Post any 2019 Striper Reports and photos here. Hope to see a bunch of HAWGS. Feel free to include county or general area, No need to give up specific spots or honey holes.
Please try and limit it to just reports & congrats.
The bite just continues to improve and today was a banner day with some serious cows in the mix. We ended up with 31 for the day up to 37 in/22lbs. We caught lots of fish in the 30+ inch range in Milton. The bite was best flood tide into slack because there is so much water moving out of the River that essentially we stalled and had no drift for 4 hours...stayed in almost the same spot and this is what the fish seem to want this time of year. They are lazy and have no interest in chasing food. The evening slack tide was just as good and it was hard to leave with the bite still on but we had to get home. A bunch of the fish actually hit the worms running south so I'm guessing some of the bass that will stay in our area have arrived and they are not all just traveling through. I have 2 days of work then back out for 5 days. Water temps were 54-56 degrees.
Doc
Thanks for the information. So, Milton Area is hot. I am not all that familiar with the area so can you give me a landmark and approximate distance north of the NB bridge? I assume you were on the east side and at what depth was the most consistent action?
Thanks for the help. It is a pretty long drive to get to Newburgh launch
Tp
I met one of those charter guys this morning on my quest for bait. Nice guy, saw some other pictures of it this morning. Impressive. No such luck for me today.
Another epic day on the water but today was extra special as we set our boat record with a COW.....45 inches/38.5 lbs caught on an eel at slack tide just south of Shadows in Poughkeepsie. She railed the eel and took off. We also got a nice 30in fish on the same eel earlier. Today's total was 33. Most of our fish were in the 24-38" range but they are getting more aggressive. Although...my last fish for the day was a a 39"/24lb male...quite large for a male...thought it was a cow until it spewed all over. I also set a personal record of being able to set the hook on 2 rods while taking a leak off the side of the boat........this always seems to happen...LOL. Today's bite was much better in the am Flood into slack.......the fastest we drifted for 4 hours was 0.5mph. The fish still are quite lazy and do not want to chase the bait as when the tide picked up on ebb the bite shut down....then picked up again for the evening slack tide. My last 39" male was caught when we were picking up the rods to reset our drift......I heard a slight tick on the reel but thought I caught a log or something...when I started to reel it in it just stopped then he took off. He seemed to be sucking on the worm for a while. Interesting is that when we hung an eel off one rod we got way more hits on all the other rods...I'm convinced that it attracts the Striper to the boat them being such a competitive fish.....I've also noticed in the past the same with a herring...we still catch more on bloodworms but having a herring or eel in the water clearly helps the whole game. Water temps today cooled off for the am and started at 51 degrees........ending at 54 degrees.
The Striper are still booking it North so these fish will move on. Don't get depressed as we will have a lull in the action before the main wave arrives in a week.
Put 2 in the boat this am up to 31" on chunk. They slammed it pretty aggressively. Wanted to put in a full day but the wind rain and waves made it absolutely miserable out there in my little tin boat. Heading back out in the am.
Mother Nature is trying to keep us off the water with cold/rain but we said no. Marlboro was quite dead today...we only managed 3 fish there but one was 35 in/ 18 lbs....a personal best for one of my crew, Rachael today. Newburgh had good school along the east side from Dennings and North but they only fed during Flood into Slack tide. The bite dropped significantly on the Ebb tide with the fast moving current. The SE wind kicked up in the afternoon which didn't help. Most of the Newburgh fish were 24-28 inches but my buddy from Keeping it Reel Charters managed a nice 40.5" fish in the early morning Flood tide. Marlboro temps were 51 and Newburgh was 54 degrees. This evening Marlboro bay was a complete ghost town with not one fish on the screen when we left at 8pm.
The water temps started out 8 degrees warmer than last year but this cold/rainy weather has put then on par now with the last 5 years......generally ran 52-55 on May 3rd.
Fished Greene from 5am-330pm. Took about an hour with two of us to scap up 8 herring. Ended the day with a 34.5" male on live. That was the only action that we had. Not even a nibble on chunk.
Friday night predicted 70% rain all Saturday morning. We almost postponed. Turned out to be perfect weather. No wind, no rain and good cloud cover from 8-1pm with my new crew of three! No record breakers but we landed 26 up to 7lbs. I went to my same spots in Newburgh bay that always produce. The armada was all sitting at Dennings but we passed them and seemed to be the first few on the action. The bite picked up on the start of incoming about 8:30. These three all had their best fishing day of their lives and had a great time.
P.S. Doc Z, were you in a Green Neon shirt in a Grady White? I think I passed you.
Friday night predicted 70% rain all Saturday morning. We almost postponed. Turned out to be perfect weather. No wind, no rain and good cloud cover from 8-1pm with my new crew of three! No record breakers but we landed 26 up to 7lbs. I went to my same spots in Newburgh bay that always produce. The armada was all sitting at Dennings but we passed them and seemed to be the first few on the action. The bite picked up on the start of incoming about 8:30. These three all had their best fishing day of their lives and had a great time.
P.S. Doc Z, were you in a Green Neon shirt in a Grady White? I think I passed you.
Fished Friday afternoon Kingston area high tide boated 4 lost 1 fought the wind on anchor with the upriver wind and outgoing tide. . Took a buddy out for his first time striper fishing. one 21lb on the 1 blood rod while fishing 5 chunk. Back out first thing Saturday morning boated 4 more fish one of which was a 42" 35lb slob not bad for his 2nd day striper fishing on the Hudson. Fish cAme on the chunk first thing in the am . Finished out high tide. Ran back in for bait and went back out in the afternoon for high tide and picked up another 4 fish up to 19lb . Beginning of tide seemed to be when we got most of our bites . Bloodworms out fished the chunk fishing on anchor by a couple fish .
Put in at Albany today, hard time finding herring at first but got 4 in a usual spot, fished above I-90 and then down above the port, one 34" on live. Started marking herring all over as the day wore on but they wouldn't hit. Water temp 50, clarity ok.
We spent the last 38 hours on the water and managed a total of 22 fish up to 35 inches. 5/4 Newburgh bay was hot with a good bit on Flood into Slack but the fish got lockjaw on Ebb tide. My buddy caught over 40 fish alone down by Bannerman's well south of the 100+ boats crowding the bay...he was smart. At night we went to Marlboro and fished eels at Trap Rock. I managed the 35" fish. He took the eel and swam right to the surface. I had a monster on shortly after but lost it....bent my pole right under the boat the the hook pulled. Through the night we cruised from Poughkeepsie to the NBB and the screen was blank...not a fish in site. A cold rain moved in around 1am and never left making conditions tough for Sunday. The Newburgh bite just died. My buddies spend the morning in Poughkeepsie and while there were not a ton of marks most of the fish they caught were 30-40 inches. We motored up but only got fish in the mid 20 in range at the end of the Flood tide. My buddy POW nailed a nice 42 inch/34 lber. As soon as the tide started moving south at more than 1 mph the bite just shut down. There were plenty of fish up there but no bite. I suspect the dropping water temps are slowing down the bite. Newburgh went from 55 down to 52 on 5/5 and Poughkeepsie was a whopping 51 degrees. Going back out at 5am.
What a difference a day makes...we went from wearing thermals/layer/boots/warmers and hats to a T-Shirt and shorts today...and to add to this the bite picked up significantly but today they seemed way more interested in Sand Worms than Bloods. At the end of the am Ebb we managed a nice 39in/24lb Cow just north of Trap Rock then we went to Newburgh for the am Slack into Flood and it paid off......the bite was on as there were steady feeding fish from Bannerman's Island to the tanks in 35-38 FOW. My guess is the colder temps (51) drove the fish back down to the West Point area where it is deep and the ambient water temp down there is around 54-55...Today's warmup pushed them back up which is why they first showed up in the Cornwall Bay area then to the Bridge. The front of of this school had many 35+ inch fish and the middle and rear were mostly 20-30 inchers following the Cows. All my buddies picked up fish over 35 inches today...and we ended up with 33 for the day but went through a flat of Sands and Bloods. There were a LOT of small bait stealers in the mix. Oh yea..........we broke our boat record which I said would not happen in this lifetime for a Hudson fish.....we topped our 38 lber with a 45 inch 44 lb Slob......caught in 24 FOW where we found the floor littered with Cows staging to travel on the Ebb tide. She was caught with a small eel set at 21 feet. Water temps in Newburgh went from 54 to 57 degrees but in Marlboro it was still 51 degrees which explains why that had not lit up yet which is normally does by this time. I attached my buddies Sonar so you can see all the Cows sitting on the floor.
0 Bass for me so far. Been around catskill bridge by the usual parking spots on the river. Herring is spotty. The creek had no hits on a sabiki. Even drifted out most of it today from 430 to 630. Creek was 57 degrees. Didn't go to the river from my dock spot in the creek.
Best I had was either saturday or sunday. 2 live herring on my live liner reels had good screams. The herring survived. That was after I drifted north on the flood and it was close to slack during the afternoon. Might of done better If I had slider rigs on. Had 3 ways for drifting on 3oz. Reel runs were while anchored in 20ft or so east side.
Others in my area would say the same. River is stuggling to get to 53. Looks like the rainy weather has struggled to make progress with temps over the past week.
Got a new hummingbird helix 7 SI fishfinder. Still learning it, but it looks pretty slow, or they're hugging the bottom hard. Focused on 10-20ft on east side and 10ft west side around castkill bridge area.
I did visit green island park right off 787 friday evening fished 5 to 7 with bucktails only. Left like I had a tap or two. Didn't see any herring on shore. MAybe 6 or so folks at the park and the same across the river. Looked ike skunks for them. Definitely planning on hitting bike trail with my rigged up bike towards end of may or so.
Visibility looks to be getting better. Most of this week I had about 2-3ft before I could not see my 2oz bucktail. Darm bucktail broke my new tsunami travel surf rod during a cast........
Got 4 dead herring in the cooler and one live in the baitwell......
Last week there was talk of coxsackie being better than catskill.
Got on some cows in the Poughkeepsie/Milton stretch. Biggest was 46” pushing 50 pounds. Followed by 43” 38 pounds, 37” 20 lbs and 34” 17 lbs. All incoming tide drifting bloods at 19’. My son had a day not many kids get to experience.
Fished Albany to Troy today. Anchored for a while near the port...no action from any of the boats that I could see. Headed to the dam and drifted back to Albany...no takers so far. Water is up to 54°.
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