Ted Imfeld News Today

Headboats sneak out for blackfish and cod when conditions permit, while other anglers pursue white perch, crappie and freshwater bass.

The blackfish bite was decent prior to the cold front, but high winds, highs seas and high flows in the rivers have hindered fishing participation.

A few stripers linger in the surf, the ponds are fishing well for bass, perch and crappie, and tautog fishing was productive prior to the windy conditions.

The blackfish bite has been decent, with fewer, but bigger fish being landed; still, the best fishing this week is in the freshwater ponds and reservoirs.

Prior to the storm, stripers took sand-eel imitations in the surf, double-digit tog were chewing, and bluefin tuna were caught on the troll.

Stripers take diamond jigs and flutter spoons while the surf bite slows, tog fishing is hit or miss out front, and bluefin tuna smash ballyhoo and big paddletails in close.

Tog fishing has been hit or miss and the surf has scattered striper action as bass move slightly offshore, where bluefin tuna are taking trolled ballyhoos.

Stripers push south through the surf of IBSP, tautog fishing has been inconsistent, and bluefin tuna take paddletails and trolled ballyhoo close to the beaches.

Big bass harass bunker schools out front, yellowfin and bluefin tuna take chunk baits in the canyons, and sea bass, porgies and winter flounder chew on bottom.

Forty-inch class stripers gorge on sand eels and bunker on the beaches, the blackfish bite improves off the jetties, and sea bass fishing remains decent.