The captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association have been watching the striped bass migration slowly work its way south to the Long Beach Island area. In the past several days there has been an outstanding bite just outside Barnegat Inlet along with some serious action on the Harvey Cedars Lumps.
There have been some large pods of bunker north of Long Beach Island, some of which have been holding stripers up to 40-pounds. As a result, snag and drop with live bunker has been producing big fish. In addition, there has been some outstanding action with live spots in the ocean as the bass just cannot seem to leave them alone. When the schools of bait do not have fish under them, trolling bunker spoons has been the ticket to success.
There have been some decent catches of bass in Little Egg Inlet, the bay waters inside Holgate to the north of the inlet, and into Great Bay. The white water action in the inlet is starting to break open with both clams and bunker heads producing some nice fish. In the bay water the live spot have been producing fish in the daylight hours while live eels at night have been picking off the fish. There have been reports of bass to 40-pounds caught in the bay on eels.
It appears that the best action for striped bass this fall is just about ready to happen in the Beach Haven area. This is a good time to look into the availability of a charter on one of the boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association which are located in the middle of the action. Complete information on the Association can be found at www.BHCFA.org