No stripers but scored ling and sea bass
We figured with the last few weeks being an early bite as well as the full moon being yesterday we should make an effort to get out early…well we shoved off at 4:05 and were out the inlet by 4:40.
Ran a little North found nothing and then decided to be a creature of habit and run to where we had fish three weeks in a row. We found bunker but no bass. Water early was about the same as last week-57.8 degrees. Bunker were flipping with an occasional spray and some coming clean out of the water. It looked like a good unhappy pod. We worked it for a little over an hour, chased down some other pods that were more scattered and returned back to the more active one.
We did not hookup on livies or cut bunker nor did we see anyone else except Capt. Murph hooked up for a few minutes on a mystery fish. Eventually we gave up on bass and switched over to wreck fishing.
With the cold temps we decided to not even bother fluking and went right to some rock piles for sea bass. With the direction and slow speed of the drift it made for nice long, slow drifts over the piles.
We immediately were picking up sea bass and ling. As the day went on the ling got thicker and you had to weed through them to get to the sea bass, a welcome nuisance compared to doggies.
We ended the day with a little over a dozen nice sea bass and kept six ling. Surprisingly at the dock the ling were in high demand.
Good talking to all the Barnegat Fishin’ Hole members and trying to find fish and work together covering a lot of ground.
With the presence of large schools of ling, the temp the sinkers coming up and gulp baits being almost brittle speaks volumes about the water temps on the bottom. I did however hear of a few good catches of fluke to the North with several fish in the 4-6 pound range. We will probably be headed left out of the inlet next week with bass, sea bass and fluke being the target.
Tags: bait, bunker, fluke, Gulp!, sea bass, striped bass, wreck & reef
