5/20 Prime Time Striper Fishing

Got out on friends boat again. This day was also pretty windy, but not quite as windy as the other day, allowing us to effectively jig the Flutter Spoons. We ended up catching 20+ fish with 2 in the low 40" class. Deeper water 45-70' was producing best. Most fish in the low 30" class. Same areas in the deeper water of the East Bay.

Also fished inside one of the Breachways for a little while one evening around slack tide. The channel was loaded with fair size anchovies and every now and then a small bass would pop. I caught one small Bass about 20" on a 3/8th oz zoom fluke, but overall it was pretty underwhelming and I didn't stay too long.

Friends in NJ are seeing some good fishing at the offshore rockpiles of Monmouth County. Big bass up there hitting the newly popularized slow trolling live eels, and also trolling metal lips. Last year about this time, and later in May and early June saw epic Striper fishing with huge fish hitting big Metal Lips and topwater on the cast. It sounds like this bite now is a little tougher than last year but still finding worthwhile fishing, most of it happening on the Troll. The Raritan bite of 2024 will go down as the worst in years as the fishing just never came into stride in the bay.

It's prime time for the Jersey Beaches, Inlets and Backbays for not just Stripers but also Drum, Weakfish, Fluke and Blues. Bluefish action sounds marginal, some here and there but nothing to write home about. Plenty of Big Bass are being taken from the beaches on Clam and Bunker, and the night shift is surely finding some action on Artificals and Live Eels.

Pictured below is a spoon bass double from Narragansett Bay, and an anchovy I snagged from the Breachway. All that bait in the Breachways should be drawing in some more fish as the days go on.