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While I know that this isn’t the same fish as last week, they are certainly getting bigger and more aggressive in their feeding habits. That is not to say there is a pick from the Staten Island surf by any means. The reports are of a slow but decent bite which is typical of late March/April. Any hopes that the mild winter would bring the cows in early are dimming fast. That said it is certainly worth getting off the couch and out on the sand…if not the kayak or boat.

For those working the channels things have been a little slow. Kayaks have found them as have boats, but they seem to spend more time looking than fishing. When they do get ’em, they aren’t much bigger than those were seeing from the surf.

As for baits, the menu on the night in question was clam and bunker. Bunker won out overall. I did mention last week that there were rumors of blues. A highly credible source, one EliasV, had them to 10 lbs in JBay last week on mackerel. (Which were also running thick in Jbay.) In my book, that’s enough to run wire on bunker hooks. We had hits that felt like blues, but nothing was landed that would prove it. Big white Hogys worked over the bars did little other than work out shoulder muscles, but trolled on an umbrella from a boat or on a jig from a kayak might just do the trick.

For the coming week…Rest up Monday, Tuesday, maybe even Wednesday because if your schedule allows you to…You should be fishing non-stop through the weekend. Historically, this has been the first and best time to see how well your gear stands up to those 20 lbs class fish. This way you’ll be ready when the cows do come home. Just a hunch, but I think Staten Island will see multiple 40’s and even a 50 from the surf this year. With fish at 10-20 now, they’ll only get bigger…If you let them. A little CnR now, might mean a PB-fish later in the year