It's beginning to look a lot like rockfish for Christmas. Now that we're officially into winter, Striper catches have still been as good as, if not better than they've been all fall. Seems like those fish that were taking their time moving down the Jersey coast are finally filtering into Delaware Bay. Fishing pressure has been light, due to Holiday obligations for many anglers, but those who ventured out in the last few days were rewarded with some great action. Yesterday morning, Captain Carey Evans called me from the Grizzly, already on his way home. He had his limit of 20 fish by 9:30 am.

He said the bite was on fire during the ebb tide at Overfalls, and there were hardly any other boats around. The bass weren't concentrated in just one spot, and Carey mentioned they made long drifts over the shoals. There must have been plenty of stripers in the area. Most of the fish ate live spot, but others fell for eels as well. Carey told me they released some nice ones too. The last one they let go weighed 26 pounds. The day before, Tuesday, Captain Chet's bassers on the Lil' Angler brought back 10 quality rock in the 15 to 20 pound range. Hale Bennett, Ashley Farren and Captain Dave Potter trolled Stretch 25 plugs at Overfalls for their limit of linesiders. The largest was Ashley's 23.6 pound trophy.

The majority of stripers caught in recent days have been keeper sized. Last week, there were many sub legal sized bass around, and normally, there are a lot of resident shorts this time of year. But it's likely the larger fish are part of the group still migrating through. In addition to live baits and trolled plugs, these fish respond well to bucktail jigs. Adding wiggle to the lures makes them even more attractive. Threading on a Skippyfish, Gulp! Sinking Minnow or Culprit worm does the trick. There should be fine striper fishing into the New Year. Tautog action remained good as blackfish stage on wrecks at the Bay mouth. On an early week trip, Captain Pete on Top Fin had a regular group that took home over 50 tog. Captain Carey's guys on the Grizzly also had 50 plus keepers that same day.

Best wishes for a Fishy Christmas!