch and release these massive tunas. Depending on 2019 regulations, each charter boat may be able to keep ONE giant tuna for just ONE of its recreational trips. If catching the biggest fish of your life is on your bucket list, book a spring-break trip to the Outer Banks!
Make a Difference: The Gulf of Mexico’s best wintertime sailfishing is often within 50 miles of Isla Mujeres, a sleepy fishing community not far from Cancun on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. In fact, Isla Mujeres is world renowned for its opportunity to photograph (and to catch) sailfish feeding on “bait balls” of sardines as well as to photograph whale sharks. Each fall, captains and crews run local sportfishing boats some 1,400 miles from South Jersey to Mexico. Trolling the same naked ballyhoo and dredge teasers used in the Wilmington Canyon, anglers catch impressive numbers of Atlantic sailfish throughout the winter. In addition to fishing, the Sea Mistress crew hosts an annual fishing tournament and music festival that funds the Little Yellow School House, which educates more than 50 local kids. Check out this winter’s Island Time Music Fest and Fishing Tournament, Feb. 18-23, 2019, at islandtimemusicfest.com.
Bent Rods on the Bayou: South Louisiana bills itself as the “Sportsman’s Paradise,” a title it absolutely deserves. Fly into New Orleans and drive 90 minutes south to Venice, a few miles shy of where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico. While hurricanes, oil spills, and sea-level rise continue to shrink the Mississippi Delta, its thousands of creeks and ponds host redfish from foot-long to 40 pounds that will eat Mirrolures as well as flies. In shallow nearshore waters, you can jig for delicious cobia and snappers and catch as many jack crevalle as you want. Farther offshore, local captains troll big live baits around the massive offshore oil rings to catch monster wahoo and yellowfin tuna big enough to have sickle fins!
Off the Beaten Path: I finally got to fish with Spencer Scharf this summer and, between tuna bites on the Buzzkill, I heard all about the incredible offshore fishing that Grenada offers each winter. Grenada is 100 miles north of Venezuela and its official language is English. Last winter, Spencer and Capt. Ricky Wheeler released a lot of sailfish, ate a lot of fresh tuna, and won some prize money. In addition, this Exile crew caught and released at least one grand slam – a sailfish, a white marlin, and a blue marlin in a single day. While we are shoveling snow, the average high temperature in Grenada is 84 degrees all winter. Are you looking at airfare yet?
Happy Holidays! No matter what you celebrate this time of year, we all have so much for which to be thankful, whether we gather around a table or on a boat. I am very thankful for the opportunity to share our collective experiences in these pages and that you find time to read about them. As I’m hopeful that I have demonstrated, fishing is an excellent excuse to get together with family and friends, whether you catch anything or not. I look forward to seeing you soon, whether on the water, at the boat show, or next spring, and wish you and your family the happiest of holidays.