Fishing With ZeeeBassMan

Found Them

We put one rod out with an umbrella rig armed with white shads. It took less than 10 minutes for the rod to go down. I grabbed it and started cranking against what felt like a small fish. When I got to the 100 foot mark on the wire, the fish started head shaking and felt bigger. When we got the fish in sight, we were both surprised to see a keeper-sized striper. The fish measure 34" and went into the box, as we agreed upon on the ride out. A quick inspection of the rig showed one shad clipped clean off. We assumed I also had a bluefish on that managed to bite off halfway up.

We reset the rod and Frank cranked in the next fish. It turned out to be an alligator blue. The fish was in typical fall colors, blue on top with a purple streak running down the side. It was also covered with sea lice. Using a j-hook unhooker, frank released the fish without even bringing it into the boat.

The next set on the rod resulted in another big blue. This fish spit up a bunch of big sand eels. After releasing this yellow eyed monster, Frank realized we were low on shad bodies. It looked like a good time to switch to a rig with tubes.

We also put out a rod with a new lure by Tsunami. It had a diving lip similar to a Stretch 30+, the body was a little smaller, and it had a finish that rivaled a mega bait. It swam pretty good too. A few minutes into the troll, both the wire rod and this rod (spooled with power pro) went down. Frank reeled in a blue on the wire, and I reeled in a blue on the plug. The plug's finish survived the bluefish's teeth pretty well, just a couple of scratches.

The next couple of rod sets resulted in an equal number of blues. We were out in over 60 feet of water, and had the full 300 feet of wire and some of the mono backing out. Frank figured adding some additional weight to get to the bottom would result in a few more bass.

He was right, the next set was Frank's turn, and he reeled in a double header of slot sized fish. Since both of us have a policy that slots are too small for us to personally keep, both fish went back. The next couple of set resulted in blues.

Greener Pastures

Since big blues aren't real fun to crank in on wire, we decided to find a spot to try some jigging. We picked up and ran south, stopping at a fleet of boats to jig. We had scattered marks, but no takers.

Our next move was inshore a bit. On the run in, we saw a few fish breaking and cast diamond jigs to them. I hooked up with another blue. We chased a few more scattered, skittish schools with mixed results. The most we could pick out of a school before the disappeared was one fish. Time for a new tactic

We trolled Tsunami's equivalent to a Stretch 15+ (assuming one was made). It had a great holographic brown/blue/silver coloration, but we had no takers. Seemed like the fish were in deeper water.

We were debating whether to go back to where we trolled up the couple of bass when I saw a clam dragger working down south, off of Ortley beach. We had a few clams, so we ran down to it. We set up in the "slick" behind the dragger, making sure we left them enough room. They were running north, and looked to me like they were doing one last drag before heading in.
We drifted clams in their "slick" for 15 minutes with no takers. I had never done this before, but Frank assured me if fish were there, we would have known already.

All Heck Breaks Loose

That's when I saw the birds, and the splashes. It wasn't a big flock of birds, but they were over some nice splashes. And, to make it even better, there were no other boats around. We grabbed the casting rods and motored over.

What we saw will be burned into my mind forever. When we first got there we saw bluefish, but as we drifted in with the wind, we found that bass were funnel feeding on rainfish. There were some big bass mixed in with lots of slot sized fish, and blues were picking stragglers off at the edge of the school.

We had a bonanza with the blues for a half hour, but couldn't seem to get a bass to bite. After a few big blues, the hook on my diamond jig was shot. One more fish and it would have bent permanently straight, or broke. It was a good time to find something in my box that was more rainfish-like. After digging around a bit, I came a cross a small, orange hooligan. It was bigger than the rainfish, but the closest thing I had.

First cast with the hooligan earned me yet another blue. My next couple of casts I let it sink through the rainfish and reeled slowly. I got a bass. It was a slot and was quickly returned to the water. The next few fish were mostly bass, with the occasional blue thrown in.

A few casts later and the fish played a trick on me. They would sound every once in a while and pop up again nearby. They did this, and I made a cast to where they were hoping to pick off a straggler. After my cast landed, they popped up on the other side of the boat. I began to reel fast to get in and make another cast when I had a bone jarring hit. I began to curse up and down about the bluefish I was convinced was on the end of my line. I even tried shaking the bugger off, but it didn't work. I was glad it didn't since it was actually another slot bass.

By now Frank says he's going to "do something stupid." He grabs the lightest rod he had, a small spinner better suited for tossing fin-s to weakies in the bay. It was rigged with a yellow bucktail jig tied directly to the 10-pound mono. He tosses it into the melee and promptly hooks up. Playing the fish expertly, he brings it boat side. It's another big blue. It breaks off as Frank goes to unhook it with the unhooker. "See, something stupid," he says.

As the afternoon winds down, the fish finally stop feeding. We start running back towards the inlet, making a stop at some feeding birds. Casting lures was producing nothing. Frank asks if we should set up a troll. Both of us had tired arms and aching backs. I looked at him and said "I've caught enough fish to consider this a pretty darn good day. We can go back if you want." Frank agrees and we head for ramp.

Until next week....