Within the Northeast fishing neighborhood, no occasion is as extremely anticipated because the spring striped bass migration. Fishermen who bid farewell to those fish within the late fall or early winter eagerly await their return to our coast, watching the climate and fishing reviews starting in March to see when the bass will come again. As all of us eagerly await this 12 months’s spring run, we’re wanting again on the 2024 striper migration.
Latest Historical past: The Spring Migration
2021: Large bunker faculties returned to the Northeast within the late spring, however an absence of huge bass with them left anglers frightened in regards to the future standing of striped bass numbers. A noticeable shift within the presence of trophy stripers round fashionable summering grounds like Block Island and Montauk left anglers questioning what the 2022 spring migration would convey.
2022: Schoolie and slot-size stripers made a robust displaying from Delaware Bay to japanese Lengthy Island within the early spring. The big bunker faculties that had congregated round Lengthy Island and southern New England in years previous have been concentrated round Boston and the south shore of Massachusetts; trophy stripers gorged on them all through the summer time.
2023: The spring run was forward of schedule, particularly with massive, post-spawn stripers from the Chesapeake. Fish as massive as 50 inches reached New Jersey within the first week of Could and Massachusetts by the second week of Could. By the third week of Could, there have been even reviews of 40-inch stripers within the rivers of Maine.
The 2024 Striper Migration
March 29
It’s a lukewarm begin to the striper migration, with torrential rains dampening (actually and figuratively) fishing efforts. Fishermen later blamed the rains for preserving bunker out of Raritan Bay, which made spring striper fishing there just a little slower than in the previous couple of seasons. Nonetheless, sizable stripers are seen staging outdoors spawning tributaries within the Chesapeake, with reviews of first rate numbers of schoolie bass in backwaters and estuaries from Delaware Bay to Lengthy Island.
April 12
Cooler-than-average temperatures slows down spawning within the Chesapeake, however because the climate stabilizes, the spawning intensifies. Waves of bigger fish hit each the Delaware and Raritan bays. Migratory stripers attain Connecticut and, inside every week, fishermen in Rhode Island and Massachusetts report the primary contemporary schoolies of the season.
Could 3
Raritan, Narragansett, and Buzzards bays are hotbeds of striper exercise, with fish to 40 inches blasting baitfish on the floor. Fish to 50 inches are reported in New Jersey, and post-spawn bass are exiting the Chesapeake and heading north.
Could 10
Bunker continues to be in brief provide all through the Northeast, however stripers discover loads of gas for the migration in herring, squid, cinder worms, and rain bait. Stripers that left the Chesapeake are displaying up alongside coastal seashores in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Lengthy Island. Migratory fish to 30 inches attain Boston.
Could 24
The Could full moon kicks the migration into greater gear as 40-pound stripers are reported all the way in which as much as Massachusetts. Large faculties of very massive bass are staging off the Western South Shore of Lengthy Island and Northern New Jersey, and Montauk is inundated with schoolie and slot-size stripers. Submit-spawn fish from the Hudson proceed populating Lengthy Island Sound.
June 7
The June new moon brings large bass into surfcasting vary from New Jersey to Maine. The motion continues to be widespread, however in components of southern New Jersey, the fishing begins to wane as warming water temperatures ship the fish north.
June 14
Warming waters push any lingering stripers in southern New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland north and offshore. Massive stripers are reported chasing bunker in Massachusetts from Cape Cod Bay to Boston, whereas large faculties of huge bass proceed to maneuver east alongside the South Shore of Lengthy Island.
June 21
The reefs of Lengthy Island Sound load up with large bass as Hudson and Chesapeake fish converge on the sound. The fishing will get spotty in New Jersey as warming temperatures push the bass north. Fishing at Block Island, Boston Harbor, and Montauk ramp up because the fish settle in, whereas some stripers proceed to swim towards Maine, the place anglers on the northern fringe of the striper’s migratory route expertise one other nice summer time of fishing.
» Comply with @onthewatermagazine & @stripercup on Instagram for 2025 Striper Migration updates!
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