Surf-fishermen can cast into the outskirts of the Rip at certain times, allowing them to reap the rewards of the churning waters. Heavy poppers to 3 ounces and larger swimming plugs can put a few bass and bluefish on the sand. And as long as they have healthy casting arms, surf rats can bring out the heavy guns and attack the Rip. This particular spot also hosts some of the finest fishing for false albacore along the coast, in that the albacore will congregate just off the Hook, and you can easily cast to them with small metals.

BRIGANTINE BEACH
In the autumn months, South Jersey surfcasters will stick to the beaches of Brigantine, which are flanked by Wreck Inlet on the north end and Absecon Inlet on the south end.

The hottest spot on the island is undoubtedly the north end, where Wreck Inlet creates rip tides that corral baits for feeding schools of blues and bass.

Notable fishable areas lie north of 14th Street to 49th Street, as well as the South Jetty at the Absecon Inlet and in front of the hotel area.

The beaches off this stretch are shallow and gradual. Normally, that wouldn’t be conducive to good fishing. But plenty of kingfish and baitfish congregate inside the breakers, which bring bass, blues and weakies in to feed.

This spot is a solid spot for casting out high-low rigs tipped with sandworms or bloodworms for up to 5-pound-class weakfish during the fall evening hours. Clamming takes the cake here, and large gobs of clams chucked out on a fish-finder slide rig will get you into some large stripers of 30 pounds and up. Eel fishermen will find even larger bass at the Absecon Inlet during the nighttime.

INSHORE CAST & BLAST
When it comes to the run, inshore boat-fishing techniques are vast and varied. Many different approaches can be utilized, from trolling, jigging, chunking to live-lining.

When you’re trying to find fish, trolling covers the most water. To find stripers, a lot of trolling anglers will drag Mann’s Stretch 25 and Stretch 30 plugs.

You can troll stretch plugs with braided line, but wire-line setups are needed to pull big bunker spoons and shad bar rigs, both of which will tend to score larger linesiders. The key to hooking up on the troll is to chart some areas where there’s some low-lying structure such as submerged rockpiles or shipwrecks. Stripers will hunker down in and around structure to pounce on baitfish schools.

Obvious signs of a feeding frenzy usually include birds diving, or fish actually breaking the surface and crashing or swirling on bait.

Then jigging takes over as your key method. Shut down the engines 50 yards from a working school of fish and drift over them with 3- to 5-ounce silver Kroc-O-Dile spoons.

Drop ‘em down to the bottom, then jig them up through the water column to find where the bass and blues are hanging.

60-FOOT SLOUGH
Delaware Bay is an annual autumn hotspot, in that the bay waters hold some of the largest stripers in the area. One particular hotspot is the 60-foot Slough, roughly 20 minutes outside of the Cape May Canal.

This deep cut reaches anywhere from 14 feet deep along its edges to 60 feet in its center. In the fall, the Slough is a factory for large striped bass. The most common method for taking large stripers is anchoring, starting a bunker chunk slick and fishing fresh chunks of bunker on fish-finder rigs.