Bill Couch was a generational icon in the Northeast striped bass fishing community. He was the owner of Couch’s Cedar Works, through which he designed, built, and sold top quality plugs at an affordable price. He was universally loved and admired by a group of fishermen who could squabble, bicker, and get nasty over any […]
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Northeast striped bass can’t resist an eel. Artificials longer than a foot catch the trophies. George Poveromo Some 20 feet separated Cory Crochetiere and me aboard MARC VI while jigging for striped bass off Rhode Island this past July. Using identical tackle—Penn rods and Battle III 5000 reels, 20-pound Sufix 832 braid, 40-pound fluoro leader, […]
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For years, there has been fear and anxiety spreading about the status of the Atlantic striped bass resource, fueled by the continuous decline in the striped bass population since the early 2000s and most recently by below-average recruitment (spawning success) in Maryland portions of Chesapeake Bay. Since 2018, when striped bass were declared overfished, the […]
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In pop culture, a hero is the subject of admiration, idealized for strength and ability. For most fall-run surfcasters, the striped bass fits the bill. However, there is a less-sought-after species that deserves recognition and should be included in fall-run forays alongside stripers, bluefish, and false albacore. To loosely quote Gary Oldman in Christopher Nolan’s […]
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Each fall, husky striped bass creep along the North Shore after dark to fatten up on bait in less-pressured waters. Growing up on the central North Shore of Long Island made it easy to fall in love with the sport of fishing. I live a stone’s throw from local beaches on Smithtown and Huntington bays, […]
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Bill Sisson’s evocative new book winds us through a marine journalist’s sometimes precarious, lifelong hunt for a beautiful fish and the perfect boat. Each fall, scores of anglers chase striped bass along the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic aboard a diverse armada of boats, from 50-foot convertibles working the steep rips off Nantucket, Montauk and Block Island […]
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Striped bass poachers have kept officers in the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management busy. Courtesy Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management The fall run of striped bass brings legions of anglers to the New England coast. Most of them play by the rules—one fish between 28 and 35 inches per person, per day—but Rhode […]
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The red tide currently affecting San Francisco Bay is impacting fish, mollusks, and other invertebrates. Damon Tighe Special delivery: Sign up for the free Salt Water Sportsman email newsletter. Subscribe to Salt Water Sportsman magazine for $19 for 1 year and receive 4 bonus digital issues. Thousands of dead fish washed up along the shores of San Francisco Bay […]
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Captain Rob Taylor recommends fishing the flood tide when targeting stripers in late summer in Newport. The incoming tide brings in cooler water, putting the stripers into feeding mode. By August, striped bass have been entrenched in their summer haunts since early July. They can be reliably located, though not always consistently caught. Many fishermen […]
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Above: Late summer can be an exciting time to catch largemouth bass in local ponds and lakes. August can be a tough month for salty flyrodders. Spawning blues are off the bite, it’s usually too soon for albies, and striped bass and weakfish sometimes take “vacation days,” ignoring every fly you throw at them. So, […]
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When it comes to plugs, I believe the versatile ones, the plugs that can do as many different things as possible, are the best. My reasons could fill up a book, but they actually come down to two essentials. First, if a plug is versatile, I don’t have to carry as much on each trip—I […]
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Striped bass are versatile sport fish. For some anglers, they’re also eating fish. Anglers can catch bass in the surf with custom plugs and poppers, or they can drop a fly in front of a striper on a shallow flat. Big striped bass also chomp hefty live baits. Soft plastics, epoxy jigs and metal lures […]
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The Manhattan Cup kicks off in sight of the Statue of Liberty. Gary Caputi The 21st Manhattan Cup blasted off on Friday, June 3 from its base in New York Harbor and was one for the record books. The largest striped bass caught in tournament history topped the leader board, but more on that in […]
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This hefty striper, taken by Lawrence Seaman on Hugh Chancey’s boat on June 30, read 54 pounds on a scale. Hugh Chancey Capt. Hugh Chancey, 45, is the quintessential seaside New Yorker. He’s a fast-talking charter captain full of brash and bravado, quick with hard fishing facts learned from years of on-the-water experience. He’s a […]
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It’s the final spring striper migration map of 2022! Stripers are settling into summertime hotspots like Montauk, Block Island, eastern Long Island Sound, and outer Boston Harbor. Overall, there have been some good reports this spring that provide hope for a rebound in striper numbers, with a noticeable presence of 28- to 32-inch stripers. […]
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Saltwater Sportsman Editor-in-Chief Nate Matthews with a hefty striped bass that ate a Doc fished slowly outside a bunker school. Nate Matthews Topwater striper lure bites come when you least expect it. You’re fishing seemingly dead water, casting to a sod bank, or some other structure. Then out of nowhere, KABOOM! Your topwater fishing lure […]
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