<b>Perth Amboy</b>

Shore anglers beached small striped bass from the back of Raritan Bay, locals said, Capt. Frank from the <b>Vitamin Sea</b> wrote in an e-mail. Bunker began to arrive in the bay, and the Vitamin Sea should be splashed the last week of March for the season. Both charters and open-boat trips will fish, starting with striper and winter flounder fishing. The Vitamin Sea also fishes from Staten Island. “Get your dose of Vitamin Sea!” 

<b>Atlantic Highlands</b>

Striped bass, a handful, were beached from the surf some days ago, said Jimmy from <b>Julian’s Bait & Tackle</b>. But nobody mentioned fishing since then. Did you hear about boats? he was asked. “Yeah. They’re not catching,” he laughed. “We need some weather.” Nobody really bottom-fished on the ocean for ling and cod. But the angling seemed slow. The winter flounder bag limit, two fish, hurt business. No customers had showed up by 8:30 this morning, when Jimmy gave this report over the phone. Lots used to flounder fish this time of year. A fyke netter, who could bag 25 flounder, said the fish already spawned and left waters at the Oceanic Bridge on Shrewsbury River. Waters hardly held ice this winter except a brief time.  Jimmy used to catch flounder in February in rivers with ice floating. Baits including fresh clams and worms are stocked.

<b>Highlands</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/21:***</b> Capt. Pete Wagner from the <b>Hyper Striper</b> will return to Highlands to fish starting the second week of April, beginning with striped bass trips, he said. Waters were cold yet, he said, and clamming will be the ticket for stripers at first. Charters should be booked now to ensure a date. Pete was currently chartering from Costa Rica on the Dream Girl, like every winter to early spring. Fishing aboard was strong, he said, mostly for sailfish, large dorados, blue marlin and striped marlin.

A few throwback striped bass were hooked on Raritan Bay, both from shore and boats, said Capt. Derek from <b>Fisher Price Charters</b>. The fish were caught on some days and not on others, and waters needed to warm a bit. Derek hopes to splash the boat next Monday for the season. Fishing aboard will kick off with open-boat trips for stripers from Friday to Sunday, March 29 to 31. A few spaces remain for the trip Friday, and the rest of the weekend is full. Call to climb aboard or to be kept informed about future open dates. Space is available in the days afterward, and charters are booking up for April through June. The first striper trips will clam for the fish, and chunks of bunker will probably be fished by mid-April for them. Afterward, livelined bunker will be used. Lots of bunker already schooled the bay.

<b>Belmar</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/21:***</b> <b>Fisherman’s Den</b> was being readied for the opening of winter flounder season on Saturday, Bob said in an e-mail. “Big challenge this year,” he said, apparently because of the hurricane. But the crew was getting the shop together, and doing the usual, like ordering bait, and expects to be ready, “God willing,” Bob said. “Every day is a new adventure.” The rental boats are getting readied for flounder fishing on Shark River. Bob hopes customers are coping the best they can, and the crew looks forward to seeing them, he said.

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/21:***</b> The crew from the party boat <b>Big Mohawk</b> looks forward to the opening of blackfish season on Monday, April 1, Capt. Chris said in a phone call. Otherwise, fishing wasn’t the best lately, he wrote in a report on the boat’s Web site. “We will be watching the weather carefully,” he wrote. In other news, <a href="http://www.sharkriversurfanglers.com/contest.htm" target="_blank">Shark River Surf Anglers’ Annual Kids’ Trout Fishing Tournament</a> will be held 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, April 6, opening day of trout season, at Spring Lake, Chris reminded. More than 500 trout – rainbows, goldens, tigers, brooks and browns – will be stocked for the event at 9:30 a.m. the previous Saturday, March 30, and kids are also welcome to help with stocking. The fish will be 14 inches to 12 pounds, and the contest is known for lunkers. Open to ages 15 and under, the contest will award 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes in several age divisions. The kid with the heaviest trout will win a trophy, rod and reel, and a taxidermist will mount the fish. All kids who weigh in a trout will win a prize.

Nothing was really heard about striped bass, except about a few winged from the back bays, Capt. Pete from <b>Parker Pete’s Fishing Charters</b> thought, he said. He thought a few were clammed from Raritan Bay. Ocean bottom-fishing picked ling and cod, “nothing to write home about,” he said. At this time of year, anglers mostly fished just to get out. Waters were 39 or 40 degrees, “still pretty chilly,” Pete said. But he looked forward to the new fishing season, and hopes to begin fishing in early April or, at the latest, the middle of that month. Trips at first will fish for striped bass or blackfish, whatever’s biting. Charters and open-boat trips will sail, and lots of charters were booking. Weekends were mostly full in May already.

<b>Brielle</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/21:***</b> The party boat <b>Big Jamaica</b> is back from dry dock, and striped bass trips will sail 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, an e-mail from the vessel said.

Nothing was heard about fishing, including about striped bass and ling, said Dave from <b>The Reel Seat</b>. No customers fished in the last week or 1 ½ weeks, and this is usually the slowest time of year for angling. But Dave chartered the Point Pleasant Beach party boat Voyager for a tilefish trip for beginners from Tuesday to Wednesday, June 4 to 5, limited to 21 passengers, and space is available. The trip includes a free seminar at the store on the fishing on Sunday, June 2. Anglers can call or stop in the store for details or to sign up. Dave is an avid tilefisher, and introduced probably the <a href=" http://www.fishingreportsnow.com/Product.Reviews.2012/The.Reel.Seat.Custom.Tilefish.Rod.cfm" target="_blank">first-ever  off-the-rack tilefish rod</a> this past year. New tackle is arriving for the season at the store. The Reel Seat is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays, probably through April. Hours will be expanded afterward.

<b>Point Pleasant Beach</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/21:***</b> On bottom-fishing trips on the party boat <b>Dauntless</b>, the angling wasn’t good, “(but I) guess it’s steady winter fishing,” Capt. Butch said. Actually, Wednesday, when he said that in a phone call, was the first day of spring. But anglers averaged five to 15 fish apiece, mostly ling. Cod were sometimes caught, and their sizes were “borderline throwbacks and keepers,” he said. Sometimes the cod were keepers, and few were better-sized. Trips fished shallow in 120 to 150 feet, and waters there were between 38 and 40 degrees. A couple of trips fished deeper, and waters seemed barren in the “deep, deep,” Butch said, except for dog sharks. Only a few other fish bit there. Butch saw no signs of springtime fish or bait. But commercial boaters, who began dragging, because their fluke season opened, ran into loads of weakfish and striped bass 8 to 10 miles from shore along bottom. The fish were piled up at all the lumps like Manasquan Ridge and Seaside Lump.  The Dauntless is bottom-fishing 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily.

<b>Toms River</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/21:***</b> Winter flounder season will be opened on Saturday, and Dennis from <b>Murphy’s Hook House</b> thinks the fishing should be good, he said. Anglers landed and released a few flounder while fishing for other fish. That included an 18-incher while someone fished for striped bass on the Toms River, and another angler who released two flounder while fishing at Mantoloking. All the flounder supplies including worms, fresh clams and chum are stocked. Stripers, mostly throwbacks 12 to 18 inches, no keepers that Dennis heard about, were bloodwormed and clammed on the Toms River in early mornings and at night in the dark. A few were yanked from Island Heights at the yacht club, but most were found farther upstream, like at Beachwood and the golf course. The river dropped to 34 degrees, and was 36 degrees last week. Lagoons sometimes formed skim ice by morning. One kayaker kept plugging for stripers along Route 37 Bridge on Barnegat Bay with Rapalas, and rumors said he caught. Anglers fishing the bridge itself and Pelican Island reeled in throwback stripers, sometimes almost keepers. Stripers were still bloodwormed and clammed at Oyster Creek, the warm-water discharge from Forked River power plant, but were also beaned on artificials like Fin-S Fish and rubber shads. Customers bought fresh clams to fish the surf for striped bass, but no catches were reported. The first are usually beached the last week of March and in the beginning of April. In addition to the baits already mentioned, the supply includes killies, eels, shiners, freshwater worms and almost everything. The store was opened daily for the season this week, and hours will be extended to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily starting Friday.

<b>Forked River</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/21:***</b> <b>Grizz’s Forked River Bait & Tackle</b> is open “sketchy hours,” Grizz said, including weekends, and winter flounder season will be opened on Saturday. He expects to give results about the fishing in next week’s report. Striped bass fishing was very good at Oyster Creek, the warm-water discharge from Forked River power plant, in early mornings and at dusk, on clams, bloodworms and white soft-plastic lures, like Fin-S Fish.

<b>Mystic Island</b>

At Graveling Point, striped bass catches were slowly but surely “making (their) way upward,” a report on <b>Scott’s Bait & Tackle</b>’s Web site said on Thursday. That was the most recent report posted, but a good turnout of anglers showed up at the store in the few days leading up till then, the report said. Fishing was better up Mullica River, for stripers and white perch. Nobody told good spots on the river except at Hay Road, the report said. Both Graveling, at the confluence of Great Bay and Mullica River, and Hay Road are shore-angling places. <b>***Update, Thursday, 3/21:***</b> A few fished at Graveling and nearby Pebble Point, but no catches were reported, Scott from the shop said. Waters became cold, and weather was lousy, and the lack of reports seemed both because weather kept anglers from fishing, and stripers didn’t bite in the cold. Fishing for them had gone nuts two Wednesdays ago in warmer waters, after warmer weather. But this is the time of year when the fishing takes off, and the angling could be on when Scott gives the next report. Though that angling lulled a moment, stripers, fewer than before, but catches, were still snatched from Mullica River from shore at Hay Road. That’s a popular spot, but there were also other places to fish from the bank and maybe bridges. Bloodworms were the bait for stripers in all these areas, while waters were cold. Clams will become the bait when waters warm, enabling stripers to digest them. Nothing was reported about white perch fishing on the Mullica or other brackish rivers. Scott was able to net no live grass shrimp, a favorite perch bait, to stock, only because the opportunity never came up. When he had time, the tide wasn’t right, or rains muddied waters, and so on. When no shrimp are stocked, news about perch can become scarce. When an angler buys shrimp one day, returns for more in two days, and returns for more in another two days, Scott knows he’s catching. Bloodworms, fresh, shucked clams, minnows and nightcrawlers are carried.

<b>Absecon</b>

Was a “slow week,” Capt. Dave from <b>Absecon Bay Sportsman Center</b> said, because of weather, and miserable weather was forecast for the next days. But he began his year’s charter fishing with three of his special, early-season trips for striped bass on Mullica River on Friday to Sunday. Lots of stripers were reeled in, and they seemed to come from two year-classes: either 12 inches or 16 or 17 inches, maybe 18. The trips fished with bloodworms and grass shrimp, and both caught equally. Enough white perch for dinner were landed on each trip, but no load of the fish was found. Waters were 43 or 44 degrees on the river, at Absecon Creek along the shop, and nearly everywhere. “We need some sun,” Dave said. Would be nice to fish without gloves, and ice on the boat in mornings was a little tough, he said. The trips scored lots of action, and the anglers were happy, Dave said. They had to be diehards in the weather. Fresh clams are stocked, and grass shrimp were difficult to find to net. Dave scraped up a few for his charters.

<b>Brigantine</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/21:***</b> Anglers fished Brigantine’s surf for striped bass, but waters were cold, weather was windy, and skies were cloudy, Capt. Andy from <b>Riptide Bait & Tackle</b> said. No catches were reported, but fresh clams and bloodworms are stocked. The store’s $50 gift certificate was up for grabs for the angler who weighs in the season’s first keeper striper from Brigantine’s surf. In the store’s other contest, the bounty was up to more than $700 for the season’s first striper larger than 43 inches checked in from the island’s surf. It was never won last fall, and was rolled over to this season. Entry is $5, and anglers must enter 24 hours before the catch to win. The annual Fish for Life Tournament, benefitting South Jersey Cancer Fund, is under way through May 25, and entry, available at the shop, is $20. That includes a permit to beach-buggy the entire Brigantine beach, when accompanied by a Brigantine buggy permit. The Brigantine permit allows driving on limited areas, but the tournament permit opens up the whole beach to driving.

<b>Ocean City</b>

Back-bay anglers socked small striped bass, sometimes on lures, but mostly on clams or bloodworms, said Bill from <b>Fin-Atics</b>. High tide was best, and the angling depended more on tide than time of day, whether during daytime or night. No keepers were really heard about, and nothing was heard about surf fishing for stripers. Nothing was reported about stripers from the rivers, “yet,” Bill said. Bloodworms and fresh clams are stocked, and Fin-Atics is open daily.

<b>Sea Isle City</b>

A few striped bass were banked from the surf along the ocean front at mid-week, and some were beached at Corson’s and Townsend’s inlets, said Mike from <b>Sea Isle Bait & Tackle</b>. Maybe a total of six were heard about, so they were “spread out,” he said, but at least stripers were caught. Mostly clams were the bait. Striper fishing somewhat picked up in the back bay at night under bridge lights. The fishing had been good at the beginning of the month, and slowed from the nor’easter a couple of weeks ago. Mostly soft-plastic lures were fished for them recently, like Fin-S Fish, Bass Assassins and Zooms. A couple of anglers talked about fishing Tuckahoe River. One mentioned scoring pretty well on white perch, catfish and three or four throwback stripers on grass shrimp and bloodworms. One of the stripers was about an eighth-inch short of keeper-sized, the largest the angler ever caught there. A commercial crabber began crabbing on Friday, opening day of the season, and was yet to pull the pots and report results. But news about crabbing might start rolling in. Crab catches were exceptional last March and April, but waters were warmer by maybe 8 to 10 degrees than this year. So, some action began to reported, and that was good. Hours were expanded at the store, now open Thursdays through Mondays, so long as weather is fair enough for anglers to be likely to stop by and fish. The shop is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and hours will be extended more, probably on April 1. Fresh clams were stocked, and bloodworm and nightcrawlers were set to arrive. The store’s fresh and live bait supply is being increased as the season goes on.  

With <b>Jersey Cape Guide Service</b>, affiliated with <b>Sea Isle Bait & Tackle</b>, Peter Rotelli joined some of the traveling charters to the Florida Keys this weekend, Capt. Joe Hughes said. He fly-fished the whole time, tugging in a bunch of jacks and some speckled sea trout and barracudas both Saturday and Sunday. Lots of flies were fished, but a red and white rabbit-strip fly caught best that Joe tied. On Sunday Peter also sight-fished for sharks on the fly. A dozen sharks swarmed around the boat for two hours, and three bit. One, an 80-pound lemon shark, was hooked and fought before pulling the hook. Different flies were fished for the sharks, but a toad fly got all the bites. The flies were fished on a 12-inch wire tippet on 30-pound leader. Weather was in the mid-70s and a little breezy. Joe will offer the annual Florida trips, fishing each winter, through Easter, and see info on Jersey Cape’s <a href="http://www.captainjoehughes.com/page4.html" target="_blank">Traveling Fisherman Charters</a> Web page. Then Joe will turn all attention to fishing from Sea Isle City. Charters there are usually very good for striped bass and bluefish in April and May on the back bay. Joe heard nothing specific about stripers around Sea Isle in past days, but was sure stripers were around to be caught. Stripers swim the bay all year, and become most active during certain times, including spring. Bluefish swim the bay from spring through fall, but a large push of blues enters the bay a moment each spring, before many of the blues move to the ocean for summer. Keep up with Joe’s fishing on <a href="http://captainjoehughes.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Jersey Cape’s blog</a>.

<b>Avalon</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/21:***</b> Capt. Jim Weiser from <b>Fins and Feathers Outfitters</b> was wrapping up snow-goose hunting trips he guides on Delaware Bay, and will charter for striped bass on the bay soon, he said. He saw no stripers in the bay’s shallows like he did this time last year. Last year, stripers bumped against the boat, they schooled so thick, at places like the 10-foot shallows, or shallower, off Reed’s Beach. But that was unusually early, apparently because of a mild winter that year. When his striper charters begin, they’ll clam for the fish on the bay. Drum charters aboard will fish the bay around May. Fins and Feathers fishes the ocean from Avalon in summer and Delaware Bay in spring and fall. When charters fish the bay, the boat is trailered from Avalon and launched along the bay from wherever’s best for fishing, like Cape May or Reed’s Beach. Jim also guides duck hunting on the bay when the season is open. Sometimes anglers can enjoy a Cast and Blast, a combo of striper fishing and duck hunting over a series of days. Fins and Feathers does a variety of outdoor adventures, including trout fishing in Pennsylvania and salmon and steelhead fishing on New York’s Salmon River. Jim owns <a href="http://www.sjlodge.net/" target="_blank">S.J. Lodge</a>, 45 minutes from the Salmon, for everything from fishing the river to snowmobiling. Steelhead fishing should be good in the next weeks.

<b>Cape May</b>

<b>***Update, Thursday, 3/21:***</b> The <b>Heavy Hitter</b> will be splashed for the season soon, Capt. George said, and he might clam for striped bass on Delaware Bay this weekend. If he does, results should be posted here in the next report. A few striper catches, “nothing great,” George said, were heard about from the bay so far. But hardly anyone probably fished the bay in rough weather. The year’s first charters will clam for stripers on the bay after the boat is launched, and drum charters usually start fishing the bay in May. Call if interested in any of this fishing.

Trips for striped bass will begin this weekend on the <b>Down Deep</b>, clamming for them on Delaware Bay, Capt. Mario said. Striper and drum charters, also on the bay, are being booked for spring. Sign up for the <a href=" http://www.downdeepsportfishing.com/ddsf/76-2/" target="_blank">Short Notice List</a> for special open-boat trips.

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