First Official Spring 2021 Report
Thanks everyone for coming out to the shop, or visiting the website, for our Spring Has Sprung sale. It was a rousing success. We appreciate everyone’s support. Ray is trying to be humble about this. As you can see, he is failing…
We have moved things around in the shop. We now have a self-serve frozen bait freezer for our customers. For those of you who don’t want to talk to us in the shop, you can grab whatever you want yourself, including squid for fluke, and bunker for crabbing. And if you are going to miss talking to us, you can still ask for it and we will go tell you to grab it yourself anyway. 😊
We saw a post on the NJ Beach Buggy Association’s Facebook page the other day that said Island Beach State Park has sold about 6000 of the 8000 yearly passes that they have for the year. While we cannot confirm these numbers, we have heard through the grapevine that passes are selling quickly, and therefore are likely to sell out before summer. So, if you haven’t purchased your pass, we suggest you do it soon (like now…). You can buy them online at https://yourpassnow.com/ParkPass/nj and get them mailed to you or arrange to pick it up at the IBSP Gatehouse.
And one more piece of beach driving advice for you. You need to air down your tires, no mater how much you paid for your beach buggy. (Photo courtesy of John Walters).
And now the main event, on to the fishing report. The “west side of the bay and the creeks and rivers that feed it” has been on fire the past few days. It has also been crowded. But there have been good numbers of fish and we have had reports of fish up to 32 inches. Scott from the shop shared a picture from his fish finder. If you are not familiar with looking at a side scan fish finder, the brighter dots on the left side of the fish are striped bass, and the dark spots are their “sonar shadows”.
For those who don’t want to deal with crowds (like yours truly), we have been starting to hear of some fish on the east side of the bay. Both artificial lures and bloodworms are producing. We are waiting for the 1st report from an ocean facing beach. It is still a little early but it shouldn’t be long before we start seeing striped bass on the beach.
Did you get your boat in the water yet? We have a boat report for you. Captain Jeff of BNR Sportfishing reported some awesome cod fishing on the 30-40 mile wrecks using jigs and clams.
Don't forget Tautog (Blackfish) season opens April 1st! We'll be loaded up with all the blackfish jigs you need and we'll also have green crabs for opening day!