Lay of the Land

[Ghostdog]

I am a surf fisherman mainly fishing LBI, NJ. New to the area and need to get the lay of the land in the Assateague area, particularly for Stipers.

What is the general season down there. They are just coming in to LBI now and we are seeing mainly shorts, no cows yet.

Generally throw clam and bunker, occasionally eels, but mostly eels if I am fishing out front from a boat.

I was told spot is big down in MD.

Any info would be helpful. Tight lines!

[Sam]

Great to have you onboard! We look forward to helping you out with any questions you might have about Assateague. We are also very intersted in what is going on in New Jersey.

We tend to use bunker chunks or heads from the surf with larger circle hooks. From a boat, I hear folks are getting nice bass using eels and putting the spot back in the traps.

[Mighty Quinn]

Ghostdog.....Welcome. From what I've heard we are experiencing the same thing here as you were in NJ....some smalls with one or two cows mixed in...but the consensus is that they are running late.

As far as boat fishing, I have heard that jigging works pretty well although I haven't tried it in the ocean myself.

Will be interesting to see what all this NE wind does for the fish and to the beach.

[Coop]

Originally Posted by Ghostdog

I am a surf fisherman mainly fishing LBI, NJ. New to the area and need to get the lay of the land in the Assateague area, particularly for Stipers.

What is the general season down there. They are just coming in to LBI now and we are seeing mainly shorts, no cows yet.

Generally throw clam and bunker, occasionally eels, but mostly eels if I am fishing out front from a boat.

I was told spot is big down in MD.

Any info would be helpful. Tight lines!

Welcome aboard ,

Stripers on average show the end of October and can continue into the beginning of December, however you can catch stripers into January and even sometimes a little later,,,if water temps allow,,,say above 41*,,,last year the season never ended,,,caught stripers all winter long right into the spring season, tho all rats except a large at the end of January,,,water temps were above 41* most of the winter and literally never put the rods away for the winter,,,this fall has been crappy, so it's a wait and see what happens in December,,,I would in no way pack up the equipment yet,,,personally, once water temps hit 40* and below I am done, hopefully that will not happen this winter.

Spring time is a little strange,,,I think at the end of March and the very beginning of April can be good for medium size stripers (short window of oppurtunity, say 2 weeks),,,I personally think some of these fish winter over off the mouth of the chesapeake and our waters and head to the delaware bay to spawn,,,so I think there is a little run then where it is very possible to catch some nice stripers

After the spawning in the Chesapeake,,,we can get into another good striper bite the very beginning of May into the first week of June,,,generally these can be big fish,,,cows.

Bunker is the most popular from the beachfront,,,clams work too and I use them exclusively in the winter,,,no fresh bunker around,,,eels and spot are popular from the boat,,,but have heard people catching stripers from the surf with spot and eels as well,,,if they eatem from a boat, there's no reason why they wouldn't eatem on the beachfront.