Inshore water temperatures are warming fast and stripers are spawning in Chesapeake Bay tributaries. Big bass are moving up the Hudson River, while plenty more continue to feast in the Raritan Bay. Migratory schoolies have reached Rhode Island and Cape Cod, with some bigger schoolies and 30-inch-class fish in the mix.
Signs are pointing to a great striper fishing season! Now is the time to sign up for the Striper Cup and get your sign-up package complete with a Rapala lure, Columbia PFG shirt, and great discounts on gear.
Maryland’s trophy striper season opens on May with a 35-inch minimum and a limit of one fish per person per day. The Susquehanna Flats areas will not open to striped bass fishing until May 16, with a slot size of 19 inches to 26 inches, and a one fish per person per day limit. Check the Department of Natural Resources website for a map to locate areas open or closed to striped bass fishing. Post-spawn striped bass should be moving south along channel edges as they make their way out of the Bay over the next couple weeks.
More slot-size stripers are moving into Southern New Jersey’s inlets and backwaters, and beachfront fishing is improving as well, with fish in the 30-inch range and good numbers of 40-inch-plus stripers taking clams, worms, and soft plastics from Cape May to LBI.
In the Delaware Bay and River, anglers are encountering the occasional larger striped bass, as warming temperatures have the Delaware River stripers in spawning mode.
Good surfside action for stripers can be found from Island Beach on up to Sandy Hook as well, with bait being best. Mainly clams.
The Raritan run continues, with reports of bass being “everywhere,” but heavy boat traffic and fishing pressure has been putting fish down at times. Some of the larger fish are departing for the Hudson to spawn, but there are plenty of bass staging and feeding on menhaden throughout the bay.
Long Island surf fishing broke wide open this past week. Stripers to 20 pounds have been reported all the way out to the East End of Long Island. Big bass are moving all the way up the Hudson River on the way to spawn, which typically gets underway by the first week of May.
Herring continue to get holdover stripers active in Connecticut’s tidal rivers, with fresh fish arriving daily and mixing in.
Schoolie fishing in Rhode Island is improving daily, with some fishermen even reporting blitzing fish in the 30-inch class feasting on river herring. There’s been a good batch of schoolies, with many 24-inchers making for fun light-tackle action. Stripers carrying sea lice are being reported off Rhode Island’s beaches, as the presence of migratory stripers has increased dramatically over the past week.
It’s been an early and impressive arrival of migratory bass in Buzzards Bay. Good numbers of schoolies have arrived and many of the fish are in the 20- to 30-inch size class. Larger bass have been found harrassing schools of herring. Stripers have also begun to filter in north of the Cape and will continue to push up toward the North Shore.
Get ready! Migrating stripers are on the way and should trickle in over the next 7-10 days.
