Before the bull rush of stripers, enjoy a brawl or two along the beach.
Rewind the Jersey surf back to October in the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s for a second, as that’s as far back as I can remember when I started really fishing the Jersey suds. You could bet the fall migration was in full swing with scores of gator bluefish terrorizing mullet while whacking at Atom Poppers, along with migratory stripers swirling about hitting old Cotton Cordell Sea Hags.
In the day, October was the month to remember, the prime surf month for action. Over the decades, that’s shifted a bit. We haven’t seen the usual fall run of big bluefish in around 10 years now. Except for an initial bull rush of stripers this month along some stretch of beach somewhere, expect mostly a trickling of striped bass waves pushing in along the beaches in October until the November onslaught.
That being said, a host of fairly odd species have become commonplace in October nowadays and I have my finger on the pulse of the mid-October menu as I run my annual Barrier Island Beach Brawl Surf Fishing Tournament along the Ocean County beaches between Island Beach and Point Pleasant, charting all the species that are caught year after year going on eight seasons now.
Picking up where I left off in the September edition of The Fisherman (“Surf Switch: September Sessions”), this is what I’ve found that may help you plan your October surf sessions.
Beastie Brawlers
Diminutive denizens patrol the inside sloughs of the surf in the form of kingfish, spot, blowfish and croakers. Some kingfish push past the 1-pound mark and croakers can run up to 2 pounds or more. The preferred method to cast out is with a hi-lo pill float or small fireball fluorescent float rig fixed with size #4 to #6 hooks and baited with a small thin strip of Fishbites Bloodworm or actual bloodworm bit. If you just want to bend a rod, this is your best bet.
Speed Racers
While September is generally the favored month for false albacore, the tunny come rumbling through during October as well in fleeting schools chasing around rainbaits usually frustratingly in and out of casting range every couple of minutes. My tourney usually has a dozen or so weighed in each year, mainly from around the inlet areas at Manasquan and Barnegat Inlets as they wait outside the mouth to suck down baitfish on outgoing tides. Atlantic Bonito are the counterpart to the albies as they can tolerate colder waters a bit better and will stick around even through November some times. Small thin metals like Williamson Gomoku jigs or Deadly Dicks launched out and ripped back in will get struck.
Pomp It Up
One striking discovery from last year’s Beach Brawl was the huge presence of pompano that were caught. A total of 37 pompano were reported in two days; most of them were in the 6- to 10-inch range but a few hit past the 12-inch mark. Most were caught on Fishbites bloodworms or with live sand fleas hooked on hi-lo pill float rigs and cast directly in the undertow or on the drop of the slough on the inside of the sand bar. Pomps will pack up in schools so where you get one bite, keep casting in the exact spot to pull a few more out.
Rock It
The fall months bring the rocky dwellers in big time. A bulk of fish I’ve seen caught in October are blackfish down off any inlet rocks or nearshore wrecks that stick up out of the sands and are close enough to cast to. Canal areas are also loaded with tog. Most tog are in the 2 to 5 pound class and the chew can be torrid, sometimes catching 20 plus fish on a slack tide. Mixed in with the tog are a bunch of triggerfish, which school up and stick close to any rockpiles. Triggers can range up to nearly 2 pounds plus and will eagerly nip at Fishbites, clam or squid bits on size #6 baitholder type hooks.
Jersey Tarpon
Not what you’re thinking, although I wouldn’t be surprised. More specifically, hickory shad – aka Jersey Tarpon – begin to push into the surf waters pretty thick during the month and anglers casting small metals and teasers out intended for bluefish usually end up hooking hickory shad that vault out of the water like tiny tarpon. A cool way to go about catching them is to break out the fly rod in the early morning hours as you can really get struck by the shad as they inhale flies. Though they really break the 1-pound mark, they sure can pull drag and throw hooks with their excitable fights.
Bass & Blues
Of course, the most prevalent fish in the area should be the local lunkers of stripers and bluefish at any given time. Most of the past 7 years of the Beach Brawl we generally average anywhere between 20 and 60 total striped bass releases for the two-day tournament, meaning they are there but not in any great numbers as of yet.
| CENTRAL COAST BRAWL |
| Saltwater Underground With Nick Honachefsky is hosting the 8th annual Barrier Island Beach Brawl on October 9th and 10th. This two-day Friday and Saturday event will be based out of Playa Bowls and Crabs Claw Inn in Lavallette with more than 15 eligible species to win cash prizes including bluefish, weakfish, kingfish, false albacore, pompano, triggerfish, bonito, Spanish mackerel, croaker, hickory shad, blackfish, black drum, red drum, sheepshead and a striped bass photo/release only category.
Last year’s Barrier Island Beach Brawl dished out over $35,000 in fishing gear and cash prizes, donated 100 pounds of fresh fish fillets to Point Pleasant Pantry charity to feed the homeless and hungry, and raised nearly $2,000 dollars for St. Jude charities! This surfcasters only event offers fun for all families and friends from Point Pleasant Beach to the southern tip of Island Beach State Park, and is just $45 to enter. Register today by visiting saltwaterunderground.com, and for additional information contact tournament director Nick Honachefsky at saltwaterunderground@gmail.com. To register and for more information use the QR code or go to saltwaterunderground.com. |
Bluefish wise, the numbers are large, as in we check in or hear of around 100 to 400 blues caught and mostly released during the tourney. They tend to range on the smaller side with 1- to 3-pounders the average, then shots of 4- to 8-pounders mixed within. We have yet to weigh in a bluefish over 9 pounds in the past 7 years, which is odd because October is historically the month for big bluefish in the 10 to 20-pound range.
Every year is different, and who knows when we will see the big blitzes of blues rumbling through during October again.
While we wait for the peak of the fall run to hit the surf shores in November, be sure to take advantage of October’s bounty as myriad species are available as the waters really start to cool down. For some inspiration, I recall in my log books October 13, 2008 when the biggest school of bluefish ever to be seen in recent history blitzed for three days straight, existing over 10 miles long and a half-mile wide from Point Pleasant down through Island Beach State Park, with 10- to 23-pound gorillas absolutely destroying tackle and leaving shattered rods and reels in their wake.
Cross our fingers, maybe it will happen again!
