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The Fishing Grounds |
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The Raritan
Bay/New York Harbor estuary is a very special place. This
complex consists of a number of bays and rivers and serves
as the entrance to the Hudson River—home to the second
largest spawning population of striped bass in the world! It
is a nursery area for small stripers, the staging area for
millions of large, mature fish for months prior to the spawn
in May, and the place they return to in the fall because it
is part of their wintering grounds. In other words, the
waters you’ll be fishing aboard the Stripermania are
unquestionably the finest striped bass fishing grounds
anywhere and nobody knows them better than Capt. Lou!
As soon as the waters of the bay and its feeder rivers start
to warm in early April, stripers go on the feed. Early
season action is primarily on soft baits like clams on light
tackle with circle hooks, and Capt. Lou knows where his
clients will have the greatest chance of hooking up. The
fish will vary in size from school-size to over 25 pounds
and they are plentiful.
As the waters warm and menhaden move in, bass will begin to
switch their eating habits to cut bunker, and Capt. Lou
switches tactics to chunking. It’s during this transition
time that even more bass will be moving into the area
fattening up before making the run up the mighty Hudson to
reproduce. When the waters move beyond 50-degrees, the
stripers get even more frisky and the larger ones tend to
concentrate their feeding efforts on whole live bunker. This
is some of the most exciting striped bass fishing you will
ever experience as thick schools of bass can be encountered.
Striper action builds throughout the month of May until the
big fish start moving up the Hudson River in groups to spawn
and then back down where they will continue to feed along
with schools of migrating stripers moving north after
spawning a month earlier in the Chesapeake Bay estuary. The
months of May and June can provide world-class striped bass
fishing with trophy fish present in incredible numbers.
Typical fish are in the mid-twenty pound class, with lots of
them in the thirties and occasionally even in the forties.
Regardless of the time of year or the technique, the key to
success in this area is having a firm understanding of the
influences of the complex tides. This knowledge comes with
years of experience and Capt. Lou has learned the area well.
He knows where to catch the bait and where to fish it and
his clients are often spoiled by his innate ability to put
them on stripers day in and day out.
Summer fishing for bass can be hit or miss depending on the
year and the movements of the resident fish, although there
are other species available that can add spice to a trip in
July and August. Raritan Bay is famous for its summer
flounder fishing and the fluke are often large and very
cooperative. Schools of ravenous bluefish are never far
away.
Come fall, stripers begin moving back in and the fishing
changes again with trolling or live eel fishing taking most
of the fish. Whatever the conditions, you can count on Capt.
Lou to tell you what to expect and to provide you with the
absolute best chances at scoring while learning at the hands
of someone who has spent his life fishing these fabled
waters.
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