ARCTEKJim

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 BY AL RISTORI

Star-Ledger Staff
It seemed to take forever for it to happen, and even some party boat skippers gave up on a fall striped bass run, but there has been no reason to complain about what has been going on since the middle of last week.
The appearance of herring has brought in stripers of all sizes that are feeding with abandon. Shrewsbury Rocks has been a hot spot, but Capt. Rob Semkewyc of the Sea Hunter from Atlantic Highlands has been doing just as well between the channels., and Capt. Frank Cresitelli said there was bird life on both sides of Ambrose Channel yesterday. Joe Kennedy, of Flemington, jigged a 32-pounder there.
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Chris Cowan of Sterling joined me and Capt. Russ Binns of Toms River yesterday morning on the latter's Mar-Lin, along with Rich Mikelsen of Brick as we caught at least 150 stripers over a wide area around the Rocks. It was all shorts at first, but larger bass were located later in the morning, when there was no problem catching a limit and releasing others over 28 inches. To top it off, the weather was mild and fairly calm until the shift to a northwest wind in the afternoon. All in all, most unusual mid-December surface action and weather.
While there's lots of bird play, stripers aren't blasting the surface under them. Instead, there are scattered bass swirling after herring -- though I've been able to raise them with blind casts in the area where birds have been picking up herring chased to the surface. Even the largest Yo-Zuri Surface Cruiser doesn't discourage the small bass, though I caught then up to 35 inches yesterday. Jigging is more consistently effective, and everything seems to produce -- though heavy Tsunami shad seemed to work best with many strikes coming right under the boat at the end of the retrieve.
Capt. Mike Bogan fished the same area with the Gambler from Point Pleasant and reported big Krocodiles produced 50 percent keepers, including five or six in the 18-to-25-pound class plus a 30-pounder by Carlo Martini of Bradley Gardens.
Capt. Mike Copeman had a hot bite of stripers Friday at the Rocks, while both trolling and jigging with his Renegade from Point Pleasant. That was duplicated Saturday even with a lot more boats on the scene. Charlie Carroll from Phillipsburg, Sean Torpey of New Providence, Shawn Mullen from Livingston, Eugene Yankovsky from Metuchen, Reid Bothur of Bridgewater and I were along on the open trip, and the bird action was right on schedule. With a brisk northwest wind coming up, it was difficult to stay with the fish, so Copeman decided to troll shad rigs to locate bass before jigging.
Stripers were swirling as they chased herring to the surface, and our best action was on a Polish Shad plug trolled on the surface down the middle. The largest bass, 40 inches, was caught on that plug. Jigging was actually difficult that day as the bass were so high in the water column, but we also picked away in that fashion with a good showing of 15-to-20-pounders. Carroll, an American Littoral Society tagger, was busy placing tags in bass all day.
The first striper I caught casting the Surface Cruiser Sunday morning was a tagged fish. I added 14 more releases on the pencil popper from Ray Flagiello's 25-foot Edge Water out of Highlands, while he, Capt. Hans Kaspersetz of Weehawken, and Steve Cea from Keyport did even better on shads and metal.
Additional excitement was provided by the sighting of "50-pound stripers" on the surface, but those huge splashes were being created by bluefin tuna that Copeman estimated at close to giant size. There were rumors that jiggers and blackfishermen reeling in fish were stripped by those tuna. Copeman might have had one hooked briefly on wire and also had an unusual occurrence when one of his anglers caught a doubleheader of bass on a Polish Shad. He'll be looking for those tuna as well as bass on open trips by reservation at $80 from Thursday to Saturday. Call (732) 718-8339.

TOP CATCHES
At Brielle, Capt. Howard Bogan Jr. reports weekend offshore wreck trips on his Jamaica were very good for sea bass up to 7 pounds plus some jumbo porgies. Sunday's trip was best, especially for the scup. Top catches over the weekend included a 25-pound pollock plus a limit of sea bass and 18 porgies by Johnny Morin from Fairview. Bill Elmar from Forked River bagged 23 sea bass up to 6 pounds and six porgies. Trips will be run Friday an Saturday at 1 a.m. Call (732) 528-5014 for reservations.

Capt. Joe Bogan had fine Mud Hole wrecks trips over the weekend on Jamaica II. Bill Conarty of Dunellen caught 59 ling and 16 sea bass. William Moore from Trenton had 61 ling and 12 bass. Ed Stames of Lincroft totaled 46 ling and 19 bass. The pool went to Robin Coors of Philadelphia with a 26-pound pollock in addition to 54 ling and 10 bass. Wednesday's trip produced 58 ling to 5 pounds for John Bradley of Branchville, who added 14 bass and five white hake. Omar Richardson of Cherry Hill had 61 ling and 10 bass, while Nick Ward of Brick totaled 55 ling to 6 3/4 pounds.
At Atlantic Highlands, Capt. Ron Santee reports lots of bird action and hot jigging from his Fishermen. There weren't as many keepers yesterday as on Sunday, but Joe Santos Stephano of Bath, Pa., boated a 26 3/4-pounder.
Capt. Don Hager said Saturday's blackfishing from his Sea Fox was very good after a couple of slower days. Steve and Angie Spohr from Edison each caught limits. Wesley Shourt of Edison had an 11 1/2-pound tog in his limit catch, but that trophy catch fell short of the pool when Chris Wilson of Milford decked a 13 1/4-pounder while limiting.
Capt. Scotty Hiliard fished his Prowler 5 at 17 Fathoms the last two days. About 50 big blackfish were boated Sunday when Phillip Rowe took the pool with a 12-pounder. Yesterday was too placid for good fishing there, with little wind and current, but Raul De la Fridaof Elizabeth boated a 16-pound cod.
At Belmar, the Golden Eagle fished wrecks Sunday for a mixed bag of sea bass, blackfish, jumbo porgies, and small cod.
Christopher De Foe finished up his season with No Shame on Sunday with lots of jigging action that produced five legal bass before another was trolled by Gregory De Foe of Neptune City, David Backman of Shark River Hills, and Bob McCloskey from Belmar.

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