A mild winter and early spring often results in a good April bite of mostly short stripers on clams for Raritan Bay boaters, but this year the bass have been on herring and hitting lures. Grumpy's Tackle in Seaside Park is still hoping for the first bluefish report, but reports school stripers in the surf on clams and small lures -- plus many more in Barnegat Bay on bloodworms and small plugs.

Grazioso did best by using his light freshwater bass tackle with a Shimano Curado DE6 reel. Grazioso noted that the mostly 24-to-28-inch bass, with some up to 35 inches, were covered with sea lice -- indicating they're fresh in from the ocean.

Presumably, that's in the ocean under gannets -- but there are also lots of bass in the back of Raritan Bay. Yet, when Grazioso moved to the Morgan flats that morning he saw bass swirling and they limited out by casting Tsunami shads.