Northeast coast
Striped bass
Morone saxatilis
The northeast's fish. Lives along every rocky point and sand flat from the Chesapeake to Maine.
What they like
- 1–8 musual depth (they tolerate 0.3–30 m)
- 12–22 °Cwater temperature they feed in
- clear or coloured waterwater clarity
- sloping edges, rough bottom, channelsbottom they hunt, in order
- a moving tide (rising or falling)tide
- nightlight
Rips, boulder fields, estuary mouths and sand flats on the moving tide; night and the grey light either side of it; blitzes on bait in autumn.
Season by region
Peak months, shaded. Outside them the species may still be around, just less reliably.
Bait and technique
Methods: spinning / casting, fly, bait.
Bait and lures: Live eels, bunker chunks, sand eel imitations, Deceivers, soft-plastic shads, topwater plugs.
Technique: Work the current seam of a rip or the drop at the flat edge; on the flats in June sight-cast to cruising fish like a bonefish.
Rules
Atlantic states: Atlantic coast: a 28-31 in slot and one fish per day under the ASMFC plan, with state variations and closed seasons in the Chesapeake. Verify with your state.
Seasons, sizes and bag limits change every year and differ by zone. Check the current regulations before you keep anything.
Preferences are expert estimates from the fisheries literature and angling practice, not measurements at your spot. The likelihoods on the maps are a planning aid, not a catch prediction.