<b>Staten Island</b>

Winter flounder trips with <b>Outcast Charters</b>, kicking off on April 1, New York’s opening day of the flattie season, should at first fish the back of the bay, only 10 or 15 minutes from the dock, Capt. Joe said. Most of the time can be spent on fishing, not traveling, one of the great things about the start. The bottom huggers usually carpet waters around the mouth of the Raritan River early in the season, making their way from the river to the bay. Blackfishing will also be available on the boat in April. In May the boat’s anglers will hunt striped bass and sea bass. Smaller, resident stripers can be mixed with flounder catches early in the season, but bigger stripers should migrate to the bay by May, chasing schools of bunker to the waters. Then charters will swim livelined bunker or fish chunks of the baitfish for big bass.  Outcast was able to cut charter rates drastically, because last year’s skyrocketed fuel prices disappeared. If fuel rates go back up, charter prices will have to be adjusted, but book now and lock in the current prices. Weekend charters booked by April 1 also get a discount. Open-boat trips will sail with Outcast every Wednesday, because anglers kept requesting the trips. Open trips should also help anglers in the current economy. Spaces must be reserved. Special trips for parents with kids will also be available, featuring a lower rate for kids. Birthday trips for kids are also on tap. Check out <a href="http://www.outcastfishingcharters.com/" target="_blank"> Outcast Charters’ Web site </a> for rates and details.

<b>Atlantic Highlands</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/19:***</b> The party boat <b>Atlantic Star</b> will get back in action this weekend, Capt. Tom said. At first, 3/4-day trips will bottom-fish from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 or 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday for ling, blackfish or whatever bites. Then two half-day trips daily will launch for flounder fishing on Monday, the opening day of the flattie season, from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. The boat was ready to fish, so Tom figured he might as well bottom-fish over the weekend until switching to flounder. Forecasts called for decent weather in the next days.

Anglers casting from the bay shore sometimes pulled in striped bass, including a few keepers, and out-of-season winter flounder, said Jimmy from <b>Julian’s Bait & Tackle</b>. Clams and worms got bites, and both are stocked. Stripers were also plugged on the Shrewsbury River at the bridge at Ocean Port and on the Navesink River at the Red Bank Bridge. The fishing surely depended on the right tides, but Jimmy didn’t know which tides were best. He bottom fished in the ocean last week, but cold waters from snow runoff screeched catches to a halt, and he tried as deep as 238 feet. But he boated ling on the grounds until then, and that action should continue with waters warming. Julian’s is open 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. this week and will probably begin staying open later this weekend.  The doors will open 5 a.m. when flounder season opens this coming Monday.

<b>Highlands</b>

Capt. Derek from <b>Fisher Price Charters</b> heard a few reports about striped bass angled in from along the bay shore and about fyke netters grabbing winter flounder up the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers, he said in an e-mail. Waters reached the low 40s in the rivers and in the back of the bay, so catches should start to pick up. Charters on the boat will kick off April 13, when the action should really get going. Act quickly and score a discount on the first trips from April 13 through 26. Flounder fishing will be first on the slate, and the boat will follow the fish on the migration from the back waters to the ocean. Striper fishing on the vessel will begin when the waters reach the low 50s, really making the linesiders turn on. Anglers aboard usually clam for the first bass. Then they liveline bunker or fish chunks of the baitfish for migrating bass that will chase schools of the menhaden to the waters. Fisher Price will also bottom fish for ling and tog through April. Dates for charters are already being gobbled up, and call to reserve or for info.

<b>Belmar</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/19:***</b> The shop and rental boats are ready to go for the opening of winter flounder season on Monday, said Bob from <b>Fisherman’s Den</b>. He expects good catches on the boats on Shark River on opening day and probably a week or two afterward. The season opens late these days, and the fish usually migrate to the ocean soon afterward. Divers were seeing plenty of the bottom huggers carpeting the river. All the bait is ordered to be on hand, and all the rigs are stocked. The store that day will start opening at 5 a.m. until probably 5:30 p.m. or so. The doors are currently open until 3 p.m. Later in the season the shop stays open until 8 or 9 p.m. Flounder season is really the year’s start to fishing in the local area. Customers sometimes bought clams to try for striped bass lately. Only one of the Belmar party boats was attempting to run a daily schedule, when enough anglers showed up. The boat put anglers into decent ling fishing while sailing for ling and blackfish. The party boat Miss Belmar Princess was running long-range trips for cod fishing off Montauk a couple of times a week, and caught them on the last trips last week.

Long-range cod trips to waters off Montauk broke the inlet Thursday and Saturday evenings on the <b>Miss Belmar Princess</b>, Capt. Alan said. Some of the fish were clubbed on the first trip, and the second trip shellacked the cod, a bunch. Ling and pollock were sometimes mixed in. More of the 24-hour trips, limited to 38 passengers, are slated to leave this week at 8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, and call to reserve. Cod fishing’s been phenomenal toward Montauk this winter, the reason the trips began sailing. Afterward the crew will decide whether to keep making the run, depending on the fishing. In April mackerel trips will start fishing off the Jersey Coast.

<b>Brielle</b>

Dave from <b>The Reel Seat</b> heard about a few striped bass beached from the bay shore toward Sandy Hook, he said. Striper catches closer to the shop might start soon. He’s landed them in the local surf as early as the first week of April. The fish at first will be small, but anglers will be happy to land anything after winter. Dave’s caught them on small plugs. Whether reports start rolling in will also depend on whether decent weather encourages anglers to fish. Customers will start to fish for winter flounder in nearby Barnegat Bay and the Manasquan River when the flattie season opens this coming Monday. Dave saw nobody try for herring that sometimes show up at Manasquan Inlet in winter. Party boats sailed offshore for sea bass, but nobody talked about results at the shop. The Reel Seat is open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays until the hours are extended later in the season. The <a href=" http://www.ssfff.net/fundraiser.html" target="_blank">Save the Summer Flounder Fishery Fund</a>’s dinner was a success two Fridays ago, and more than 175 people attended, Dave, who is a founder, said. The SSFFF, spearheading the movement to prevent the summer flounder or fluke season from closing and from harsh bag limits that are essentially a closure, very much needs the continued support of anglers. See the fund’s Web site for details and how the fund is attempting to solve the crisis. The fund says it hired a scientist that this past year proved that the government’s surveys of the fluke population were flawed, preventing the catch quota from being decreased this year, reversing a trend of decreases. Dave previously said that helped prevent a closure of the fishery this year, but a closure is imminent if anglers fail to fund further science that is needed to prove to the government that a closure and harsh bag limits are unnecessary. Anglers might be largely unaware of the progress the SSFFF has made. Press coverage has dropped off since the economy forced newspapers to stop carrying some of the outdoor articles. If anglers fail to donate to the fund, the next steps in the science will not be done.

Mostly sea bass, nearly all good-sized, got pummeled, a pretty good catch, on the <b>Jamaica</b> at the offshore wrecks on Saturday, an e-mail from the boat said. Lots of limits were boxed. Pool winners were Khalid Bourabah from Brooklyn with a 7-1/2-pound sea bass and Derek Patterson from Poughkeepsie with a 7-pounder. The crew expects plenty of catches to continue on upcoming trips. Several of the overnight trips are leaving port each week, and space is available for one that departs 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. See bigjamaica.com for the full schedule and reservation info, and check the site or get added to an e-mail list by e-mailing fish@bigjamaica.com for additional trips, including Cod Specials.  <b>Bogan’s Boating School</b> is offering the boating safety course required in New Jersey. The next one-day classes will take place at Bogan’s Basin from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. the next two Sundays and April 11, 19, 25 and 26. Private classes are available for a minimum of eight students, with a discount for 10 or more, on weekdays, weekends, daytimes or evenings at your own location. Simply select two 3-hour blocks of time, and arrange an instructor. Private classes can also be held on one day when scheduling permits. <b>***Update, Thursday, 3/19:***</b> Strong currents ripped on Wednesday’s trip, and some anglers caught better than others, but good fishing was scored, an e-mail from the Jamaica said. Mostly sea bass were socked, and most were sizeable, and a number of anglers limited out. Pool winners were Mark Ciesielski from Malvern, Pa. with a 7-pound 15-ounce sea bass and Victor Ferrante from the Bronx with a 7-pounder. Space is available on trips sailing 11:30 p.m. this Friday through Sunday.  

<b>Point Pleasant</b>

<b>***Update, Friday, 3/20:***</b> The season will get under way at <b>Gates Bait & Tackle</b> with the reopening of the shop Saturday, Chuck said. A full load of bait—including mussels, clams, bloodworms and sandworms for winter flounder fishing—will be stocked. Customers hunt the flatfish starting on northern Barnegat Bay and follow the migration to the Manasquan River.

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/19:***</b> On the <b>Dauntless</b> anglers mostly bagged ling but sometimes cod and pollock, Capt. Butch said. They belted 5 to 15 fish apiece, and ling were somewhat more reluctant to feed than last week, because the bottom was cold, 38 to 39 degrees, in the 150- to 200-foot depths fished. The surface was 40 degrees, and close to shore was 43 or 43.5. Even if waters on the whole were warming, the snowmelt and ice flowing from the Hudson River apparently kept waters chilled at the Mudhole where the boat angled. Sometimes a slew of cod showed up on a trip, like about 30 that were hung on Saturday’s. The cod ranged from keeper-sized to 10 pounds, not big, but any cod can be an exciting for Jersey anglers. A few more boats than before started to be seen on the waters on days with pleasant weather. The Dauntless, one of the few boats in the state that targets the inshore waters all winter long, is bottom fishing 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily.
 
<b>Bricktown</b>

The doors opened back up for the season at <b>Pell’s Fish & Sport</b>, Jason said. Not much fishing went down, but the staff was getting ready, especially for the opening of winter flounder season next Monday. All the flounder rigs were already stocked, and all the baits, including chum logs, sandworms, bloodworms and clams should be on hand for the opening. Customers will likely target the flatbacks first on northern Barnegat Bay and then follow the migration to the Manasquan River via the Point Pleasant Canal. The mud huggers will then exit to the ocean to spend the summer, but all the local flattie fishing is done in the bay and river. When the schools hit the ocean they disperse too much to make fishing for them practical. Other areas like up north at the Cedars off Sandy Hook offer structure in the ocean where the flatfish gather a moment. But by the time the fish enter the ocean, anglers near Pell’s turn their attention to other fish, like striped bass. Jason heard a rumor, nothing confirmed, about two stripers reeled in from the Manasquan River near the mouth of the canal. Anglers farther south at Oyster Creek, the warm-water outflow from the Forked River power plant, played with stripers that bit small, soft-plastic lures like Fin-S Fish or small plugs. Pell’s is now open every day, and Jason was unsure of the hours, but the doors might be open 8 am. to 5 p.m. until flounder season, when the shop will probably open earlier, like 6 a.m., and might stay open later, like 6 p.m. 

<b>Toms River</b>

Striped bass and out-of-season winter flounder chomped mostly bloodworms at Oyster Creek, said Jeff from <b>Murphy’s Hook House</b>. He was unsure how many stripers bit, but flounder seemed abundant. The power plant was turned back on, so the creek was warm, good for fishing while the season was cold. Stripers, flounder and white perch were also bloodwormed in the Toms River. Bloods are stocked and are going fast. A few customers tried surf angling, but Jeff heard about no results. Some yesterday bought supplies to go crabbing! Sounded too early for that. Murphy’s is open daily.

<b>Seaside</b>

A 37-inch striped bass was nailed near the sedge banks in Barnegat Bay on Friday night, said the report on <b>Grumpy’s Tackle</b>’s Web site. Somebody e-mailed a photo of the fish to the shop. Reports said stripers were hooked in the northern bay around the Mantoloking Bridge, and keepers were bagged farther north toward Sandy Hook. Rumblings were heard about linesiders lifted from the local ocean, but none got hung from the shop’s scale so far this season. The weather was fair during the weekend, but surf casters failed to hit the beaches. Until some do, an actual report about the fishing will be impossible. Ocean temperatures were rising. <a href="http://www.grumpystackle.com/fishingreports/" target="_blank"> Click here</a> for updates.   

<b>Forked River</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/19:***</b> Oyster Creek anglers cranked in striped bass, and the power plant was on, pumping out the warm waters that triggers the fishing, said Dane from <b>Grizz’s Forked River Bait & Tackle</b>. Bloodworms will score the chomps, but lures will also work, including 4- and 5-inch Storm shads, X-10 Rapala X-Raps and bucktail jigs or Spro jigs with curly tails. A few said they hooked out-of-season flounder in the creek by mistake and released them. Many customers will hit the creek on Monday’s opening of the flatback season, because of access from the bank. But those who boat will surely fish Barnegat Bay for the blackbacks. Plenty of the flounder will have dumped into the bay from the rivers on their migration to the ocean. White perch were nabbed in the rivers like the Toms and Cedar Creek. Customers who fished for them bought bloodworms, nightcrawlers and killies for bait. Grass shrimp will also gain attention, and the shop stocks frozen ones. 

<b>Barnegat Light</b>

<b>***Update, Friday, 3/20:***</b> The shop re-opened for the season, said Basil from <b>Barnegat Light Bait & Tackle</b>. He heard an unconfirmed rumor that a striped bass was caught at Barnegat Inlet and weighed in at another shop. Stripers got waffled at Oyster Creek and in Barnegat Bay around the mouth of the creek, and the bigger bass swam toward the mouth. Deep-swimming lures like shads will connect, imitating hickory shad that are around. Hickory shad, actually a type of herring, move in first, then blueback herring, the popular bait for spring stripers, migrate in. A few bluebacks seemed around, if anglers wanted to start netting them for bait. The shop actually has live spots stocked that were kept since last fall. The opening of winter flounder season on Monday seemed promising, and Basil expected healthy catches. Fyke netters were required to pull their nets early, and that should help. White perch were active up the rivers. Bloodworms and fresh clams were being stocked today, and the shop will probably  be open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays until hours are extended later in the season.

<b>Reel Fantasea Charters</b> will splash the boat for the season in two weeks, and charters and open-boat trips will launch a bit afterward, Capt. Steve said in an e-mail. But he got out to wet a line, dunking bloodworms for striped bass. The fishing was no slam fest, and none of the stripers caught was a bruiser, but the angling was encouraging, enough action to keep his attention.  “Hey, at this time of year, any action is good,” he said. He didn’t say where he fished, but the warm waters toward Oyster Creek would be a guess. His first open-boat trip of the year will go after stripers and blues in Barnegat Bay on April 29, fishing the back of the bay, the mainland side, with bait and lures. Look for Reel Fantasea to chase winter flounder and big, tiderunner weakfish in the bay in the early season, too.  Charters and open trips are already being booked, and call or e-mail Steve about reserving preferred dates or for any info.

<b>Mystic Islands</b>

Striped bass were yet to get banked at Graveling Point, but water temps were gradually climbing, and the fishing was close to starting, said the report on <b>Scott’s Bait & Tackle</b>’s Web site. But a decent number of striped bass and white perch were reeled from the Mullica River upstream of the Garden State Parkway Bridge in the past few days. One keeper bass was known to be creeled at Collins Cove on the river, and another keeper was checked in that came from Oyster Creek, farther north at the town of Forked River. A few perch were also nabbed in the Bass River in the cove near the new boat ramp at Amasa Landing Road. Lots of bloodworms, the bait to use for stripers in the early season, and clams, sometimes a hot bait for the linesiders at this time of year, were stocked Friday. Scott himself caught grass shrimp to stock the shop back up with the live crustaceans on Saturday, and he was amazed how far some anglers traveled to the store to get them. The shop is one of the few in the state, if not the only one, that stocks live shrimp in winter, and the little critters are tops for catching white perch. Scott also caught more minnows to renew the shop’s supply for pickerel and largemouth bass fishing.  See a wealth of info about Graveling Point, including about a $100 gift certificate that is awarded to the angler who weighs in the season’s first keeper striper from the area, on the shop’s <a href=" http://www.scottsbt.com/fishing/stripers/springrun.htm
" target="_blank">Graveling Point striped bass run Web page</a>. <b>***Update, Thursday, 3/29:***</b> No customers reported catching stripers at Graveling Point through Wednesday, but water temps reached 44 to 46 degrees at the Point, so the bite was expected to begin any moment, Scott said. The prize of a $100 gift certificate for the first keeper from Graveling was unclaimed. Forty-five degrees is the magic number to get the bass active. But lots of stripers and white perch were caught on the Mullica River, and the shoreline at Clarks Landing Road was the popular spot for the stripers, probably lined with anglers. All striper catches on the Mullica were happening no farther downstream than about a mile upriver of the Parkway Bridge. Bloodworms, bloodworms, bloodworms were the bait on the river. Bloods are also the usual choice in the early season at Graveling Point, but clams will also do the trick there. The fish ignore clams on the river, probably because no clams live that far up the estuary. A customer Wednesday evening bought the shop’s last bloodworms and fresh clams, but plenty more of both will be stocked Friday. Live grass shrimp are on hand, even if the supply was touch and go, difficult to keep up with demand. Minnows are carried, and the season’s first supply of green crabs for tog fishing arrived. People started requesting them, and boaters, the only anglers who can find tog willing to bite in the early season, were beginning to take interest in launching the first trips of the year. Even a few charter captains ordered their first supply of greenies. If tog are going to chew, boaters probably have to fish deep, no shallower than 80 feet, in the ocean. The fishing season was coming to life.

<b>Absecon</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/29:***</b> The Mullica River dished out most catches of striped so far, and other places gave up a few, but most of the shop’s striper anglers kept quiet about locations, said Capt. Dave from <b>Absecon Bay Sportsman Center</b>. Clark’s Landing on the Mullica was the popular spot, and bloodworms accounted for most of the bites that Dave heard about. Otherwise nothing too exciting went down, but lots of small bass were hooked, and white perch could be creeled up the rivers. Sounded like nothing hot and heavy, but some catches. Herring were yet to make a big push up the rivers to spawn, but a few were around, like at the Great Egg Harbor River.  Dave netted five herring today and eight yesterday. The bays and other waters were warming, the prescription for more of the resident stripers to get active, and a sign that migrations of fish like herring, eventually followed by big, mature stripers from down south, migrating ones, were impending. The shop’s annual prizes were already awarded for the season’s first three keeper stripers weighed in. The first two were landed soon after striper season opened and were reported here in the past weeks. The third was checked in on March 8. The first keepers were hooked about 1 ½ weeks before last year’s first keeper was brought to the shop on March 18. Two more annual prizes, $100 gift certificates, for the season’s first keepers over 20 and 30 pounds are still up for grabs. Those fish are usually nailed when the migrators arrive. But never know! Bloodworms are stocked, and fresh clams will arrive Friday. The store is open seven days a week.

<b>Longport</b>

Daily, open-boat trips on the <b>Stray Cat</b> will kick off on St. Patrick’s Day on Tuesday, like they usually do, Capt. Mike said. The 8-hour trips at first will sail for tog 8 to 12 miles offshore. But striped bass in the bay are also possible, and the trips will be able to target winter flounder in the bay beginning this coming Monday, when the flounder season opens. Mike’s been gathering mussels and rice for bait and chum for the flatfish.  Flounder fishing used to be popular in South Jersey’s bays until the population of the bottom dwellers dropped off, for some reason. But the numbers of the fish grew in past years, and the Stray Cat will steam after them. Here’s the chance to bag the tasty creatures. On the tog front, the ocean started to warm, reaching 44 degrees, and the slipperies should begin to chew. An offshore sea bass trip had been slated for last Saturday, but conditions have to be perfect for the boat to run that far, and the trip never got out. Twelve-hour, open-boat trips to the 20-mile wrecks for tog, cod, pollock and sea bass are on the books for the Saturdays of April 4 and 18 and Good Friday, April 10. Call to reserve all open trips.  <b>***Update, Thursday, 3/19:***</b> Open trips for tog are slated for Friday through Sunday, Mike said. Some anglers already called and said they wanted to go, and waters reached 45 degrees the past three days, so he’ll try to put trips together. Call to jump aboard or if interested.

<b>Ocean City</b>

Rumors were heard about striped bass caught locally, but nobody gave first-hand reports or checked in any fish at the shop so far, said Bill from <b>Fin-Atics</b>. But water temps rose, and that was good news. The surf was 42 degrees, and the bay reached the mid 40s. White perch could supposedly be plucked from the Tuckahoe River and the Great Egg Harbor River. Waters a fair ways upstream on both seemed best: toward the town of Tuckahoe on that river and toward Mays Landing on the Great Egg. A few customers headed out on offshore sea bass trips, but none returned and said whether the connected. Fin-Atics is now open every day. Frozen baits are stocked, and bloodworms will start to be carried Wednesday. Let the season begin!

<b>Cape May</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/19:***</b> <b>Schmedley Charters</b> expects to kick off striped bass fishing on Delaware Bay around April 10 or 12, Capt. Joe said. The waters warmed to 41 degrees, compared with 38 last week, and the temp only needs to bump up another 3 or 4 degrees before action should start. Most fishing for the linesiders on the bay will be done with clams, generally the best bait for the angling from Cape May. But when bunker becomes available, bunker will also be used. In the earliest part of the season anglers aboard might also cast bucktails or lures like Rapalas, Redfins or Stretches in the shallower waters closer to shore, imitating herring that school the surface, making their way to the Delaware River to spawn. That fishing turned on well in the bay a bit farther north from Cape May in past years. By the end of April angling for the bay’s famous run of big black drum should begin, and then charters will do a combo of drum and striper fishing. Afterward shark season will take off in June, and then tuna trips will get going. But that’s looking far ahead.  Schmedley will also launch a new adventure this year: back-bay fishing on a 19-foot center console, for personalized trips for one or two anglers. Stripers, blues, flounder and weakfish should be on tap in the back waters through summer. Cape May fishing is about to wake up!

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