Fishing Report 10/17/23

Fishing Report:

Water Temp: Ocean 62.2°F Bay 59-63°F

Air Temp: 50.7°F

Surf: last night we had 2 stripers weighed in for the fall classic caught up at the lighthouse. From the surf, the kingfish bite is still good. Yesterday there were a couple of reports of smaller bass caught on bunker and some small bluefish mixed in as well. There are still a couple of reports of large bass being caught from IBSP.

Ocean: I didn’t hear of any boats fishing yesterday.

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 get in on the action. We just don’t know how fast these larger stripers are moving south.

Weather Report: The wind this week looks to be mainly out of the NW not getting higher than 10kts. Seas will be 1-2’ after today with a 10-12sec swell period. Weather looks to be good the rest of the week with the possibility of rain this weekend

Fishing Report 10/16/23

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.

Fishing Report 10/12/23

Fishing Report: Yesterday matched up with the rest of the week’s reports. There were 2 togs and 3 kingfish weighed in for the classic. More reports of bass to the north of the island as well. I did get a report from a boater yesterday of a ton of bunker off the beach with small blues mixed in. The back bay has been producing some nice stripers, still mainly around sunrise and sunset. We need to see that the water temperature gets below 60 degrees for the stripers to become more active during the peak sunlight hours. Right now, it’s about 65-67 degrees depending on the tide.

Weather: The weather this weekend looks to have taken a turn for the better. We will still see rain Saturday into Sunday and possibly winds over 20 mph on Sunday morning. If you don’t mind some rain, get out and fish. Make the fishing reports, don’t read the fishing reports!

Sea Lice: The first week of October I saw some posts of stripers caught that mentioned that the stripers had Sea Lice on them. Sea lice are a parasite that attach themselves to fish in the ocean. When these fish enter the bay the sea lice fall off due to the lower salinity. Seeing sea lice on stripers early in the fall means that those fish were either spending a lot of time hanging out on the beachfront or that they were part of the fall migration. We do have a lot of residential stripers who don’t leave our bays all summer and become more active when the water starts to cool off. These will usually be the first stripers to be caught in the fall and aren’t part of the ones migrated down the coast.