It’s hard to believe the following April 15 article by Scott Lenox:

There was a pretty thick fog bank over Ocean City’s back bay for a good part of the day, but other than that it was absolutely beautiful and not what the weatherman predicted.  Forecasts earlier in the week called for a good chance of rain today, but that changed yesterday and today was really quite nice.  Warm temps, sunny skies and light winds had lots of folks out on the water looking to bend a rod.

Captain Chase Eberle of Chasin’ Tides had his “best tog trip ever” today with 19….yes 19 double digit tautog coming over the rail.  Captain Chase had some seasoned tautog anglers on board today, but I expect that even they haven’t seen anything like they witnessed on today’s trip.  Anglers on board Chasin’ Tides caught this list of tautog today……three 10 pounders, two 11 pounders, four 12 pounders, three 13 pounders, three 14 pounders, one 15 pounder, one 19 pounder, a 20 pounder and a 21 pounder.  Bill Decosta had the third largest fish at 19.5 pounds which he caught on the jig and tog fisherman extraordinaire, Joe Mole caught both the 20 pound fish and the largest 21 pound fish.  All of the fish caught on today’s trip except the 21 pounder were released.  Congratulations to Captain Chase, the crew and to Joe for 20 pounders on one trip!!

I wasn’t able to download any photos, but this one is of an earlier 17-pounder by Chris Cullen on the same boat.

After enjoying “insane” striper fishing yesterday, it was exactly the opposite today on Miss Belmar Princess. The readings were there, and birds were working — but the bass wouldn’t bite. Only about a dozen keepers were caught after everyone scored yesterday. A small craft warning is up, and that boat won’t sail tomorrow due to the weather. West winds at 15-20 knots will gust to 25.

There was also a sudden change in the Monmouth County surf where Mike Monte had seen decent school stripers being caught on white surface plugs the previous morning. He made his first try at dawn, but found no action at all as no bass were caught.

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