Offshore sea bass trips offer other opportunities for Dream Boat anglers

Fisherman magazine subscribers competing in the annual Dream Boat contest have started to fill in the black sea bass category with a 4-pound minimum now that trips to the far offshore wrecks are available on the Jamaica from Brielle and Golden Eagle out of Belmar. The leader as of the December issue was 4.90 pounds, and only four of the top places were filled. That’s likely changed by now, but there are other species taken on those trips which can also fit in.

A few big weakfish are often caught on those trips, and that category is presently only topped by an 8.66-pounder. Jumbo porgies are common, but the 3.14-pound leader may be hard to beat. Big bluefish are common many days, though the minimum for them is 15 pounds — with the leader at 16.2 pounds.

Blackfish aren’t likely to be out there, but inshore entries are finally flooding in. Bobby Cifarelli’s 16.26-pound entry is far in front so far.

There were no surf reports in yesterday’s blog, but Mike Monte called shortly after that to report he was shocked to find no stripers caught yesterday morning at the Ocean County beach which had been loaded with bass feeding on sand eels, The reports he got from Monmouth County were no better except for one angler who hit a patch of bass at Sea Girt. Mike feels that we are in the usual winter situation with waves of bass that feed up and move on to the south before later being replaced by another school moving down the coast.

Monte fished southern Monmouth this morning, and caught a bass at first light when another angler also got one. However, that was it.

The Golden Eagle reported “EXCELLENT STRIPER FISHING CONTINUED TODAY! There was a nice big area of STRIPERS to work on with plenty of bird life along with BASS stacked up to 20 feet thick. We had nice long drifts with action around the boat. Anglers limited out on SLOT FISH and KEEPER BASS and there were also some JUMBO BLUES that came over the rail. Plain and tailed jigs along with shads all worked great. “

A small craft advisory went up at 1 p.m. and extends to late night. The forecast is for west winds at 10-15 knots plus gusts to 20,

Chuck Many celebrated his birthday in the only way appropriate — by releasing big stripers!