Happy New Years to everyone here on 24/7. Hope this year brings a great bite for us all.
First report: today the river is covered in a sheet of ice. Hope the fingerlings of the last spawning season make it through the cold. Again the river is cover in ice stay home or hit the beaches of SNJ like I will be doing on Thursday.
Fished a couple hours today on the flat by buoy #4. Made it off seconds before the rain. Couple of cats, no stripers. I did find someone's trailer plate. I grabbed it so it wouldn't get stolen. Here is s pic of it.
Got really late start after checking the creek to check status of bait. All hearing and shad have pushed out the creek into the main river.
Trolled for 2&1/2 hours chatted with Chuck for a minute then anchored up and started getting action right away pop got a 22" and then came rain hard so I started heading back in and it cleared so I anchored up and then came rain really hard wind driven rain then hail stones then 40 plus mph winds visibility was no more then 2-3ft in front of the boat 4ft waves against outgoing tide forced me off the river and off to the NJ side of the river beached the boat and sought refuge behind a giant tree. Stripped my clothes off to my boxers and rung out my clothes hung them up and cast out the rods from shore locked in the boat. When it cleared up I checked my rods had a 15" bass on. So after draining the 2' of water out the boat I got dressed and we jumped right back on our spot but the only action was cats and perch on sabiki(for bait)that had one solid run which was dropped before I picked up the rod but no other bass.
That was absolutely the worst weather and river condition I have ever been out in. I thought a tornado or something was coming it got hairy there for a while. But the fricken hail pounding on us while we made a b-line for the closest shore line was murder.
Did mark a lot of large fish today more then any other trip this year.
Going to get out much much earlier tomorrow morning hope to be on the river by 7am
Catch'em up
Still didn't get out as early as I would have liked cause I stayed out to late last night so I fished from 11am til 4pm trolled for 2 hrs then anchored up right away got a 14" bass then a couple perch that I kept alive. Then nothing for awhile then at around 3pm like someone flipped a switch they turned on and turned on in a great way from 3-4pm had a bass on every 5 minutes or so ended with 13 bass in an hour and left them biting cause I had to get home to cook moms a striper that she wanted for Mother's Day. 4 bass went to live perch, 2 went to fresh clam and 7 bass went for fresh bunker. Nothing huge today all fish were slots that were caught with an hour time frame except one that was 18". Been fishing the NJ side for years but the Pa side was loaded with nice bass on my way back marked more fish on Pa side just on ride back to dock then I marked all day on NJ side. All fish caught within 1 hr frame were hung in 42' of water. None were spawned out yet.
I needed a day like this. Been getting my butt kicked on the Big D this season. I am sure I could have double that fish count if I stayed longer with no problem.
Oh and I got bait for next week. Struck it rich with this 25" fish. No law against using herring that was found in a bass stomach.
But this is the reason it's been so hard to get bigger fish they are gorging on these herring and shad right now weak or very hungry big fish would take the bunker clam perch etc but for the most part they are focused on these herring. I'm a use this one next week for sure.
Oh and I got bait for next week. Struck it rich with this 25" fish. No law against using herring that was found in a bass stomach.
But this is the reason it's been so hard to get bigger fish they are gorging on these herring and shad right now weak or very hungry big fish would take the bunker clam perch etc but for the most part they are focused on these herring. I'm a use this one next week for sure.
Mu technically your correct, but don't get caught with the herring on the boat, because even though your telling the truth, they won't believe ya. your also correct, why the F do the Stripers wanna eat Chunked Bunker, Clam or Bloods when they can have a Buffet of fresh Herring, Shad or even perch? I was hoping to catch a real small shad so i could live line that and have a shot. The herring were pounding our shad spoons, i mean both rods popping off at one time. If your in an area where there is perch definitely live line one....Just cut off the dorsal fin. Damn, they have to get rid of that BS Herring law! I have never seen so many damn Herring!!!!
Got out yesterday for a few hrs (married guys, do NOT leave the wife and kids home on Mother's Day....trust me this was my last MD trip!)
On the water by 6. Put in at CBB and went south. Tried a couple spots with a cat here and eel there. Went further south, almost to the DMB and found em. 3 stripers in 30 minutes and 2 more within the next hr. largest was 27 inches. Hardest fighter was the smallest at 20 inches. I swore it was going to be 35"+ when I was fighting that little guy. Awesome morning that was for sure!
Also some catfish that were close to 15 lbs!
Caught a large (28-30" I'd guess) eel on clam. Everything else was fresh bunker.
We got out last Saturday and Sunday on the Flats below CBB. (My buddy brought his mom along for the ride on Sunday and I let the wife sleep in.)
I caught a nice 35" before high tide and then the water just started churning in every direction with spawning activity. It was the coolest thing I ever saw! We were only one of 2 boats out early (Union was scheduled to play DC United). Some boats showed up later, but they missed the big show. It was so frustrating to see that many big fish that had no interest in feeding on anything, but it does bode well for the future. I hope the storm didn't affect the fertilized eggs.
My buddy caught another nice fish on Sunday and the males started getting hungry. The big girls probably were heading out to the bay.
Got out yesterday for a few hrs (married guys, do NOT leave the wife and kids home on Mother's Day....trust me this was my last MD trip!)
On the water by 6. Put in at CBB and went south. Tried a couple spots with a cat here and eel there. Went further south, almost to the DMB and found em. 3 stripers in 30 minutes and 2 more within the next hr. largest was 27 inches. Hardest fighter was the smallest at 20 inches. I swore it was going to be 35"+ when I was fighting that little guy. Awesome morning that was for sure!
Also some catfish that were close to 15 lbs!
Caught a large (28-30" I'd guess) eel on clam. Everything else was fresh bunker.
Hey all. Me, Mu Fish and my buddy are doing a night run Saturday starting around 5pm and staying out untill Sunday. Maybe a couple more of you can jump in a boat and there can be a bunch of us out there. We are going to launch from the arsenal around 5 pm Sat. Chuckles
Nice fish but WTF MAN ITS SILL CATCH AND RELEASE DOWN AT DOD SMFH you should have released that fish to spawn you are now considered a poacher (all poachers get reported) I hope u don't catch another fish for another 2 years guys that don't follow regs don't deserve to catch a bass. Tks for putting your Licence plate in the pic!
That's why I thought too, but if you fish from the shoreline, aren't you governed by NJ regs? By boat, you are DE regulated, but from land I think you may be able to keep them over 28" no?
We just finished up an all night trip fished from 5pm Saturday til 6am Sunday morning. First stop first drop caught a 18" bass and knew it would be a good night and boy was it ever chuck was all excited to catch his first striped bass of the season but after several smaller ones he hooked into a monster of a bass beautiful fat 45-47lb bass on bunker took couple pics and got vid of the release way to go bro you got it done chuck!
We finish the trip with well over 10 bass and well over 10 cats one being around 10lbs. Hand full dropped at the boat countless misses and long runs basically non stop action at almost every stop we went to. Bunker caught best clam caught 2. Great trip hope you enjoyed yaself chuck id do it with ya again anytime.
Nope doesnt look good the state is dragging it's feet the township is behind us but a lot of red tape is slowing things up not looking good as of right now for the beach bar
On a unrelated note everyone should grab a ticket to this years burger brawl at www.phillyburgerbrawl.com proceeds to benefit Philadelphia public schools and yours truly will be in the competition.
Tried my luck for shore last night south of CBB, No stripers, action all night though from the Cattys, ended up with 9 of them. 3 biggest were 9lbs, 7.5 and 6. Stripers still around? Looking to get out today, launching just north of tycony in the rancocas, they still up that way?
Oh and on a side note- Do any of you guys know any places in Philly I can dock my boat for the day or for a few hours? Looking to shoot over there with my girl, dock and go to the bar for some drinks and food. Like cavanaughs river deck, or Morgan's pier or Dave and busters. I know there are docks all around there but can't find much info on them and the one I could was like $30 for the day. I was hoping for a place that let's you dock real cheap or free if you're going to show your patronage at their bar there.
Dock next to Dave & Busters on the south side of their building. Costs $15, I will be there tonight myself with my brother and the little ladies around 8.
Thanks chuck! Do you happen to know the name of the place?
It's not the piers marina is it? If so that place was like $30 ($1.50 a foot) for my 20 footer.
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