Hundreds of surfcasters into bass along the Jersey Shore

There was an unprecedented volume of surfcasters fishing this morning along much of the Jersey Shore.

Mike Monte started in Ocean County where it wasn’t as crowded and conditions were perfect for catching stripers feeding on sand eels. He started catching by making long casts with an Ava jig before noting that most hits were coming near the beach, A switch to the Tsunami Sand Eel resulted in catching mostly 25-30-inch bass on short casts.

Vinny D’Anton also started to the south, and caught bass there before getting a call about the Monmouth County surf, He said there were literally hundreds of anglers there despite a significant swell that required caution on the backwash. Most bass w ere from 23 inches up to his 30-incher, but he saw a 35-incher beached by Tommy Cox.

Capt. Ron Santee of the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands reported

“Amazing amount of life once again today!

Action from start to finish with Bass from 18-40 inches along with a couple dozen Monster Blues! The Blues were loaded with Bunker & Baby Weakfish. Several guys lost count at 35 plus fish. All went home with the meat.“

Sunday may be the last trip of the season for the Fishermen, but Santee will check the weather for possibly making a few more trips next week.

A small craft advisory is up from Sunday morning to evening. The forecast for Sunday is for east winds at 15-20 knots plus gusts to 25. Rain is also predicted.