Worms out-stripers in

North Jersey striper pro Dave Lilly has a foolproof method of determining when striped bass turn on in local waters, and the good news is that it happened today as heavy rain and mild temperatures brought worms out of the ground! Now it’s just a question of catching the linesiders

Capt. Joe Massa did just that yesterday with his My Three Sons from Morgan Marina by trolling small stretch plugs far back in Raritan Bay and tributaries. There were no keepers, but most were decent bass such as t to break the one below.

Chuck Many tried tried to break the ice on stripers a few years ago on his Tyman out of Highlands in early March with no success at first, before assembling a crew for a longer effort. He found some marks off Perth Amboy where we anchored and went through two flats of worms releasing school bass on light tackle. Then, on our way in, we spotted a few swirls and added more bass by casting jigs. The four-man release total ended up at over 200, though there wasn’t a keeper among them. I suspect that after the mild winter even legal bass are probably waiting to be caught right now.

Sunday’s forecast is for north winds at 10-15 knots before switching to east at 5-10 in the afternoon.