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2020 STRIPER REPORTs

72K views 162 replies 33 participants last post by  Jono916 
#1 ·
** SHOW EM' IF YA GOT EM' **

Post any 2020 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.

Thanks and good luck all !
 
#74 ·
Fished port ewen Friday night after the rain...just before dark landed a nice 35” 20 lb then the reels wouldn’t stop and lost a few but boated another 6 up to 27” on chunk in 10 fow. Stayed out until midnight then the wind kicked up. Went back out in the am and slammed the schoolers again all fish 26 to 28 by the lighthouse. Got some sleep the fished Wappingers to beacon outgoing tide drifting eels and sand worms with no bites. Wtf lol
 
#75 ·
We went back out today from 7:30 am to 8pm. The morning was good on the Flood Tide with lots of fish right where we left them the night before....in the channel at Trap Rock but the bite window was short. It was best during Flood (we missed Slack) but instantly died on the Ebb Tide as the fish scattered to the channel floor. We proceeded to watch them sit on the channel floor from 1pm to 7pm until slack tide when they started to mobilize but the wicked 30mph wind gusts made bait presentation difficult and they were not biting. We still managed 9 more fish up to 37in/21lbs. Water Temp in Marlboro was 50.5 degrees.
 

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#77 ·
Made morning and afternoon trips today. Bait continues to be easy to scap.

AM: landed 36.5", 37.5", 36", 39.25" and had a couple pop offs.
Also, hooked into something MASSIVE on chunk. The second I set the hook it went right to the channel and down the river. If it weren't for the initial hit, run and headshakes I would have sworn that it was a submerged tree. It never so much as gave me an inch.. just steadily kept pulling away.. It nearly spooled 300yds of line before it broke off. I started recording about 15 mins into the fight so at least I have proof of my "fisherman's story" lol. In retrospect, I wish that I released my anchor and chased it down. Not sure if it was a monster striper, a sturgeon or what?

PM: took my 9yo out for a couple hours. I've tried to put him on fish for a couple seasons but the weather and fish never seemed to cooperate. Got our bait quick and got at it. Had a few quick run and drops. Enough to keep him at the edge of his seat. Just as he was getting bored around slack tide a pole that we were about to reel in went screaming. He kicked ass and muscled in his first.. a nice healthy 38.5"! Stoked is an understatement. The picture will be framed and hanging in my livingroom till the day I die.
Back at it in the am��
 

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#79 ·
We fished Marlboro today and ended up with 8 for the day up to 36" but the rest were 22-24". All were caught in the channel at the Rock plant which was loaded all day but the fish are not hitting in the typical strike zone of 15-18' but rather more in the 25-35' depth which is very unusual and the first time I have seen this in years. I will be dropping a temp probe soon to learn and see if the temperature thermocline has changed this year. We threw everything at them....eel, herring, bloods and sands. The latter 2 were 4/4 and nothing remotely was interested in the eel or herring today...our 36 incher bypassed all to hit a worm.....very interesting. Basically the bite is the best on the AM slack to Flood...a very small window. The bite dies quickly after that despite there being loads of fish coming by at 20' and below down to the channel floor...although I did manage to get one at 25' down at the PM slack to Flood but the screen was loaded and no takers after this so we left at 9pm. These fish are more interested in traveling N at this time and are NOT our resident fish we see schooling around the bay...they will arrive in a week or so. Don't get discouraged....there is ALWAYS a lull between these 2 waves and everyone panics that there are no fish....it happens every year some time between May 7-12 for a few days then it explodes after when the Cheseapeake fish arrive. Raritan Bay was hot this week which means they will be here in 5-7 days. Haverstraw Bay reports were empty...not surprising. Water temp was 51.5 all day and didn't budge....my buddy in Newburgh got the temp there at 49.
 

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#81 ·
Morning trip with my son. Bait was a bit slower but I was still able to scap enough to last for a few hours. My fish finder shit the bed so obviously couldn't mark anything and had to guesstimate my fow. About 30 mins in I caught a 41.5". Unfortunately for my kid there were no other hits or runs ..not that I'm calling it a lousy morning by any means.
 

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#83 ·
Drifted may 6th around dennings around 9 am. . Caught 2 small ones in 35 fow. Went north of the nbb by the red buoy and hit the channel, 38 to 45 fow west side, found some active schools and ended up with 7 more. Only small ones. Up to 25 inches. Blood worms from 17 to 24 feet down....

Drifted today may 7th. Once again caught 2 around dennings in 35 fow. 9am. 21 feet down blood worms. Moved to the red buoy again in 40 fow and caught only one. The fish I caught was bleeding from his scales all banged up.... went south of the bridge and once we got passed the bridge, east side from 35 fow to 27 we drifted from west to east. There was alot of fish covering the screen.. only managed 2.. 24 and a 23.. I did see one bigger 35 plus inch fish caught but I wasnt able to manage any more.. very frustrating. Males are starting to sperm
 

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#85 ·
Made a quick am trip today. Debris everywhere ...fun.
Bait was a little tough to scap but persistence paid off. Had one striper break off right away. Probably a nick in my line. Managed to boat a 36.5" and 37". One on live and one on chunk.
 
#86 ·
Got out around 2 on Thursday. Ran into thick schools between the buoy and the stack in Marlboro/Poughkeepsie. The fish were on the west side of the buoy. Picked up 3 keeper sized fish in 40 minutes then it seemed to shut down. We trolled lures for a bit with no luck. My buddies up Kingston way swear by trolling with lures and never fish bait. I'll have to try and take a trip north. It seems all the fish we're catching have straight lines along them. Maybe the next wave of fish coming up will have that segmented line I'm used to seeing.
 

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#88 ·
Got 2 yesterday just north of the rip van winkle somewhere around slack high in about 25ft on chunk on the east side. 18" and 21". Lots of hits, but in my little 16ft tin boat, the wind picked up and was hard to present or even be in the boat for long..... Left around 5pm.

I had to work and got to the dock around 1:30pm. Several boats leaving with fish and caught several.

I cheated and bought bait again... Folks were having trouble with herring again........

I switched it up a little today. Instead of zooming right to a spot, I put a shallow and deep challenger on 2 rods and trolled the channel and banks near the catskill. Found both bait and bass . No hits on the crankbaits though. No monsters on the fish finder all medium sizes.
 
#91 ·
I fished Wed and Thursday night to Monday but took Sat off due to the wind forecast which ended up not being bad. Wed we fished Marlboro around Trap Rock and managed 8 fish up to 36 inches but the fish were scarce. We came back Thursday nite and fished the same area and the few fish we saw had vacated and the screens were blank so Friday we made the decision to head North to the Norrie/Black Creek area and it paid off. The was a steady flow of fish up the West channel all weekend and they were schooling heavily on Sunday night when the bite was insane. Friday Flood into Slack had the best bite and in the morning we saw some spawning activity on the calm surface. The south wind kicked around 3pm and killed the evening bite. We came back 8pm Sat night and again checked Marlboro and the Power Plant area but again the fish were scarce so Sunday morning we went North again and the bite was good through the whole Flood tide despite the wind blowing us SE to NW. The wind died in the evening and the bite turned on as well as the spawning. It was good from 7pm to 10pm with thick schools but not what you would have expected from the number of fish...they are still not feeding as they have been more interested in getting ready to spawn. Monday was the same...no fish down from Marlboro to Poughkeepsie but they were still North. I managed to get my personal best and set my boat record for the Hudson at 51.15 lbs/45inches. She was a fat/full beautiful cow who went back with no issues. I caught her drifting a sandworm off a bobber and luckily I hooked her with my best reel because she would have spooled any other reel I had on the boat. Water temps remained steady at 53-54 degrees despite the extreme cold.
 

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#93 ·
Nice report and congrats on the Beast. good to hear they moved into that area because I pounded that area Tuesday and Wednesday and only managed a few small fish. It did look like the big girls were staging up in the deep water to spawn the bottom was carpeted from 50 to 90 feet in the East Channel but not much up high and nothing would go based upon your report I guess that's exactly what was happening. I was skeptical with the water temps but I guess they will spawn in colder water?
 
#95 ·
Nice fish Doc.

Went out for 2 hours late this morning in catskill. Mostly trolled north of the creek mouth to see whats on the fish finder.

Looked better on the East side than the west. Cows at the base of the bank in 50ft water. Schoolies half way up in the bank sitting in the 25ft collumn at the 40-45ft depth. Small bait 15-20ft in the 35-40ft part of the bank.

Alot of familiar boats in spots they're usually not in today......

No stripers, but I caught a monster smallmouth on a purple / white 20ft challenger lure.

Threw some chunks out for the last 45 or so before noon and headed back. The wind was picking up out there.

Back out tomorrow likely if work doesn't need me....... Might buy eels and some worms tonight and head south towards eusopus....

For you fustrated sabiki / scap netters in the catskill area, riverview marina has frozen herring still..... No live or fresh dead.
 
#96 ·
Went out Sunday mid-morning and despite the wind blowing the boat eastward all morning managed a nice fat 38" cow. A little later the wind calmed down and drifted north and caught a bunch of keeper sized fish. As I was drifting between the MHB and The Walkway I caught 2 18" dinks back to back. As I was watching my rod tip barely bouncing thinking I had run into a school of dinks, I engaged the the Baitrunner and the reel screamed!! I lost a monster right at the side of my boat. I had her half in my net and the hook came out and I couldn't extend myself far enough to scoop her. If I wasn't by myself I'd have taken a chance falling in to get her. It would have definitely beaten my PB of 45". The perils of fishing solo!! Caught a total of 9 for the day.
 

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#97 ·
The bite is getting better. We fished from Roger's to Norrie and killed em today. The schools were thick and they certainly were biting better on the tide changes. Just south of Roger's in 120 FOW the schools were running around 24-30 ft and hungry. Slack into Flood was best but there was still some bite from slack into Ebb but when the current was over 1.2 mph the bite died. The big cows are around too. We hooked into 2 monsters and the first one snapped the line 17 feet up...we figured she wrapped around something because the line was all frayed and the hook pulled on the second one at the boat which was well over 45 lbs. Most of the fish we landed were from 15-26 inches but we got a couple up to 37in/21 lbs. There are lots of huge marks in water under 25 ft which is the females trying to avoid the aggressive males. I did watch the damn Vermont trollers drag their balls through the females lying in the mud and snag them....its sad to see these assholes do this just for charters. Water temps today were a steady 53.5 to 54 degrees. The bite will only continue to improve from here. I did not see any spawning today. We checked Marlboro to Poughkeepsie in the morning and dusk and there were very few fish...hopefully the Chesapeake Stripers arrive within the next week as these are the ones that hang around there in schools.
 
#98 ·
Morning excursion with my boys today. Was finally able to jig up some herring again after a few dead days. Landed a 35" channel cat(my pb) My stepson caught a 36" striper which is his pb. Didnt see much else going on around us. Heading back out Saturday.
 

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#99 ·
This mysterious catskill herring......

You get them in the creek or in the river....... And I thought last year herring was tough.......


I went shoreside across the catskill creek in the evening 5-7pm. Catfish and eels enjoyed the herring chunks...... More or less slack low I think...... Grandpa enjoyed it.
 
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