Not many boats were fishing today in a forecast of strong NW winds which finally came on later in the morning. Yet, the Golden Eagle and Miss Belmar Princess from Belmar got into large stripers plus some blues of various sizes under birds despite rough seas. The Golden Eagle got into their bass on Run-Off Hammer jigs and castable Mo-Jo's. Miss Belmar Princess started off with two bass over 25 pounds not far north of the inlet before getting into more off the Highlands Bridge. They ended up with a "couple dozen" stripers that included three over 25 pounds and one of about 30 pounds -- plus some large and small blues. There were no reports from Raritan Bay, but there will surely be plenty of boats there on Saturday. The northwest wind is supposed to shift to southwest. I found no sign of fish in the Spring Lake surf this morning, but Bob Matthews reported from Fisherman's Den in Belmar Marina that some big bass were beached at Long Branch. He also noted that dock and pier fisherman in the marina were catching limits of winter flounder up to 22 inches -- and also got into croakers this week. Joe Melillo had a few striper weigh-ins the last few days at Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant. Bob Matthews had an 8 1/2-pounder in Point Pleasant Canal, while surf catches included an 11 1/2-pounder for Jerry Torso of Point Pleasant; an 11-pounder by Bob Longo of Brick; a 10 1/2-pounder for Joe Fredrick from Howell; and a 9 3/4-pound bass by Fred Wright of Freehold.