Dig your toes in the sand and hang on to your rod at Island Beach State Park.
By Nick Honachefsky
Fall is marked by fewer bikinis but more fish.
Take a deep breath. Smell that? It’s a hint of pirate gunpowder. Captain Kidd point-blank shot and beheaded a pirate crewman here, procuring his spirit for the dubious duty of eternally guarding Kidd’s buried treasure, deep within the sedge and sands of Island Beach, New Jersey. If you’ve got an eagle eye, you may find a piece of eight, or discover a glint of chiseled obsidian arrowhead in the sand, crafted by the indigenous Lenni Lenape Indians, who stood knee-deep into the Atlantic netting striped bass before white explorers even knew a mass of land existed across the Big Pond.
New Jersey’s Island Beach State Park (IBSP) is mired in magical maritime history, and the archaic treasures that comprise the soul of the place are boundless. There may not be any patch-eyed, bloodthirsty ransackers here anymore, but, for twenty-first century spectators and explorers, bent rods, breathtaking scenery, and flat out mesmerizing shallow-water fishing sum up the treasures on this 10-mile-long barrier island along central New Jersey, separating the Atlantic Ocean from Barnegat Bay.
Home to the largest osprey colony in New Jersey, the island is buffeted by the Atlantic surf, coastal sand dunes, tidal marshes, freshwater wetlands and lush sod banks on the bayside; the expanse contains more than 200 native plants and animals, including red foxes, beach plum shrubs, and stinkpot turtles. Striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, false albacore and fluke, with a few scrappy battlers such as kingfish (whiting), blowfish, croakers and the occasional black drum, round out this year-round fishery mix.
Springtime Glory
Come late April, surfcasters mobilize to put the first striped bass on the boards for the new year, and the commotion always takes place deep within the deep troughs and sloughs off of IBSP. From the third week of April through late May, migratory striped bass and bluefish move northward off the Jersey Coast, packing on needed pounds lost from wintering over. For the most part, it’s the bait fishermen, a.k.a. “bucket brigade,” that hit the beaches. Early season bass are a bit sluggish and will usually only pounce on fresh clams on bottom rigs, but by mid-May as the water temp reaches the mid 50s and low 60s, bass become aggressive and will take bunker chunks and whack swimming plugs worked at a leisurely pace. The lion’s share are 20- to 24-inchers, but by late spring the “big girls” from 15 to 50 pounds come home to graze on the large schools of adult menhaden within casting distance of the beachfront, making a snag-and-drop rig a worthwhile technique to employ. Menhaden schools not only bring in the big breeder bass, but also some true monsters such as thresher sharks up to 400 pounds. What a rush to tie into one of those!
Take a summer fishing trip to Jersey beaches and you'l find the gang's all here.
Long, but skinny bluefish of 4 to 8 pounds make an appearance, and are voraciously trying to bulk up. Most are taken on fresh cut bunker or mullet. Come Memorial Day, weakfish go on the spawn and the artificial bite begins to go off. You’ve got a shot at putting a serious-sized tide runner on the sand. Many people go trophy hunting for the weakie of their dreams by casting 1⁄2- to 3⁄4-ounce leadheads, affixed with 4-inch Fin-S fish in Rainbow Trout or Arkansas Shad patterns. Most fish are caught in and around the channels that hug the sod banks on the backside of the island.
