This is the year's final Delaware Bay Report!

<b>Port Elizabeth</b>

One customer boated striped bass off Money Island, said Sharon from <b>The Girls Place Bait & Tackle</b>. The angler keeps his boat there, and came to the store to buy bunker for bait for the angling a second time when he reported that. Fresh bunker have been difficult to obtain from the bay, and Sharon’s been driving north to Mantoloking to pick up the menhaden. The supplier there said business increased for striper fishing in the Long Beach Island area on the ocean. More of the southern migration seemed to arrive there in the past week. Sharon heard about no striper catches off South Jersey on the ocean, really. She had customers who were trying for the fish. Customers bought green crabs for blackfishing. The crabs are stocked, and fresh bunker are carried when available if demand is likely. Fresh clams were difficult to find, and frozen clams in pints and quarts were stocked more often than fresh. The store is usually open until mid-December before being closed for a winter break, but Sharon will see. It’ll be open this week, for sure. Local marinas pretty much closed for the season, and they usually close after Thanksgiving weekend. The Girls Place, located on Route 47, just after Route 55 ends, carries a large supply of bait and tackle, and is the long, one-story, yellow building on the right. It’s on the way to the bay. <b>***Update, Tuesday, 12/11:***</b> The store was closed beginning yesterday through winter, Sharon said. The shop will probably be reopened in mid-March, like usual. Anglers should be fishing for white perch on brackish rivers by then, and Sharon and crew should be getting the shop ready for the fishing season at that time. Girls Place is usually closed beginning during the week before Christmas. But business screeched to a halt in rough weather, so the doors were closed a week early. Almost every weekend had rough weather, and that ended interest in fishing early.

<b>Fortescue</b>

A trip fished for striped bass Friday on the bay on the <b>Salt Talk</b>, Capt. Howard said. But nothing was hooked, and he hauled the boat from the water for winter on Saturday. The water surface was 44 degrees near Miah Maul on the trip, and stripers are rarely caught in water below 44. Howard told the anglers he preferred not to run the trip, but they wanted to go. He could get no fresh bunker for bait, and the bunker he had were four days old. The trip fished that and the trip also trolled Stretch plugs. The Salt Talk used to be a Fortescue party boat. Howard sold that vessel, and the new Salt Talk is a charter boat for up to four passengers.

<b>Cape May</b>

Surf-fishing for stripers was a little slow, banking a few throwbacks and a couple of keepers, said Nick from <b>Hands Too Bait & Tackle</b>. Customers fish the surf from the ocean to Delaware Bay, because Cape May is located at the confluence. Nick had nothing to report about boating for stripers on the bay. Most stripers were boated on the ocean at inshore lumps like off Sea Isle City and Avalon. Blackfish still seemed to bite in the inshore ocean at wrecks and at spots like Cape May and Wildwood reefs. When trips could push farther from shore on the ocean, some sailed for sea bass, tying into them well in 120 feet of water. Sea bass were migrating offshore to spend winter. Green crabs, fresh clams in the shell and shucked and eels were stocked. Nick hoped to stock fresh bunker last weekend, he said before then.

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