Capt. Derrick Bielitz won Saturday's Hi-Mar Striper Club Spring Striped Bass Tournament with a two-bass total of 57.4 pounds on his Fisher Price from Highlands. Bielitz chunked in Raritan Bay to win clearly as he had the biggest fish of the event at 36.2 pounds -- which is also the largest officially-weighed bass from the bay I've heard of so far.
Joe Tomaszewski, of Hi-Mar, reported they had 37 boats entered --with 23 boats weighing in fish. He said the leaderboard was a very tight race, with 5-10 boats all within a couple pounds of each other until Fisher Price arrived. Reel Time barely took second with 46.6 pounds over East Wick at 46.4 pounds -- edging O'Malleys Pub which had 45.2 pounds for fourth, and fifth-place Parker with 44.2 pounds. The top Lady Angler was Kristin Dowd with a 21 lb bass to win a custom-made Kevin Bogan striped bass. Most of the entries on a beautiful day were on bunkers and in the bay -- rather than in the ocean which still had a large swell.