Though water temperatures remain over 50 degrees, there's been little word of stripers in the surf recently. Yet, there was a sudden rush to the beaches in the Seaside Park area today after Betty & Nick's Tackle in that town posted reports of big bass in the surf this morning. John Green checked with his friends at Lavallette and was told there were only some mostly short bass caught. It's likely that lots of anglers will be on the beaches tomorrow to check the validity of the original reports. Grumpy's Tackle in Seaside Park had an earlier report of a 38-inch, 15.75-pound striper that hit an SP Minnow cast by Jay Thompson on Christmas Day. I'm catching largemouth bass rather than stripers during a family Christmas vacation in Florida, but Vinny D'Anton of Shark River Hills said he's only heard of a very few small bass being hooked in the northern Shore surf, and noted that the northeast wind and rough surf wasn't ideal for casting small lures today.