Yes the bass are here and Blues too. As the water warms up they are starting to feed on the massive amounts of candy bar sized bunkers in the rivers and the bay. I have reports of fish being taken up in Red Bank to 30" Ray Sanborn of Rumson had them at Stavola Point at dawn and dusk. He was using rattle trap plugs. Also "in the back" by Keyport and the Perth Amboy some reports of BIGGER keeper bass and bluefish being taken in the evening on bunker chunks. Nice size bluefish are moving up the beaches and into the back bay by Leonardo to Keyport and beyond.

Capt Rich on the Just One More Reports more of the same... "The bass are here! An open boat trip on Thursday with: Dave, Jim, Jim, John, Bob, and Nick produced stripers to 30". The water temp. was about 51 degrees and probably colder on the bottom. The fishing was a little slow, but with all this nice weather, it will be big numbers of bass again real soon. Friday, we had out the nearly famous, "Flounder Bob Abel" charter. Flounder were landed to 15.5" and it was a beautiful day, except for the skates, they are everywhere. We fished a couple of spots around the Pier and went out to Roamer Shoal Light. The flounder will be stacking up shortly to leave and the fishing will only get better. "

Still bacteria causing bunker fish kill

There are quite a few bunkers way up in the reaches of the rivers and some of them seem to be diseased. You can see them on the flats either dead and or being eaten by giant seagulls. They also are swimming eradictly in small circles on top of the water. The DEP has identified the bacterial Vibrio oradalii and confirmed that the bunker population has contracted it. There are however plenty of healthy bunker to be had. Bahrs Landing should have plenty available for bait sales this weekend. They say that it does not pose a threat to humans. It has been going on since last fall and I still saw a dozen or so of them beached in Oceanport this morning at low tide. The seagull's all you can eat bunker buffet is making a mess of the docks up river!