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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 !
 
#130 ·
Today was another great day and the fish were loaded from Roger's Point to Trap Rock traveling the east edge of the channel and they were hungry too. Unlike yesterday many of the males still had plenty of milt today and are searching for females. The bite was best the first half of flood then slowed and for the first time picked up again during the Ebb tide and continued into slack then flood again. These fish are feasting before they make the journey to sea. I think we have another solid 2 weeks at least and maybe more as there has not been a major spawn between Newburgh and Marlboro yet. It seems like they are staging to do this in the next day or so. We ended up with 78 for the day up to 30 inches and they were very aggressive on the hit..sometimes coming up and out of the water. Water temps were 60-61 up by Roger's point and 59-60 in Milton. The South wind kicked this afternoon making it a bit difficult to present bait. We broke 1000 fish for the season today and are ahead of last year.......I said for sure last year I would never be able to break my season record of 1278 which I'm pretty sure we will do again this year.
 
#132 ·
We fished Sat to Monday and the bite is still very good but definitely slowing a bit. As I suspected there was a massive spawn in the Poughkeepsie to Milton stretch. The morning Ebb bite has picked up significantly and the Flood bite is slowing which is what typically happens as the fish begin to move south. There has been a steady flow of fish in the channel from Rogers all the way down to Marlboro but for some reason the scatter in Marlboro Bay and the bite has not been what it use to be in past years. Saturday's overcast/rainy weather helped the bite and the fish were pretty aggressive. Sunday morning at first light the bite was on fire under the MHB and these fish progressively moved down the channel through Milton and down to the Wappinger's creek area Monday where the bite was insane for a short time from Slack into flood then they left fast. We moved back up to Milton and drifted up to the MHB where we stalled for 2 1/2 hours due to slack tide then the S wind not allowing much of an Ebb flow and the fishing was insane again as fish poured in from the north. These post spawn fish are much more aggressive and looking to feed. My buddies who were short on worms were killing them on small pieces of blood worms. Water temps went from 59 to 63 over the weekend then Monday night they were back down to 60 in Milton. There are lots of fish that will be coming south and I think the bite will continue until the 2nd week of June as this rate unless something drastic happens to water temps and they vacate fast. We crushed our last year's total this past weekend which is something I thought would never be possible since last year was such a stellar year...........well....so is this year.
 
#135 ·
Yesterday was another good day. We picked at the fish all day as there was a steady flow in the channel in Milton. Around 9pm it lit it up and we couldn't keep an eel in the water. The bite was best at first light from the end of flood tide into slack and slowed down during the day on the ebb tide but it was a steady pick. It absolutely lit up again during the evening slack into ebb tide and this time there were tons of schools on the west side moving south. There is definitely a mass exodus of fish moving south and out now but the fishing is still good. My buddy went out at dusk in Marlboro bay and caught them on night crawlers because he had no bloodworms. During the day we checked the river all the way up to Esopus Island in the afternoon and there were no fish from Poughkeepsie to Esopus. Most seemed to be concentrated in the Milton area. I saw some spawning there in the am and there was a ton of spawning in Marlboro the night before. Water temps started around 62 in the am and went up to 65 at night.
 
#138 ·
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.
 
#141 ·
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.
 

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#143 ·
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.
 
#145 ·
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.
 
#146 ·
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.
 
#148 ·
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!!!
 

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#150 ·
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.
 
#156 ·
The Saltwater fishing has been epic so far with lots of 48-50 inch fish.
 

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