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Ir wasn't anything like last Wednesday's amazing shad casting in Raritan Bay, but this Wednesday was as good in volume if not in size. It didn't appear that the opening of the blackfish season took many boats out of the striper fleet, but there were plenty of bass to go around even though smaller schoolies dominated as I fished with Chuck Many of Annandale on his Ty Man from Gateway Marina in Highlands. Everything started as it did last week with my first cast into working birds off the tip of Sandy Hook producing a 30-inch striper release on a Tsunami 5-inch shad. Yet, my next hookup on the same lure was a striper of about 18 inches-- a size we didn't see at all last week. We did release other keepers up to two 20-pounders by Many, but the small fish were most abundant as our release count was a bit higher at 54 -- including small bass we cast to in Hudson River. Yet, the total weight was probably only a quarter of what last Wednesday's 51 would have amounted to. Surprisingly, we only caught two bass that were larger that fell in the range from 20 to 28 inches. The striper run in Raritan Bay continues to delight party and boat anglers who normally catch almost all small stripers during the fall run while hoping to find a keeper among them. On weekday trips this fall, it's common for party boat fishermen to release stripers over 28 inches because the boat limit has been filled. Capt. Rob Semkewyc is happy that he didn't follow his dad's advice to stick to bottom fishing with the Sea Hunter from Atlantic Highlands as jigging for stripers and blues has worked out very well for him. He has been doing it for many years now, and says the current fishing is the best fall striper action he's ever seen. Thursday's fishing wasn't up to the rest of the week, but still a good one by normal standards as bass up to 25 pounds were boated The bit died by 11 a.m. with the end of the ebb. For daily updates visit my blog at nj.com/shore/blogs/fishing.

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