Surf fishing outlooks from a seasoned veteran.
For better or worse, I’ve been prowling the surf for over 60 years. That fact is a little scary for me, but I feel very fortunate to be still at it and still catching. Relevant to your interests, that means I’ve been fishing a time or two, and I might have a few helpful ideas about how to make the most of the fall run.
Experience is a great teacher, and experience has taught me that no two decades are the same. Each has its own flavor and excitement, as well as dominant bait and gamefish. The 60s witnessed a rapid increase in bluefish, the 70s were dominated by sand eel rivers along with lots of weakfish and blues, while the 80s were all about giant bluefish and the striped bass moratorium. Stripers returned big-time in the 90s, along with huge amounts of sand eels, and plenty of large blues. The 2000s featured solid numbers of stripers and blues, and the 2010s witnessed slow declines in both species. Unfortunately, the 2020s have been plagued by inconsistent fishing and poor bait spawns. But, is the quality of each year’s fishing only about changing gamefish populations?
Take the Easy Way Out
It’s easy to look at a decline in the quality of fishing for weakfish, stripers, and blues in terms of reduced populations, but that’s a one-dimensional examination, and most issues disserve a multidimensional analysis. A fisheries manager once told me that “things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem.” Want proof? In 2023, boat fishermen on both shores enjoyed one of the best fall-runs of stripers in a long time. They caught a lot of fish and many big ones, too. Meanwhile, the surf was, in general, a bust. Here too, we find ambiguous information. The number of fish entered in the New York Surf Fishing Contest was up over the previous year, and some anglers have interpreted this as a sign of improving fishing.
A Closer Look
However, a closer examination of the fall surf run shows that a handful of anglers happened to get into large stripers for short periods of time. Their success was a direct result of their experience, skill, and effort, and did not reflect the overall season’s productivity. Also, the NYSFC results do not tell us how many school bass were caught compared to other years, since only larger fish are entered. There’s an old saying that 90% of the fishermen catch 10% of the fish and 10% of the fishermen catch 90% of the fish. In fact, although the percentages may vary from year to year, the adage is basically true. The saying is not a criticism of anyone, or their approach to surf fishing, since surf anglers approach the sport in different ways and with varied expectations.
My way of evaluating the quality of a fishery differs from those who focus on numbers or specific local experiences. A narrow focus may lead us to conclude that several limited experiences mirror the whole world; it doesn’t. Science and local experiences are useful, but incomplete as evaluators. We need more information. Anglers want more and more data about the state of our fisheries, but doing so would require more funding than most citizens are willing to pay for. Managers use surveys, scientific analysis, and feedback from anglers to develop the best regulations possible, but realize these measures provide an incomplete picture. Armed with incomplete information, they attempt to develop effective management, but the limitation of bureaucratic time delays and lengthy science protocols renders the management far from perfect.
My Anecdote
As you can see from the above discussion, I prefer to see the big picture that goes beyond reports and statistics. I like to use observation and unreported data. Try this, for example. Just a few years ago the South Shore beaches were packed with fall anglers; even on weekdays. Why? Because in those years we enjoyed an abundance of large sand eels and solid runs of stripers from one end of the island to the other. Except for severe weather days when I foolishly went fishing anyway, I caught lots of stripers every day and some big ones, too. During those years, the beaches were packed with anglers and I sometimes needed to walk a mile from the parking lot to find a suitable spot to fish.
Now, let’s pivot to 2023. On many days, I fished alone, on others I was free to roam in either direction with perhaps a half-dozen to a dozen anglers spread out along the breath of Robert Moses State Park. I did catch at least one to six school stripers on most trips, but that’s a far cry from the numbers caught just a few years ago. Where, you ask, were all the other anglers? The 90% who catch 10% tend to have a tough time catching fish when there is little bait and few fish because they lack the experience to adjust to tough conditions. Eventually, they stop fishing, while the 10% continue to slug it out. The lack of anglers on the fall beaches speaks volumes to me about the quality of our fisheries. But, is this the whole story? No, there’s more.
Additional Factors
There are a cluster of key reasons why last fall’s surf fishing was poor, and among them was weather. There were repetitive early nor’easters that began in September, so by the time migrating schools of bait and fish reached us, the beaches were flat, there was no trough, and no offshore bar either in most places. Normal structure is key to a sustained fall run because bait tries to hide in the trough, predators push bait to shore, and a sloped beach provides turbulence that helps predators feed. Most folks don’t follow the weather the way dedicated surf rats do. Most citizens consider the weather to be good if the sun shines and it doesn’t rain, but those values are basically irrelevant to hardcore surf anglers.
Another key is bait. Good runs of fall fishing depend on abundant bait and last year’s bait was not abundant along the shores. First, sand eels have been in decline for a while now from the mid-Atlantic to the Arctic Circle, and scientists have no idea why. Although anglers referred to the Montauk spring fishing as “the year of the sand eel,” this was a local phenomenon and was not the case elsewhere: again, showing that a good thing happening locally does not describe the world.
Spring weather was also bad and as a result, early bunker spawns were only modestly successful in most places. Therefore, instead of an abundance of five sizes of peanuts by September, the schools were smaller and more spread out.
For those who bad-mouth bluefish, consider this. In addition to providing great sport, large schools of blues routinely push bait toward shore. It’s their nature to hunt and chase. Unfortunately, the bluefish population is much smaller than 20 years ago. As a result, most bait schools remained offshore during the fall migration.
Unfortunately, modern technology has aided but also stymied the 90%. They don’t find fish, instead they scan internet sites looking for good reports, and they also use cell phones for instant real-time information about what’s happening on the beaches. When the news is good, they fish, when reports are bad, they don’t. Genuine surf anglers go fishing whether or not the run is good, always trying new tricks and new places, hoping to find a school of bait, a school of fish, and a run of fish.
Expand Your Knowledge Base
It’s always good to learn more about fishing gear, lures, rods, reels, and lines, but how about gaining knowledge about bait? Think that might be useful? Yes, find the bait and find the fish. Expand your knowledge about the weather, too. I study meteorology not only to know what to wear, but also to have a better understanding of how weather affects tides, bait movements, fish, and sea conditions. It is impossible for me to estimate how many fish I’ve caught that I wouldn’t have caught if I hadn’t expanded my knowledge of meteorology.
Studying fisheries biology has added to my fish ledger, too. Now-a-days, it’s easy because you don’t have to buy a book, take a course, or go to the library, since the information is at your finger-tips on the keys of your computer.
Near shore oceanography can also improve your success because it will help us understand near shore marine topography, since the ocean shapes topography. When we combine this information with info from previous categories, we’ll have a much better idea of where the bait and fish will be found within the scope of moon phase, weather, and season.
Hone Your Skills
Sharpening your skills is very important for success. Many among the 90% simply cast and retrieve, robotically relying on what others have told them. For example, back when there were more sand eels, the “official” word told us that only a diamond jig with a green tube would succeed. Yes, diamond jigs with green tubes caught fish, but on some days, red, white, or black tubes, were better.
Apparently, it was a well-kept secret that bucktails caught stripers during those sand eel years, since I saw so few anglers use them. My friends and I often catch fish on bucktails while the tin and tube guys only pick fish. I recall when a fella came over to me and asked what I was using, I told him, he went into his surf bag, and pulled out a bucktail with a rusted hook and sparse discolored hair. He said, “I never catch much on this.” I asked, “How often do you fish with bucktails?” If you don’t hone your skills by seriously practicing with a technique or lure, it is very unlikely that your technique will improve, and in this case, you’ll end up with an unusable bucktail.
Knots are another important need. I watch people on the beach struggle to tie complex knots that someone told them was “the” knot. The reality is that most of those knots are only 85% strong, whereas the improved clinch knot is 95% strong when tied correctly. It is a simple knot and a strong knot. Practice tying it and you’ll have a reliable knot.
Adjust & Adapt
This has become my Mantra as surf fishing evolves. But how can I adapt? Simply put, learn as much as you can about seasons, wind, tides, moon phases, and beach structure as you can, then figure out how they make fishing successful in your favorite spots. How does one do that? Go fishing and absorb the clues Nature provides about those factors, instead of being passive and cast and retrieve without analysis. My friends and I did just that in the 80s when stripers were scarce. We adjusted, worked hard, and caught quite a few very large stripers. This brings us to the last ingredient: perseverance. Don’t only fish when it’s easy, fish often. Remember, we learn more from failure than success.
I need about 100 more pages to cover this thoroughly, but I hope this is enough to get you thinking. In short, learn more about all aspect of the sport so you can adjust and adapt to changes. Next, understand that none of us can become a good angler, pianist, tennis player, bowler, chess player or anything else without practicing. Remember the old question and answer. “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice!”
I could make a prediction about the fall run, but I won’t because my crystal ball has been broken for years. Instead, I will learn, adapt, adjust, persevere, and keep fishing hard.
