Meteoroligical Data Points to a big Boating week for Stripers

Just got off the NOAA site (see links on left). With all this warm weather the water temp has reached and even pass the magical 52 degree mark. Next weeks weather is calling for cloudy days. The tides from Sunday through Friday are relative big and there morning tides. All this spells big numbers of Stripers showing at most of the mid bay hot spots. If you can get out for an early morning run it may be well worth the effort. Over the last 4 years I've absolutely killed early season striper under these conditions at this time of year (see previous posts). 2 years ago I caught over 80 striper in the 24-32 inch range in 1 day. Mind you it was a 12 hour day but I couldn't stop fishing it was that good. I dont know how good this year will be but I can tell you I'm pretty sure it will start this week. The lure of choice is usually a cocahoe (white) with a 3/8 oz jig head. I've tried just about everything over the last few years and thats the one the works the best. Light tackle is also alot of fun on these fish. So get the boat ready spool up your reals dust off the rods and get out there. You'll find the fish from jamestown to barington beach east or west passage, it may take a while to find them but when you do it can be a blast.

Some schoolies in upper bay

Got the boat ready last week. Went out with my brother dave for a shake down run everything worked fine and we even caught a few schoolies. The fish were hold up in specific areas we had to move around and once we got a hit/fish we stayed in that spot (search and destroy). The lure of choice was a zoom fluke in albino with a 3/8 oz jig head. All the fish we caught were in the upper bay rivers in relatively shallow water 5-8 ft depth. This time of the year that water heats up first and that in turn activates the fish. fish were small 16-20 in but on light tackle it was fun.