<b>Port Elizabeth</b>

Lot of wind, nothing but wind the past four days, said Sharon from <b>The Girls Place Bait & Tackle</b>. The strong wind blew from west, the worst direction for the New Jersey side of the bay. That direction blows seas high on that side, and nobody could boat in the seas, really. But a few reports about striped bass catches began to roll in this season. One angler landed a couple of keepers in the Dividing Creek area. A couple of stripers were eased from Fortescue’s surf before the blow. The bay’s anglers waited for the fall, southern migration of stripers to reach the local area. Lots of bloodworms were sold this past week at the store, including for bait for weakfish and kingfish that still schooled the bay. Customers still crabbed, buying bait for the blueclaws. This was a tremendous season for crabbing, and commercial crabbers still trapped good catches. The supply of shedder crabs for bait was about finished from suppliers for the year. Crabs stop shedding in the cooler weather through winter. The Girls Place, located on Route 47, just after Route 55 ends, carries a large supply of bait and tackle, and is the long, one-story, yellow building on the right. It’s on the way to the bay.

<b>Money Island</b>

Even commercial boats at <b>Money Island Marina</b> sat out the wind this weekend, the marina’s Facebook page said.  The <a href=" https://www.facebook.com/MoneyIslandMarina/videos/1229762533755235/
" target="_blank">wind continued Monday, kicking up white caps</a> at the boat ramp. One angler pulled in throwback striped bass two at a time from the marina’s fishing docks on Nantuxent Creek. But he also bagged a good catch of white perch from the docks on the trip. “We are all ready for some bigger (stripers),” the page said. Fresh bunker, favorite bait for stripers in the bay, are stocked when in demand. For boating anglers, the wait was on for the season’s migration of big stripers in the bay. The marina features a bait and tackle shop, a boat ramp, boat slips, dry-dock boat storage, fishing docks and gas. The fishing docks, $5 per adult and free for kids, can offer angling for white perch, small striped bass, croakers and more, at different times of year. A 12-foot aluminum boat with a 2.5 h.p. outboard is available to rent to fish the creek.

<b>Cape May</b>

A few boaters tried bunker-chunking for striped bass on the bay before the past days’ wind, but none was known to catch any, said Joe from <b>Hands Too Bait & Tackle</b>. Some of them hooked 4- to 6-pound catfish on the chunks at spots like the mouth of Maurice River and the mouth of Fortescue Creek. Nobody seemed to boat stripers from the ocean locally yet this season. Maybe that will change when the wind calms and boaters return to fishing. A 42-pound striper was weighed from Cape May’s surf at the shop two weekends ago, covered in the last report here. Afterward, the store’s owner hooked and lost a large striper from the town’s surf that was the biggest he’d ever hooked. Schoolie stripers and small blues turned out catches in the town’s surf. Weakfish, small but a few 22 or 24 inches, bit in the bay for boaters before the wind. On the back bay, sharpies played schoolie stripers, like at bridges. An average angler might not hook them, but some might hook a few. A few boaters trolled the ocean at inshore lumps before the weather, fighting a few false albacore.

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