After a difficult month of April,
I primarily spent the early stages of May fishing inlet jetties, hoping to connect with the first few gator bluefish of the season. I was successful in doing so, landing several blues up into the mid-teens this month, primarily on SP Minnows and Mag Darters. The first few weeks of May, the bass and blues fed very well in tandem. With tinker mackerel the primary forage, they were crushing any long-profiled plug that sauntered past.
That bite lasted around four days and shut off. At which point, I pivoted my attention to looking for stripers in skinny water on the interior instead of searching out front. This would pay dividends, as schoolie to smaller overslot size fish have been roaming the flats in numbers over the last couple weeks. I have had fish to 33” on a combination of spooks and weightless soft plastics in the skinny. On a medium action rod with 15lb braid, even the chunkier schoolies battle formidably.
With the May influx of teener striped bass a relatively strong one, I hope that the cows that are on their heels provide some unforgettable days on the water in June, much like they did in 2022, the month I was able to break my personal best twice.
I am taking a trip up to Cape Cod during the first week of June in an attempt to intercept the cows at a point further north on their journey. I will be joining my good friend Capt. Ben Sussman of In The Net Sportfishing. For anyone who knows Capt. Ben, he has as much knowledge on New England striped bass fishing as a man can have, and I know we’ll do some serious rod-bending in two-week’s time.
Weakfish and Fluke have gotten approximately zero of my mental capacity for fish catching. I am locked into striper mode. Good luck getting me out of it.