Weather a problem tomorrow

The outlook for Saturday is terrible with east winds at 20-25 knots plus gusts to 30, 5-7-foot seas, and rain.

After Capt. Alan Shinn ran a crew trip Tuesday with Miss Belmar Princess that produced a striper limit in 15 minutes, he started running daily for them at 7:30 only to find that the bass weren’t where they had been. That’s not unusual in the spring as the bait and predators haven’t settled in as yet.

The Ocean Explorer had much better luck Wednesday after starting out on a cod trip. Heavy readings of bunkers led to sightings of stripers just under 38 inches which resulted in hot jigging. Unfortunately. they weren’t as lucky after switching to bottom fishing as only one keeper cod was caught along with short blackfish.

InIet Bait & Tackle in Point Pleasant Beach posted on Facebook that the Norma K III got into “over” stripers that day along with a couple of smaller keepers.

Though we’ve come to expect a March buildup of schoolies in Raritan Bay, those ocean reports are unusually early.

Capt. Hans Kaspersetz caught his first large striper of the season while fishing yesterday with Dexter out of Highlands.

Betty & Nick’s Bait & Tackle Fishing Club noted that Nick Canta has been fishing for most of his 78 years and finally caught a striper – a 30-incher which he released.