Huge stripers being caught in Jersey

If you’re hankering to fish for some hard fighting and tasty striped bass, head over to New Jersey. And here's what New Jersey's On the Water Magazine has to report.

According to the Tackle Box in Hazlet, NJ, Capt. Phil said bass fishing is good in Raritan Bay with good numbers of stripers being caught on the troll by chunking and with plugs. In fact, he reported Steve Skoutelas caught a 50-pound striper aboard the Hyper Striper out of the Highlands. Capt. Phil also said said stripers are chasing bait at Sandy Hook with clams and worms being the enticers. He added that bass are being found by the Oceanic Bridge in the Navesink River at night and in the Shrewsbury River by the Highlands Bridge, also at night. 

Mike at Giglio’s Bait & Tackle in Sea Bright said clams have been taking stripers on the beaches, but not in any great numbers. 

Bob Matthews at Fisherman’s Den in Belmar, said striper fishing has been fair on the beaches and back in the rivers. Most of the linesiders were shorts mixed in with a couple pigs. Matthews said he personally went on the search for stripes and hooked four bass on four casts in the Ocean Grove surf last week on a rubber shad. However, the bite stopped as quickly as it started. 

Capt. John Bogan, at Brielle Bait & Tackle, said there are a lot of linesiders under the bridges and anglers are enticing them with worms, clams and eels at high tide. A fair number of keepers were among many shorts.

For those who want to stay a bit closer to home, the Wormpeople in Philly (formerly Brinkman’s Bait & Tackle), report the striper bite is getting stronger in the south near the Commodore Berry bridge on the Delaware River and includes a 41-pounder that was recently landed. The shop has had other local reports of nice size fish caught from the airport area up to the Tacony Bridge. Baits of choice have been blood worms, bunker and salted clams.

While this is going on, the Delaware River is still producing shad from Lambertville upriver to Easton and beyond. 
According to Steve Meserve of the commercial Lewis Fishery in Lambertville, who sets nets for shad, he’s had some decent nights on the Delaware. “Last Saturday the river was at 2.00' and the temp was 66F. We still have the 50 yards (of nets) out. We kept 12 roe and 11 bucks. We returned two shad along with a huge smallmouth bass, three gizzard shad, a carp and a turtle. All and all a good night,” he reported.

If you’d like to check in on his catches or buy a few shad in case you strike out, call him at 908-507-8197. 

It won’t be long before stripers will be coming up the Delaware River, so once the shad run is over, stripers take over the bite of the week. 

For trout anglers, this is the last week for most inseason trout stockings. Portions of Cedar Creek and the Little Lehigh in Lehigh County, Bushkill Creek and Little Bushkill Creek in Northampton County and Tulpehocken Creek in Berks County, will receive trout. But with rain forecasted sporadically throughout the week, streams may be up a bit and cloudy.

And as far as the Little Lehigh is concerned, there will still be some leftover fish from Saturdays fishing derby hosted by Lehigh County Fish & Game Association. 
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