Usually, by mid-June, the Migration Map is pretty easy to color in. Take the red (for 30-pound-plus fish) and color it in from mid-Jersey straight up to the North Shore of Massachusetts. This year has been a little different. While there have been large fish reported from New Jersey to New Hampshire, there’s been very few large runs of bass. “The fish are moving around a lot,” reported one tackle shop owner on Cape Cod, who said the schools of large bass have rarely stayed in the same place for more than a day at a time. Many fishermen believe the fish are holding offshore, citing anecdotal evidence from tuna and bottom fishermen seeing schools of stripers miles from shore on their return trips to port.
New Jersey Striper Report
There are still good numbers of stripers around southern New Jersey, but the ocean-going schools of large bass seem to have moved north, leaving short and small-keeper sized fish feeding along the beaches, in the inlets, and in the back bays.
Raritan Bay continues to be a stronghold for large stripers, and the ocean waters off Monmouth County are holding good numbers of stripers over the 40-pound mark still.
Read the Northern New Jersey Fishing Report
Read the Southern New Jersey Fishing Report
New York Striper Report
The water is still on the cool side off Montauk, but more bass are moving in. The water is warmer in the Peconics and around the North Fork, where there’s been more stripers. Farther west along the South Shore, the striper fishing is a big more reliable, but still not red hot.
Large stripers continue to move through Long Island Sound, providing good fishing for anglers trolling and fishing live bunker.
Read the New York Fishing Report
Connecticut/Rhode Island Striper Report
The best striper fishing in Connecticut is in the middle Sound, but more and larger fish should be moving into the eastern Sound soon. The rivers are still holding stripers in excess of 40 inches.
The waters around Watch Hill have a mixed bag of stripers now from schoolies to cows, with most in the low- to mid-30-inch range. Fishermen in Narragansett Bay continue to see 40-pound-plus stripers while the waters around Block Island are just starting to see stripers in the 20-pound range.
Read the Connecticut Fishing Report
Read the Rhode Island Fishing Report
Cape Cod/ Massachusetts Striper Report
After a slow start, the fishing in the Canal picked up late this week, with stripers to 45 pounds being caught. Many fishermen believe these fish moved in from Cape Cod Bay, as opposed to Buzzards Bay, suggesting that many stripers took the long way around Cape Cod. In Cape Cod Bay, stripers have been moving around open water, following mackerel and squid, with some fish moving around Race Point and along the back side. Still, the fish don’t seem to have “settled in” to any one place yet. On the South Side of the Cape, and around Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, there are great numbers of schoolies, small keepers, and the occasional large fish keeping things interesting.
Reports of big stripers on the North and South Shore of Massachusetts continue to be sporadic, but schoolies and small keepers are around in great numbers.
Read the Cape Cod Fishing Report
Read the Massachusetts Fishing Report
New Hampshire/Maine Striper Report
Some very large striped bass have made it to New Hampshire and Maine, with most of the larger fish beelining for the rivers where the water is warmer and the bait is abundant.
Read the New Hampshire/Maine Fishing Report.
Please send me nh and me stripper reports
Alot of striped bass in the rivers and on the coast of maine majority are still the 16 to 24 in fish but also been some 30 to 40+ inch fish mixed in just got to go through alot of small bass
I like on the water reports
Fished the Joppa flats in kayak on Saturday the 16th schoolies up to twenty inches great weather, watched one guy pull a keeper up that’s all
Fished the Joppa flats in kayak on Saturday the 16th schoolies up to twenty inches great weather, watched one guy pull a keeper up that’s all! Enjoy!
Pulled in 29, 30 and 33″ Stripers last night in Branford, all on Bunker chunks. Action between 9:30pm and midnight.