Easter Sunday Raritan Bay Striper Fishing

[Skolmann]

Jason & I fished on a NS yesterday morning. Things started off on the slow side has we searched the spots that held fish the days prior but all came up dry. Finally received a call of where a bite was & off we went. Upon arriving on station, we were greeted with a large area of bird life and acres of bass blowing up on top. Everyone expect me was able to hook-up/land a bass even though I was using the same bait (bite was on bigger swim shad baits). When I couldn’t connect, I figured that I try a metal lip plug since bass were blowing up all over. Couldn’t get so much as swirl (neither could anyone else who switched to the same style bait) as the bass were so keyed in on bunker (which by the way, were not in big pods swimming in very large loose groups). The action faded some and we headed to another area where there was some additional action. By now I was working a flutter spoon, which although provided me action I couldn’t;’t stay connected (missing my first bite and dropping fish on my 2 subsequent bites. By now Jason had 2 or 3 bass under his belt (he ended up with 4 or 5) as well as losing what must have been a very big bass as he lost it when the split ring (from spoon to hook) on a flutter spoon was torqued open. Back to search mode and after another hour we got into some more fish where I was finally able to catch a pair. The first being a bass of @34”s and the second a bass of 41.5” and #27 (both released and swam off strong). Both caught on a 8” chartreuse NLBN.