2020 STRIPER REPORTs - Page 10

freddiethej · #**136** 05-28-2020, 09:34 PM

Today in Albany. I guess the bass leave before the herring and shad. Or I suck at fishing. One or the other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaK9dNJNU6w

Doc Z · #**137** 05-29-2020, 10:46 PM

Don't feel bad....that's not a school of stripers....its a traveling school of herring....you could have dropped a sabiki rig in it and found out. Striper schools are not that tight.

Doc Z · #**138** 05-29-2020, 10:54 PM

The Striper are definitely exiting the river fast but they are still here. The first sunrise bite is when they are feeding. Throughout the day there are pods of fish coming by on the West side but they are not very hungry. Their prime goal is to travel and they will feed mostly from the end of Flood tide into slack. They seen too tired to chase any food when the current gets going. There are also lots of Stripers on the channel floor traveling south. We fished from Milton to south of Cornwall. Newburgh Bay was pretty empty most of the day and was rough with 3-4 foot waves from the South wind. Most of our fish today were small.........even got a bunch of 10 in Stripers that could barely fit a 5-0 hook in their mouth. Thunderstorms pushed us off the river before the night bite which I suspect would have been good. Water temps were a consistent 64 degrees. I am rethinking the importance of water temps in their migratory pattern and leaning more toward the calendar as being the prime driving force. Bass love 62-64 degree water which is the best temps for spawning but this year they got it done before the river hit those temps and starting booking south like clockwork at the end of the month. Looking at my records...no matter what the temps/weather or moon phases were these fish always do the same thing the end of May......Leave. We will be back out tomorrow. There are still plenty of big fish up North that are migrating south and I hope to intercept them but fishing from here on will be spotty...if you are luck to hit a feeding school on the way out you will crush them....but most of the days will be slow.

Cheffin · #**139** 05-30-2020, 08:50 AM

Thanks for all your detailed reports and insight as always Doc

Jumpingjoe180 · #**140** 05-30-2020, 09:12 PM

The herring have all left up in Troy they are headed home. The fish finder had scatter on bottom prob cat’s

Doc Z · #**141** 05-31-2020, 05:55 AM

Yesterday we fished Marlboro to Newburgh. There were not many fish until we got down to Newburgh. There were steady pods of fish coming down the West side and the bite was pretty good. We marked some sizeable fish from just north of the bridge down to Cornwall. Toward the evening we caught several mid 30 in fish. There was a bunch of spawning on the West side between the tanks too. The dusk in to night bite was pretty good until midnight when we left. Going back down now for the morning bite. Water temps were steady around 65.

freddiethej · #**142** 05-31-2020, 10:43 AM

Doc z: I was dropping the sabiki and coming up with 3 and 4 at a time but I figured there must be a few stripers mixed in. I have the fish alarm set on large only and it was chirping like crazy although I don't really know what hummimbird counts as large. Maybe shad mixed in

Doc Z · #**143** 05-31-2020, 10:28 PM

Well....just when you think the run may be slowing down the Striper certainly come up with some surprises. Just north of the NBB was absolutely on fire for 3 hours on the West shore. There were huge schools of fish moving around and the interesting thing is that they were clean fish with a silver sheen.......new arrivals and spewing milt everywhere. I suspect maybe another wave of fish have pushed up the river while others are pushing out. These fish clearly have not been here long........they are too clean and energetic and they are feeding in the 12-17 depth range as opposed to the 22-28 ft range they have been at for most of the season. These fish are more like the ones that use to be the regulars in Newburgh Bay where you would get most of your fish at 15-18 ft down and rarely below 20 ft. I did get a report from a buddy that a new wave of fish did push into Haverstraw Bay within the last 24 hours. This makes sense because the water temp right now if perfect for spawning and what they like......it was 64-65 degrees. The morning North wind against the flood tide was a bit of a pain in the ass but the end of Flood into slack and early Ebb is where the bite was. When the Ebb tide got moving at 2.5 mph the fish scattered and the bite slowed. My crew had to leave early today and I was solo so I did not fish the Ebb into Slack for the evening which I'm sure was good as it was the day before. Sandworms were the hot ticket too............the out caught the bloods both yesterday and today for some reason. I will be back out in a few hours and fish all the tides till midnight. I figure we have about a good week left to the run......today was enough for me to keep my boat in till next weekend instead of pulling it today. Most of the fish today were in the 26-34 in range with some tiny 12 inch fish mixed in. I checked the Power Plant into Marlboro Bay during the max Ebb tide and it was dead. Another buddy went up N to Poughkeepsie in the morning and marked a lot of fish but the bite was not good for him.

Doc Z · #**144** 05-31-2020, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freddiethej

Doc z: I was dropping the sabiki and coming up with 3 and 4 at a time but I figured there must be a few stripers mixed in. I have the fish alarm set on large only and it was chirping like crazy although I don't really know what hummimbird counts as large. Maybe shad mixed in

That's what they were....a tight school of Herring. Striper schools are not as tight and Shad do not travel in schools.

Doc Z · #**145** 06-02-2020, 01:47 AM

Today was a tough day. There were plenty of fish in the channel from IBM down to Newburgh Bay but they absolutely were not biting. I ended up going all the way down to Haverstraw Bay and did not mark any fish all the way down so I'm thinking that those fresh fish we caught yesterday may have moved a bit North or be the ones on the channel floor. Water temps were 64-65 today. I am surprised that the masses of fish moved out so quickly though.....this time last year we caught 60 fish in Marlboro. Just when I think I understand them they change....figures. It was 40 degrees the night before so I wonder if the cold just shut the bite down for a day. I'm working this week but will be back out on Friday to see what transpires with this run.

bigboreblr · #**146** 06-02-2020, 09:39 AM

Doc,

Last year we had alot of rain and that river was cold. I was not seriously fishing over the weekend. The last weekend of the striper season mooring at my marina.

Went from catskill up past styvesant creek / newton hook hitting the fish finder. I marked 2 schools. One was in the slow tide period. Bloodworms, eels, chunk on the bottom. Nothing. A few surface strike dragging a 6ft jerkbait and 2.5-3mph in the catskill bridge area.

Drifted a few bloodworms and a large shiner or two from athens to catskill on sunday. Lots of hits around the buoy marker rock piles, but no takers to the boat. Likely was large or small mouths.

I did ralize something over the weekend...... I need a bigger boat. I got the tiller arm creeky back.

Doc Z · #**147** 06-03-2020, 06:39 PM

My buddy caught a 40 and 35" female in Newburgh and his friend got a 43"...they were unspawned females will eggs.......interesting.

fattony325 · #**148** 06-05-2020, 10:46 AM

Got out for a couple of hours last night. Fished millionaire's row down to the bridge from 5:30 to 7:30. Managed to get 3 25" to 30" males, all spewing like crazy. Marked fish from the west shore out into the channel, with the bite being best in the channel. Water temps between 65-66. Marked a lot of fish staged up on the bottom. in the words of Bluto Blutarski...Over? Nothing is over until we say it's over!! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour?? Hell no. Let's do it!!!

Doc Z · #**149** 06-05-2020, 03:16 PM

Now that's what I wanna hear.

Doc Z · #**150** 06-08-2020, 05:40 PM

For the most part these fish have exited the river as the western LI sound is on fire. You can still get some stragglers but they in general are traveling in singles. We had a great year...pulled the boat yesterday and are getting ready for salt. I still have about 2 weeks to tally up from my logs but we absolutely crushed our last year's record both in numbers, size and weight. I thought last year's record was untouchable but I'd be surprised if we do this well next year.....who knows...its fishing. Hope everyone had a great season. Now its time to smash 50 lbers on a weekly basis.