Warnings are up from midnight to 3 a. m. Thursday, with the heaviest snow tomorrow afternoon along with gale force winds up to 45 mph. West winds of 15 mph are forecast for Saturday with only three-to-four-foot seas -- and there are light north winds predicted for Sunday.

The only positive word comes from Grumpy's Tackle in Seaside Park which heard of some small stripers being caught in the back of he bay on bloodworms and small lures. Hopefully, inshore waters will clear soon for a shot at school stripers and winter flounder.

The weather is getting the best of us this weekend. It looks like the wind is not going to calm down until Monday so we will not be sailing this weekend.

Paul Haertel of the JCAA reports that Though we had expected the fluke and seabass regulations to be set at the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council (NJMFC) meeting on 3 15 18, the setting of regulations for these two species has now been delayed until a special meeting can be scheduled in April. Further, our council is seeking to close or eliminate the gap from when fluke season closes until when sea bass season opens so they have elected to wait until the special meeting in April to set the regulations for both species.

There probably won't be many catches reported, but anglers will be able to keep legal-size winter flounder and striped bass in all N. J. waters as of Thursday. Pete Connell of Avon was also fishing out of Islamorada yesterday as he and Don Smith chartered Capt. Chris Walton of Long Key who deep-dropped 20 miles offshore on his Regulator 28 for a good catch of queen snappers from the depths along with blackfin tuna and skipjacks trolled as they moved between drops.