Subject: Sandy Hook Bay, New Jersey

Submitted by Bill K (ip 98.221.76.185)

• Fished on 10/10/2009

  Water Temperature: 65
  Water Clarity: 5'
  Seas: 3'-4'
  Weather: Overcast, northwest breeze early, 20mph later
  Fishing_for: Blues/Stripers/Tunny
  Boat: CinSan
  captain: Bruce
  

  Report:
  Despite the small craft warnings we found the conditions rather nice early in the A.M. Few boats were out. As we rounded the Hook the rip started to build but once on the ocean side, things settled down. We immediately saw small groups of birds and bait from the False Hook down past the nude beach. A bit farther south we found a "cloud" of birds so typical of the fall migration. They were following little tunny (false albacore) off the Highlands Bridge. Blind casting with A17's produced some nice fish but there were no stripers or blues among them. Peanut bunkers were everywhere and the tunny were hard to keep up with so we kept heading south to Monmouth Beach and the "Rocks". There were more birds and tunny and bait on the deep side of the piece but none along the beach. I was surprised to see the erosion of the beach along the stretch from Sea Bright to Little Monmouth. I understand there is a beach replenishment project about to start in that area. I heard that sand/mud was being dredged from the Shrewsbury River and dumped along the "wall". Fall surf fishing in that area will be interesting if they start pumping. On the way back to the Hook, we were flagged down by a kyaker about a 1/2 mile off the entrance to the national park off the toll booths. He was having a problem getting back to the beach with the now hard northwest wind. We strapped his 'yak to the side of the boat and we towed him to the beach. He thanked us and said that he was never going fishing in the ocean in a 'yak again. He didn't have a life preserver and certainly was not outfitted to be where he was. It could have been tragic especially with the building wind out of the northwest. We made sure he made it to the beach and watched him kiss the sand and drag his 'yak to the parking lot. As we rounded the Hook and entered the bay, we found the schools of bluefish we had hoped to find earlier. They covered acres of water and the birds were everywhere. Despite the now 3'-4'waves, we managed to keep our balance and had drop and reel fishing for 45 minutes before we'd had our fill of those 8-10lb. fish. There were no stripers mixed in or below the blues which were spitting up peanuts. It didn't matter what you used and you could have filled your limits in a short time. We left them biting and headed home having had a fine day on the water.

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