The Scotts Bait and Tackle Weekly Bulletin

Scott's Weekly Bulletin

MAIN SECTIONS:

Fishing Section What's New?
Hunting Section What's New?
Search The Site!

THE STORE:

Products/Services
Store Tour
THE ONLINE CATALOG
Order Penn Parts Online!!!
www.pennparts.com

E-Mail:
Contact Us
Submit Fishing Report

LAWS/LICENCES:

Saltwater Regulations
NJ License Info
Freshwater Fishing

FISHING AIDES:

Maps/Charts
Bait Guide
Fish ID Guide
TackleBox Tips
Striped Bass Info
Fluke Info
Conservation Issues

WEBSITE EXTRAS:

Clamming Info
Cookbook
Crab Info
Fisherman's Flea Markets
Fun and Games
Our Mascots
Scott's Computer Help

LINKS:

Friends Links
Misc. Links
Manufacturer Links
Local News
Weather/Water

Visit Our
Sister Site:

Weekly Bulletin for Thursday, September 10, 1998

          A storm front that came through Monday evening brought in some very Fall-like weather. Cooler temps and heavy breezes abound! Fishing has been difficult. We had a really nice Fluke caught by Paula Emond, at 8 lb. 2 oz 26" near the Little Egg Reef on Monday morning, before the stormy weather blew the fish away (grin). The very few reports that we did receive since then have been from the area of the Mullica river.
     Best we can figure from the last fishing reports is to recommend the reef sight areas for drifting Fluke this weekend. It has been too windy for most anglers to fish the ocean and give us new reports. Not enough Fluke action? Search out the Fluke in the sixty feet of water like last week. There are pods of Fluke out there, so don't give up hope, be persistent and remember to mark a spot where you caught a few fish for repeated drifts in the same area and remember to record that location for future reference when catching Fluke times are tough.
     Croaker and Weakfish activity is still happening to the South of Little Egg Inlet. The Atlantic City reef sight is probably a good place to start to look. Otherwise, fish the area close to the breakwater of Absecon Inlet for the Weakfish and offshore to 60 feet of water for the Croakers and Weakfish combo.
     Gun cleaning supplies, scents, scent removers, assorted hats, black powder and muzzleloading accessories are up on the wall. Fall bow officially starts on Sept. 12 thru Oct. 2 for Zones 13, 36, 42, and 49. Archery accessories should be up later this week.
     Most of the Great Bay and Tuckerton Bay fishing activity has been Weakfish. There isn't likely to be any more shedder crabs available to buy this season. I can surely say that there will not be any shedder crabs here at Scott's and we are all sold out of the very few frozen shedder crabs that we did accumulate. A very good substitution for shedder crab bait is bloodworms. A small hook bait rig works well in the mouth of the Mullica River and in the Marshelder Channel. A shad dart baited with a piece of bloodworm will catch Weakfish just fine. Anchoring for Weakfish is recommended in both areas along a drop off where the Weakfish like to hang out. Make sure that you aren't going to interrupt another anglers drift pattern before you decide to throw the anchor out.
     The newest In-Thing is drifting with small live Bunker for bait. There are many ways to present the baits to the Weakfish. I will try to describe two. The first is exactly like drifting live eels for Striped Bass. Use a four foot 30 pound test leader and a 4/0 live bait hook, Ex: Mustad 92553BL-4/0, tied to a 1 to 2 ounce drail (bead chain trolling sinker). Drift in deeper water areas like Marshelder Channel and Little Sheepshead Creek. Second, use the same hook and leader and support the bunker barely off of the bottom with a large plastic float. This method is better when fishing in shallow water areas like the clam stakes on the North West side of the fish factory in Great Bay and the shallower water East of Foxboro Point. Add a small rubbercore sinker, about a half an ounce or a few split shot to the hook end of the rig to help keep the Bunker from swimming right up on the surface. Put the live Bunker on the hook by either passing the hook through the back of the fish right in front of the dorsal fin or put the hook through the eye sockets of the Bunker carefully as not to damage the eyes but still get the hook inside the hard bridge of the bunkers nose. This will keep the Bunker alive and swimming natural and make it more difficult for the Weakfish to strip the Bunker off of the hook.
     How do I get live Bunker? A cast net is the answer. A few anglers are able to catch Bunker using a trebble hook, but that usually damages a Bunker so that it doesn't survive very long. You can usually find Bunker during the dawn and dusk hours of the day in smaller creeks and lagoons. The calm water and low sunlight conditions usually bring the Bunker to the surface. You can stand on the edge of your dock for what may seem like forever to wait until a school of fish swims past you or you can jump in the boat with a driving partner and try to sneak up on a school of Bunker that may be hanging out in the end of the lagoons. The right thing to do is not take too many unless you are equipped with circulating water aerated tanks. The less Bunker you keep in a bucket, the longer the Bunker are likely to live. It's better to have 6 live Bunker rather then 40 dead ones. We sell cast nets from 4 feet($19.99), to 10 feet($102.99). I recommend the 4 and 5 foot radius nets to beginners and the 7 and 8 foot to the more advanced users. Even if you do not get a perfect throw with the larger nets, they still open up to a large enough area to catch more then a perfect throw on a five foot net. If all else fails, we sell live bunkers for $6.00 a dozen. Please bring your own pail, if not, I can probably dig one out of the back yard for you.

Return to ARCHIVES | CurrentIssue