In the Northeast fishing community, no event is as highly anticipated as the spring striper migration. Fishermen who bid farewell to the stripers in the late fall or early winter eagerly await their return to our coast.
Much has changed in the striped bass fishery over the last few seasons, not all of it good. It’s been encouraging to see anglers adapt to changing regulations in the interest of protecting the striper stock. Less encouraging has been the five consecutive young-of-the-year surveys in Maryland suggesting below-average spawning success for Chesapeake stripers. However, the Northeast fishing community has banded together more than ever before to fight for these fish, supporting sound science, conservation, and promoting catch-and-release practices that improve a striper’s chances of survival. No matter what changes in the striped bass fishery in the coming year, one thing will always remain the same: that hopeful, excited feeling when heading out to make the first casts of a new season.
2020: The COVID-19 pandemic began just as the first wave of migratory bass in the 20-pound range stormed the sand beaches of New Jersey. In the weeks that followed, schoolies invaded the mid-Atlantic coast while vast, dense schools of bunker attracted trophy bass to the south shore of Long Island and southern New England throughout the summer months.
2021: Big schools of bunker returned to the Northeast in the late spring, but a lack of big bass with them left anglers worried about the future status of striped bass numbers. A noticeable shift in the presence of trophy stripers around popular summering grounds like Block Island and Montauk left anglers questioning what the 2022 spring migration would bring.
2022: Schoolie and slot-size stripers made a strong showing from Delaware Bay to eastern Long Island in the early spring. The large schools of bunker that had congregated around Long Island and southern New England in years past were concentrated around Boston and the south shore of Massachusetts, and trophy stripers gorged on them throughout the summer.
While the tidal tributaries of Chesapeake Bay remained closed to allow stripers to spawn, anglers found good fishing for big bass in the shipping channels. Meanwhile, “resident” schoolie stripers were caught in the backwaters of New Jersey and Long Island, and fish from the Hudson stock were actively feeding in Raritan Bay and the lower Hudson River.
Early reports of spawning stripers in Chesapeake Bay tributaries left anglers hopeful for a strong spring run while big pre-spawn bass took large soft plastics on the edges of the upper Bay shipping channel. The back bays and rivers of New Jersey saw a boost in bass activity at the same time that fresh migratory schoolies trickled into the west end of Long Island.
Maryland’s catch-and-release striper season closed for the month of April to protect spawning bass, and the striper bite in Raritan Bay exploded with fish from 40 inches to 40 pounds taking both natural and artificial baits. At the same time, the western Long Island Sound saw an influx of schoolie stripers while winter holdovers put on the feed bags as herring arrived in Connecticut’s rivers.
Forty-inch stripers showed up in great numbers on the beaches of New Jersey as water temperatures climbed into the 50s in Chesapeake Bay tributaries. Spawning stripers reached upper portions of the Delaware River while big bass moved into the lower Hudson, and schoolies continued along western Connecticut beaches and Long Island’s north shore. Simultaneously, the first migratory bass of the year hit Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts in the surf of Martha’s Vineyard.
Stripers continued to spawn in Chesapeake tributaries while Delaware River stripers prepared to spawn. Beachfront bass fishing continued to improve in New Jersey, stripers to 20 pounds hit Long Island’s east end, and fresh migratory schoolies progressed into Buzzards Bay, Vineyard Sound, and Nantucket Sound.
Post-spawn stripers began their exodus from Chesapeake Bay while the Raritan Bay run remained red hot. Big bass pressed north toward spawning grounds in the Hudson River and 30-inch-class stripers feasted on river herring in Rhode Island at the same time that schoolies arrived on the south shore of Massachusetts.
Spawned-out stripers began to pour out of Delaware Bay and the Raritan Bay bass bite slowed as stripers spawned in the Hudson River. Surf fishing continued to improve on Long Island while fish as large as 30 pounds were caught throughout southern New England and in the Cape Cod Canal. Meanwhile, Boston and the north shore of Massachusetts experienced an influx of migratory schoolies.
A wave of big post-spawn stripers from Chesapeake and Delaware bays hit New Jersey beaches as early Hudson spawners hooked a left out of New York Harbor. Bass from 30 inches to 30 pounds keyed in on Narragansett Bay bunker schools, and big bass blitzed in Cape Cod Bay and the Canal as migratory bass reached New Hampshire and Maine.
Neap tides hindered the migration as big bass staged in hot spots like Raritan Bay and Narragansett Bay to feed on bunker before continuing the journey north. Bass to 40 inches were caught regularly around Boston and Massachusetts’ south shore, and fish up to 50 inches were rumored to be feeding in the rivers of southern Maine.
Schoolies remained in Chesapeake Bay and Maryland while trophy stripers off northern New Jersey and western Long Island prepared for a move around the June full moon. Narragansett Bay’s bass dispersed to Block Island and points north around Boston, and herring runs attracted fresh migrators from the Merrimack River to Maine.
Stripers settled into summer patterns in the south Jersey surf while good fishing continued off Monmouth County. Big striped bass staged in the rips off Long Island’s north fork as more fish pressed east and north through the Long Island Sound. Forty-inchers chowed on mackerel and sand eels in Cape Cod Bay while slot-size fish chased squid in Vineyard and Nantucket sounds.
The big bass of northern New Jersey thinned out as fishing improved around Montauk and central Long Island Sound. Stripers of all sizes gorged on sand eels in Rhode Island while, just east, bass chased squid in the rips around Cape Cod and the Elizabeth Islands. Meanwhile, a wave of over-slot fish invaded the backwaters of New Hampshire and Maine.
Trophy stripers hunkered down around Montauk, Connecticut’s coast exploded with big bass on bunker, and Block Island got a wave of 40-inch-plus bass. Further north, 40-pounders made their way through the Cape Cod Canal while 40-inch stripers concentrated around bunker schools from northern Massachusetts to Maine.
Fueled by sand eels, bunker, and squid, trophy stripers rounded Long Island’s east end on the last leg of their journey. Forty-inchers filled up on sand eels in Rhode Island and the outer beaches of Cape Cod. To the north, large schools of bunker piled into the harbors of Massachusetts’ North Shore while 50-pounders crashed on bunker pods off New Hampshire and Maine.
Striped Bass Managers Approve Conservative Management Options for 2024
