By Al Ristori

May 02, 2010, 10:08PM

Due to some technical problem, paragraphs from Sunday's blog were stripped in transmission.

Dave Lilly of Hazlet quickly limited his crew by trolling Stretch plugs from his center console out of Angler's Marine at Sea Bright in Raritan Bay. Hank Fister, who'll be celebrating his 83rd birthday during the week, was aboard along with Al Tumolo and Keith Bielfin.

Capt. Jack Shea trolled the small Maja spoon off Island Beach State Park on Friday to boat a striper just over 40 pounds and another just under 30 pounds from his Rambunctious. Shea reports that Barnegat Bay stripers are starting to hit clams, and that the bay is full of 3-to-5-pound blues plus some much larger choppers, such as those up to 15 pounds that went through Double Creek Channel last week.

Allen Riley of South Plainfield had no hits Friday morning in the Sandy Hook surf before leaving his clams with Lou Vargas of Fanwood when he went home. Vargas then used that bait to land a 34-inch bass.

Capt. Jeff Gutman of the Voyager from Point Pleasant said Friday's cod trip was very successful as about 50 cod were boated, and anglers averaged three to six  plus shorts. Bob Brinton of Oceanport won the pool with a 25-pounder, which was also his first cod. Gutman will sail for cod the first three Fridays in May.

By Al Ristori

May 02, 2010, 7:58PM

While Sunday's ocean striper fishing generally left much to be desired, Raritan Bay continued to produce plenty of bass. Capt. Sal Cursi of Cathy Sea at Sewaren said he didn't have to go far in order to catch all the stripers his party from Canada could handle on both live bunkers and by trolling Stretch plugs. Most of the bass are the same teen-size stripers that dominate in the ocean, but they ranged up to 20 pounds today.

Fleets of boats were running all along the Shore seeking signs of bass in a choppy sea. but results weren't generally good. There was a report about a better bite off Asbury Park, but I haven't been able to confirm that.

Capt. Hans Kaspersetz took his friend, Dave Marrazzo of Middletown with his sons David (12) abd Jake (9) out on Sheri Berri from Baker's Marina on the Bay out to the ocean. Shrewsbury Rocks had been a productive area Saturday, but there was nothing doing there -- and a call about a shot of action off the Red Church came too late to get into that brief shot. There were some marks off the Highlands Bridge, where the farther jigged a 33-inch striper that Jake reeled in. Trolling then produced a short just under 28 inches on a bunker spoon for David -- but that was it despite many marks in the area.   

Tony Arcabascio of Bayville had heard of a striper bite off Seaside on Saturday, so he ran his Maja to the Ferris Wheel and trolled a 28-pound striper on his Maja bunker spoon. There wasn't anything showing there, and with no more action in the fleet he ran to good reports off Island Beach State Park where a 31-pounder was trolled in increasingly rough seas.

By Al Ristori

May 01, 2010, 8:27PM

Despite heavy boat traffic, striped bass cooperated for most boaters during a beautiful day. That was as true in Ratitan Bay as in the ocean. Gary Caputi of Brick and I fished with Capt. Lou Grazioso on Striper Mania from Keyport, and were into action immediately after leaving the harbor as large bluefish were blasting into bait and hitting everything thrown at them. I raised 6-t0-8-pound blues on every cast with a pencil popper, and Caputi scored with a fly. We then moved out in the bay, where Grazioso marked bass -- and we picked away on live bunkers despite a lack of drift. About 10 bass fron the mid-teens to about 20 pounds were released in a couple of hours. Chuck Many of Annandale was inshore of us with Canadian visitors on his Tyman from Highlands, and did even better. It was nothing like the red hot action of the previous evening for Grazioso and Many, but good steady sport. Joe Massa came out later with his My Three Sons from Morgan, and had similar action with both live and dead bunkers.Dave Lilly of Hazlet trolled a three-man limit in the bay early in the morning before releasing a few more from his center console out of Angler's Marine in Sea Bright.

Capt. Sal Cursi ran down the beach with his Cathy Sea from Sewaren, and had a good catch of stripers by jigging Storm Shads. The Jamaica from Brielle had many bass limits, and a 25-pound pool winner. That boat will be fishing for stripers on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 a.m.

By Al Ristori

April 29, 2010, 8:32PM

Party boats running to the east from Atlantic Highlands had great striper jigging Thursday, with lots of large bass among them. Capt. Rob Semkewyc of the Sea Hunter and Capt. Scotty Hilliard of the Prowler reported finding lots of bird action and bass that hit jigs readily.

Capt. Bud McArthur didn't have such good news further south as he fished from Spring Lake to Lavallette on his Splinter from Brick without any success while hardly marking any fish or bait.

A surfcaster spotted a massive school of dolphins off Manasquan blasting into a school of bunkers during the morning..

Shore fishing wasn't as good as on Wednesday. There were no surf reports from northern Monmouth County, and I saw only one bluefish caught on a jig late in the afternoon at Manasquan Inlet -- where it had been very good the previous evening. Nick Honachefsky of Normandy Beach only picked at blues in Island Beach State Park around noon -- in contrast to Wednesday's red hot surface plugging. He could see schools of blues crossing the outer bar in clear waters, but they didn't want plugs. He did manage some on bunker chunks, and by working a Deadly Dick slowly over the bottom. John Green of Brick got there at the end of the bite, but reported blues were hitting in the inlet earlier in the morning. He later found out that both blues and bass hit lures in the park during early afternoon.