The first morning anglers have to put on a sweatshirt, they start to think more and more about Striped Bass. As some of you guys out there already know, the Striped Bass have been around all year. There was a period of time in June that catching a Striper on a plug or fly at the Coast Guard Station was the thing to do. There were a lot of slow periods interrupted by blitzes of Bass from 18 to 24". Grassy Channel also had plenty of short Bass caught by anglers bucktailing with strips of pork rinds in the early morning and evening hours. When there weren't a whole lot of Bluefish around, anglers were able to drift eels through their favorite holes from the 126 marker to the 118 marker. As soon as the small Blues moved in, the eels were cut in half in minutes. This week, anglers drifted eels around the Little Egg Inlet at night. They did catch a couple of Stripers, but the action was far from exciting. As soon as a little bit of daylight lit up the horizon, the little Bluefish became active and made breakfast of eels in a hurry. In the mouth of the Mullica River, a few anglers have been catching Stripers right at the cuts going along the hunting shack. Several anglers have been purchasing rubber eels for their jigging in this area. I also had one angler confess that he has been catching short Stripers from the bank at Pebble Beach in the evening too. Sure there are a few Stripers around, but you are going to have to be patient for activity and don't expect too many keeper size linesiders.

     For those anglers who just don't want to give up on the Fluke just yet, yes, they are still around. The problem is that they are all around. We had weigh-ins and reports from the Coast Guard Station area, Pebble Beach surf anglers and in Main Marsh Thorofare along the Brick pile on live Bunkers. Fluke in the bays in October? Go figure! I can't imagine that anyone would limit out, but drifting some minnows and squid could catch you a couple of nice Fluke this weekend. On the ocean, reports this week have been scarce due to rough seas. The latest Fluke reports were a few scattered fish with most of the action coming from the reef sight areas. Other anglers that are pursuing the Weakfish and the Croakers also had a secondary catch of the occasional Fluke.

     How about a practice run on catching Tautog in the Great Bay this weekend along the banks at the Coast Guard Station and the Fish Factory? The limit on Tautog is still one fish per angler until open season on October 10. Got plenty of salted clams and Green Crabs in stock for the weekend.

     It has come to my attention that many anglers are struggling to find bait or are worried about when and where they can get it. I will do my best to keep Bloodworms, live Grass Shrimp, Green Crabs, Minnows, Night Crawlers and of course Eels right on through the winter. We also will keep our selection of frozen baits well stocked. The store will beopen every day of the year to serve that fishing fanatic who likes to cut holes in the ice, or for some reason has to fill in a day of fishing, because he was too ill to make it into work.