CHESAPEAKE BAY
Post-spawn striped bass have left the Susquehanna Flats and are making their way down into the bay. Many post-spawn fish have already left and are heading up the coast toward New Jersey.
DELAWARE RIVER/BAY
The striper spawn in the Delaware River has ended and most of the big bass have left Delaware Bay. (Black drum fishing in the Bay is excellent, however.)
NEW JERSEY
Trolling has been the ticket for larger stripers off Northern New Jersey. In Central New Jersey, stripers between 20 and 30 pounds are occasionally chasing bait into the surf. In Southern New Jersey, schoolies are all over the backwaters while fish to 30 pounds are being caught off the beaches and jetties on fresh clams and bunker.
Some smaller 2- to 6-pound bluefish have moved in, but there are still some big 8- to 12-pounders prowling around, just not in the numbers of last week.
NEW YORK
There are still stripers spawning in the Hudson River, but larger fish are once again being taken in Raritan Bay and off the West End of Long Island, including western Long Island Sound. These are likely post-spawn Hudson stripers. Farther east, more keeper-sized fish are being reported, all the way out to Montauk. Bluefish are spreading out along the South Shore of Long Island, but there have been stripers feeding under the blues.
CONNECTICUT
Striped bass fishing remains excellent in the rivers, at the river mouths, and on the beaches of Long Island Sound. More bass over 20 pounds were reported this week.
RHODE ISLAND
Big numbers of fresh schoolie striped bass to 30 inches are entertaining anglers on the south-facing Rhode Island shorelines and inside Narragansett Bay. Numbers of fish in the 30-inch range are being reported in the breachways and salt ponds, and a few bass over 20 pounds have been reported in Narragansett Bay.
MASSACHUSETTS
Schoolie stripers have been reported on all sides of Cape Cod. Several stripers to 20-plus pounds have been landed in the Cape Cod Canal. Keeper-size fish are becoming more numerous in the Canal, with fish surpassing 20 pounds being caught in the East End. By the weekend, the first wave of stripers that moved through the Canal will be in Cape Cod Bay, chasing mackerel and herring schools.
Only a few bluefish have been reported on the southside, but with all the squid in Nantucket Sound, a massive bluefish invasion in the coming days is likely.
North of the Cape, stripers have been reported in Plymouth Bay, the North River in Scituate, Boston Harbor, and along the North Shore, including Cape Ann and Plum Island. Most of the fish being caught are in the 20- to 30-inch range.
NEW HAMPSHIRE AND MAINE
Fresh schoolies have arrived on the New Hampshire Seacoast and reports are trickling in from Southern Maine!
Would like to get update on striper
Schoolies are everywhere and mackrel are thick at certain spots.