By Mark Marquez II
Posted 1/18/08

After the end of each year, saltwater anglers can remember how the past fishing season shaped up: whether the fish arrived early, late or on time, whether catches were good, bad or mediocre, and whether the runs turned on at the usual holes.

But even charter captains usually keep a log book about their fishing to better see the patterns, predict the next year’s bite and therefore catch more fish, instead of relying solely on their memories

A look back at the past year’s fishing reports can do the same to some extent.

It can at least create an overall picture of when the fish started biting, where they were caught, when they left, and so on.

Here’s the first article in a series that will review the 2007 saltwater season, based on the fishing reports.

This one covers the first fish to start feeding after the coldest months, stripers and winter flounder that spend the winter in the bays and rivers, to the first push of migrating fish from the south, mackerel followed by blues.

Here goes.

The first reports of 2007 show a big difference compared with this year.

By the second week of January of last year, striped bass were still biting.

Anglers were becoming scarce by then, but some of the charter boats and party boats picked up stripers, including a few keepers, between the channels off Sandy Hook, and surf anglers in the area kept clamming shorts.

Tackle shops all along Jersey’s coast reported similar results at that time, and one South Jersey store even said a few blues were around.

Not the case this year.

During this year striper fishing mostly screeched to a halt by the first of week of January. And blues were long gone, mostly disappearing by the beginning of December. Both fish every year mostly head south for warmer water.

The weather was warmer at the beginning of last winter, and striper catches were reported through January. But cold weather did start to roll in by the middle of the month, and most saltwater anglers soon avoided fishing.

Tog fishing was good all along the coast at the beginning of last winter, and big ones were coming up. The weather was calmer than this year, and although this year’s togging’s been decent, it’s seemed tougher than last year, because of stirred up seas from windy weather.

Party boat anglers caught mackerel during the southerly migration of the Bostons off the state’s coast starting in early January last year, similar to this year, and the macks were reported boated until the beginning of February last winter.

In February of last year all was quiet for the most part, and even the tog boats were calling it quits instead of braving the cold.

Little happened until March 1, when striped bass season opened in the back bays, and anglers tried to shake off cabin fever.

Still, cold weather had set in through the past weeks, chilling the water, and not much was biting.

Nonetheless, the first keeper striper of the year was reported checked in at a South Jersey tackle shop on the opening day, a 28-incher taken from the banks of Delaware Bay. In the coming days more stripers would be reeled in from the bay, one of the first places to give up the fish during the season.

Rumors flew around that a few early season charter boats were mugging stripers in the warm shallows along Delaware Bay.

By March 8 a bunch of shorts were reported hooked farther north at Great Bay’s Graveling Point, traditionally one of the first places to produce. One shop owner said a couple of anglers caught and released up to a dozen shorts apiece in 45-degree water at the point.

All these stripers are usually resident fish, simply starting to feed because of warmer water. Bigger, migrating stripers were yet to appear from down south.

Rumors were now also starting to be heard about a few resident shorts biting farther north at Raritan Bay.

By mid March, striper fishing was running rampant at the Oyster Creek power plant outflow near Barnegat Bay, and again, these were resident fish. The warm water there is usually a hot spot, no pun intended, for striper fishing in the early season.

But other than at the outflow, stripers were hooked in fits and starts, while cold and warm spells mixed up the weather.

Small stripers also started hitting in the warm water at the Beesley’s Point power plant outflow at Great Egg Harbor Bay in South Jersey.

But hardly any stripers were swimming the surf anywhere in the state
so far.

Winter flounder season opened March 23, and the weather was stormy that day, but anglers hit the sheltered waters of the rivers and bays, and the fishing started with a bang at Shark River. Anglers there bailed the fish, and catches were also reported to be decent in northern Barnegat Bay near the Mantoloking Bridge.

The flattie fishing was also okay farther north in the Shrewsbury River, with some trips better than others, but captains were pleased so far, and the action seemed promising.

The season’s first herring were now beginning to migrate up rivers such as the Egg Harbor and the Mullica.

By this time, the end of March, shops were reporting lots of short stripers sucking down baits in the shallow, relatively warm waters along the shore of Raritan Bay. No big migrators arrived, but the residents were on a tear.

On April 1 the first Cape May charter boat that participates in the site reported fishing the shallows of Delaware Bay, claiming 20 linesiders to 31 inches. Most were shorts and were released, but some were keepers, and the captain said he wouldn’t say it was on fire, but it was pretty solid.

The Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers around this time were putting out lots of winter flounder, and the first striper over 20 pounds, a 21-pounder, was checked in at a South Jersey tackle shop and was nailed near Little Egg Inlet.

At times through mid April, fishing for both species was good, and at other times cold weather was still moving in and shutting down the action, and surf fishing for stripers produced a few but not many.

But by the end of April, catches of both fish were solid in the bays, and the first reports about catches of larger stripers trickled in. The migration was beginning.

Big bluefish to 10 pounds suddenly slammed the entire coast during late April and the first few days of May, the beginning of incredible fishing for the slammers last spring. Reports about mackerel, the first major species to migrate north up the coast, were mostly nowhere to be heard, probably meaning most of the fish passed farther offshore, beyond range of recreational boats. That seemed to be the case in recent springs. But if the blues were here, they followed the mackerel, so the mackerel must’ve schooled past the coast.

Tackle shops at the beginning of May were also reporting lots of small striped bass beached in the surf, and a few bigger ones were beginning to appear there. The bigger bass follow the blues. Winter flounder fishing was going strong, but the flatbacks were moving to the ocean from the bays and rivers on their way offshore for the summer.

Spring fishing was really kicking in during early May.

Stay tuned for the next installment of the 2007 saltwater season in review, when bigger stripers show up, and fluke season kicks off.