“Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!” Not after 9/7 anyway!
It’s Locals Summer baby! No more having to get your beach badges checked by some retired insurance salesman in high cut khaki shorts. Long sleeve hoodies have supplanted sun tan lotion as summer makes its last gasp giving way for the not so subtle transition into surfcaster’s “Indian Summer”.
The surf starts to see a transition of available species with some leaving, some holding on, while others are moving in. Cooler nights will slowly but surely lower surf temperatures, sparking the mullet run out of the backwaters, while pushing out all sorts of rain bait, spearing, peanut bunker and more into the surf line.
It’s still too early for large waves of migratory stripers, but there is more than plenty to target as both warm and cooler water species interblend to make for stellar September surf fishing. So what’s on tap?
Striped Bass Primer
While October typically begins the best of the fall striper run, the first migratory bass will invariably filter down along the coast to chase around the mass amount of bait schools inundating the suds soon enough. It’s not a full on run, but we will get waves of fish anywhere between 25 to 45 inches that readily feed during low light hours to hit plugs and shads. Hurricanes tend to hit during the month of September, roiling up the surf and cracking up crabs, sand fleas and clams, which means the old reliable clam bite will once again be a good bet to set out with when the seas are rough from the swell.
Bomber Bluefish
Dial back into the 80s and 90s and September meant nonstop runs of monster bluefish of 10 to 20 pounds crushing poppers, plugs and mullet schools in the surf. We haven’t seen that kind of steady September madness in years but there’s always the chance the big blues will come storming in; in fact, we did see a mini-blitz of jumbo bluefish along the Sandy Hook stretch to kick off the month of August. Most likely, it will be leftover tailor blues of 1 to 3 pounds with the occasional chopper blues of 6 to 10 pounds hanging around to whack at poppers and metals. Don’t overlook the bait bite sending out mullet rigs or bunker chunk rigs to attract blues.
Pumpin’ Pomps
Dare I say pompano are becoming more than just a rare treat for surfcasters in September? It used to be you’d hear of a half dozen caught all fall, but now, reports of pompano are a near daily occurrence. Last year at my Barrier Island Beach Brawl in early October, we weighed in 34 pompano all caught in one day on the barrier island! Scale down with small pill float hi-lo rigs with size #6 hooks and bait up with bits of Fishbites Bloodworms with the key just lobbing a cast right in the high tide undertow as the silver plates patrol that cut slough in close to gobble up sand fleas, which coincidentally also make prime baits.
Speed Racers
The torrid trifecta of speed demons – false albacore, bonito and Spanish mackerel – are here to rip through the waters making surf anglers look silly as they run the beaches trying to catch up with the fleeing schools. Whip out small slender metals like Williamson Gomoku jigs, Deadly Dicks, or Hogy Epoxy lures and reel in at a jackrabbit’s pace to get struck. The key is not to cast where they are but where they are heading; when you spot a school, try and get a good hundred yards ahead of it so the time you launch a cast, it will be right in front of the school for an immediate bone jarring strike. Albies seem to rainbow up and follow a straighter pattern, whereas Spanish and bonito seem to chase bait in big long circles back and forth, so you may not have to chase them down as much.
Pocket Sized Punchers
Croakers, kingfish and spot flitter all about in the lapping waves. What they lack in big game battles, they more than make up for in the frying pan and with quantity too. Just like pompano, small hook rigs fixed with Fishbites, bits of clam or squid all work to score. With these three, once you catch one, you’re bound to catch a lot more as they travel in little packs roving about to feed. Kingfish are the tastiest of the trio, while spot make good fluke baits and croakers (aka hardheads) put up the best battle of the three as they can sometimes reach near 2 pounds. Generally speaking, they are in close, but will hang on the inside of the sandbar on incoming tides. Croakers seem to like the full and new moon tides as well.
Fantastic Fluke
I mean, it goes without saying fluke are a top target for the September switch, and since we have a late end date of September 25 you better believe anglers will be getting in their last licks. Some of the largest fluke seem to be angled up this month, especially in the surrounding surf near any inlet mouth and if you have live baits like spot or snapper bluefish you have a good shot at scoring a big flat daddy. Hole hop all up and down the shoreline to find where packs are hanging and explore with small bucktails and Gulp combos walking down the line to see where any packs may be stacking up. The perfect rod and reel combo for light fluke bucktailing is the Daiwa Saltist SIN76MXS rated 10 to 15 pounds matched with the Daiwa Saltist Back Bay 4000LT reel.
Bucktoothed Brawlers
If you’ve done your research, there are a good handful of shipwrecks and rock structures close enough to cast to from some surf points and on those rock piles and wreck debris lay blackfish. Tangling with a tog from the surf is an experience nothing like battling one from a boat’s deck as the fight is horizontal and they will rip drag off the reel without reservation. I generally use fresh bits of clam tied on with elastic tie down on size 3/0 baitholder hooks for surf togging. Mixed in with those blackfish, especially more around piers, bridges, inlet rocks and surrounding surf – are sheepshead. They will hit nearly the same baits as tog but have more of a penchant to feed on Asian crabs and calico crabs.
Exotic Bets
The chances of scoring an exotic type surf species shines after Labor Day. Red drum or redfish always seem to be caught on bunker or mullet chunks in the surf line somewhere in Jersey in September, notably some big bruisers too to around 20 to 25 pounds. Speckled sea trout will visit the area and chase schools of rainfish right in the wash and can be caught on small soft baits like 4-inch Fin-S fish or NLBN softies. While uncommon, the early part of the month usually coughs up a cobia or two along the shoreline or around jetty tips making it an interesting target to keep your eyes open for.
Big fish or small fish, bait or lures, so much is happening in the September surf, make sure you cover all your bases and hit the wash to take advantage of the transition month.
