The New Jersey Fall Run Finale

Capt. Jim Freda holding a big New Jersey fall run striper caught late within the migration.

When the water temperature drops into the 58- to 48-degree vary, the autumn run frenzy in New Jersey begins. Off Manasquan Inlet, that normally occurs across the first week of November and lasts till the second week in December. This temperature drop pushes grownup and peanut bunker south, whereas on the identical time drawing in sand eels and sea herring from offshore simply as massive colleges of migrating stripers are returning to New Jersey waters from New England. This collision of baitfish and bass creates the autumn blitz!

Given the combo of baitfish, a part of what makes the autumn a enjoyable time to catch stripers is the number of ways that may be efficiently employed. With each constitution, I’m at all times able to solid with mild spinning gear, toss out a fly, or stand up on the troll relying on what kind of bait I’m seeing.

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Bunker and Herring: Topwater Time

When the bass are hounding the bunker colleges or pushing sea herring to the floor, they are often simply positioned from a distance. Each pencil poppers and spook-style topwaters will catch massive fish in these conditions. Pencils are a bit extra user-friendly for my less-experienced purchasers since their tail-weighted designs make it simple to solid them far sufficient to succeed in the fish. I particularly like pencils with flat bottoms, like Lex Lures, since these are simpler to work throughout the floor.

Spook-style lures, just like the Madd Mantis Plank. require a bit extra really feel to get them working correctly, however a wide-walking spook usually will get extra bites than a pencil. The trade-off is the decreased casting distance.

Although not strictly a “topwater,” a metal-lipped swimmer just like the Surfster will be very productive, particularly within the chartreuse or bunker shade. What makes this lure work so properly is its wide-bodied profile with a compact design that produces a V-waking wiggle that bass can’t resist.

Madd Mantis Plank Spook

Sand Eels: Go Deep with Mushy Plastics and Metals

When stripers are hanging deeper, the simplest synthetic to make use of is a closely weighted paddle tail, just like the 6.5-inch Tsunami Heavy Deep Diving Swim Shad. This lure is nice to make use of when the wind is up and there’s a quick drift, as usually occurs within the fall. Merely solid it out, let it sink to the underside, and retrieve it again, throwing in a number of pauses right here and there.

When sand eels are the principle forage, there will probably be many days when the bass are schooled up by the 1000’s underneath the boat and every drop of a tender plastic or jig ends in a hookup. Days like these are memorable for purchasers—as memorable as their sore arms by the top of the day. To mimic sand eels, there are various artificials you should use. My prime producers are 6- to 8-inch soft-plastic stickbaits and paddletails just like the Authentic RonZ or the Fish Lab Mad Eel. I solid them away from the boat and retrieve them with erratic up-and-down motions.

Fish Lab Mad Eel

Slender metals like diamond jigs are very efficient sand eel imitations. I drop these to the underside and jig slowly, working the bottom 5 ft of the water column. More often than not, bass hit them on the drop, so you will need to preserve a decent line whereas dropping. If there’s slack within the line, you’ll miss feeling the attribute bump of a bass and miss the hookset.

Tsunami Ava-style Diamond Jig

When Bait is Skinny, It’s Trolling Time

Trolling is one other efficient tactic for late-fall stripers off New Jersey, although it really works higher when bass are round and the bait is skinny. I troll white or inexperienced Bunker Spoons and tandem Mojo Rigs. On any given day, huge bass will hit one or the opposite, so I at all times prefer to have each within the water. My trolling unfold consists of two bunker spoons fished off my outrodders and two mojos off my transom (down the middle).

Trolling Umbrella Rigs with coloured tube tails fished on wireline or heavy braid with drails proper close to the underside ought to lead to fixed hook-ups, with double- and even triple-headers doable. Most of those will probably be smaller fish that assault the tubes. Inexperienced, wine, and black tubes are the very best producers throughout the fall run.

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