Posted on October 17, 2019 No decision at ASMFC Striped Bass Panel Meeting I’m sorry about not being able to do a blog last night, but as noted in the last blog  I was attending the ASMFC Striped Bass Advisory Panel meeting in Baltimore and my return flight was delayed for  hours and didn’t leave for Newark until 11:30. Needless to say, I wasn’t in shape to write at 2:30 a.m., and was sure that there wouldn’t be a need for fishing info with gale warnings up. There were no decisions made as commercial fishermen insisted on Option 3 which takes almost all of the reduction required from the recreational side which supported the equal division of the burden provided in Option 2. Ex-State Senator Lou Bassano and I stood with the unanimous choice of Option 2 by sportfishermen, and both positions will be presented to the ASMFC Striped Bass Board at the upcoming meeting in New Hampshire which will set the 2020 regs.  I’ll have more about the panel’s discussion tomorrow. Boats that got out early enough Wednesday to beat the rising wind were able to find the jumbo stripers for trolling or jigging. The Golden Eagle from Belmar also reported a good bluefishing trip the night before when choppers up to 15 pounds hit after dark. They do that again on Saturday night at 7:30 . Capt. Chris De Stefano was aboard Frank Criscola’s Crisdel from Brielle Yacht Club on Tuesday when they ran to Deb’s Inlet to troll big stripers on bunker spoons.  They finished up off Monmouth Beach to limit out and release more bass to total over a dozen that were mostly in the thirties, but included two of 41 and 46 pounds. Some of their bass off Monmouth were jigged as all five anglers hooked up at once. Grumpy’s Tackle in Seaside reported their first weigh-in of the fall when Tony Ciasca beached a 47-inch, 26.75-pound striper that beat a small blue to a mere strip of mullet Wednesday. Vinny D’Anton and Tommy Cox gave the Monmouth County surf a mid-morning shot and found it fishable in the rough surf  with a hard northwest wind behind them, but did nothing in the discolored waters. Hopefully it will clear up by tomorrow,though the wind has blown most of the water offshore and it will be very shallow at low tides. Those winds will diminish tomorrow, but will remain gusty until the afternoon — after which the weekend looks good,