I rolled out of my sleeping bag at 5 a.m. and knew it was going to be an amazing morning summer back bay striper bite. The August sky was slightly cloudy, and the sun had not yet risen above the horizon. Everything was perfect!
I was interning at Sedge Islands Marine Conservation Zone which is a conservation area in Barnegat Bay behind Island Beach State Park. I was on the northernmost island where the Sedge House is located. The Sedge House is an old duck hunting lodge which is now used to educate the public about marsh ecology. The program at Sedge has groups come out to do various activities involved with the marine environment while they stay on the island. I was a junior intern there the summer of 2023.
That week we had a fishing group out on the island for two days. They were excited to land some schoolie stripers. Once I got dressed for the day I made my way through the Sedge House and walked outside to see if I could test my luck. I grabbed my rod and got set up. I saw that many of the group members were using topwaters, but after seeing the fish not interested in their presentation I decided to try something a little unusual.
When we are fishing for stripers in the areas around the island we use natural colored 3-inch swimbaits and poppers. These areas are mostly around the main channel that runs in front of the house. The water at the shoreline is around 1-foot deep, but quickly declines to the middle of the channel running about 16 feet. We fish this area by dropping middle running baits off the sides of the channel right into the strike zone.
Since everyone else was presenting a surface lure I decided to vary it up and present a mid-column natural swimbait. However, when I looked in my tackle bag, I realized I had just run out of the natural shad colored swimbaits the night before. After rummaging around a little in the bag I pulled out a pack of “Chicken on the Chain” Bass Assassin Sea Shad baits. These baits have a greenish brown back, silver and white flaked belly, and a bright chartreuse tail. This particular color usually turned off the stripers, and I thought it had to do with the unnatural bright chartreuse tail. Nevertheless, it was the only option for me that morning.
Once I tied on the 3-inch swimbait with a quarter-ounce jighead, I was all set to go. Before I took my first cast of the morning I looked across to the other bank of the marsh and saw stripers busting up on some peanut bunker. The main hunting strategy that the stripers use in the marsh is they push bait up to the marsh edge so it can’t run away, then they just repeatedly take turns attacking the school of fish. When I saw the striper doing this I just had to cast my lure to the other bank.
As soon as my bait hit the water I felt the thump of a striper. All it took was a quick swipe of a hookset and I was onto a fish. While I was fishing, one of the other interns was taking pictures and I got lucky that she snapped a picture right in the middle of my hookset on this striper with the amazing sunrise in the background. It took only a few minutes to bring the fish back to the dock, and after a quick unhook and a picture I was all ready to get him back in the bay.
This was one of the coolest fishing experiences in my life and I am lucky to have a great picture to remember it by. I hope I am able to return to Sedge for another year because I love to inform people about the marsh in Barnegat Bay, and as all fishermen know, there is always a bigger fish waiting to be caught.
Stay hooked!
Sedge Island Natural Resource Education Center is located 15 minutes by boat from Sedge Dock at Island Beach State Park and offers residential environmental education programs to participants 12 years of age and older. To learn more just search “Sedge Islands Marine Conservation Zone” in your web browser or email Karen Byrne at Karen.Byrne@dep.nj.gov.
