There’s no stopping this train. Bass keep barreling north, with fresh fish showing as far north as Boston over the last few days. Bunker are fueling the bite in New York and New Jersey, and in New England, it’s all about herring. Spawning is happening in the Hudson, and the post-spawn giants from the Chesapeake are staging off New Jersey. Things are going to blow wide open with next week’s New Moon.
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Maryland/Chesapeake Bay Striper Fishing Report
With most of the large stripers having left the Chesapeake, local anglers have largely shifted their focus to fish within the 19- to 24-inch slot limit. Maryland and Delaware ocean-front beaches continue to see large bass however, as post-spawn Chesapeake stripers steadily move north, feeding along the way.
New Jersey Striper Fishing Report
There are still stripers working their way out of Delaware Bay, with fishermen from Cape May on up the bay seeing bass to 50 inches. The beachfronts of Southern New Jersey have bass of 40 inches and larger feeding in the surf, while the bays are producing fish from slot size to 40 inches.
From Barnegat Inlet to Raritan Bay, stripers of all sizes are stacked up in the bays, rivers and off the beaches. Some very large fish moved in over the last week, and fishermen working the ocean off Monmouth and Ocean County are finding stripers to 50 inches by fishing glidebaits, metal lips, and eels.
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New York Striper Report
Fishing is on fire across the South Shore of Long Island, with fish of 30 pounds and larger in the surf eating pencil poppers as bunker fuel great fishing. Surfcasters are finding big fish all the way out to Montauk. Bays and inlets are also holding good fish. Jamaica Bay and New York Harbor are stacked with stripers as well. On the North Shore, large stripers are steadily moving east, feeding on bunker as they go.
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Connecticut/Rhode Island Striper Report
Connecticut’s striper fishing is shifting into high gear as waves of migratory bass flood into Long Island Sound and feed heavily on bunker and river herring. Bigger fish are now mixing in with the holdovers, especially in the western Sound, where anglers are finding bass from slot size into the 20-pound class blitzing bait along shorelines, estuaries, and river mouths.
Bass are arriving hungry to Rhode Island, and their finding plenty to eat in Narragansett Bay where herring schools are moving up the bay on their way to spawn. Fish to 35 pounds are being caught for both shore and boat fishermen.
Cape Cod/Massachusetts Striper Report
It’s go-time in Massachusetts. Stripers have spread from lower Buzzards Bay to the South Side of the Cape, the Canal, and even into Cape Cod Bay. Many fish are in the 27- to 35-inch range, but 40-inchers are around.
There have even been bass reported in estuaries and around herring runs all the way up to the North Shore of Massachusetts, not just schoolies, but fish to 36 inches.
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