Striper Revenge

If you’ve always wanted to catch striped bass, big striped bass, it’s time to migrate north. Floridians have been plagued by anglers from up my way sneaking into your state on fishing vacations for decades. Northerners have been flocking to the Sunshine State to fish for so long; it’s gotten to the point where it’s difficult to get rid of us!

We come to your east coast for sailfish in droves, to the Florida Keys for tarpon and bones by the thousands, to the Gulf Coast for cobia in multitudes, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. We assault your snook in Sebastian, your swordfish off Miami, your reds in Florida Bay and your trout along the Space Coast and we’ve been doing it without reciprocity.

As a Jersey boy I admit to being guilty as charged. I’ve burned an awful lot of fossil fuel over the last 30 years going back and forth between home and Florida and always enjoyed the hospitality. I’ve been lucky to have been befriended by many wonderful natives, if there really is such a thing, who have taught me their techniques and invited me to their fishing holes, and for that I am truly grateful.

Well its time to turn the tables. Time for Floridians to get even! You don’t have to sit back and take it anymore, not when you can head north to enjoy some of the finest saltwater fishing this side of Cape Hatteras, much of it within sight of the New York skyline. Now I don’t want to open a floodgate of northward migration, even though with all you’ve put up with we probably deserve it, so listen up because this is just between you and me. We’ve got so many striped bass up here it will drive you crazy and we’ve been keeping them all to ourselves for far too long.

Bass Bounce Back
Northerners have had to deal with many of the same issues that threaten fisheries in Florida like pollution, over-fishing, commercially biased management, loss of habitat and on and on. We have angler groups that have fought the good fight and, like you, we’ve had our share of losses and some outstanding victories. None more so, then striped bass. Considered the glamour species of the Mid-Atlantic Coast, stripers have been the shining light. By the early 1980s, their stocks were so low that some scientists questioned whether they could ever recover. When the reality of the situation finally sank in to state and federal fishery managers, the big fear was it was too late to turn the dismal situation around. After decades of public pressure, hard work, sacrifice and serious conservation, a rebuilding plan was finally devised, amended and modified until it eventually worked. The result has been a stock rebound from a low point of less that 2 million stripers coast wide to an estimated 58 million today. Not only has there been a huge increase in the overall number of fish, the number of large striped bass being encountered in recent years has been unprecedented.

Where to Go
There are many legendary locations to fish for striped bass at various times during their seasonal migrations, but my favorite place and time is the New York Bight during the months of May and June. Why? Sheer numbers of mature bass with plenty of cows mixed in. The Hudson River is a striped bass spawning and nursery ground second only to the entire Chesapeake Bay system. This mighty river hosts millions of striped bass each spring that usually spawn in May, so untold numbers of mature fish pile into the area to stage for the final push upriver, some showing up as early as April. After spawning, they pour out of the river into the surrounding waters of Raritan and Sandy Hook Bays and up and down the beaches of North Jersey and the South Shore of Long Island. At about the same time millions more striped bass are migrating into this same area from the south. These are the fish that spawned in the Chesapeake Bay about a month earlier and are heading north on their annual feeding migration. Some will stay in this area throughout the summer, but most will join with Hudson River bass and move further north, past Montauk and into New England waters where they will spread out and fatten up. Though, an interesting thing has occurred over the last five years that has slowed their migration through this area significantly.

As these two bodies of bass converge, they run headlong into massive schools of menhaden, large members of the herring family that are a buffet of easy targets for hungry stripers. After a twenty year battle by anglers, including efforts by the Jersey Coast Anglers Association and the final political push that put the effort over the top by the Recreational Fishing Alliance, the New Jersey legislation passed a bill that banned industrial purse seine boats from netting menhaden within state waters. This provided a three-mile buffer where entire schools can no longer be encircled and decimated. In the four seasons since this legislation was enacted the schools of menhaden moving into the New York Bight area in the spring have increased exponentially and the bass are spending longer and longer in these waters in far greater number than seen in the past 30 years. What ensues when bass meet menhaden is a slaughter of epic proportions. For anglers, that translates into some of the most incredible fishing you’ll find anywhere. Not only are there a lot of fish to catch, the chances of catching really large bass, fish in the 30s, 40s and even breaking the magic 50-pound mark, have never been better.

Top This
Two years ago, I had one of the most incredible days of striper fishing I’ve ever experienced and that’s saying something when you consider that I’ve been chasing these fish for over 30 years! It was a warm day, second week of May, and I made the half hour drive up to Highlands, New Jersey, a little town situated on the Bay behind Sandy Hook, to fish with my friend Capt. Lou Grazioso. You might have seen Lou on TV with George Poveromo this past season making sure that Florida boy was kept busy by the marauding stripers. The Bay was loaded with bunker (that’s Jersey slang for menhaden), but the bass hadn’t started targeting them because the water had been a tad cool. Well the bay temp had risen to 52 degrees after some sunny, 75-degree days and their feeding regimen was about to change with a vengeance. Lou ran his center console, the Stripermania, to Great Kills Harbor so we could cast net bunker. He put 50 beautiful baits in the live well in two throws, with plenty of extras for the cooler for use as chunk baits, should we need them. That done, we headed for a shallow flat near the Earle Ammo Pier post haste.

As we arrived on scene there were a couple boats and a bent rod here and there, but nothing crazy, at least not yet. We each hung a live bunker—these puppies weight about a pound apiece—on a 9/0 light-wire circle hook attached to light conventional outfits and dropped them over the side. We hooked up immediately. The first fish to the boat was over 30 pounds and right on top of that there was another, and another and another and another, all big bass. We were hooking, fighting and releasing big stripers as fast as we could land one, put another live bait on and drop it. The depth finder was filled with a parade of big arches that didn’t stop all morning. We caught bass to 48-pounds and only a few that were under 25 until every live bait in the well was gone. We switched to the dead ones in the cooler, dropping and jigging them, and just kept right on hooking up. We lost count of how many bass we caught that morning, but it was well over 50. They bit through the tide change and were still biting when we all agreed that we had had enough. It was only 1 PM!

That incredible day the fish we were catching were all prespawn females waiting for an increase in temperature and the right moon phase to move up into the Hudson to do the nasty, so we released all but one that was destined for the dinner table.

As the time frame shifts from May into June there are even more menhaden in the area migrating up the beach from the south and the Chesapeake bass are right there dogging their every move. As the spawned out bass from the Hudson head out of the bays they hit the beaches and start feeding at a pace that is difficult to fathom in an effort to put on the weight they lost during procreation. There, they intercept the schools of prolific baitfish that can no longer be decimated by man. As the menhaden run grows each season, the bass take their time, feeding like drunken sailors in a bar offering free lunch, until the menhaden move off. Then they head further up the beach on their way to more northerly latitudes. This bass on bunker action can last well into July in the New York Bight, but May and June are prime!

Guiding Light
Unfortunately, my boat isn’t big enough to take all of you Florida types, and I alas am not a charter captain, but there are loads of boats for hire from western Long Island down to Manasquan Inlet, New Jersey. However, if you really want to enjoy this fishing to its fullest, I strongly suggest you do so with a light tackle specialist. It will be more like Florida style fishing with only a couple anglers on smaller open boats using plug tackle or even fly rods. You’ll get to savor the real experience of fishing the spring run to a far greater extent than being on a large charter boat. Most of the light tackle guides up this way are striper specialists, meaning they know where the best action is from day to day, what techniques are working best and where to catch the live bait.

Now that you know the score don’t you think it’s time to hightail it up this way to put a hurting on some of us Northerners. It only seems fair and, in fact, it’s long overdue.

Striper Specialists
Capt. Lou Grazioso of Stripermania Charters
www.StriperMania.net

Capt. Terry Sullivan of Terry Sullivan’s Guide Service
www.FlatsRat.com

The Professional Fly & Light Tackle Guides Association www.LightTackleMagazine.com

The members are all saltwater specialists fishing Connecticut, New York and New Jersey and each has a listing indicated their specialties and the specific areas they fish. Quite a few fish the New York Bight area and having fished with a number of them; I’ve had nothing but great experiences.

Bio:
Gary Caputi is a well-known angler and writer from New Jersey who has fished all over the East Coast, Florida, the Caribbean, Central America and beyond. He is a highly regarded authority on striped bass and the author of Fishing For Striped Bass, the best selling instructional book on the subject. He has worked tirelessly on conservation and recreational fishing rights issues over the past twenty years, including a nine year stint on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and helping form the Recreational Fishing Alliance eleven years ago.