Saw this report from a charter boat thyat runs out of Raritan Bay. The bass must still be around and chewing on bunker. Not sure if they're making bait with adult or peanut bunker but it seems to be the bait of choice. Striped bass do summer over in the deeper channels that run the New York Bight. While they might be up on top it reads like send a bunker down and reel a striper up. All overs to boot.
While the angler above is happy with his catch in an undisclosed location the bass's wound is a little upsetting. It looks like it came from a bang stick, or maybe even a gaff, but I am not assuming anything. There are cormorants and other birds that dive for bait, maybe not in 30-50 feet of water, but hey you never know. The ASMFC is managing, or claiming they are managing, striped bass stocks to reduce F, which stands for mortality. The emergency action reducing the slot size to 28-32" hopefully protects the 2015 year class of fish, the last good recruitment year. All of this is being done, or talking about getting it done, to rebuild the striped bass by the target year 2029.
Keep em' wet, or as wet as you can please.