<b>Fortescue</b>

The party boat <b>Salt Talk</b> sailed for striped bass Saturday, but only throwbacks bit, Capt. Howard said. Waters were 60 degrees or warm, and an out-of-season summer flounder and some skates or junk fish also chomped. Howard didn’t know whether weakfish and kingfish still schooled the bay that did before. Trips aboard will keep after stripers, and the migration of larger ones could start to be caught any time. The trips mostly fish with chunks of bunker, and this trip did. But eels are carried aboard, if the bass become willing to hit them. They don’t always. Open-boat trips for stripers are slated daily when no charter is booked, but might be more likely to fish around weekends, like Fridays through Sundays or so, and on holidays this time of year. Enough anglers to sail are more likely to show up then. Anglers can telephone to confirm. Charters are booked to fish for stripers this Saturday and Sunday, though.

<b>Cape May</b>

<b>Fins and Feathers Outfitters</b> will sail for striped bass on the bay this season, Capt. Jim said. Duck hunting will also get underway on the bay, and Fins and Feathers offers a variety of outdoor adventures, including duck hunting. Anglers can even enjoy a combo of striper fishing and duck hunting over a series of days on the bay. Waters might’ve been somewhat warm for the bay’s striper fishing, or the season might’ve been somewhat early. But the catches could begin any moment. A friend kept picking stripers from the surf at Townsend’s Inlet. Sea duck season is currently open. Drake season will be opened for about 1 ½ weeks soon this month, and will be opened again in part of December and January. Fins and Feathers also offers salmon and steelhead fishing on upstate New York’s Salmon River from Jim’s lodge, and guided trout fly fishing on Pennsylvania’s streams like the Yellow Breeches.

The season’s first striped bass fishing was kicked off Saturday on the <b>Heavy Hitter</b> on the bay, Capt. George said. But the fishing, with Joe Schwartz’s group, was slow, and only two throwbacks to 24 inches, a dozen sharks, and other junk fish bit. So George cancelled trips Sunday and Monday for stripers. Last year, trips aboard started catching stripers this coming weekend for the season on the bay. The angling was mostly good aboard last fall. Striper fishing was inconsistent at Cape May Rips last year. Boaters would run into the fish on a trip, but couldn’t really depend on finding them again. So George stuck with the bay’s fishing, using chunks of bunker for bait. Stripers used to be hooked on the ocean, like off Hereford Inlet on clams or while trolling. But that angling never turned on in recent years. Still, that could all change, and the Heavy Hitter will sail wherever the fish are biting. Maybe south winds turned off fish in past days, like can happen. Trips that tried blackfishing were heard about that couldn’t get the tautog to bite on the ocean during the weekend. Yet the boaters landed lots before. South winds cause upwellings near the coast that cool waters. Or maybe stripers were yet to migrate to Cape May substantially. George heard about boat trips that bailed stripers from the northern half of the state. He heard about surf fishing for stripers at Wildwood Crest, just north of Cape May, that caught a bunch on some days and not on others. Sea bass season was opened Friday, and charters for them on the ocean are also available. Weather was beautiful Saturday on the striper trip, after the storm Friday. Sunday was windy, but could’ve been fished. Forecasts for Monday looked breezy but fishable.

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