ith the start of a new season upon us let’s take a look back at the end of the 2008 striped bass run for just a moment. It has been three years in a row now that the end of the season migration of big striped bass has been absent from our Central NJ coast. Again at the end of 2008 we did not see the 25-35 pound cows that move down from northern New England waters to winter off of the Virginias and Carolinas. Their migration route went by us undetected and definitely wasn’t within the legal State fishing limit of three miles from shore.

Recreational boaters, charter captains, and party boats fishing until the end of December had nothing to show for their catch of striped bass except for small fish ranging from 18-26 inches. My largest striped bass in December of 2008 only tipped the scales at 15 lbs. We did have lots of small fish on many days but nothing else. I remember we were talking on the radio about getting a keeper on a trip and what a big deal it was when we did.

What we saw happen in 2008 was some very cold weather and storms at the end of November and into the beginning of December that dropped water temperatures very quickly. As a result the migration patterns were altered and accelerated quickly. I can only assume that the big bass pushed offshore leaving us with only small fish remaining

Whatever route the big bass did take this year as they went by our coast they did show up again to our south as expected. Many New Jersey boaters now head to Virginia in December and January to finish out their season while catching trophy bass. Just check the Virginia message board pages from December and you will see what I am talking about. Here’s one excerpt from the end of December.

“The Virginia fishery has exploded this past week. Jake Garren of Ironto awaits approval of his pending IGFA Small Fry World Record for a 50 lb, 14 oz striped bass he caught while fishing in the Bay with his Dad this week. Jim Sheffield of Richmond also awaits his answer from the IGFA on his pending Line Class World Record for a 44 lb, 2 oz striped bass he landed on four-pound test line in the same area this week.

Big stripers continue their push into local waters, where forty to fifty pounders are becoming common. Even a few 60-pounders are beginning to show in the same areas. Most of the larger fish are coming from boats either drifting eels along the channels and shoals of the bayside Eastern Shore area, or dipping eels along the high rise section of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. The best bite is happening on the falling tide lately, both day and night. Anglers are also beginning to report lots of bait and pods of working birds within the Bay and along the Virginia Beach.”

Now granted not all of these big fish have migrated down from our area as they are more indigenous to the Chesapeake Bay area and move in from offshore of that locale, but tagging studies have shown that a large population of big bass that move past our coast from northern New England waters end up or stage off of these waters.

Ok now let’s take a look at the start of the 2009 season that kicked off on March 1 when all waters west of the Corlies Demarcation Line opened up again to striped bass fishing. A major snow storm at the beginning of the month got things off to a slow start but on the end of the melt the action quickly accelerated.

Our guides Capt’s Rich Swisstack and Dave Torrick who are well known to the striped bass community started hitting the upper banks of Raritan Bay on almost every night. Swisstack reported “Over this weekend (the second weekend of March) we had about 8 bass between us from 25 to 35 inches on each outing. Largest bass weighed in so far has been 17.5 lbs. I only expect the action to get better as it looks like we are off to an early start”. Swisstack also noted that much bigger bass were being caught much earlier this year than in years past.

A week later Swiss reported in with this report “This is one of the best starts to the striped bass season that I can remember in a long time. We are already catching decent size bass up to 20 lbs. Normally at this time of year the striped bass we are catching range in size from 18-24 inches. Since the March 1st opener we have already caught bass of 20, 18, 17.8, 16.8 lbs and twelve bass between 10-13 lbs all on clams.

As far as the boat action in Raritan Bay that has also been very good in the last two weeks. Capt Lou Grazioso of Striper Mania out of Keyport got his boat wet for the start of the season this week and reported 35 striped bass up to 33 inches that hit clam baits all on one outing in the afternoon.

As far as Insider locations the best Raritan Bay beach action has been from Cliffwood Beach up to Morgan. In the boats the best action has been in the area of the Keyport Flats in 6-10 feet of water.

In other news we were notified in March that the 19.12 lb weakfish caught by David Alu of Jackson last season on May 6, 2008 when guided by Swiss of Shore Catch has been approved as the new IGFA All Tackle World Record weakfish. This monstrous fish was taken from the New York shoreline near Great Kills Harbor on a bunker chunk. The fish was caught on a St Croix Legend Surf Rod and a Daiwa Spinning Reel.

Swisstack specializes in guiding clients to trophy striped bass and weakfish from shore, and describes the above evening as one he will never forget. Swisstack said, "We had been catching big bass all night, but I knew there were some really big tide runners around from the past days as we were catching them in the 12-16 lb range. When this fish hit I knew it was not a bass by the way it was fighting and definitely a huge trophy weakfish.”

So give us a call if you want to hook up with Swiss and Davie on the beach in Raritan Bay and try for some trophy bass and weakfish in the weeks ahead. These two guys are really zeroed in on where the fish are and are out just about every night. If you want to do a boat charter for big 30-50 lb bass when the bunker arrive this spring give me a call now 732-762-0870 or email me at jimfreda@optonline.net as I only have a few prime dates left. Good luck this season and I hope that trophy hits the steel! Capt Jim