Raritan Bay striper fishing has been very spotty lately, and many anglers are attributing that to the movement upriver of the Hudson River stock to participate in renewing that stock which has provided us with great fishing the last couple of years. Those spawners will soon be dropping back into saltwater to feed again, and we should soon see the migratory spawned-out stripers from Virginia and Maryland moving up the coast to provide action along the Shore for anglers who have been disappointed so far.
Capt. John Kolias reports Saturday was a tough day of striper fishing on his Reel Fun from Twin Lights Marina in Highlands for the Darwyn Sandi party. Even trolling Mo-Jos was ineffective -- as was bunker chunking. Kolias expects much better after the spawning.
Manasquan River continues to produce large bluefish, though flurries of action are hard to predict. I couldn't raise anything upriver at dawn, but released a chopper on a new Castaway's swimming plug late in the afternoon. I only saw one blue caught in Manasquan Inlet early this morning, but later heard that there was a bite after I left.
At Seaside Park, Grumpy's Tackle is still seeing most blues in the surf on bunker, but Madeline Meade landed two blues of 9.7 and 8.75 pounds on an Ava jig while Frank Meade hooked a 9.05-pound blue on an SP Minnow. Zach Bolcar had the largest of relatively few Sunday weigh-ins (due to the rain) with a 10.15-pounder on bunker.