Winter blues aren’t bad if you are a bluefin tuna angler. The offshore crews are still scoring quality fish. They are getting fish as far as 20 miles and as close as 10 miles. Crews are scoring limits finding schools of fish. It’s an exciting season for these folks this late in the year.

The striped bass are still on the move and off our coast. Anglers are finding some migratory striped bass around the inlets. The hard part is finding schools offshore within the three-mile Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ). Jersey has some good action for the boats. The tuna are on bunker and striped bass schools too in many cases.

The local fishing has moved to crappie, perch and looking for more perch. Every little bridge was covered with people yesterday around my area. A lot of folks were fishing before heading into work. Jayme at Bowers Bayside Bait and Tackle rentals said anglers are mostly catching white perch and small striped bass. The fishing access at the jetty is opening up more as that project comes to a close.

Catfish are still hitting around the area. An angler buddy of mine likes to use shrimp this time of year for catfish, and even gets a few bass here and there on the catfish rig using shrimp. I mean it makes sense — everyone likes shrimp and no one wants to chase a meal in winter. Fish never stop eating, they just take a lot longer in the winter. Sometimes you practically have to hit them on the head with your gear and bait to get a response. Even then it is tough.

The Indian River Inlet projects are still in full force. Anglers are still catching tautog and trying to not get on top of one another. It will be nice when all the improvements are completed and it reopens. Some small striped bass and some keeper bass are around the inlet. The back bays are seeing some action as well. Fishing the rips of moving water off points along the shore works well to find striped bass around the inland bays.

Kathi Cooper was at Kitts Hummock beach over the weekend and posted a video of the most amazing murmation. It was like what we saw back in the ’70s when we were kids. The flock of birds was massive and looked like a tornado of black water on the bay.

The dredge project in the Indian River down in Sussex County looks so inadequate when you look at it from a drone — just a tiny sliver of a channel cut through a lot of mucky muck. That whole area needs to be dredged out. There’s no way that channel lasts more than a season, if that.

The sheet wall project at Bowers Beach is looking good and is almost complete. Also, according to Jayme, DNREC dropped more concrete material on site 8. The work on the south side of Bowers Beach will start soon too. There’s a lot going on at Bowers Beach.

The holidays are approaching and it will not be long to see what Santa put in your stocking. Pro tip: I buy stuff I want for fishing, wrap it up and put my name on it, then act surprised. The bonus is so are the people who didn’t know they were giving me those items. It works great on parents. They will spend all day trying to remember when they bought that for you. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. If you really want to spice it up, put names on it of people no one in the family gets anything from. What, you don’t talk to our fifth, seven times removed cousin Billy? Shame on you.

Gift certificates that an angler can use for bait at the shop for their trips are great gifts. Bait can get expensive and the shops could use the money this time of year. It is a win to support both. For your offshore anglers, Fishbites has new larger bait sizes for larger fish made with the long-lasting formulas. EZ-Pro formulas shrimp, crab or squid to name a few. They are great for bottom fishing the deep offshore waters.