<b>Keyport</b>

The boat was dry docked for winter, Capt. Joe from <b>Papa’s Angels Charters</b> said. He thanks everybody who fished aboard this year. Fishing on the boat will begin again in mid-April, he hopes, for striped bass.

<b>Atlantic Highlands</b>

All anglers cranked in blackfish, and a couple limited out, and a couple of the fish were better-sized, on today’s trip on the party boat <b>Atlantic Star</b>, Capt. Tom said. “It was a nice day,” he said, and a small group fished on the trip. The morning was cold, but weather became better as the day went on, as the wind calmed. Tuesday’s weather looks okay, but Wednesday’s currently didn’t look so good, and Thursday’s looks questionable. That’s Thanksgiving, and a trip will fish that day, only if weather is fair. Anglers can telephone Wednesday night about the outlook. The Atlantic Star is blackfishing 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily, including on Thanksgiving, if weather’s fair, like described above. <b>***Update, Wednesday, 11/27:***</b> The trip on Thanksgiving will be docked, because of weather, but fishing aboard will resume Friday, Tom said. Forecasts are calling for winds gusting to 40 knots on Thursday, but 10- to 15-knot winds from northwest on Friday. Weather also looks good for the weekend.

<b>Highlands</b>

Blackfishing aboard was strong, Capt. Pete from the <b>Hyper Striper</b> wrote in an e-mail. Anglers should telephone now for available dates for charters. John Gleason’s charter last week limited out on the tautog to a 13.8-pounder. Charters that limited out on the slipperies last week also included those with Bryan McCarthy on Saturday and Mike Gallo on Friday.  John Riccardi’s charter also limited out that week.

Some great striped bass fishing was jigged on Friday on the <b>Vitamin Sea</b> like previously, but the fish were mostly throwbacks, Capt. Frank wrote in an e-mail. Action was constant, but mostly 18- to 26-inchers made up this school, and only three keepers were managed. The trip also blackfished, and that was slow, turning up mostly throwbacks, but a few keepers to 5 pounds. That fishing will certainly improve. Strong winds kept trips from fishing through the weekend, and the next trips are slated for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Open-boat trips for blackfish will run Sunday and every day next week, and will jig for stripers while traveling to and from the blackfish grounds, if the fish are seen. Anyone looking to go should telephone Frank ASAP. Open trips fill fast because of the good fishing. The boat will fish to the end of the year. Frank wishes everybody Happy Thanksgiving. “Get your dose of Vitamin Sea!” <b>***Update, Tuesday, 11/26:***</b> The six anglers aboard today limited out on blackfish to 8 pounds by 9:30 a.m., and culled the tautog from the livewell, keeping males, releasing females, Frank wrote in an e-mail. The fishing was excellent, and one space is available for a trip Friday, and some are available for Sunday. A trip Saturday is full. Space is also available for trips next week. No trips will sail Wednesday, apparently because of weather, and Thursday, Thanksgiving. Stripers around were mostly throwbacks, but that will change, when the next migration of the fish swims through, Frank said. He wishes everybody a great Thanksgiving again.

<b>Neptune</b>

More than 50 or 60 striped bass were landed, and seven were kept, Friday with <b>Last Lady Fishing Charters</b>, Capt. Ralph wrote in an e-mail. Trips aboard for blackfish were weathered out Saturday and Sunday, because of winds, but a trip for stripers was expected to sail today. Ralph will try to give results that will be posted here as an update after the trip if he does. Charters are available daily for stripers and blackfish. Individual-reservation trips for blackfish will sail Wednesday and Sunday; December 7 and 8; and every Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday when no charter is booked. <b>***Update, Monday, 11/25:***</b> The trip today sailed to where stripers were found previously, Ralph said. Birds worked the waters all over, and stripers swam everywhere, but the fish wouldn’t smack jigs, and most were small. Only one keeper was boated. The water temperature had dropped there to 46 degrees, and Shark River was 39. So Ralph is planning no more striper trips this season, and will concentrate on blackfish. If stripers are seen while the blackfish trips are traveling, and if the stripers look large, the outings might stop and fish for them. Might, Ralph said. 

<b>Belmar</b>

Wind kept fishing docked Sunday with <b>Parker Pete’s Fishing Charters</b>, but striped bass fishing was very good the previous few days, Capt. Pete said. Throwbacks had to be weeded through, but lots of keepers swam. Parker Pete’s mostly trolled them, but jigged a few. Blackfishing was decent, and time had to be put in to bag them, but some better-sized ones started to bite. Anything else? Pete was asked. Just get out and fish, he said. Catches were good. . Don’t have enough anglers for a charter? Contact Pete anyway, or <a href=" http://www.parkerpetefishing.com/" target="_blank">subscribe to Parker Pete’s e-mailed newsletter</a>, to be kept informed about individual-spaces available on charters. Look for the place to sign up on the right side of the page on the boat’s Web site.

Reports rolled in about striped bass beached from the surf at spots including Sandy Hook, the Asbury Park and Deal jetties, Point Pleasant Beach, Bay Head, Lavallette and so on, Bob from <b>Fisherman’s Den</b> wrote in an e-mail. “The hunt goes on!” he said. Anglers had to cover lots of ground or get a phone call and rush, hoping to reach the fish while they still bit. They, including Bob, waited and guessed the fishes’ next move. “And yes, it is all a guess,” he said. The fishing wasn’t an all-out blitz, but some good-sized bass were taken. Andrew Yourth from Asbury Park Fishing Club banked three striper to larger than 14 pounds on a Daiwa SP Minnow with a teaser. “This is representative of the average size (of the stripers),” Bob said, and a few larger than 20 pounds were around. Though the hunt went on, “remember last year,” Bob said. “We are blessed with what we have.”

For anglers on the party boat <b>Golden Eagle</b>, striped bass catches were certainly better on Saturday than on Friday, a report on the vessel’s Web site said. No report was posted for Sunday, maybe because of weather. On Saturday’s trip, lots of throwback striped bass bit, but enough keepers did, “and almost keepers,” it said, “to keep things interesting.” Bluefish spiced up the catch, and the high hook landed seven stripers, keeping no more than a limit, and a couple of blues. Gold Ava 47 and 67 jigs caught best on the trip. Friday’s striper fishing was “lean,” the report said. The trip, a Striperthon, left early, and that helped to catch stripers that bit early. All except a couple of the trip’s stripers were hooked before 8:30 a.m., but not enough, the report said. Some of the best readings of the season were marked, and stripers rolled along the surface, and abundant birds worked bait on the waters. The Golden Eagle is fishing 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Saturdays and Sundays. Striperthons are fishing 6 a.m. to 3:30 or 4 p.m. Mondays and Fridays. However, no trip will fish on Thanksgiving. Stay home, enjoy dinner, watch football, and get ready for Friday’s Striperthon, the report said.

<b>***Update, Tuesday, 11/26:***</b> When the captain was heard from at 12 noon today, almost all anglers had limited out on striped bass on the party boat <b>Miss Belmar Princess</b>, an e-mail from the vessel said. The fishing, on the ocean just off Shark River Inlet, was very good, and a 25-pound striper was the pool-winning fish. Quite a few throwbacks were released. On Saturday’s trip, a dozen keeper stripers, a bunch of throwbacks and some bluefish were pasted. The trip began fishing on the ocean to the north, and fished just off the inlet by the end of the outing. No trips fished Sunday and Monday. Wednesday’s trip will be weathered out, but a trip is expected to sail 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Otherwise, the Miss Belmar Princess is fishing for striped bass and blues 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily. 

<b>Brielle</b>

Combo trips for striped bass and blackfish sailed throughout the past week on the <b>Big Kid</b>, Capt. Ken said. The striper fishing was very good, and the blackfishing was slow at the beginning of last week, but became great, like the striper fishing, Friday and Saturday. Some mid-week dates are open for charters, and the Big Kid will fish all winter.

<b>***Update, Tuesday, 11/26:***</b> Sea bass and porgy fishing was okay through the past week on the party boat <b>Jamaica II</b>, Capt. Ryan wrote in an e-mail. The angling was probably best for a charter on Friday who piled up “a decent mess” of sea bass, porgies and ling, he said. Sea bass, “chops and biscuits,” he said, started to migrate deeper. They began to be mixed with ling, and more ling began to be boated than before. That was apparently because trips looked for sea bass deeper than before, where ling swim. Catches included Ron Scott’s 13-pound pollock, the biggest fish aboard Friday. Wes Shourt, who “jumped on with the charter,” Ryan said, hauled in a 6-pound 12-ounce sea bass that day. A trip was slated to blackfish yesterday. Ten-hour trips are scheduled to sail at 7:30 a.m. today and Wednesday for sea bass, porgies and ling. A 12-hour trip is set to run for the same fish at 5 a.m. Friday. A 14-hour trip Sea Bass Marathon is on the books for 3 a.m. Saturday, and space is limited, so call for reservations.

For boaters, fishing for striped bass was best to the north between the channels the past few days, and was pretty good, said Dave from <b>The Reel Seat</b> on Sunday. Earlier last week, boaters to the south, on the ocean off places like Mantoloking and Seaside to Barnegat Inlet, saw more stripers than they caught. Stripers at all those places were jigged and trolled, and to the south were especially trolled. Bluefish were hooked on the boats, but fewer this past week than previously. Surf fishing for stripers was sort of inconsistent. The angling was decent at Island Beach State Park sometimes. Farther north, say from Point Pleasant Beach to Seaside Park, surf casters picked away, but mostly in mornings, and not big numbers. Metal with teasers or small swimming lures like Daiwa SP Minnows were fished in the surf. So were rubber eels on jigheads, like eels from Bill Hurley or Savage. Blackfishing wasn’t so good on the ocean. Boaters picked away, but not like they thought they would. Offshore sea bass fishing was the only other bottom-fishing heard about. The fishing started to pick up. Bluefin tuna ran up and down the beach, from 1 ½ miles off to the west side of the Mudhole. Those who targeted them mostly trolled ballyhoos. A few of the anglers cast plugs or popper lures, and nobody was heard about who landed the fish on them, but enough tuna were around to try casting to them. Anglers trolling for stripers hooked a few of the tuna by mistake. Catch the sale on S&S Spro-style and Squidster bucktails at 25 percent off.  They make good stocking stuffers, and various other items are on sale. The store will be closed on Thanksgiving.

<b>Point Pleasant Beach</b>

No trips fished the past couple of days on the party boat <b>Norma-K III</b>, Capt. Matt wrote in a report on the vessel’s Web site. “(Today’s) weather is looking much better,” he said, and today’s trip was expected to sail. The Norma-K III is fishing for blackfish 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily. On Thanksgiving, a blackfishing trip will run 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Magic Hour Ling Trips are sailing 3 to 9 p.m. every Saturday.

Fishing got into striped bass right away on a trip with <b>Andrea’s Toy Charters</b>, a report on Andrea’s Toy’s Web site said today. The trip fished to the north, landing more than 60, keeping a limit of eight, in 2 hours. Then the anglers blackfished, pulling in six keepers. Next, they wanted to see bluefin tuna that swim close to shore but are notoriously difficult to catch this time of year. For whatever reasons, the tuna rarely jump on a hook. But the anglers saw dozens of 100- to 200-pounders, and cast to them. A dozen of the casts hit the waters 5 feet from the tuna, but none bit. On another trip, winds blew, but one of the anglers was being deployed back to war the next day, so the trip sailed. The boat was motored north, and got into stripers right away. The bass were caught at every stop, and more than 50, including five that were bagged, were reeled in. Then the anglers made a stop for blackfish, “but that was a hack,” the report said. The trip also got a shot at bluefins, and one of the anglers made a perfect cast into the middle of a pod, but none bit. Andrea’s Toy specializes in mixed-bag fishing for greater fun, better chances of hooking up and more variety for dinner.

<b>Seaside Heights</b>

Despite strong wind, a few striped bass were checked in from the surf Sunday, a report on <b>The Dock Outfitters</b>’ Web site said. Stripers were bagged from the beach in previous days, just fewer than before. Earlier last week, the catches were “off the charts,” the report said, from Lavallette to Island Beach State Park. Ava jigs with teasers seemed to grab most, but swimming lures like Daiwa SP Minnows caught, when the fish were close enough to cast the plugs to them. A couple of sizeable bass were clammed, “and a nice, fresh chunk of bunker doesn’t hurt, either,” the report said. Live eels, a striper favorite, could also be fished. Fresh clams, eels and frozen baits were currently stocked. The Dock Outfitters features an extensive supply of bait and tackle, a dock to fish and crab from and boat rentals for fishing and crabbing. Crabbing and boat rentals are available during the warmer months.

<b>Barnegat Light</b>

The <b>Super Chic</b> sailed for striped bass Friday and Saturday, and no boats, except maybe party boats, fished in winds Sunday, Capt. Ted said. Friday’s fishing aboard wasn’t bad, jigging about a dozen keeper stripers and some throwbacks and bluefish, but the bite shut down quickly, by 8:30 a.m. On Saturday’s trip, the angling was slow, picking away at about a half-dozen keeper stripers in the morning, half of them on jigs, half on livelined spots. Stripers were seen later that day, but weren’t “in the mood” to bite, Ted said. The fish schooled quickly under birds. The ocean was 50 or 51 degrees close to shore, and the temp was a couple of degrees higher, a little farther out. The 56-foot boat can accommodate up to 25 anglers on inshore trips and 10 on overnight, offshore trips. The vessel sleeps 10 passengers.

On the <b>Miss Barnegat Light</b>, fishing was slow Friday and was tough Saturday and Sunday, a report on the vessel’s Web site said. Maybe this week’s nor’easter will help? the report asked. On Friday’s trip, plenty of fish were read, but only a handful of keeper striped bass, some throwbacks and a few bluefish were pumped in. On Saturday’s trip, fish were read at times, but only a handful of keeper stripers and one blue were cracked. On Sunday’s trip, fishing wasn’t much different, but only a few throwback stripers and a bluefish came in, and winds gusted, and cold was biting. Still, the boat features a heated cabin and hot beverages to help between drifts. Trips on the Miss Barnegat Light are jigging for stripers and blues at 7 a.m. Fridays through Sundays. But one of the trips will also sail 6 a.m. to 12 noon on Thanksgiving.

<b>Mystic Island</b>

A few striped bass were weighed in from the ocean Friday and Saturday, but fishing for them was slow during the weekend, a report on <b>Scott’s Bait & Tackle</b>’s Web site said. Catches seemed best farther north, so the fish should migrate south, closer to local waters, soon. A Black Friday Holiday Sale will be held Friday to Monday at the store, featuring discounted tackle, including rods and reels, crabbing supplies, clothing and more. Watch a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRa3hzPYP0s" target="_blank">video about the sale</a>.

<b>Brigantine</b>

A 16-pound 36-inch striped bass was weighed in from Brigantine’s surf on Saturday, a report on <b>Riptide Bait & Tackle</b>’s Web site said. That was the only striper reported from the surf in past days, and some anglers still fished the shore Sunday, despite the cold snap and howling wind. But boaters beat the bass, good catches, from the ocean just out of surf-casting range in recent days. A 24-pounder was checked in that was boated off the Brigantine Hotel. Riptide’s annual bounty will be awarded to the angler who checks-in the season’s first striper 43 inches or larger from Brigantine’s surf. A couple of stripers larger than that were already brought to the shop this season from the waters, but the anglers weren’t entered in the contest. The bounty was up to $1,140 on Thursday, according to the last report here. Entry is $5, required 12 hours before catching the fish. The winner takes all the cash. The Riptide Striper Derby, the annual Brigantine surf-fishing contest, is under way until December 23.  When entrants purchase a Brigantine beach-buggy permit, the tournament provides another permit to drive onto the beach along the entire island, instead of only at the cove, south jetty and north end. Prizes are $500, $300 and $150 for first, second and third prizes, respectively. Plus, a monthly $100 prize and a weekly $25 prize are awarded.

<b>Sea Isle City</b>

More than a dozen striped bass to 24 pounds were trolled from the ocean Saturday with Kevin Mauser’s charter, said Capt. Joe Hughes from <b>Jersey Cape Guide Service</b> and <b>Sea Isle Bait & Tackle</b>. Bluefish 10 to 15 pounds were also trolled, and some of the blues were jigged at the end of the trip. The migration of stripers and blues was here, and the fish were mostly on sand eels. But they were sometimes on rainfish and adult bunker. Some of the cleaned fish had bunker in them. A charter was cancelled Sunday because of winds. But Joe knew a boater who fished that day, crushing the catches, in horrendous conditions. Joe’s phone was ringing off the hook for charters, apparently from anglers who saw reports about the fishing. The calls while the fishing was happening were understandable, but Joe wishes he had more open dates and more bluebird days. Mauser booked his trip well ahead, “and chose wisely,” Joe said. Dates are being booked for annual traveling charters to the Florida Keys from Christmas to Easter, fishing mostly on weekends. The trips can be a mini, fish-filled vacation. See <a href="http://www.captainjoehughes.com/page3.html" target="_blank">Jersey Cape’s traveling charters Web page</a>. Keep up with Joe’s fishing on <a href="http://captainjoehughes.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Jersey Cape’s blog</a>.

<b>Cape May</b>

Striped bass fishing broke open, said Capt. Mario from the <b>Down Deep</b>. The fish to 40 pounds and boat limits were nailed. Charters are fishing, and sign up for the <a href=" http://www.downdeepsportfishing.com/ddsf/76-2/" target="_blank">Short Notice List</a> on Down Deep’s Web site to be kept informed about open-boat trips for blackfish and sea bass, including in winter.

A trip for striped bass Saturday scored okay on the ocean on trolled Stretch plugs on the <b>Heavy Hitter</b>, Capt. George said. The anglers, Kevin Driscoll’s party, didn’t limit out, but the fish they bagged were big, from 25 pounds to a 40-pounder, and other stripers were missed, and a couple of 12-pound bluefish were landed. Boaters were trolling big stripers on the ocean. A striper trip on the Heavy Hitter was weathered out on Sunday. Trips aboard are also available for blackfish and sea bass, and George heard nothing about either fishing in past days. Telephone if interested in any of this fishing.

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