Black Drum, Fishing Reports, IBSP, island beach state park, New Stuff, product, Spot Burn, Spring Run, Striped bass, surfcasting -

I don’t want to play, I just want to …

In the past few days we received a number of big orders from MaiTai rigs.  In the brick & mortar store, our pre-tied rig aisle is full.  We have rigs for striped bass, bluefish, drum, fluke, winter flounder, perch, blackfish and probably a couple of others that I am forgetting.  We are adding these rigs to our online store as quickly as we can.  Today we added three more rigs.  Fluke Spin-N-Glo rigs, Fluke Bucktail & Spinner Rigs, and Drum rigs for the surf.  That last one is timely, as you will see below.

As for how the fishing went this weekend, the striped bass bite was great in the surf.  We heard of (and saw) several keepers plus plenty of smaller fish.  All fell for bait, and most of those were clams, though a couple went for fresh bunker. 

If you want to throw lures, there are plenty of small bass all over the bay readily eating small artificials.   Kettle Creek Shads, small Tsunami Swim Shads, small Storm Wildeye Swim Shads, and Vudu shrimp were all working this past weekend.

Here are some notable catches:

 

@kevinshannon2020 sent this picture in not long after he left the shop with some fresh shucked clams.

 

Chris Pitcher brought this 36.5” 17.55lbs striped bass home for dinner.  It was one of 11 bass he caught on bait in the IBSP surf.

 

@timtjemma also brought home dinner with a 33” 14.55LB striped bass he caught in the surf on IBSP using Clams.

 

And some big news, the black drum are in the surf.  We heard of a few caught Saturday, and got photo proof of one.   Here is @areyouthomas with a nice black drum that was caught locally off the surf on clams. These guys can be a blast as they pull really hard.  We have the rigs for them too.

 

On the bayside our own Online Store John and his brother took a short boat ride and put on a clinic with the small striped bass in Barnegat Bay.  Gliders, Swizzle Sticks, and kettle creeks all caught fish, but the hot lure of the night was the Vudu Shrimp.  It was a hit or a fish on every cast with those for nearly 2 hours until the tide stopped running.  The best retrieve was excruciatingly, painfully slow.

Something happened in the shop yesterday that caused Ray to assume the role of janitor.  It wasn’t pretty, and he was not happy, as you can see…