While bunker have been in short supply in many of their regular springtime haunts, bass are feeding well on other baitfish including herring, squid, cinder worms, and rain bait. Big, post-spawn stripers are streaming out of the Chesapeake Bay, and some of the fish are beginning to turn up off New Jersey and New York.
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All striped bass fishing is closed in Maryland Chesapeake Bay waters. For more information about the timings and areas where striped bass fishing is allowed in the Chesapeake Bay, check out the Maryland DNR’s Striped Bass Regulation Maps.
Migratory stripers are turning up on the ocean beaches in Maryland and Delaware, with most of the fish being larger than the 28- to 31-inch slot limit.
Big stripers are coming out of Southern New Jersey, with post-spawn fish from the Chesapeake and Delaware showing up. Black drum fishermen on Delaware Bay have gotten into stripers larger than 40 inches while fishing clams for drum.
After what’s been a fair-to-middling spring run on the Raritan, marked by rainy conditions, a lack of bait, and finicky fish, anglers in the northern half of New Jersey were excited by the arrival of some large fish, some up to 50 inches, on the ocean front, along with some bunker schools. There were some reports of larger fish perking up in the Raritan as well.
This arrival of big bass in Northern New Jersey is in line with last year’s arrival, almost around the exact same date. On May 10, 2023, we filmed with Captain Rob Radlof, and came across some extra-large stripers that were moving through the area. Check out that video below:
Some larger fish are moving into the South Shore of Long Island, and spreading east toward Montauk. There’s plenty of 30-inch fish on the North Shore of Long Island, and the big bass are up the Hudson River right now, and spawning should be under way.
Fishing is improving by the day in Connecticut’s tidal rivers, with bass to 15 pounds, and some bigger, being caught on soft plastics and topwaters.
Narragansett Bay continues to hold good numbers of hungry stripers, with more fish moving in over the past week, feeding on squid, rain bait, herring, and bunker. Fish to 30 pounds have been reported.
Massachusetts fishermen are still waiting for the first big wave of bigger stripers, but fish over 30 inches continue to be found all around Cape Cod and up through Boston Harbor. A few larger bass have been reported, but the flood gates haven’t opened, just yet. Look for the cows to come home over the next week to 10 days.
The striper run in Massachusetts went from a trickle to a flood, as flocks of birds lead the way to feeding stripers off the South Coast and Buzzards Bay this past week. Many of the fish are 24- to 30-inchers, with some 40-inch fish in the mix. Fish with sea lice have been reported all the way up to the North Shore.
