Jim Hutchinson Jr.'s Thursday video forecast for The Fisherman opens with a line he says still surprises him given how deep into spring the calendar has run.
"There's a lot going on this weekend in our region," Hutchinson said from his Pamis, New Jersey studio on May 14. "The headlines, of course, tell the tale - probably both."
The top story is the striper bite, which the magazine's digital weekly edition led with on Tuesday. Cover angler Robert Fort holds up a fly-caught striped bass under a deck that reads simply: bright blue sky and they still bite.
"They being, of course, striped bass, and we're loaded with them from one tip of the Garden State to the other," Hutchinson said. "Sandy Hook to Cape May, inside both bays. It is on fire."
His own deck line under the cover is just as direct - "The epic spring run continues" - and he is openly hoping for a repeat of recent seasons when the May run held in pockets all the way into July.
"It doesn't seem like it's slowing up," he said. "Heaven forbid we should get out of striped bass. Hopefully it's going to continue until July, just like in years past."
The second front-page item is the Friday reopening. Black sea bass season in New Jersey returns on May 15, joining what is already a busy bottom fishing calendar. Hutchinson's South Jersey field editor Anthony Calfano added a bluefish note out of Hands Too Bait and Tackle in Cape May - blues are inside the cove and at the north end of town.
"This Saturday is a good opportunity," Hutchinson said, with his own boat already on the fluke list.
The weekend's other Jersey Shore anchor is the grand reopening of Tackle World at 461 Route 17 South in Pamis - a 17,000-square-foot relocation of the old Jigging World footprint, with reels spooled in-store on Quantum Cabo purchases, 20 percent off van Staal models, a buy-three-get-one-free deal on Rapala X-Rap Long Casts, and golden ticket prize draws across the day.
Weather is finally cooperating. Hutchinson noted New Gretina's forecast has nighttime temperatures clearing the 40s and Saturday looking tournament-friendly with lighter morning winds on the incoming tide.
Clam, not plug, is the bait of the week for the surf. The Merchantville Fishing Club took out the 44th annual Carl Burot surf tournament in Sea Isle on jumbo stripers eating surf clam.
"Clams did it with the jumbo stripers to win the tournament for Merchantville," Hutchinson said. "They also got some black drum as well."
He also pointed surfcasters from Seaside Island Beach State Park down to Cape May toward fresh clam as a tandem rig opportunity - the same bait that takes spring bass also takes black drum on the same drop.
"We should have a really solid striper bite, not just May Madness, but I think all the way through June, perhaps even into July 4th," he said. "If you think about 20 years ago, we had an outstanding striper bite in the spring all the way into July, and I'm kind of thinking that's the way it's shaping up right now."
For New Jersey readers, the Friday-to-Sunday list is short and crowded: Valhalla on the bay, sea bass back on the bottom, clams in the wash, and a new flagship tackle store opening its doors at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
