MANASQUAN TO BARNEGAT INLETS
Immediately south of Manasquan Inlet and extending through Bay Head, the beaches have a deep dropoff, where seas build and tumble directly onto the sand. As a result, all baitfish exiting the inlet and heading south usually hug the beach very tightly, as there are no sandbars to act as a buffer.

As you enter Mantoloking and continue south to Barnegat Inlet, there are sandbars paralleling the coastline. Often the baitfish will travel just offshore of the bar formations, moving between the cuts or deep holes and bars to access the troughs inside the bars.

Quite often at low tide it's possible to wade out onto the bar formations and cast to breaking fish. But caution should prevail, as heavy surf can literally lift you off your feet and tumble you over. The ideal situation is fishing a flooding tide, with the baitfish moving into the troughs and the stripers and blues right behind. Often fish are breaking within a couple of rod lengths of where you're standing. Toward this end, when the fish move into the troughs, stay out of the water and up on the sand. All too often anglers make the mistake of wading into the water, which is where the fish are feeding in the 2- to 4-foot depths.

LONG BEACH ISLAND
From Barnegat to Beach Haven Inlet, there are miles of New Jersey's most beautiful beaches on a sliver of land called Long Beach Island. Many of the beaches are traversable by four-wheel-drive vehicles, and it's not uncommon to see convoys of SUVs riding the beach, stopping at a vantage and using binoculars to look for the signs of gulls working or the dark coloration that discloses a tightly packed school of forage.

The procession of stripers and blues migrating from New England waters join up with bass that are vacating summer quarters in the Shark and Manasquan rivers, Barnegat and Beach Haven inlets as they parade south. During the past couple of seasons, it has not been unusual to see mixed schools of blues and bass. So often the blues are the fish you see, gorging themselves on the surface, and literally turning the water red as they unmercifully chop baitfish in half. The remains of the carnage settle to the bottom, where stripers will leisurely feed on these discards.

The very same techniques discussed for the surf earlier apply to Long Beach Island. What I've found to be the case is that the regulars who fish these beautiful beaches use heavier tackle than their counterparts to the north. There are so many times that the schools of stripers and blues are well off the beach, as there are lots of sandbars, and very shallow surf and lots of foamy water, too. As a result, you'll see lots of 10-foot or longer rods put into play, with anglers spooling 20- or 30-pound-test braided line that enables them to toss a Hopkins, Kastmaster or bullet plug a country mile.

Many Long Beach islanders like to use a mullet on a float rig, or chunks of bunker or herring, suspended off the bottom with a float, and just patiently wait for a big striper to happen by. Each fall sees many big bass and blues landed on bait, including surf clams that are especially effective with rough surf conditions, particularly after a fall northeaster.