By John Spinelli
On your mark, get set, fish!
Two River fisherpeople, we have finally made it. The 2023 fall striper run is officially here. The run is a blessing, considering late September/early October hurricane remnants ruined the end of fluke fishing. We’re finally getting good weather without rain almost every weekend.
“A lot of these large striped bass people are catching now are survivors that spawned in 2014/2015,” explained John Tiedemann, assistant dean in the Monmouth University School of Science and the director of the university’s Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy Program. “As researchers, we have tracked them for years using the chip system and tags. We have seen some of the stripers migrate from Maine all the way to the Carolinas/Virginia while others remain as local residents not going too far off New Jersey.”
Tiedemann said “site fidelity” is why striped bass flock to the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers. Stripers are one of the only fish that remember where they spawned and continue to go back there for years, most likely an evolutionary trait.
“Fishing has been amazing this year. Customers have caught many big stripers just off the beach,” said Nick Spadavecchia, from TAK Waterman, a store in Long Branch specializing in fishing and water sports. “People have been using pencil poppers, live bait, etc. We have caught stripers that have gotten up to 50 inches, something we have not seen in a long time.”
Spadavecchia also emphasized patience in bringing these monsters in. “Really, the strategy is to find the bait fish; some days it’s a waiting game. They will travel back and forth from Long Branch to Sandy Hook for a whole day.”
In Atlantic Highlands, Capt. Ron Santee of The Fishermen said they are “just targeting striped bass now, mostly bay fishing. However, we have been in the ocean a couple times.”
He said the stripers being caught are a “nice mix size of fish, from tiny ones up to 45 pounds” and the best bait has been live bunkers and shads.
Santee said the “bite should be good right through November. As the colder weather approaches fish feed as they are getting ready to migrate.”
Red Bank resident Paul Juelis reeled in a 40-inch monster off Monmouth Beach last week. “It felt like pulling in a tank and it put up a really good fight,” he said. “I was told the key was to let itself tire out for a little before you start trying to really pull it in.”
And that’s exactly what he did. “It was high tide in Monmouth Beach around 5:45 p.m. I used a 2-ounce weighted shad, which did the trick. The stripers were coming right into the shore chasing the peanut bunker so you didn’t have to cast very far out.”
For our friends who sail and surf, this is the forecast to look for: Through Saturday, Nov. 4, winds will be around 10-11 miles per hour; skies will be mostly cloudy but not terribly wet.
In terms of the tides, Monday and Tuesday next week are predicted off Sandy Hook to have waves that could range from 4 to 5 feet. According to TAK Waterman, there have been some days where the waves have breached 5 feet, with higher waves expected to come as winter approaches.
This article originally appeared in the November 2 – 8, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
