It’s early for the fall migratory run of striped bass, but the fishing that’s been going on seems to be up to the usual cold weather migration standards,

Capt. Fred Gamboa made an inshore trip with Andreas Toy from Perth Amboy to start off that season after lunch on Sunday and quickly found a pod of bunkers before getting into lots of 32-42-inch bass.

Chuck Many said he didn’t leave Raritan Bay that day for hot bass fishing. No “monsters”, but all from 28 to 44-pound releases for Alex Katyan and John Korn on Tyman from Highlands.

There are small craft advisories up to late tonight, but the morning forecast is for west at 10-15 knots with a chance of showers.

Capt. Ron Santee has made a switch to daily striper fishing on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands.

Santee said he had beautiful weather for his last day of bottom fishing, and slugged away at sea bass which have been “Tough to say the least while the porgies are done.” On the other hand, striper reports have been excellent, and he’ll be fishing for them daily starting tomorrow. Anglers are advised to bring a medium action spinning rod. snag hooks, shads, a topwater plug and flutter spoons.

The forecast is for southwest winds at 10-15 knots plus gusts to 20.

It’s not unusual for party boats to postpone trips due to weather, but the Golden Eagle from Belmar is trying something unique in order to get fishable weather – moving a canyon trip forward. The sailing set for Monday night at has been changed to the same time Sunday night. Call 732 681-6144 to confirm or grab one of the open spots. The canyon tuna bite has been red hot.

Capt. Ron Santee had a charter on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands today and was surprised to encounter a large swell that’s never good for bottom fishing. Yet,he managed a decent catch of sea bass plus some porgies and a lone triggerfish. He’s sailing open for bottom fishing in the morning, and advises anglers interested in blackfish to bring a few crabs with them.

No one has been complaining about the Raritan Bay striper fishing. Capt. Frank Masseria of Vitamin Sea from Keyport had another boat limit today on live bunkers and flutter spoons plus jumbo releases. He has availability on the 6 a.m. trip next Saturday. Call 917 439-6448.

Small craft warnings are up through late tonight. but the Sunday’s forecast is for west winds at just 5-10 knots.

Jones Inlet was my first challenge as a young Long Island boater, and has continued to be a problem off and on many times over the years. Surfcasters were making use of the east side yesterday, and Capt. John McMurray says that side isn’t even usable at high tide — though it’s possible to sneak out then on the west side.

Jerry Lasko reported that upwelling from yesterday’s south wind had its effect this morning as the bunkers had disappeared from the Ocean County surf — and no stripers were caught.

Though a small craft advisory is up until late tonight, the weekend looks good. Saturday’s forecast is for east winds at 5-10 knots before going south in the afternoon at 10-15 with gusts to 20.

The Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands is chartered tomorrow, but returns to open bottom fishing Sunday.

All reports on striper fishing in Raritan Bay remain very favorable.

A south wind is usually bad news for Jersey Shore surfcasters, but Jerry Lasko said it was just the opposite this morning in the Ocean County surf as the biggest striped bass of the fall were within reach and blasting live bunker baits. Jerry Lasko not only had a rare 5 to 4 edge in releases over Maren Toleno, but also the largest at 53 1/2 inches. Unfortunately, he didn’t take the girth of that trophy bass which had to be right around the 50-pound mark that striper pros aspire to. You can’t tell much about a striper’s weight without the all important girth for the formula as there can be as much as a 10-pound difference in bass of the same length.

Fifty-pound stripers are a rarity to begin with, as even surfcasters in such prime areas as Montauk and Block Island are fortunate enough to catch one in a lifetime — which is much more unusual on New Jersey’s sand beaches.

As big as Jerry’s bass was, he also reported that a 63-incher was released in the same area. That one had to be a “50”!

Vinny D’Anton didn’t see any bunkers or giant bass in the Monmouth Cunty surf this morning, but he was happy after his Redfin plug produced three smaller stripers up to a 28-incher.

Capt. Frank Masseria reported bass releases up to 49 inches from his Vitamin Sea out of Keyport while limiting on smaller linesiders with no competition in Raritan Bay.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar is planning to fish for stripers tomorrow. Small craft warnings are up through Friday afternoon, though winds are supposed to drop after midnight — and are forecast at just 10 knots west in the morning.

Matching the hatch can be vital even during striper abundance

Bunker spoon pro Dave Lilly ran right into an abundance of bunkers and big stripers in Raritan Bay this morning, but his usually reliable large Tony Maja bunker spoons weren’t getting hit. Then he noticed the bunkers weren’t very large. He switched to a fluke rod with braided line and added a leader with a smaller Tony Maja Lolipop spoon rigged above a mojo to get it down — and it was game on with stripers over 30 pounds after that. Lily thought he had a real monster on at one point, but it turned out to be a doubleheader. He finally boated one bass barely small enough to keep at 37.5 inches on the mojo before heading back arm weary after a couple of hours.

Allen Riley saw the massive bunker schools as he was driving over the Highlands Bridge to the Sandy Hook surf where they were composed of large peanuts and stayed mostly out of range in a big fleet. Surfcasters were able to snag a few bunkers, but none of the anglers hooked up, and dead baits were ignored.

There was a brief, but better showing in the Ocean County surf, where Jerry Lasko finally connected with a 44-incher on bunker this morning as Maren Toleno caught a 45-inch bass.

It was fortunate that Chris Carroll had a day off school as he was able to join his father Bill on Megan Beth from Point Pleasant as they sailed out of Manasquan Inlet right into schools of bunkers being chased by whales and even a big tuna as Chris released his first two jumbo stripers of 40 and 45 inches

The Queen Mary from Point Pleasant had released a half-dozen jumbo stripers by 8 a.m.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar returned from Monday night’s tuna trip with all aboard catching at least one in the 60-80-pound class. They will be striper fishing in the morning when the forecast is for southwest winds at 5-10 knots before increasing to 10-15 with gusts to 20 in the afternoon.

A tournament in which 30-40-pound stripers weren’t worth as much as some small species winners weighing ounces ! Nick Honachefsky reported the results of his weekend Barrier Islands Beach Brawl as follows:

“Thank you to all participants, sponsors, tackle shops and facebook groups who made the 4th Annual Barrier Island Beach Brawl a success! The swell from Hurricane Ian left us on Friday morning and Bass action exploded on Saturday.

A total of 55 bass were reported via catch, photo, release and nearly every fish was in the 43 to 50-inch range of 30 to 50 pounds. A mess of super snapper blues of 8 to 10 inches along with some chopper blues to 3 pounds were caught in the mix with hundreds reported. Blackfish settled into a solid bite at the North Jetty of Barnegat and the south jetty at Squan inlet. Filling in the blanks for serious cash and prizes were hickory shad and kingfish with even a few blowfish caught in the surf.

For the Locals Classics category, 1st place was won by the skin of his teeth as Bill Zbrozek brought in a 3.63-pound blackfish with only a half hour left in the weigh ins, 2nd place honors went to Tom Paolini and his 3.30-pound tog and 3rd was claimed by Cole Speiser and a 2.86-pound blackfish. The Wildcards category was interesting as 1st place went to a 1.01-pound hickory shad by Dave Engleheart, 2nd was won by a .97 pound kingfish by Frank Hubscher and 3rd claimed by a .90-pound kingfish by Cole Speiser. Goes to show, big things come from small beginnings. The Striped Bass release category usually has 1 winner but with so many bass released, 3 winners were randomly chosen that included Jon Peck, Payton Wolfarth and Virginia Murphy.

Capt. Joe Massa reported that huge bunker schools moved into Raritan Bay today with plenty of stripers averaging 40 inches on them for non-stop live bunker action. A whale even followed them into the bay.

The forecast is for west winds at a mere 5-10 knots.

The Big Mohawk from Belmar reported improved sea bass action, though it’s necessary to fish through lots of shorts.

Capt. Ron Santee had a similar report on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands, but the sea bass

are the best bet since porgies have been scattered since the storm.

Chuck Many is back from Hilton Head and on his usual striped bass NY/NY Bight stripers with Tyman.

More about the Beach Brawl from Nick: “While $25,000 of free door prizes were given away, the real top prize was that 50 pounds of fresh fish fillets were donated to St. Gregory’s Pantry in Point Pleasant to feed the homeless and those in need of a meal and $1100 from the 50/50 was donated to St. Judes Hospital.

Again, the Beach Brawl is all about bringing friends and family together and remembering old friends of past like Ronny Bala and Mike Malek to which the tourney is dedicated. The tradition continues! Thank you all for coming and if you missed it, we hope to see you next year at the 5th Annual Barrier Island Beach Brawl!”

Capt. Joe Massa reported that schools of bunkers moved into Raritan Bay

A hot offshore report was filed by Andreas Toy out of Perth Amboy as follows:

Got to the grounds in a few hours and landed over 18 fish in an hour on fish up to 80lbs. Towards the end we used strictly poppers. Before heading home we had a big bluefin feeding in our slick. I fed her a squid and she gulped it down, fought her for an hour and got her close enough to guesstimate her over 73 inches so we cut her loose. Great way to end the trip!

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The opportunity to catch big stripers in the Jersey surf is rare, but many large bass have been in those waters the last couple of days. The problem is that they’re on big schools of bunkers and that’s all they seem to want in the surf.

Surf pro Jerry Lasko said every bass he’s seen caught in the Ocean County surf have been on live bunkers, which wouldn’t have been a problem last year. Just cast a weighted snag hook into the bunkers, snag one, and let the bunker swim until a bass finds it. However, that method of fishing was outlawed last year as circle hooks became a requirement for stripers in order to lower hooking mortality and preserve the spawning stocks. As a result, to be legal you’ll have to reel in the snagged bunker and transfer it to a large circle hook rig.

This appears to be an all-release fishery at present since all those surf bass on bunkers appear to be well over legal size. However, there’s a great opportunity for anglers to enjoy a memorable battle and set a personal record. Boaters were out in force, and catching bass on both the bunkers and by trolling bunker spoons. To top it off, there’s the feeding show being put on by whales.

Marin Tolino released this 37-inch striper in Ocean County.

The forecast is for west winds at just 10-15 knots with gusts to 20 and 2-3-foot seas.

The following report was just submitted by the Golden Eagle out of Belmar: “

We saw STRIPERS on the fish finder and in the baitfish today and hoped they would have cooperated a little more but WE DID CATCH SOME FISH AND THE ONES WE CAUGHT WERE HUGE! The largest fish went 48”! The STRIPERS were at pretty much all the stops we made and we also saw three whales eating the baitfish. Everyone had a good time.

We will be STRIPER fishing tomorrow so check out the pictures below, make your reservations and come on down.

It was DECENT fishing for BLUES last night with a solid pick of mostly BIG FISH that were 6 to 12 lbs.! Some people also had their limit of SEA BASS.

There are a couple spots open on the MONDAY, OCT. 10TH 23-HOUR CANYON TUNA TRIP that departs at 4:30pm and returns the next day around 3:00pm. Fishing was good out in the canyons this weekend so it should continue for Monday’s trip. This is an exciting trip for anyone who wants to do some offshore fishing. If you don’t have the gear, you can rent it from us and the crew will get you all set you up.”

Big striped bass arrived in the NJ surf just in time for the Barrier Islands Beach Brawl. Nick Honachefsky reported that as of 1:45 p.m. there had been 51 bass releases in the 43-50-inch class released. Ironically there is no category for bass as all were to be released without photo proof.

Vinny D’Anton reported vast schools of large bunkers out of range along Monmouth County beaches with whales and dolphins on them yesterday, but only some fish eruptions offshore this morning – and no mullet in the surf. As it turned out. there had been shots of big bass on beaches further south the previous afternoon.

Fishermen’s Headquarters reported a couple of their LBI regulars had caught 20 up to Max’s 48-incher that was released with a Gray fish tag.

I’ll have more about striper catches tomorrow. The weather looks good with 10-15-knot west winds plus gusts to 20. Seas are down to 2 to 3 feet.

While the weather was good for the first day of New Jersey’s reopening of the sea bass season, bottom disturbance from the northeaster may have held catches down in some cases.

At Belmar, the Big Mohawk reported decent sea bass fishing though anglers had to go through lots of shorts to bag keepers. The Golden Eagle had a few sea bass limits among lots of shorts. Both boats reported a few porgies mixed in.

The Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands started at the porgy grounds, but Capt. Ron Santee said he found too much current for fishing and moved offshore to pick at sea bass.

Andreas Toy was moved to Perth Amboy, and Capt. Fred Gamboa took his dad and cousins out for stripers which they caught up to 36 inches.

The

Capt. John McMurray of NYCTUNA decided to check out the striper fishing while waiting to bet offshore again, and came up with this 55-incher.

The forecast is for northwest winds at 10-15 knots with gusts to 20 and gusts to 20. Light rain is possible in the morning.