South Jersey Surf
 

Going to be down the shore over the weekend. Anything happening from the surf from Barnegat down to Ventnor ? Was down Brigantine two weeks ago and had decent action with mullet rigs for snappers. After dark it was chaos as I lost a dozen rigs due to bite offs. Have to figure it was marauding blues. Just trying to maximize action for the minimal time I have available. If Brigantine is heated up a bit I can go back down. I know it's supposed to blow Friday but hoping things settle down Sat/Sun

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

Told ya it was going to be nuts after dark haha! I keep wondering what is slicing our lines. Bluefish schools reaching critical mass.

Will be down there again tonight. I'll post an update of what happens.

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

Its was nuts....My wife was like " you're going to give yourself a heart attack !!!". Huge runs, couldn't turn the fish and then nothing...bite offs at the hook, at the leader, 10 feet up from the hook...I was McGyvering rigs and couldn't keep one on for longer than 1 minute

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

Sounds like sharks biting you off, not bluefish.

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

X2

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

Thought crossed my mind but the fact that it happened a dozen times over a 3 hr period seemed to be a bit much for sharks. My experience down there was the sharks were more solitary. If I consistently broke off at the same spot I would blame the sharks. I thought that with the breakoffs occurring far away from the leader it was a "turned on" blue that was whipped into a frenzy after his friend was hooked up.

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

Sharks, browns probably. A lot of fun to catch...
Happen to me at the hook once, were catching 3-4 lb blues on mullet rigs. Got a hit, set the hook, took 3 turns on the reel and it started peeling drag off a penn 704. Couldn’t stop it, then went slack. Bite off. Rerigged, it happen again, upped the leader and added wire at the end. Off it went, landed a 5’ brown with one of the mullet rigs in its mouth. Sucker must have kept coming back as soon as a blue was hooked.

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

I was fishing with 170lb wire leaders and 250lb shock leaders. Whatever it was cut right through the braided main line. Sometimes we had a shark on mid-fight something runs past and cuts it , and sometimes no bite, just instant cut line. Can be huge schools of sharks swimming together, running past the line and snagging it.

But it can be blues running into line while chomping schools of bunker?

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

Feel the line....it will tell you what you had!( assuming you are using mono)

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

Chaffed up like crazy...100 lb test leader

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

Chafing could be the leader rubbing against and getting whacked by the tail as it runs away from you.

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

Mine was 2ft of 174lb wire, 2ft 250lb mono then 15ft of 100lb mono and finally 50 lb braided main. All my cuts happened at the braid. Lost a lot of gear :(

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

Went to Brigantine last night. Not much activity this time. One smaller Sandbar shark was caught tagged and released. Was the only bite of the night. Season's definitely starting to change.
But no bite offs, so the big schools of whatever it was are gone.

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

It was fun while it lasted. C'mon stripers!

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

sounds like sharks.... but could be both sharks and blues feeding in the same zone on the bait currently schooled up

Re: South Jersey Surf
 

Fished the jetty yesterday morning on the outgoing tide. Snapper blues everywhere, along with a small flounder. All on mullet. Going to try again next week!