It’s hard “not thinking” about this weekend’s potential – the Thanksgiving Day Blitz of ’16, the Black Friday blitz of ’21, or the National Lemon Cream Pie Day Blitz of ’06 (sorry, I made that last one up) all come to mind. It’s been a slow season for surfcasters, though boaters are still banging on stripers heading into this holiday weekend. That said, conditions are looking good as that moveable feast slides down the Jersey Shore. We look at beach and boat options for the extended Thanksgiving weekend, Jenni does a ride-along with noted surfcaster Shell E. Caris talking about the tides and how they are a changing, while George and Josh take us on the hunt for pure-strain freshwater stripers in the Poconos. Plus, we give credit where credit is due this week (NJDEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette) on the Island Beach State Park permit lottery fiasco, while wrapping up this week’s report with Hutch’s tips for new lottery winners with multiple entries now forced to convert the family minivan into a dune-hopping killdozer in the ’26 season.
