I can't believe that another month has gone by already. As we dig out the gloves, hats and the coveralls, it's easy to believe that November is here. With the cooler weather came changes in the fishing. The Fall run of Blackfish, Bluefish and continuing activity of Striped Bass is underway.

The Tautog fishing has just been so-so all year long. More numbers and keeper size Sea Bass were caught in the warmer Summer months than Tautog. If you're a Blackfish angler, NOW is the time to catch them. A couple of customers had real good catches of Tog along the ledges of Little Sheepshead Creek before the rain last week. A few days after the rain, the Tautog just did not bite. As water conditions cleared, the action picked up again. If the weather gives us a break this weekend, bay Tautog fishing would be a good bet the last few hours of the incoming tide. The best Tautog fishing is out on the ocean wrecks. The fish either just moved in from somewhere or the cooler water temperatures just kicked them into a feeding pattern. Good quantities and nice size Tautog were caught using green crabs rather than clams. A couple of guys I spoke to today had productive Blackfish on the Merry M III charterboat out of Barnegat Light.

It was a bit of torture today with light winds and warm sunshine and steady chatter on the VFH radio about Stripers. The "I got one", "He broke the line on that last BIG one", "I had three on that drift", "We have another one on", steady action on the outgoing tide this morning, almost had me turning off the radio at work this morning. I was just jealous, I guess. I bet a few of you anglers also looked out the window today and wished you were fishin'. Well, If you did take the day off, good for you! You surely picked the right one. The Bass fishing activity was pretty steady for most of the outgoing tide. The 'F' buoy and 'G' buoy areas were the areas with the most activity. One angler actually lost a fish, because it ran around the 'G' buoy and broke his line. The Bass news of the week though is activity on the ocean. Some Stripers were caught jigging 6 ounce Hopkins lures with single hook teasers. Do you remember the hot lumps you caught the Fall Fluke on a few weeks ago? These are the places you want to search out to jig your Fall Stripers on. The Atomic Lump, which is 3/4 of a mile East of the Little Egg Bell buoy provided a few Bass and is as good as any place to start your search. Keep the fish finder running and search the bottom for pods of fish and keep the eyes scanning the sky for signs of bird play. The birds marked some good schools of Bluefish and Stripers this week so don't overlook them.