The first keeper striped bass of the year was officially weighed in on opening day March 1, at the Absecon Bay Sportsman, Absecon. Owner Dave Showell actually checked in three keepers that took the store’s top three contest prizes for the first stripers caught for the year. Nick Nastasi waltzed into the store with an 18.2-pound linesider that was caught around 10:30 a.m. on March 1, with the bass taken somewhere in the Waretown area. The second bass to come in was caught by Eric Aubrey and it weighed 19 pounds. Aubrey stated that the bass was tricked by a weightless black Sluggo cast off a sodbank in the Great Egg Harbor area around 9 p.m. Jeff Normant rounded out third place honors with a more expected size bass of 29 inches and 8.5 pounds that was caught in waters “very shallow and way, way in the back” according to Normant. “That one was the typical size bass I expected to see weighed in for the early part of our tournament,” said Showell. ” I was surprised to see those other two of 18 and 19 pounds. That’s really good to see.”
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