Sand eels in NJ surf

Though the surfishing report report wasn’t great, Mike Monte had some very good news about the Monmouth County bait situation as sand eels were definitely in the surf. Loons were diving, and the Tsunami Sand Eel plu a teaser produced three stripers for Mike. Those weren’t the large bass caught a week ago, but rather in the 22-25-inch class which are the norm for the late fall to winter Jersey Shore surfi fshery. Furthermore, Mike said the bite was brief and right around first light. Another angler managed some bass by making long casts with a diamond jig with a green tail.

Capt. Ron Santee of the Fishermen at Atlantic Highlands said being an early boat really helped today. “

“Once again the early sailing payed off for us today….“

Tried an area we haven’t fished in a while and worked the readings. Half a dozen nice drifts slugging away on the Bass.

Gregg P. had the hot hand landing 5 fish, couple guys had two, some with one.

Bite died after we got mugged, spent a few hours in search of with not much luck. Caught the end of the tide on the last drop and landed 3 more fish to end the day.  Back at it in the morning.“

At Belmar, the Golden Eagle reported “

SUPER ACTION WITH THE STRIPERS ALL DAY LONG!!

It was CRAZY GOOD FISHING TODAY with a big area of STRIPED BASS.  We had  nice long drifts with action around the boat and we had 6 to 8 fish on at times!  The boat was limited out with KEEPERS and TAGGED FISH and overs were safely released.“

The Ocean Explorer is fishing for blackfish. On Thanksgiving there was a 10-pound trophy tog caught by Jessie who released that spawner.

The forecast is for sutheast winds at 5-10 knots before increasing to 10-15 in tge afternoon plus a chance of rain.