New Jersey & Delaware Bay - Northern New Jersey Fishing Reports

Our first reports on the striped bass fishing in the northern portion of the state came from Chris over at Bayonne Bait and Tackle whole told us October has been a decent month week of fishing for linesiders in the back bay waters including the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers, as well as outside on the Shrewsbury Rocks. Blackfishing is also starting to pick up, but that comes with a caveat, and that’s when you can get green crabs. Chris told me most bait suppliers are limiting the amount of green crabs they will sell you so that most shops will have greens. As a result shops sell out quickly after they get a delivery. That is something tackle shops have no control over. He advises that you call the shop ahead to make sure they have green crabs in stock.

Over at Fairfield Fishing Tackle Joe told us he too had heard of some good striped bass fishing most of October in between the weather fits, with the fishing getting better as the month progressed. Most of the party boats have switched to bass fishing and reports tell of hit or miss fishing depending on the conditions. Sea bass fishing was up and down mainly because most wrecks had a limited amount of keepers but a lot of shorts. This meant you had to move around a lot to put together a catch of keepers.

Another person that told us of some good of striper fishing was Ken over at Dockside Bait and Tackle. He pointed to the back waters around Bayonne, the Amboys and the Arthur Kill as good bets for the rest of October and into November. Those areas have been producing consistent numbers of mixed size stripers hitting bunker, sand eels and artificials on the moving tides. They are also good areas for migrating bass when they are coming through the East River in November, he said.

“We had an up and down month of October for striped bass fishing,” said Steve Haas over at Up Front Bait and Tackle, telling me on October 18 “The last three weekends of the month were washouts.” When it comes to the striped bass fishing October was all local fish, with the best fishing being in the back water areas of the bay, the rivers like the Passaic, Hackensack, Navesink and Shrewsbury, and around the bridges. When it comes to the bottom fishing October’s weather did not treat sinker bouncers well. Sea bass, tog, triggerfish, porgies and some winter flounder made up the bunk of the catch with was 75% sub-legal fish which had to be recycled. I asked Steve what he thought November would produce and he simply said that’s going to be up to the weather.

“The bait is here, there were bass on the move from up north with front runners already in our northern waters and the bunker and sand eels were also in our waters, then Mother Nature decided to throw another tizzy,” said Phil over at the Tackle Box. When we spoke for this report, Phil said meteorologist did not expect to see a change in wind direction until somewhere around October 26. As to his predictions he said November’s fishing will be dictated by what the storm does to the stripers and the baitfish as well as the weather conditions in November.

Another person that didn’t have anything good to say about the weekend weather in mid-October was Lou Fligor at the Atlantic Highlands Municipal Harbor. He said three blowouts in a row really put a hurt on the tackle shops and marinas this past month. The only thing that might be good to come out of it is there should be more stripers to catch in November, if the weather cooperates.

“We lost a good part of October to poor seas and bad weather,” said Capt. Bob Henn of the Ebbtide Too. “When we were able to get out the fishing for stripers was hit or miss,” he said, adding “Find the bunker and you caught fish, however, one day you would find the bunker the next you came up empty.” Capt. Bob said everything is looking good for the fishing in November, but you can never tell what the weather is going to do. “We will be sailing 3/4-day daily for stripers in November,” he said.

The word from Jay over at Julian’s Bait & Tackle was we should have had some good fishing for the local stripers, if only the weather would have stayed away on the weekends. He said the bulk of the fishing is on the weekends in the fall and they sure were not favorable to anglers this year. He said the way it looks as of this report there will be plenty of stripers and tog around in November. “Now we need some good weather to put anglers on the water with a chance to take the fish,” he said.

“For the third straight week we lost all our trips,” Capt. Mike Scardingo of the charter boat MiJo told me on October 18, adding how you just can’t make this stuff up. He said he did not want to jinx us but we have to have a better November. “There was word of stripers coming down the coast from northern waters and once again the weather threw a third storm at us,” said Capt. Mike, adding “All we can do is wait and see what the storm does to the fishing.”

I spoke with Tim over at Bahrs Landing Marina and he told me boats sailing out of the marina did well with the bass since the big blow in the backwaters and in the lower Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers. Most boats that sailed from the marina have been targeting the stripers and many of them tangled with some real trophies. A few also got in on the bottom fishing which was decent for sea bass, tog, triggers, porgies and occasional bonito, weakfish and winter flounder. Tim said the one thing that has been missing since the big storm is the tuna and mahi and he only got scattered reports on them in the second half of October. “Hopefully things will pick up in November as the water starts to cool down,” he added.

“We got in a few trips in between the storms in October but we can’t say the month was a very good one,” said Capt. Pete Wagner of the charter boat Hyper Striper. Pete said what trips they did get in, around the winds, saw mostly overs to 47 inches on bunker and eels. “We need a good November to save the fall fishing,” he said.

“Striped bass fishing continued to be very good since things settled down from the nor’easter,” said Capt. Fletcher Chayes of Two Rivers Charters. Of course, that was right before another nor’easter expected the week of October 19. Fletcher said the biggest problem has been the weekend weather, saying “It looks like the weather we had last season with a storm every weekend.” That said, the striped bass are here because folks have been catching them when the waters have been fishable. The two middle weeks in October the weekday weather was good as was the striper and sea bass fishing only to have a weekend storm shut things down, telling me that he is really looking forward to the fishing in November.

“We sat at the dock more days in October than we got in fishing,” said Greg Heuth of the Big Mohawk III. Greg told me that he has decided to switch the boat over to striped bass fishing once they get back to fishing, more than likely sometime during the week of October 26 considering the nor’east weather forecast for the week of October 19.

“Losing two weekends in the middle of October with a third storm bearing down on us is not good for our business,” said Marty over at said Marty over at the Fisherman’s Den. It’s for sure that the month of November is going to be the month to catch stripers this fall as things have been mostly delayed by the storms. By mid-October the first winter flounder were caught, the blackfishing along with some triggerfish were being caught off the rocks at the inlet, and sporadic reports of stripers being caught in the local surf were being heard. These were all signs of a good November, so keep your fingers crossed the weather cooperates in the eleventh month.

I spoke to Capt. Lenny of the Golden Eagle on October 18 and he told us the weather forecast did not look good for the entire third week of October and he did not think the boat would be fishing the entire third week because of yet another predicted nor’easter. When the boat resumes fishing it will be for striped bass the entire month of November. He advises anglers to call the boat for current sailing schedule.

Over at the dock of the Miss Belmar and Miss Belmar Princess Capt. Al Shinn told me both boats will be striped bass fishing in the month of November. He too said most boat captains are hoping for a strong November to make up for some of the trips they lost in October.

“Our last couple trips enjoyed some good sea bass, tog and big porgy fishing,” said Capt. Nick Caruso of the Ol’ Salty II. Nick said hopefully November will not be a losing month like October was and the weather gods will bless us with a good month of weather for what we hope will be some good fishing right up to Thanksgiving Day and into December.

The most recent trips aboard the charter boat Skylarker saw anglers catch a mix of sea bass, tog and porgies in between the weather. The Tim O’Grady charter caught mostly sea bass and porgies, while the Society of Gas Operators aboard had a good pick of sea bass, porgies and tog. Capt. Steve Spinelli said his most recent trip was the members of the Renaissance Fishing Club who saw a very good bite of sea bass with several anglers getting their limits along with big porgies. Laura Smock took the pool with a 4-pound knucklehead. Steve said the boat will continue to bottom fish until the stripers show up in good numbers.

The news on the striped bass fishing was good when we spoke with Nick over at Bullet Hole Annex. He said the stripers were on everyone’s list as October waned and fishing should also be good in November barring any bad weather interference. Most of the fish being caught were local “overs” that were caught, photographed and released. “Two spots that are looking good for November are the tidal portions of the Passaic and Hackensack rivers,” he said. On the flip side bottom fishing was decent as long as you were willing to pick through the short fish, especially the tog and sea bass. He said getting green crabs is a problem and tackle shops usually run out of crabs very quickly after they get a delivery.

“It was an up and down month of October and we were fishing on a limited schedule, so getting in the trips we had scheduled was even more difficult,” said Capt. Phil Bouchard of the Misty Morn. “Our last trip picked up a few good size stripers and now we will have some weather problems again just when the bass were starting to move into our northern waters,” he told us on the weekend of October 17-18. “The boat will be fishing for stripers in November so let’s hope the weather allows us to have the bass in our waters in good numbers and good seas and weather to catch them,” he said.