If a New Jersey angler picked one weekend on the 2026 calendar to be off work, May 16 might be it. Jim Hutchinson Jr.'s May 14 video forecast for The Fisherman magazine ran four big items in a row: a striper run that refuses to slow, a Friday sea bass opener, a Saturday fluke tournament with a wider footprint than last year, and the grand opening of a 17,000-square-foot tackle store in Pamis.
Hutchinson's lead is the spring run.
"There's a lot going on this weekend in our region," he said from the Pamis studio. "The headlines, of course, tell the tale."
The magazine's digital weekly edition that Tuesday led with cover angler Robert Fort holding up a fly-caught striped bass and a line about bright blue sky days and fish that still bite. Hutchinson's own deck under the picture - the epic spring run continues - is the kind of forecast he hopes he is wrong only on the downside.
"They being, of course, striped bass, and we're loaded with them from one tip of the Garden State to the other," he said. "Sandy Hook to Cape May, inside both bays. It is on fire."
Hutchinson said he is openly hoping for a re-run of recent years when the May run pulled out 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 Friday news is regulatory. New Jersey black sea bass season reopens on May 15. Combined with the cape's bluefish reports - Anthony Calfano, the magazine's South Jersey field editor, says fish are inside the cove and at the north end of town out of Hands Too Bait and Tackle - the bottom-fish menu is back to full.
Saturday's tournament headline is the Valhalla Flounder Open, the first single-day New Jersey fluke event of 2026. The boundary has been pushed to span the grounds from Corsons all the way up to the upper Barnegat Bay south of the canal.
"This Saturday is a good opportunity," Hutchinson said, with his own boat on the entry list.
The day's other Jersey Shore anchor is the grand reopening of Tackle World at 461 Route 17 South. The relocated Jigging World footprint is now around 17,000 square feet, with reels spooled in-store on Quantum Cabo purchases, 20 percent off van Staal models, Rapala X-Rap Long Casts buy-three-get-one-free, and golden ticket prize draws spread across the day.
Weather has finally cooperated. New Gretina's outlook has nighttime temperatures clearing the 40s and Saturday's morning incoming tide setting up with lighter winds.
The weekend's lure-versus-bait question is also settled. The Merchantville Fishing Club won the 44th annual Carl Burot surf tournament in Sea Isle on jumbo stripers eating surf clam, with a side of black drum to round out the score sheet.
"Clams did it with the jumbo stripers to win the tournament for Merchantville," Hutchinson said. "They also got some black drum as well."
For anglers thinking about June, Hutchinson is reading the post-spawn drop-out into Raritan Bay and the Delaware as the next push.
"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 anyone working their way through the Jersey Shore this weekend, 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 at 9 a.m. Saturday in Pamis.