Striper season is off, and they're running

Striped bass season officially opened at 12:00 a.m. Thursday morning. Less than half-an-hour later, I spied my first potential keeper. The 30-inch fish was silently patrolling a thin ribbon of shadow along a Peconic Bay bulkhead, gently opening its mouth now and again to inhale small grass shrimp and nickel-sized calico crabs.

With the night sky bright, I flipped a small, white plastic grub toward a point I thought would lead the fish perfectly. Unfortunately, my timing was off and the lure dropped with a "splat" just inches from the fish's nose. With an abrupt slap of its tail, my quarry turned away and powered into the darkness.

Although my first fresh striped bass dinner of the new year may still be on the swim, other local anglers have already had better luck.

"We've been playing catch and release with stripers for over two weeks in the waters of Jamaica Bay," said Tony Santella, skipper of Sheepshead Bay's Marilyn Jean Charters. "Most have fallen to bunker baits, and a few have brushed the 20-pound range."

In the waters of Long Island Sound, stripers have picked at both bunker chunks and clams around City Island, inside Little Neck and Manhasset Bays, and further east, inside Mount Sinai and Port Jefferson harbors. Most of the fun in these locations has centered around shorts, with a few fish stretching the tape barely past the 28-inch legal minimum.

Along the South Shore, some very good bass action has already set up in eastern Moriches Bay and the Quogue Canal. Here, too, schoolies have dominated the action, but a few keepers have fallen to soft-plastic swimming shads.

Generally speaking, striper action spreads from west to east each spring. Often, the earliest catches are best in the back bays, back harbor flats and small tidal creeks where shallow waters warm quickly.

With a few more days of fair temperatures, it is likely the fishing will improve in a hurry. If you haven't gotten to it already, now is the time to make sure your reel's drag is smooth, your line is new, your hooks are sharp and your plug bag is full.

Kayak contest

The Jamaica Bay Kayak Tournament is slated for May 15 at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. Free camping and launching from May 12 through May 16 are included in the $75 registration fee. The catch and release tournament targets striped bass and weakfish with all proceeds donated to the Casting For Recovery program. Visit captainkayak.com or call 631-262-2009 to register.

E-mail: outdoortom

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