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As predicted in Friday's blog, Saturday was a good day for stripers. That was especially the case for Capt. Russ Binns on Mar-Lin from Toms River. Binns was fishing in the Manasquan River Marlin & Tuna Club Striped Bass Tournament as he ran south from Manasquan Inlet at first light and found many bunker schools all the way down almost to Barnegat Inlet. His crew caught 16 bass plus five bluefish which were mostly on snagged bunkers before he switched to trolling. The only problem was that almost all the bass were in the teens. The largest was a 22 1/4-pounder that wasn't anywhere near the 30-pounder leading the contest for two weeks. Most unusual was a bass that had a snag hook in its mouth that wasn't attached to the line. The snap had opened up during the fight and was stuck in the side of the mouth.  Binns didn't see any action on the beaches, even though the bass weren't far from the surf. I also didn't see anything in the surf though I talked to an angler at Bay Head who had caught a striper when bunkers came in around dawn. Otherwise they just tantalized surfcasters by staying beyond casting distance. Vinny D'Anton of Shark River Hills cast a Gibbs pencil popper blind very early at Manasquan to release a 27-inch bass.  The best surf striper bite has been at night. Joe Melillo, at Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant, weighed bass of 10 1/2 and 12 pounds caught plugging at Spring Lake by Ken Reed of Point Pleasant. Bob Longo of Brick had a 14-pounder plugging at Manasquan, and Jesse Shore from Point Pleasant caught a 12 5/8-pound bass on a teaser at Bay Head.  Party boats saw a lot of bunkers and bass, but had a harder time catching them. The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported boat traffic was "unreal" as they only boated blues while losing a couple of stripers. Bob Matthews, at Fisherman's Den in Belmar Marina, reported lots of bass caught by boaters while surfcasters cast plugs and teasers at night to hook shorts plus a few keepers up to 15 pounds.

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