The 2026 striped bass migration has rolled into June, and according to On The Water's latest coastal report, the run that started late after a cold winter is now delivering big fish from New Jersey to Maine, even as a familiar worry hangs over the season: a shortage of small bass.
The report, recorded at the turn of the month, traced fish spreading north along the entire striper coast. In the Chesapeake, schoolies still work the shallows on topwater and soft plastics, while the bulk of migratory fish have pushed through New Jersey, where charter captains landed 50-pounders on live eels and deep-diving metal-lip swimmers. Major spawning events in the middle and upper Hudson mean post-spawn fish are now dropping into New York Harbor and fanning out along Long Island's shores.
Southern New England is the standout. "Pick a river or a reef in the sound and there are most likely bass on it," said Anthony from Game On Lures, summing up Long Island Sound. Captain Ben from Apex Angling described the western Sound as "red hot," with fishermen "currently in the peak of that spring migration" as fish from both the Chesapeake and the Hudson converge.
That abundance comes with a caveat the hosts could not ignore. The average fish is running up to 40 inches, but, as they put it, "the lack of small fish is apparent and frankly very concerning." Guest captains echoed the theme repeatedly, noting plenty of medium-to-large bass but very few of the smaller, younger year-classes that signal a healthy future stock.
In Boston, the picture is booming at the top end. Captain Brian Kums of Get Tight Sport Fishing reported a surge of larger fish. "We've definitely seen a big uptick in larger fish this past week," he said, with numbers in the mid-40-pound range showing up alongside a strong 30-to-40-inch class. He did not hold back on the spring as a whole: "We're having an abnormally good spring. It's the best May I've seen up in the Boston area."
Kums said the size of the fish is dictating how he fishes them. "These fish are getting so honed in on eating larger forage to sustain their body mass that it's kind of become a go-big-or-go-home thing," he explained, fishing big soft plastics, glide baits and live mackerel rather than light tackle.
Further down the coast, the bite has stayed strong. Captain Rob Taylor, a friend of On The Water, said the action in Rhode Island had been "lights out all week," with big bass keyed on river herring. On Cape Cod, the rips off the south side were loaded with squid, and anglers reported wolfpacks of bass pinning squid to the surface.
Canyon Runner's Captain Dean rounded out the rundown with rising water temperatures, low-50s off the Cape and cracking 60 around New Jersey and the western Sound, fuelling the northward push. With the bigger June moons still ahead, the hosts expect another wave or two of trophy fish into New Hampshire and Maine, where 40-pounders are already in the mix. The fishing, for now, is excellent. Whether the missing small fish turn up is the question that lingers.
