Posted on May 1, 2020 Better weather for weekend As this is being written, its pouring outside my window as the cold, windy spring continues, but at least that’s better than the hail we had earlier today in Wall. Fortunately, it looks a lot better for the weekend. Actually, this morning turned out to be perfect for trolling in Raritan Bay. Dave Lilly said he got out with friends after the early rain at Keyport, and returned before the afternoon rain. It was flat calm all morning, but they didn’t see 10 boats all day. Yet, it was necessary to run all over the bay to find stripers as the concentration in the shallow waters at the back was gone — along with the bunkers. It was the deeper waters on the New York side which eventually produced as Lilly marked bunkers on the bottom in 28 feet and switched from the light Tony Maja mo-jos he had been using in shallow waters to large Maja green spoons. They only released eight or nine stripers, but all were large bass up to about 40 inches.  The water temperature on the incoming tide was steady at 51 degrees. The marine forecast is for northwest winds at 10 to 15 knots in the morning, with seas down to 4 to 6 feet. Sunday is even better with southwest winds about 10 knots and 2-4-foot seas. Pictured below is a big bass caught on Capt. Jim Freda’s Shore Catch in the bay this week.