July 26th - Summer Striper Doldrums

Stripers and Blues

Striped bass are definitely into their summer mode and the best bet is always going to be early morning and late evening time, or during cloudy and rainy days. Your best bite windows are going to happen if you either stay out after dark or launch before sunrise. Throwing live eels as well as any large soft plastics are producing well, either on a light jighead up against the shore or weighted for deeper water. If you can still find a bunker, putting those on a three-way rig out deep at any hour of the day has been producing well. The topwater bite has been sparse but is still available if you can pinpoint the right location during some moving water periods. Trolling tubes as well as throwing large soft plastic paddle tails work well during the day. There are many schoolie-sized bass around in current rips and near rocky points or reefs, as well as at the mouth of tidal creeks on an outgoing tide. They are typically more eager to hit a lure than their larger counterparts.

Big blue fish are still heavily present in the local water, and have been biting live bunker in half at will. The Race and The Gut in particular are holding large populations of bluefish, which should bode well for the big bluefish tournament coming up in August. Topwater poppers as well as metals like the Shimano Current Sniper are great bluefish attractors, but make sure you’ve got the right leader material or you might be short on lures in a very brief period of time! Under-appreciated, bluefish can make a slow day more exciting and provide lots of action for young anglers looking to make a memory.

Seabass and Porgies

Seabass fishing has been solid and is consistently challenging anglers to move around and try various spots. It seems 50’ or deeper is still the right place to start, and targeting reefs like Southwest Reef, Six Mile Reef, and any other spots with similar structure are great ways to kick off a trip. However, expect to change depths and locations multiple times. Using bait rigs is working well, and so are slow pitch jigs like the Daiwa SK.

Fluke

Fluke fishing has also settled into its summer patterns, with the fluke being found sporadically and anglers fighting through many shorts to dial in a limit of keepers. Using a high-low bucktail rig, a large spoon on a 3-way rig, or bouncing two small twister-tail grubs are great presentations. Adding a strip of smelly bait is always recommended, and if bait is not available then the always solid Gulp grubs work well too!