Late Reds - Stripers too

[Charkbait]

This year it looks like a combination of water temp (obvious) AND salinity. Due to lack of rain there has been some out of the ordinary species caught in the NE river and the upper reaches of the bay. this includes blues, spot, croakers, and puppy drum. Seems like the usual mark for reds is point lookout, the flats and NE river are well north, enough to cause a delayed arrival of about 7-10 days. It takes the stripers about 17-20 days from the peak of the flats spawn to the peak of the AI run. Just some info to chew on...

Also jellyfish in the inner harbor in Balt. Weird year.

Big stripers reported in Montauk this weekend, it may be a while though because there was tons of bait reported as well. It'd be nice to get a nice cold water line coming down the coast this year to add some predictability to the fall run. Seems like last year it went Nov - eary Jan with fish caught just about all the way through. Makes it tough to time.

[RhodySurfCaster]

It has been a weird season for sure.The spring run produced many 40,50 and even a few 60 pound fish in Narragansett Bay this season. The fishing barely slowed in the traditional "summer doldrum" month of august,with 20-40 pound fish remaining in the bay in good numbers. The pogies(menhaden) arrived here in numbers that haven't been witnessed in these waters since the 1970's.Of course the bluefish weren't far behind,with fish in the 15-20 pound range common.Ok now for the weird,the plugs,tides,time of day and weather that traditionally combine to produce quality fish have done a 180,a perfect example of "just when you think you got them all figured out,they change the rules".