Believe it or not, the backwater striped bass season opens on Sunday. It’s understandable if the March 1 opener snuck up on you. With such a frigid February, it may be a little bit before we are looking for the first striper of spring. Especially with scenes like the one below from Absecon Bay Sportsman that shows some frozen back bay water from Wednesday of this week.
Nevertheless, fishing the opening day of striper season is a tradition for some anglers, regardless of the weather, so if you’re attitude is, “Forget the forecast,” your best bet for finding stripers this Sunday will be the warmest waters around. This could be a power-plant warm-water outflow or a shallow mud flat deep in the backwaters. Without question, the best striped bass action happening this weekend will be taking place at the Berkeley Striper Club Fishing Flea Market in Toms River. Custom plug builders will be selling their wares and other vendors will be offering bargains on assorted fishing gear.
While striper season opens on March 1, blackfish season closes. The last couple days of the tog season may not be worth the effort as the frigid weather shut down the tog bit a few weeks ago.
The fishing report this week isn’t all doom and gloom, however. The ice fishing is pretty darn good in New Jersey right now. Fishermen iced a good variety of species this week from panfish to pike.
Brayden at Efingers Sporting Goods said the big news this week were the lakers taken through the ice at Round Valley Reservoir. Fishermen have found solid ice over the deepwater laker haunts and have caught a few by tipping jigs with shiners or chunks of sucker. Tip-ups baited with live bait have not been productive with the lakers.
Lake Hopatcong is producing a solid panfish bite in the coves. Fishermen are targeting perch, crappie and bluegills with small jigs tipped with waxworms or spikes. A couple anglers even connected with some hybrid stripers on Hopatcong this week.
Though the Swartswood walleye remain elusive, pickerel are picking up the slack and providing some fun action.
Spruce Run is producing some pike action. Pike to 28 inches have been iced. Fishermen targeting the coves and 8 to 12 feet of water on Swartswood are also loading up on crappie.
Best Bets for the Weekend
With February coming to an end this weekend (good riddance!) the ice-fishing season will be ending sooner rather than later. If you haven’t yet hit the ice this weekend, don’t delay. Pick your target species and get out there. Just be sure to check and double-check the ice thickness and never go alone.
If you’d rather stay warm and talk about fishing/buy fishing gear, hit the Berkeley Striper Club Flea Market on Sunday or the Greater Philadelphia Fishing and Outdoors Show between Thursday and Sunday. Also, if you’re interested in learning about fishing one of the most unique striper fishing locations in the Northeast, I will be giving a talk at the Reel Seat in Brielle on Thursday at 6:00 p.m. Stop by and say hello.