By J.B. Kasper

The Labor Day holiday, for most folks, signals the end of the summer season. For dedicated saltwater fishermen, however, it's the start of the best angling of the season as the annual fall migration of striped bass and bluefish begins along the Jersey coast. Gone are the summer crowds of tourists, which are replaced by serious fishermen and feeding bass and blues chasing schools of bunker, rainfish, mullet and other baitfish.

This is the time that real fishermen take their vacations, the time of the year when the heart starts thumping and the blood starts pumping, when bent rods are the rule, not the exception. So here's a look at what you can expect from the fall run.

On the flip side of the coin, ocean temperatures will determine how fast stripers and blues will move down the coast. On years when warm water temperatures stay that way into December, the fishing will be good, unless other external factors such as storms and winds affect the fishing.

Surf-fishermen often experience the best surf action of the season for big blues and stripers. Best of all, the water is still warm! Photo by Tom Evans

Captain Pete Wagner, who skippers the charter boat Hyper Striper out of the Highlands, a popular Raritan Bay port, told me the last few years have provided large numbers of bluefish in the bay most of the summer and early fall. Likewise, a decent weakfish population also provides some good fishing well into early October. The big schools of bluefish raise the devil with fishermen who are targeting striped bass; however, the bluefish will move out of the area earlier than the bass that will often stay well into December.

One of the reasons the bass fishing holds up well into the late fall is that the bass in Raritan Bay are more or less taken in stages. The first bass to move in at the beginning of fall are the resident fish that stay in the bay; by the middle of fall, bass coming out of the Hudson River system make their presence felt. Finally, the bass moving down the coast come into play.

The joker in this deck of fish is the migrating bass that are moving down the coast. Some years produce large numbers of striped bass, while other years don't see as many stripers from this last group. The number of the migrating fish we see in this area is determined by the previously mentioned weather and sea conditions.

The bulk of the fishing in the Raritan Bay area is done by trolling spoons, tubes and shad tails, or by fishing live and cut bunker. Some of the better fishing for these lures and baits takes place on Flynn's Knoll, the Sandy Hook Channel and in the Rips off Sandy Hook. In particular, the Rips off Sandy Hook serve up some excellent catches of bass on live eel baits.

Since stripers will follow the baitfish, while bluefish home in on the same migrating forage species, it's inevitable that these two game fish will join forces to fatten up for the winter ahead.

One look at a map and it's easy to see why the inshore waters along the northern part of the state, from Sandy Hook through Barnegat Inlet, are so consistently productive year after year. Migrating bass from northern waters and the Hudson River merge with bluefish from Raritan Bay at such well-known summer bluefish grounds like the Mud Hole, the Farms and 17 Fathoms. Even during years when winds and weather conditions keep bass and blues from moving close to the shoreline, this merging of fish from one to five miles off the beaches keeps boat fishermen in the fish right into December.

Trolling takes it share of stripers and bluefish, especially at the Shrewsbury Rocks and other areas from 100 yards to a mile or more off the beach. There are, however, some definite preferences when it comes to the baits that bait fishermen use. Fishing live bunker and mullet when these fish are moving down the coast catches a lot of fish; however, when it comes to the bass fishing in recent years, clams have become the premier bait. In particular, clam boats that dredge up surf clams for bait heavily work the portion of the inshore waters that lie between Manasquan and Barnegat inlets. This creates a chum slick that the bass home in on, and as a result, boat fishermen have found that drifting whole clams can be very effective. Because the clam boats work this area, very often in the fall the slick that is turned up by the dredging can drift for several miles and is at the mercy of the currents and winds.

One of the things that the two stretches of beach have in common is that they have numerous and long sandbars. These bars create troughs between the bars and the beach. These troughs act like funnels for migrating baitfish. It's not uncommon to see large schools of mullet, rainfish and bunker packed into these areas, and when the winds are right, the bass and blues can really pin these baitfish to the beach. This is often the setting for the knockdown, drag-out blitzes that surf-fishermen crave in the fall. Fishing from the beaches, as any serious surf-fisherman will tell you, is a hit-or-miss proposition. With the right wind conditions, the odds of seeing one of these all-out blitzes are pretty good. In the central part of the state, the beaches at Island Beach and Long Beach Island in particular, are prime for this type action, especially in the fall when good-sized schools of baitfish are being pushed up on the beaches. Long Beach Island is the home of one of the longest running surf-fishing tournaments held along the East Coast, which takes place for some six weeks with many prizes for anglers catching both striped bass and bluefish.

Catching bass and blues on lures, especially surface baits, is the ultimate goal of most surf-fishing buffs; however, bait-fishermen enjoy some of the most consistent fishing. Live-lining is a favorite tool. Snagging bunker and mullet from the schools of baitfish that move in close to the beaches and live-lining them is one way to hook up. Clam-dunking anglers enjoy the most consistent fishing. As mentioned previously, clam boats working off the beaches put a lot of clams in the water in this area. Easterly winds will often blow the clams toward the beaches where they get caught in the undertow between the beaches and sandbars.

These backwater areas are full of baitfish such as mullet, bunker and rainfish, which come pouring out of bays via the inlets. This huge amount of forage means bluefish and stripers will never be too far off. This leads to some heavy-duty feeding that provides anglers with excellent fishing.

Jetty fishermen will find some fine fishing off the rockpiles in Atlantic City. The world-record striper was taken from the Vermont Avenue jetty in Atlantic City back in 1982. Al McReynolds caught the 78-pound, 8-ounce cow during the throes of a hard nor'easter. Don't forget the legendary Long Port Jetty and the jetties along the Cape May oceanfront and at Cape May Point. The rockpiles off the beaches just inside Delaware Bay are also a good bet for anglers right now.

In addition to the jetties in the area, Townsends, Corson, Absecon, Great Harbor, Hereford and Cape May inlets all are well known among the surf-fishing clan as top spots to fish in the fall. Fine angling can be found, not only in the waters at the mouths of the inlets, but the beaches up from and down from the inlets, as well as the waters just inside the inlets.

As with other inlets along the coast, bass and blues often move in and out when the baitfish are moving through. This makes them easy targets for surf-casters using plugs, metals and other lures. The fact that the inlets jut into the ocean, along with the sheer number of inlets on this portion of the Jersey coast, help to change the contour of the beaches in this area. Beaches in the southern reaches of the state are more irregular; and it's this irregular nature of the barrier islands in this area that make them so productive in the late season.

The Cape May Rips are the turbulent waters and bars that are located at the mouth of Delaware Bay where the currents of the bay come in contact with the currents of the Atlantic Ocean. If you look at a map of the area, it becomes obvious that the bars and shoals are actually an extension of the Cape May Peninsula. The heart of the rips are bordered on the north by Prissy Wicks Shoal, to the east by Somer Shoal, to the south by Overfalls Shoal and to the west by Middle Shoal. Depths range from 5 to 30 feet and the makeup of the bars, shoals and currents can change with the tides, moon phases and wind directions. A bar, shoal or dropoff can be productive one day and slow the next.

Besides the obvious one of seeing birds working over a school of baitfish, one of the best methods of finding fish in the Rips is through trolling. This year trolling has paid off in good numbers of bass, with umbrella rigs tipped with pearl white or chartreuse crankbaits being the main tool used by boat fishermen.

The Rips go through stages during the fall with the baitfish holding there, which the bass feed on, changing as the season progresses. As a result, the bait used to take bass in the Rips will also change. During the early fall when schools of mullet are moving down the coast, live-lining mullet is the method of choice. The early fall usually sees plenty of big bluefish in the rips along with the bass, and they often give bass fishermen fits as they chop up the bait.

Later in the fall when schools of bunker begin moving though the Rips, much of the fishing shifts to live-lining bunker and drifting cut bunker and bunker heads. Bunker coming out of Delaware Bay and down the Jersey coast often make up a large portion of the forage in this area.

Even though forage fish are present in the Rips and lower bay throughout the year, the late and early portion of the season will usually find eels, clams and bloodworms being used for bait. Live and rigged eels and bloodworms are the time-tested baits commonly used in the Rips; however, in the last several years, drifting whole clams has caught on as a popular way of taking bass, especially in the late season.

There you have it - a look at the fall bass and bluefish action along the Jersey Coast and some of the sport that will put you into the action, whether you fish from a boat or the surf. The one thing about the fall fishing is that it is at the mercy of the elements and the current weather patterns that prevail each year. The good thing about the Jersey Coast is that there are so many different options when it comes to the fall fishing that no matter what the conditions are, you can usually get in on some type of bass and blue fishing well into the month of December on most years.