Allen Riley of South Plainfield was at the latter area Thursday morning when there was a brief shot after 8 a. m. when John Mazzeo of South Plainfield hooked a 27-inch striper Reports from the south weren't any better. There was an impressive weigh-in at Betty Nick's -- a 21 5 16-pound striper on bunker at Area 7 in the park.

The Miss Belmar Princess reported a big change in fishing today, as stripers were scarce but jumbo bluefish moved in from the deep waters where they had been located to crash on bunkers inshore. Surfcasting in the Ocean County surf was poor again, and there weren't even any hopeful signs from the boats looking for bunkers.

Leif Pettersen used his fly rod to release three stripers up to 31 inches at Deal on Saturday evening, but only hooked two 17-to-18-inch bass Sunday morning. Dave Lilly of Hazlet got out Sunday afternoon to troll stretch plugs in the back of Raritan Bay for non-stop action that produced nine bass up to 26 pounds in two hours before the storm forced him in.

Weigh-ins at Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant included a 22 1 2-pounder plugged by Bob Seadome of Jamesburg a 16 3 4-pounder on metal for John Riden of Brick a 15-pounder plugged by Mark Belucco of Tuckerton an 11 1 2-pounder on metal by John Longo of Brick and a 10 3 4-pounder on metal by Paul Thacker of Point Pleasant on metal. At Seaside Park, Betty Nick's reported Tom Egolf fished north of Island Beach State Park Friday night to catch stripers up to 30 inches, but after breakfast he got into six bass up to 45 inches on pencil poppers when bass drove big bunkers inshore.

That's especially the case in Raritan Bay where the sky is often full of birds working on peanut bunkers being pushed to the surface by stripers of various sizes, When I was out there Wednesday with Capt. Irwin Heinrich on his Scales N Tales out of Twin Lights Marina in Highlands, there was lots of small boat traffic in a gusty and very cold north wind -- and then that fleet was joined by the Golden Eagle from Belmar, Miss Belmar Princess, and the Queen Mary from Point Pleasant. In November 2015, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) petitioned the Mid-Atlantic Council to designate 13 artificial reef sites as SMZs under provisions of Amendment 9 to the Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan.