Tight Lines

As I noted last night, there was an early window for fishing despite the gale warming. At Belmar, the Golden Eagle got into stripers right outside the inlet after their 6:30 departure. Fishing got tougher when the south wind kicked in, but around noon they found birds working over big blues.

The Sea Hunter from Atlantic Highlands had a fine early striper bite that included the release of a 49-pounder, before the south wind killed it.

Though west winds will gust to 25 knots tomorrow, that will knock down the seas and provide good fishing conditions before dropping down in the afternoon.

Today was a blowout day, and there’s a gale warning for tomorrow, but the early morning actually sounds fishable before the southeaster comes up in the afternoon. Check with your skipper before coming down. The Sea Hunter from Atlantic Highlands is planning to give striper fishing in the bay a try.

The Big Mohawk from Belmar will be switching to blackfish on weekdays when the season opens Tuesday, but will stick with stripers on weekends.

The Jersey Coast Anglers Association Sportsperson of the Year Dinne r is back, butat a new location on Sunday from 4-8 p.m. Yesterday’s Family Restaurant at 038 Rt, 9 South in Bayville is the new site, Tickets are $85, and may be obtained by calling Don Marantz at 908 347-1434. Unlimited beer and wine is included.

A small craft advisory is in place from 6 p.m. through late Friday night. Friday’s forecast is for south winds at 25-30 knots with 5-8-foot seas

My fellow veterans able to fish for stripers today were suitably rewarded. At Atlantic Highlands, the Sea Hunter reported a hot start, and the Fishermen noted an incredible amount of bait in the bay. However, they are cancelling tomorrow

Sorry for the late blog,but I was at a gender reveal event in Hutchinson Island, Florida for my daughter Cyndi who’s expecting a boy in May.

There hasn’t been any word about bluefish lately, but the Golden Eagle from Belmar did get into some today while picking at oversized and some keeper stripers, Some fish were on top, but they had to work hard for every one on lures — though those able to snag a bunker got hits.

The ocean report was best today as the Golden Eagle from Belmar submitted the following:”The fish were right outside the inlet today and we had NICE BIG JUMBO STRIPERS with KEEPERS mixed in. We picked on most drifts with the morning having the better bite. There were great readings of bunkers with STRIPERS in them and we were able to pick in the bunkers at the end of the day. Shads and Live Lining worked the best. We also caught a couple STRIPERS on jigs.“

It’s been a different story the last two days in Raritan Bay as relatively few stripers have been hitting shads despite lots of life that would normally result in good action.

The Sea Hunter from Atlantic Highlands had a decent Monday, but not many bass were jigged today even in good readings.

Betty & Nick’s Tackle in Seaside Park noted that big bass made a showing Sunday afternoon at IBSP as a 41-incher on a bucktail and several 40-pounders hit SP Minnows were reported.

Small craft warnings come down at 6:30 p.m.

Northwest winds at 10-15 knots are forecast for tomorrow.

Monday on Sea Hunter

The Jamaica from Brielle is taking reservations for an offshore wrecks jumbo sea bass trip departing at 10 p.m. Tuesday. The first trip there were limits of sea bass along with many jumbo porgies and a couple of pollock and bluefish. Washington Robinson won the pool with a 12-pound cod. Call 732 528-5014 for reservations. The Jamaica also has a special striper trip on Thursday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Though small craft warnings are still up and many boats canceled trips for today. the wind forecast for Tuesday drops to 5-10 knots west.

While boat fishing for stripers has been very good, Vinny D’Anton reports the surf has been very quiet There’s been a lack of bait, and only fluke have been hitting in the Monmouth County surf.

The Sea Hunter from Atlantic Highlands reported a good day for stripers in Raritan Bay when the bass came up on bunker schools.

The Queen Mary from Point Pleasant had a decent pick of bass on Saturday though five were too big to keep. Nine-inch shads in white or chartreuse did the job. They canceled for Monday due to small craft warnings for rough seas.

It was too nice a day, and the boat traffic in Raritan Bay slowed the bite of big stripers. However, the Golden Eagle from Belmar reported good early ocean action with bass on top hitting shads. Some bonus bass were included.

Northeast winds at 10-15 knots are forecast for tomorrow.

Striped bass fishing in NY/NJ Bight has probably never been better for boaters than it is right now, Dave Lilly waited for the crowd to leave yesterday afternoon before going out to troll Tony MJA bunker spoons to Raritan Bay, and still had non-stop action with bass, many of which were in the 30-40-pound class on any color spoon he put out to troll through schools of bunkers so thick that that they blanked out his fishfinder. He was literally too tired to pull on any more bass to over 40 pounds and went in after a couple of hours. Other boaters were catching bass of various sizes on a variety of lures plus live baits. Years ago Tony Maja called this “the stupid fishing” when even casual anglers can catch large bass without having any real knowledge of the underwater structure.

It’s pretty much the same thing in the ocean. where the Golden Eagle reported the bass were up and lures were all that was needed instead of having to work for live bunker baits. Many of these bass are too big to be kept, and anglers have a good shot at a personal record by weighing the fish before release or using the formula of length to the fork of the tail times girth squared and divided by 800.

The Hudson River Fisherman’s Assn. Bass and Blues Surfcasting Derby will be held from 6 -11 a,M. tomorrow at Sandy Hook. The entry fee is $25, and info [s at hrfanj.org.

Surfcasting hasn’t exploded like the boat action, and I’ve been having phone problems today if anyone has been trying to reach me.

An exceptional early run of stripers seems to be covering NY/NJ Bight. Bass well over keeper size are common, and smaller fish are mixed in.

The Sea Hunter from Atlantic Highlands reported it wasn’t as wild as yesterday, but still a great day. The Golden Eagle from Belmar had to release lots of too big bass, but still had lots of ocean keepers. They couldn’t get live bait, but swim shads, diamond jigs and Flutter Spoons worked as well, They start sailing at 6:30 tomorrow.

The HRFA has a Sandy Hook surfcasting contest set for Saturday. Visit hrfanj.org for info.

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