The Fishing Line: Stripers are here

The stripers are here and that’s good news. Reports have them smaller in size than we usually get, but some larger fish are in the upper Delaware Bay. If they can find bait, they should be moving in closer.
Sterling Harbor reports that striped bass fishing turned on after the Northeast blow. Fish are being caught while chunking bunker in the Delaware Bay and while drifting live bait or bucktails in the Cape May rips.
Frank Hennigan of Coatesville, Pa., caught a 40-pound striper while drifting a live eel in the rips and Scott Wheeler had his limit of keeper stripers on his boat “Big Bone” out of Wildwood, while drifting the rips using white bucktails with chartreuse twister tails.
Scott Pierce of the Duct Work out of Cape May reported a 44-pound striper caught while chunking bunker in the Delaware Bay.
Tog fishing remains excellent around the bridges and jetties. In the surf, the first blitzes of chopper bluefish in the 10-15-pound range have started and some Stripers were mixed in under the bluefish.
After all the rain and high winds from the week before, water temperatures dropped into the high 50s to 60 degrees and Captain Ray had pretty decent striper fishing for fly and plug anglers.
Ray had one trip along the Cape May beachfront where 21 small stripers were taken on chartreuse deceiver flies using sinking line. The fish were 18 to 22 inches and all released.
Action in the back-bay was just as good with one afternoon trip producing 22 stripers caught on the fly. These were caught on chartreuse deceiver flies on intermediate line and were up to 23 inches.
With the water cooling down, tide is more important than time a day as the fish feel the urge to fatten up for winter. Still, Ray says, early mornings and evenings are always prime times.
Ray did have one striper this week with a Littoral fish tag in it. He’s waiting to find out where it was first caught and when.
Last week, this column came out in favor of a saltwater license for NJ. Next week I’ll analyze and report the comments received. As you may know, the RFA is opposed and maintains that funding is possible through other means.
Calendar: The High Tides Memorial Striper Tournament to benefit Brendan Borek Memorial Pediatric Cancer Fund presented by Local 1743 Wildwood Carpenters’ Union, is Nov. 7. Weigh-in at Hinch Marina, Ocean Drive, Cape May, 3-5 p.m. followed by dinner and cash bar, Cape May Marlin and Tuna Club, Lafayette Street. Entry is $50 per angler and includes dinner. Enter online at hightidesstrippertournament.com or call 609-729-0399.
The NJ DEP Division of Fish and Wildlife announced a limited one-week harvest season of the oyster beds known as Fitney Bit and Oysterbed Point, located at the mouth of the Mullica River, Nov. 9, to Nov. 14, sunrise to sunset. The harvest is open to all commercial and recreational shellfish license holders.
For more information including charts of the open and no-harvest areas, visit http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/news/2009/oysterharvest09.htm on the division’s website.
All photos submitted appear online at SeeMyBigFish.com. Be sure to send your fish stories to cmiller@cmcherald.com. This column appears first online at capemaycountyherald.com