Striper Migration Map - June 23, 2015

Now that we’ve reached the summer solstice, the striper migration is wrapping up and big bass are settling into their summer feeding grounds. Several areas of the striper coast were standouts this week for particularly big bass.

NEW JERSEY

The back bays are on fire with resident stripers to 34 inches. These fish will spend the summer feeding in the bays and along the beaches. As water temperatures and boat traffic increase as we approach the height of summer, they will restrict their feeding to late at night and very early in the morning.

The large ocean-going schools of striped bass are thinning out off Northern New Jersey. There will be opportunities to hook 30-pound-plus stripers through July, especially by taking live or chunked bunker to structures like the Shrewsbury Rocks, but the best of the spring run is over for New Jersey.

NEW YORK

1) Some very large stripers have been caught in western Long Island Sound, but fish seem to be on the move, heading east to the waters where they will spend the summer. Large stripers can be found along the South Shore feeding on schools of bunker. At the East End of the Island, the fishing is off to a slow start, but with numbers of large stripers already being reported at Block Island, the fishing in Montauk should improve any day now.

CONNECTICUT

Long Island Sound has produced a number of huge bass, including many over 30 pounds and a number approaching the 50-pound mark. Live bunker and bunker spoons are accounting for the largest bass.The big bass are on the move out of the western Sound and heading east. As the rivers have warmed, most of the action on big fish is at the mouths of the rivers and out on the shoals.

RHODE ISLAND

2) Huge bass have shown up in Block Island waters, including fish up to the 60-pound mark. Newport also has some big bass, now that upper Narragansett Bay has gotten warm. If this year is anything like seasons past, expect big stripers to be available at Block Island well into July.

MASSACHUSETTS

3) The June new moon gave up some big bass in the 40-pound range in the Cape Cod Canal. The Canal has been quiet lately, with some good fish being caught by nighttime anglers, but there is always the potential for a topwater blitz of big fish, even through July and August.

4) Race Point continues to produce bass in the 40-inch range, with the biggest fish falling to live mackerel. The ledges off Scituate and Hull are also producing big bass on mackerel, with the potential for a trophy.

5) A 50-pounder was reported by an angler fishing mackerel at the mouth of the Merrimack.  Where there are mackerel, there is always the potential for a striper of a lifetime.

NEW HAMPSHIRE AND MAINE

Mackerel finally arrived to the NH Seacoast and the big bass were right with them. In Southern Maine, fresh fish covered in sea lice are being reported every day, and the average size has only been getting larger.