After a little lull in striped bass catching, action perked up as more migratory fish from up north moved into the area. It seems like fresh groups push into the Bay for a few days, then swim on to be replaced by more. The new fish have been carrying lots of hitchhiking sea lice. Most bass now are of a smaller size class than earlier in the run. Many are shy of minimum length, and a majority of keepers are in the low 30 inch range. Although, an occaisonal lunker still hits the dock. Ron Mistretta muscled in a 35.1 pounder at 8 Buoy on the Katy Did. Kory Moore's first striper was a good one, weighing in at 33.3 pounds. With water temps near 50 degrees and flirting with the 40's, rockfish have been responding well to bucktail jigs.

You'd think with colder water, fish would prefer a slower moving live bait, but this time of year, artificials get a lot of attention. Dave Walker, Brent Wiest and Chris Van had 30 rock while tossing bucktail jigs tipped with Skippyfish at Overfalls and 8B Buoy on Tuesday. They managed to cull their limit of 6 keepers. Bass fishermen aboard Katy Did Monday bucktailed 13 keepers. However, eels and spot still get bit, especially in deeper water. Captain Ted's bassers aboard the Angler had all keeper sized stripers up to 25 pounds while drifting eels in The Valley yesterday, December 14th. Trollers towing Stretch 25 plugs on the 12 foot hill at Overfalls continued to capture fish too. With moderate weather, striper fishing should hold up through the end of the month. The tautog bite has been good too. Blackfish have been staging on wrecks at the Bay mouth.

Toggers aboard the Angler did well Tuesday, returning with 70 chunky keepers. Captain Pete anchored Top Fin at the Wall Tuesday for nice batch of tog, including Bruce Min's 9.62 pounder. Pete worked a wreck Wednesday for 40 more keepers.