Spring stripers (beaches, inlets, and rivers – oh my!)
Recently returned from a short, but action-filled, combo biz/fun trip up to Pennsylvania and was able to rack up some solid fishing time, featuring a couple of my favorite things – fishing with Dad and trying out some new and interesting spots.
The big day was Tuesday – a gorgeous day, almost too hot. Dad and I made the drive to Island Beach State Park in central Jersey for the first time. I was impressed all around – good tackle shops (some even sell great, big hoagies!), beautiful scenery, and good access (though you have to pay) to an excellent looking beach – more Outer Banks than South Jersey with some nice bars, points and holes all along. We fished just over the dunes from access A-7, but didn’t have a touch on our fresh clam and bunker (or my plugs).
Dad enjoying the May heatwave
Pretty beach @ IBSP
From there, I hit Barnegat Inlet, but without a beach driving permit, instead of the north jetty accessible through IBSP, I had to make the trek to the south jetty at the north end of Long Beach Island – a rather long ride from IBSP. Despite some fine recent reports of gator blues running the inlet, I again drew a blank, but was still impressed by the surging inlet as well as the comfortable mile-long jetty – I can definitely see this place rocking and rolling.
IBSP from the South Jetty - can't get there from here
Old Barney
At dark, I hit one of my favorite spring surf fishing spots – a uniquely meandering, tranquil inlet in South Jersey that often holds big tiderunner weakfish in the spring, along with some blues and stripers. I was wishfully geared up for weaks, but it was stripers that hit. I didn’t feel like I had the right stuff to throw at them, mostly carrying an assortment of mirrolures and soft plastics, but no other swimming plugs. Other guys were nailing some nice fish (I’d estimate 26-34 inchers) for about an hour at the change in current. I finally did hook one up on a nightstalker mirrolure and almost had the fish on the beach before the hooks pulled. Once the incoming current picked up, the bite slacked. Definitely made me think of Frank Daignault’s writings – he is a strong proponent of the slack tide in inlets, positing that you can hit the fish as they change positions before they settle up for the incoming or outgoing current.
Thursday morning, on the way back to North Carolina, I experienced a really special treat, meeting up with a friend from graduate school to fish the James River in downtown Richmond, Virginia. Chris has been imploring me to make the trip up the past few springs, but this was the first time it came together for us – 5:30 am on a Thursday morning before work! We had a great time plugging and jigging a variety of cool spots along a few hundred yards of river. We even caught fish! I landed two stripers – a baby (on a pink zoom superfluke) and a 16-17 incher (on a white gulp mullet) and had another nicer fish (20 inch maybe, on a yo-zuri swimmer) hooked up but lost. Chris maintained his streak of at least one bass every morning for the past couple weeks. I am definitely jealous! I keep wanting to do a more extended striper/weakfish tour up the Atlantic Coast one of these springs (although I should probably wait for the weakfish population to recover) – and I think the James River will need to be one of the first stops! One very cool sidenote about fishing the James in Richmond is that the river is actually tidal in the lower reach…in addition to daily tides, blue crabs and some saltwater species make their way there as the salt wedge works its way upriver in the heat and drought of summer.
Some random photos of the James @ Richmond that I pulled from the web, as my dazed early morning mind forgot to bring the camera…
Next up: Outer Banks this weekend.
