The long-awaited sea bass season in N.J. opens Friday with marginal weather.
A small craft advisory is up through Friday afternoon, with 10-15-knot northeast winds, but seas up to 5 feet. That shouldn’t bother the party boats, but check with your favorite for a sailing time.
The Viking Fleet at Montauk reports “We are definitely sailing on our 38 Hour Tile Express Trip abaord the 144FT “Cadillac” Viking Starship leaving Friday night at 6PM and returning Sunday morning @ 9AM. There are a couple of spots available and the weather forecast looks great! If you want to get offshore for a full day of sun up to sun down fishing, come and jump on! You can reserve your bunk and fishing position when you reserve. Give us a call at (631) 668-5700, or book online at www.vikingfleet.com
Though striper results in NY/NJ Bight have been up and down, there have been several reports this week about red hot action with live bunkers which often take more time to net than is normally the case at this time.
Capt. Frank Massereia of Vitamin Sea at Keyport reported this week “
Had Steve and the Milford gang on board this afternoon. The boys must’ve brought some western luck with them because we saw a great improvement from the recent fishing we’ve been having. Started the trip off with loading the net with all the bait we needed in one throw and the guys went to work.
All the fish came in flurries with several double and triple headers and they were all JUMBOS. Fish from 40” to 47” with an odd keeper mixed in. All in all a great trip with a great crew.”
Frank reported for today as follows:”
Great live line bite this morning for our open boat guys that included Capt Art of Wild Bills fishing from Keywest Florida.
Even caught a bunch on poppers. Beautiful morning with little wind, very little rain and flat water.”
Betty & Nick’s Tackle in Seaside Park reported jumbo blues are now hitting poppers in Barnegat Inlet, the surf and the bay.
Matt Calabria’s cast net full of bunkers almost ensures a good day of striper action on Capt. John Contello’s Just Sayin
A small craft advisory is up from 4 p.m. through Thursday afternoon. The forecast is for northeast winds at 15-20 knots plus gusts to 30 with seas increasing to 9 feet and likely rain.
Party boats in N.J. have been releasing sea bass for weeks. but that changes Friday when that prime food fish becomes legal through June 19 with a bag limit of 10 at a 12.5-inch minimum.
Check with your favorite party boat as some may be running special trips for the opener.
Chuck Many continues to release big stripers on live eels from his Tyman out of Highlands .
The forecast is for southeast winds at just 5-10 knots before going east at 10-15 in the afternoon. Rain is possible in the morning, and likely in the afternoon.
Jim Hutchinson Jr. of The Fisherman reports:
“
Looking forward to a great event, StriperQuest ’24, with Captains Meeting on Wednesday at Ross Brewery in Belford, NJ, and a 100% ‘catch, tag and release’ striper contest on Thursday. Awards ceremony afterwards back at Ross Brewery. If you have a Raritan Bay charter already booked for Thursday, check with your captain and fish for $$$ and science! Gray FishTag Research
In the normal course of striped bass fishing, it’s a lot harder to catch a trophy striper than small ones, but that hasn’t been the case lately.
The Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands has found volume fishing with shads, flutter spoons and even topwaters has been so inconsistent that Capt. Ron Santee Jr. has given it up. He’ll resume fishing Friday from 7:30 to 2:30 when the sea bass season in New Jersey opens. After two weeks of that, Santee will switch to fluke.
Yet, Chuck Many has had no problem catching big bass on live eels from his Tyman out of Highlands in NY/NJ Bight.
Paul Castelli had the following report from Atlantic City today. “
This morning my 94 year-old Dad got up at 2:00am, jumped in with some neighbors and rode 2 hours to meet my son Michael and I at a boat ramp before sunrise. It was 40 degrees, colder with wind chill, but Dad hung tough and managed to winch in a 50”striper! As usual his was the biggest fish of the day!
John Santos caught one almost as big. Tim Chelius, Michael and I struck out, but it was a stellar morning on the ocean nonetheless. Sun rising, birds wheeling, porpoises jumping, whales spouting all shared with some of my favorite people on earth!
The first strike was also the big one for Eric Kerber this morning as it was a 47-inch. 40-pound release from On A Mission out of Belmar.
The Golden Eagle from Belmar got out for stripers on Saturday, and found both bait and bass — but the stripers wouldn’t hit.
The forecast is for south winds at 10-15 knots before increasing to 15-20 in the afternoon with seas to five feet plus showers.
Famed NJ marine artist Steve Goione reports “Big congratulations to Team Catch 23, Top Angler Michael Jordan, Top Captain Stetson Turney and the entire crew on their 1st Place finish at the Custom vs Production Shootout last week in the Bahamas. Also congratulations to the crew at Bayliss Boatworks for creating another winner on the water, the committee of “skips tournaments” and to all the 58 teams who competed and released 197 billfish.
The Asbury Park Fishing Club Catch & Release Tournament was won by the only shore-caught entry -a 29-incher by Gennaro Amato.
Betty & Nick’s Fishing Club reported this morning :
24 UPDATED 4:00 AM Pretty much what a lot of people have been waiting for has happened. Big bluefish in the surf and Barnegat inlet now on metal. Mullet will work perfectly as well. Can’t shake the easterly winds, but at least they are not cranking and probably helping the bite. Looks like a decent day ahead.”
“These is the biggest freaking bluefish I’ve seen in decades.’
Capt. Ron Santee Jr. tells it like it is, and today was a tough one on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands.
” Today was beyond painful….lack of bait everywhere we went, read a few fish here and there and only had one fish on for a minute.
Spent the rest of the day searching and hoping the change of tide would turn the bite on, no such luck. Seems it was the same scenario with everyone I talked to, lack of participation, lack of bait, lack of fish. “
It may well be completely different tomorrow, and he’ll be sailing at 7.
T
The forecast is for southeast winds at just 10 knots with a chance of showers.
Though there have been varying opinions about the quality of this spring’s striped bass fishing. Chuck Many has proven there are plenty of big bass every time he’s fished for them. This week’s report follows :
“
Good day on Tuesday with Kil Song, Cesar Carranza, Paddy Sciortino, & Alex Katyan!! Never total Mayhem, but never a long lull between fish either. Ended the day with 22 up to 2 48 pound fish and 2 46 pound fish. Smallest went 26 pounds. Can’t wait to do it again!!!!
Many slow trolls live eels from his Tyman out of Highlands in the Chesapeake Bay style with planer boards. All bass are tagged and released.
A small craft advisory is up through late tonight.
Saturday’s forecast is for southeast winds at 10-15 knots plus gusts to 20 before shifting to east in the afternoon.
The Hudson River Fisherman’s Association has posted memoriam for one of their oldest and most involved members — Butch Pawson, who passed away at 76 on April 26.
A skilled bottom fisherman, Butch got involved in the fishing tackle business in the 1980’s by producing Butch’s terminal tackle rigs. He was born in Englewood and grew up in Carltstadt before moving to Little Egg Harbor. It’s likely that many of his friends didn.t know his first name was actually Howard.
Capt. Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star from Ocean City, Md. has been doing a great job building reefs in his area with help from volunteers and customers. His latest report follows: “
A bit shocked by Sunday’s event – supports what I’ve said many times: Folks see you working they’ll stop to help.
Sure has been a busy time. We just built three reefs that will be contributing to our marine ecology for hundreds of years, perhaps a thousand. Now, thanks to a small platoon of dedicated volunteers and the good folks at Hoopers Crab House–plus an army of supporters, we had our best fund raiser ever..”
Concrete building blocks
The end results of reef building may involve catches such as the 13.8- tautog released this week by George Poveromo while doing a segment for his TV show. He was fishing with Capt. Tom Duffin off southern N,J, The season there is now closed, so all tog were released unharmed.
A small craft advisory is up from late tonight through Friday afternoon in NY/NJ Bight. The forecast is for east winds at 15-20 knots plus gusts to 25.
As a result, the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands will not be striper fishing tomorrow.
The prime spot for season-opening fluking along the northern Shore is off the Coast Guard Station just inside Sandy Hook. Fluke migrating into bays and rivers pass by that area which is also protected from northeast winds,
It got off to a great start when the Sea Tiger II from Atlantic Highlands boated a 6-pounder on its first drift, and some decent catches were made on other boats. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long. Fluke pro Dave Lilly joined a huge fleet there this morning as his crew managed a couple of keepers while seeing only a few more come up on packed party boats. Lilly tried his many spots in Sandy Hook and Raritan bays without success. He was most surprised at not getting a single hit during a perfect drift in Shrewsbury River. The water temperature is still under 60 degrees, and water color is poor from the very rainy spring.
Capt. Ron Santee Jr, reported as follows on striper fishing from his Fishermen out of Atlantic Highlands:
Headed out with just a handfull of guys this morning. Got a little ugly for a while but we hung in there waiting for the change of tide.
Read bait and finally had fish on top, all four about 5 minutes!!! Caught a few and never found them again. Fished several area’s with no more luck. Will see what the AM brings tomorrow.
The forecast is for north winds at 5-10 knots before going east at 10-15 plus gusts to 20 in the afternoon.
The Viking Fleet at Montauk reports as follows on their two-day trip for tilefish and cod:
Fri May 3 to Sun May 5 – 2 Day Tile/Cod Wrecks
Capt Steven Jr reports a good trip on the Viking Starship. We had tough fishing with the Tiles on the first day. With a fast drift and some dog fish in the area we had to do some looking around and it wasn’t until the later part of the day that we found some fish to work on. There were some nice size Tiles with Hake mixed in, but fishing was not what we are used to seeing in the deep. The second day on the Cod Wrecks were the total opposite. We had excellent fishing like we have not seen in years. Lots of double header healthy quality Cod and some big Pollock as well. It was the same great fishing on every wreck we went to, which sent everyone home with a load of fish.
+.
The forecast is for south winds at just 5-10 knots with a chance of showers.
Yet, the Golden Eagle from Belmar will not be fishing Wednesday due to the weather.
Capt. Ron Santee Jr. ended with a good striper day on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands as follows:
Beautiful day out there today and the Bass were Hungry!
Found bait right away but had to wait out the change of tide for the bite to turn on.
Took about an hour but the switch was turned on with the ebb. Top Water worked best as the fish were on top most of the morning. Still caught a bunch on the shads also. Some bigger fish going back with a bunch of keepers in the mix as well.
Back at it in the Morning. Sailing at 7:00AM. Open Boat, No Reservations just come on down. Fare is $90, Spinning Rod Rental $20.
NYC Capt. John McMurray Supplied his assessment of striper fishing so far “”
“So here’s your honest report from the last two weeks. Yeah, we’ve been catching a few, on some days considerably more than a few, but if ya compare this early spring with the last three years? Well, it hasn’t been near as good…yet. The truth is this was a more typical April, when ya look at it on a 10 maybe 20 year time scale. In other words, cold and wet. That sorta of thing really does affect the early spring stuff in my neck. Warm and sunny gets’em going sooner, and that just didn’t happen in April this time. All that said though, such conditions in April generally create good conditions for young of the year survival in the Chesapeake, so hopping for a good/better juvenile abundance index this go around, which means better fishing in the long run. Regardless, we’ve got some warmer/drier weather on the way. Today was the first real warm day in a while and we did pretty well. So, for sure, I’m expecting things to get better, and maybe start to go off, well, this week! Fingers crossed man. P.S. I just had my Wednesday bail on me, which is a huge bummer as the weather looks perfect. Please reach out if ya wanna go!
Tight Lines 