Fishing Report:
Water Temp: Ocean 62.2°F Bay 59-63°F
Air Temp: 46.9°F
Surf: From the surf, the kingfish bite has picked up on Friday & Saturday. Sunday the ocean water got dirty and there was a strong current along the beach not many anglers were out. The Fall Classic saw a lot of kingfish weigh-ins, a few tog, and only one striper since Friday.
Bay: The bay is starting to see some bigger fish up to 35” move in. These fish are being caught on spot and eels. Mainly at night and during the mornings, with boaters seeing the most action.
Ocean: The boats that fished the ocean Saturday morning reported a lot of larger stripers close to the beach north of IBSP. These stripers were caught on lures and live-lining bunker. Sea bass fishing has been also very consistent out at the wrecks as well.
The rest of the Week: Looking at this week & weekend I think LBI will see a handful of large stripers caught from the surf. Boaters will take advantage of the calm seas forecasted this week to try to get in on the action. We just don’t know how fast these larger stripers are moving south. If we do see them this week I think it will only be for a day or so, in areas along the beach that have the most bait present.
Weather Report: The wind this week looks to be many out of the NW not getting higher than 10kts. Seas will be 1-2’ after today will a 10-12sec swell period. This week should stay mainly dry with a chance of showers this upcoming weekend.
Understanding the Fall Striper Migration: The striper migration isn’t one big migration; it’s broken up into small migrations. These smaller migrations are broken down even further to the size of stripers we see in each one. This mid-October bite is a perfect example. Last year we saw the same-sized stripers moving down the coast right around the same time as this year, they were all in that 30–40-pound range. This push of fish is a clear indication that the stripers are on the move down the coast but doesn’t mean all are moving at the same pace. There are still stripers being caught in Rhode Island. Come November we see more of a mixed bag of sized stripers caught, and then in early December, we start to see mainly small stripers right around keeper size.