If I had to pick between the back bay and the ocean for all my fishing..... I'm going with the back bay hands down.
I had the great pleasure of being able to fish this area for the past 47 years....I had the Barnegate Bay in my back yard and the ocean just a couple blocks away.... While at a very young age I had some of the best Bass fisherman teach me how,when and where to fish.....Including what bait to use and why......
It sure didn't take long....even as a Young kid to figure out that bass would eat just about anything that would swim past them.....and size didn't matter....
The other thing I figured out was that all the bait fish that those bass where feeding on in the ocean started there life circle in the back bays of our area......Spearing,Bunker,Snappers,Eels,Crabs,
Flounder,Mullet and herring....all the good things that bass love to eat.....
The spring time for those of us who know the back bay also know that the BlueFish,WeakFish,Fluke and Bass all enter into our bays to feed on these bait fish.....This is like going to the best buffet in the world....
When I say the spring..... my first Bass will come in March and the last in December.....I dint need my kayak or a boat to find these fish....They are just there.....where they have been for the past 47 years that I can remember.....
I see some of the fish the guys come in to the local tackle stores with that are caught at the ocean....and offten wonder if they know the bridge they drove over to get to the beach had bigger fish under it......Or the dock they crab on in the summer......is the same dock I fish after they go home....
If you want to wet a line this spring....and maybe feel a tug at the other end of that wet line.....Don't be in a rush to hit the ocean just yet......Because by the time the ocean heats up in mid May.....I will already have caught many keeper size fish in the great Barnegate Bay.....
The area from Pt.Pleasant Inlet to the Barnegate Inlet is the area I fish....I sure hope to be able to enjoy another 47 years of the fishing I have had......I sure cant fish all this area myself its much to large of an area to cover....Don't ever give up.....keep fishing.....the time you spend fishing.......will pay off.
Enjoy.......
