Bait In The Back
 

I was walking on our now vacant dock (Boat is in winter storage.) when I looked down in the clear water and saw some bait fish. Since it was low tide during a super full moon, I was able to see them quite clearly and recognized them as peanut bunkers. I thought by now, that particular bait would have been long gone. There were also small killies and some spearing swimming around as well. When I pulled out some sunken plastics with a long handled crab net, the plastics and attached weeds were covered with grass shrimp.

With all of this bait around, it's no wonder that there is still quite a variety of fish being caught in the rivers and bays. It also means that the migrating coastal fish might hang on a little longer because of the available food that still hasn't made its way out to the beaches.

Re: Bait In The Back
 

Shark river was full of peanuts, spearing and large shad on Sunday.

They'll likely pour out soon and there will be a couple days of good surf fishing.
Good reports of bass off long island that still will pass by us.

Re: Bait In The Back
 

Interesting year for sure... But will the pattern of years past hold true this year with the water as warm as it is? Seems to me there have been a lot of small Stripers feeding on smaller baits in area of the hook and east the past few weeks and this usually signals the end of the season....With all the bait you saw back there I wonder how long they will stick around.

Re: Bait In The Back
 

I saw the peanuts, large shads, and even one snapper blue caught in the Shark River on Sunday, and was surprised at the huge volume of fish species that was there. Spiney dog fish, skates were caught as well.

Killies are a very interesting species. Behind my home on a tidal creek in Brick, we have witnessed killies in a spring fed basin in the wetland. when you would approach, they see your shadow, and swim upstream into the fresh water underground and out of sight. There are thousands of them that winter over in the fresh water, ( drinking quality ) , but no other species. You gotta love this beautiful natural world.

Keep watching the water, and to all my NJFish.com friends, have a wonderful Holiday season, and a Healthy 2018.......catch 'em up. Papa

Re: Bait In The Back
 

Still stripers hanging around the Oceanic bridge, especially early evening.

Re: Bait In The Back
 

Mantoloking Bridge area has them too. As for bass and bait, the larger bass have had a preference for larger baits like adult bunkers. If you can still find the adult bunkers, you'll be able to find some larger bass. The smaller bait that is still around will give the smaller bass that are filtering south a reason to hang around longer. Now, if the sand eels ever take up residence in the surf, we'll be in business for a long time.