2022, Well…… a very odd, but fun year in the surf. Very little fishing in the light, which I enjoyed. 50 trips, 17 skunks this year which happens to be more than the previous two years combined. Could not find many Bass in the summer. Caught 48 Stripers over 28 inches, largest around 38 inches (a few). Caught Stripers on 47 different artificials, really spread out the catching. Blond Terror 1 oz darter and Madd Mantis Quake each picked up 7% of the Bass to lead the way. Did not fish the Albi Snax much and it was difficult finding fish in close this year. Learned a lot like every year, looking forward to 2023!
11/22, 11/26, 11/27 and 12/1 – Three skunk trips and a a night with schoolies. A couple trips that I left early, the other two were solid efforts. The trip with schoolies was 13 bass on 10 different artificials. Fun.
11/20/2022 Fished 11:30PM-5:30 AM, Three spots ocean side, Jersey, rock piles, two at each location.Spot one, bump, swirl and a dog fish. Spot two one rock pile two bass on Bucktail, spot three, nothing…and started to get cold. Fun beautiful night on the water.
11/6 and 11/13/2022, typical night trips, LI South shore, west an Staten Island. El Stinko-Skunko
10/30/2022 – Fished 12:30 – 5:30 AM, South Shore again, Bass early, then epic miss and drop streak. Then in some current, found some Bass. Ended with 10 bass on 9 different artificials. Fun night, vacation over. A good one.
10/27/2022 – Fished 11:30 – 4:30 AM, fished different area west, was exhausted. Nothing doing.
10/26/2022 – Same area, 4 nights in a row, I’m wrecked. Fished midnight to 4:00. Picked up 11 Stripers, the 24 7 chubby needle picked up more than 1/2. Fun night, the fog was off the charts bad.
10/25/2022 – Same area. Fished 12:30 AM- 4:00 AM, two bass in first half hour on the BT darter and Blurple 24 7 Blurple Chubby Needle, then last half hour lost that blurple needle to a fish, switched to the olive Chubby and on long casts picked up 6 bass. First time fishing these needles, cast incredible.
10/24/2022 – Same area as yesterday, fished midnight to 4:30 AM, two Bass, dropped 3, missed hits….darkest night I have fished in some time. The bass with the darter in mouth was fine (at least it looked fine), plug came out easy and bass looked normal. Action was not ocean side this trip.
10/23/2022 – Same place last week, ocean side was where action was. Fished from 1:00 AM – 5:00 AM, traffic was atrocious on ride out. Picked up one bass at start and two at the end. Crazy amount of hits on my blurple loaded red fin, but no hook up.
10/16/2022 – Fished 1/3 the way ocean side LI, 12:30 AM – 5:30 AM. Nicest looking water of the year. A few bumps and a couple bass. Hadn’t fished there in 3-4 years, missed all the sand structure. Totally different, but wow!
10/9/2022 – Under the weather a bit, so abbreviated session. 2:30 AM – 5:30 AM, One beach ocean side , 3 spots, one had bass on it. Only landed a couple shorts, dropped a couple larger fish and countless hits. Was just happy to see stripes after all this time and not being close to 100%…….the action was off the charts fun, throwing all kinds of stuuf to see what got hit.
9/25, 10/2, 10/9/2022 – Skunk-Raccoon-Sick…..First trip north shore LI night before place was lit up, I shut the bite down. Next trip first spot a raccoon came in the water after me, 10 minutes of us chasing each other around me growling and yelling at it, it coming at me,ended with me running away and no fish the rest of the trip, and then I got sick and missed the trip on October 8th. Pretty sure I have completely forgotten how to catch a bass………
9/18/2022, Midnight to 6:30 AM, bayside Jersey. I’m not doing well……….
9/11/2022, 11:30 PM to 6:30 AM, Back side, ocean side, back side, back bay, blah, blah, blah!!! Dropped a fish around 2:00, then false dawn two small blues. WOW!, terrible catching. And I hate people who at 4:00 AM, have a bright light, walk 10 feet in the water, carrying a net looking for mullet or peanuts to net for his buddy with a 20 gallon barrel on wheels walking along with him. Hate isn’t strong enough word, so many people just do their thing in disregard for others. That is the reason I do everything I can to fish away from people (that’s worded wrong, I do not fish near others). And this netting bait people, same thing last year, I will not fish that area until they leave.
9/3/2022, And on this trip, a few bumps, a Snax bit in half and then in some real nice water a solid hit on a needle I missed. At this point I am more startled with a hit, never mind me setting a hook. Jersey this trip. Can’t wait to get out there again next week.
8/28/2022, Well another skunk. Ocean side for 3 hours then the bay. Ocean side was dead. Bay side had spearing, peanuts and tiny snappers. Time to change things up. Over the last few years I have enjoyed a lot of walking the beach and hooking up with bass in the wash or whitewater. Where I have fished the sand fleas are absent, or not anywhere near the amount in the past. And the result is I can’t find a bass in the wash this year there. Time to change things up.
8/21. 11:30 pm-7:30 am, Urghhh, ocean side, just could not find a Bass, 2 bluefish and 3 fluke, I have not seen a sand flea in two months, thinking this is why I am not finding Bass in the wash this year. At end saw a fish with a fin out of the water, had it hit a plug but missed it. Looking forward to next Sunday AM on the water.
8/14, 11:30 PM – 7:00 AM. Well……a little better. Three just about cocktail blues, a skate……., Fluke and two Stripers on the Quake. Grinding….missed a few hits. Two spots out front, covered a lot of ground. Will build off this trip next one……
7/24, 8/1 and 8/7 Summer of……not productivity. Couple skunks, 3 just larger than Snappers and a Fluke. Bayside 2x, ocean short trip. Need to step it up. Have not seen any Sand Crabs.
7/17, 11:30-6:45 AM, Oceanside to 3:00AM Weeds, pounds of weeds. Worse year of weeds I have had. Made big move bay side. Found peanuts and a lot of them. Fish on them. I was atrocious. One bass first hint of daylight out. Swirls, tails flying out of the water, hundreds of peanuts jumping out of the water at a time. A regular Natural Geographic morning and a display of futility on my part. Awesome.
7/10, Oceanside, a little bit backside. A Weakfish, tiny blue and short bass. Weeds out the wazoo first spot. Just bad the second. Bass and Weakfish ocean side. Not a lot of action. What action there was, was in the dark. Always fun out there, weatherclowns forecasted lightening, never materialized. Urghh.
7/3, Ocean side west. 11:30PM – 6:30 AM, two spots, first spot had weeds. Second not as bad. A couple short drops and half a dozen missed hits. Nice water. just could not set a hook. Covered a ton of ground, great bass water. El-Skunkaroo
6/26 AM, Ocean side west. 11:30 PM – 6:30 AM. Weeds. Great looking surf, but weeds on almost every cast. Lost 3 solid fish just before 2:00 then picked away on 7 blues until around 4:30. Fun, lots of action.
6/10, 6/12, 6/19, Not much. 3 bass on pink Albie Snax, another on Flat Glide needle. On the 19th tried the Long Island Sound, cold, windy, threw new stuff and the area was new to me, didn’t see bait, I stunk it up with a skunk.
6/10 West ocean side, fished from 11:45 PM to 5:15 AM. Action at start and end. Had my Troublemaker small Danny break off on a hit. after landed bass, hit, lost a bass in wash and broke off on a hit. At end of trip Madd Mantis Quake had action. White water trip.
6/8 West back side, Windy, fished from 2:30 AM to 5:30, not a lot of action. Lrgest blue of the year so far.
6/7, 11:30 PM to 5:15 AM. West ocean side, a little further west, Nice action. 4 bass, 6 blues. Missed hits and dropped fish. Great time in the surf!
6/6 West ocean side, First fish on a Snax in 2022! Not using often this year. Yet. 11:30 PM to 5:15 AM.
6/5 West ocean side 11:45 PM to 5:15 AM. Not a lot of action. But fishing ocean side is always fun.
5/22 and 5/29, Ocean side the first trip and start of second, out west LI, nothing doing. So second trip back side until around 4:30. Only could find one bass on a 9″ Sluggo. lots of sand fleas….I threw bigger stuff. A couple bumps.
5/16/2022, Fished Midnight to 5:00, Long Island sound, fog. Fog!!. Managed two short bass on Savage Gear 3D Mackerel 5″. Throwing into the gray….fog. Ridiculous, next trip to my favorite area.
5/8/2022, Fished New Jersey, Midnight – 4:00 AM, High water, cold, windy. Felt like e beginning of Mach, not May. Big time skunk. Next week back to New York……I miss it.
5/6/2022, Fished New Jersey, Midnight – 4:00 AM, 3 Bass between 30 inches and 33 inches. Savage Gear Freestyler, RG Glider and a pike.
5/5/2022, Fished New Jersey, Midnight – 4:30 AM, 6 Bass between 28 inches and 33 inches. Savage Gear Freestyler picked up two, Outcast Surfster two. Action during the start of the ebb. Fished alone as usual (lots of others fishing, I walk and get away from them all. Solitude or nothing!!!). Did cut a hook out of a guys hand around 1:00 AM.
5/3/2022, Fished New Jersey, Midnight – 4:30 AM, 3 Bass between 32 inches and 35 inches. 9″ Black Flatglide, Large Freestyler and 12″ withe Sluggo. Fun again. Definitely bunker around this trip, spread out.
5/1/2022, Fished New Jersey, Midnight – 4:30 AM, All action between 12:30 and 2:30. Current slowed and so did the action. Picked up 6 bass between 30 and 36 inches. Lost a nicer fish when leader broke at the knot at the clip. A first for me….. Fun night. 6 fish, 6 different artificials.
4/24/2022, Fished New Jersey, Midnight – 5:00 AM, took until 2:00 to hook up, Madd Mantis Quake and a schoolie. Then picked up 3 more (for the night 3 on the Quake and 1 on the RG Glider). All long casts, all action deep (had a bunch of bumps, not solid hits).
4/17/2022, Fished Staten Island from 12:00 AM to 6:45 AM, 3rd trip of the year and finally picked up two Stripers. Both on a white 5″ Mag Darter, between 12:30 and 1:00, no other action on the trip. Fun, nice night, had a mile of beach to myself. Only bait noticed on trip was one dead bunker.
4/10/2022, Fished Staten Island from 12:30 AM to 8:00 AM, two spots, one for the first time. One hit at the first spot on a Magdarter……that was it. My April woes continue. Saw no bait, enjoying the time on the water, in solitude…..
4/3/2022, Fished from 12:30 AM to 8:00 AM, and ended with a skunk. New area in the back and could not find a fish. Great getting out, got a few things out of the way. A reel/spool issue, tried out Fireline original smoke line (hated it), new Stormr Swell jacket that worked out great for the chilly weather, shoulder that has a rotator cuff tear of 60-70% made it through the trip and the “after trip”, with pain, but bearable (after an off season of therapy and a lot stretching and strengthening). Ready for the next trip…..Aprils are supper slow for me…..