It now appears that the spring striped bass run in NY/NJ Bight is well underway despite cold waters. Capt. John Contello of Just Sayin at Keyport had a typical report as follows “Total beatdown today!! The kids fished hard and crushed it. Non stop action all morning with fish up to 39”. Nicholas was high hook with 15 himself! Fun Stuff – We have 5 spots left Friday morning on the 37 Foot Center Console and Easter morning is available on the 37 as well,”

Capt. Frank Massaria had his biggest release so far with a 45-incher from his Vitamin Sea.

Vinny D’Anton says he hasn’t had similar reports from Monmouth County surfcasters who have had few bass so far. He’s still in Sarasota where sea trout casting has remained very good though snook have been scarce — and the weather a lot better!

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The Bight forecast is for west winds at 10-15 knots plus gusts to 20 in the afternoon.

Shore anglers in North Carolina have been enjoying a most unusual opportunity to catch school bluefin tuna in range of their casts. However, there’s a big problem as it’s illegal to do so. Rules for catching bluefins only apply to boats. and there’s no provision for anglers to buy a permit. Anglers must release any hooked bluefin, and even targeting them is illegal.

This is such an unusual situation that NMFS has simply ignored it in the past, but that could change any day. Considering the few bluefins involved, the logical thing to do is to make rare shore or pier catches legal. A simple reporting requirement could be imposed for those catches of a lifetime.

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Another good fishing day is coming up in NY/NJ Bight with a forecast of southwest winds at 5-10 knots before gusting to 20 in the afternoon with a small craft warning to late night.

Dave Lilly swears that northern N,J, striper fishing isn’t worth the effort until worms are found on sidewalks after a heavy rain, That finally happened yesterday and he’ll be out there this week trolling bunker spoons and deep-diving plugs as those worms indicate that stripers will be cooperating in waters up to suitable temperatures. That should also be a signal to get party boats involved in the fishery.

The forecast for tomorrow couldn’t be any better — west at 5-10 knots!

Andreas Toy from Perth Amboy reports “Slipped out for a couple hours in the afternoon and got on our best bite of the season. Mostly oversized fish but weeded thru and got some keepers too. The 8.25” @shadlifebaits paddle tails in white and chartreuse did some damage. With fish pouring into the bay it’s lining up to be a great season. “

‘A gale warning continues to 6 p.m. The forecast is for a switch to northwest winds at 10-15 knots plus gusts to 20 and a chance of rain in the morning.

Chuck Many returned from S.C. yesterday. and quickly found the big stripers he specializes in tagging and releasing from his Tyman out of Highlands. Caesar Carranza got one casting, while the big bass then responded to live eels just as they do during the summer.

***** A gale warning goes up this evening into Saturday afternoon. Saturday starts with northeast winds at 20-25 knots plus gusts to 35.

Though some good catches have been made,

a consistent striper bite has been held back by winds and big swells. The A small craft advisory is up for Friday afternoon to evening, followed by a gale warning from then to Saturday afternoon.

Friday starts with east winds at 15-20 knots plus gusts to 25.

Chuck Many is in no rush to get back to N.J. for the early striper bite while he’s enjoying variety sport in Hilton Head, S.C., where he has a choice of working salt ponds or small boat fishing close to shore. The salt ponds are reliable for redfish and many other species, but sharks have eating everything up out front. Nevertheless, Many has been into some bull reds and colorful gag groupers,

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The NY/NJ Bight forecast is for southeast winds at 10-15 knots plus gusts to 20.

The Billfish Foundation (TBF) and billfish lost a champion early this morning (4/7/25) last night (4/6/25) with the death of Dr. Eric Prince. Prince was the billfish scientist to whom Win Rockefeller and Tim Choate turned to answer their questions about the status of Atlantic billfish stocks in 1985. The two experienced anglers recognized despite their fishing experience and quality equipment, they were catching fewer and fewer billfish. It was Prince who explained billfish were not priority species with the federal government because they were not targeted by commercial fisheries for the US food market. Not being priority species with the federal government meant little to no research money was ever available for stock assessments to estimate the species abundance in the water. TBF was created in 1986 with its first financial commitment to providing funds for international billfish stock assessments through a research program chaired by Prince.

Prince served almost four decades as a billfish biologist at the NMFS Southeast Lab
in Miami, and is credited with much of what we know about those oceanic wanderers.

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Though a gale warning is up in NJ/NY Bight. northwest winds should calm the seas

by tomorrow when they drop to 15-20 knots with gusts to 25. As a result, the Big Mohawk will be sailing from Belmar at 6:30 for blackfish.

and 5-7-foot Gale warning tomorrow. but better days ahead

Though a gale warning is up for Tuesday morning to evening in NY/NJ Bight, things are looking better after northwest winds knock down the swell. Tuesday’s wins will be NW at 25-30 knots plus gusts to 35 and 5-7-foot seas.

The latest report from Andreas Toy at Perth Amboy remains good. ” On the 31 Capt Greg had Jim Steel and crew out. Picked some fish early on shads and had a bit of a lull but pieced together a boat limit of keepers with a couple of “overs” released. Shads accounted for majority of the fish and one fish on an SP minnow. Incredible amount of fish around and it should only get better

Andreas Toy has both boats fishing out of Perth Amboy, where they have been doing well with stripers though it’s taken some time to get them started during the last couple of trips.

The forecast is for northeast winds, though at only 5-10 knots. Seas will be 3-5 feet.