Night stripers and tautog turn on in Delaware Bay as storm clears
NOAA's CO-OPS station 8537121 logged 69.3°F early Saturday morning as the Delaware Bay's south Jersey shore holds onto late-summer warmth heading into the fall shift. The Fisherman — Southern NJ reports tautog have invaded the bay, per Higbee's Bait and Tackle, taking sand fleas, green crabs and fiddlers with fish to 4 pounds coming aboard. The same regional roundup has Big Dave's Tackle noting weakfish showing for anglers drifting bait, with a soft-plastic bite building near the lighthouses. Pier 47 Marina, also cited there, describes striped bass hammering staged peanut bunker and mullet after dark in the Wildwoods back bays, with anglers scoring fish to 31 inches on paddletails, rubber shads, bucktails and Mag Darters — higher tides far outproducing low water.
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The Fisherman (Northeast)'s NJ/DE Bay Region forecast, filed ahead of this week's nor'easter, points to drier conditions settling in through the weekend as the storm clears, worth noting since New Jersey's fluke season closed on Friday the 25th, shifting bay-side attention fully to bottom and structure species. With the full moon stacking bigger tides, today's swing from a low near 4:23 AM to a high around 10:13 AM is the window to build around: the incoming water should keep feeding the night bite Pier 47 described and may push more weakfish activity toward the lighthouse structure Big Dave's flagged.
If the tautog bite Higbee's is seeing holds through the blow, expect it to keep building on crab and sand-flea baits as the 69°F reading eases toward the season's cooler stretch.
Context
Upper-60s water at the tail of September is typical for the Delaware Bay's New Jersey shore, right at the seasonal handoff where bay stripers key on migrating baitfish after dark while tautog move onto structure for the fall. Fluke closing on the 25th lines up with the standard state season, and a weakfish bite building near structure in late September reads as a normal pattern for the bay rather than an early or late turn this year.
Synthesized from real-time NOAA buoy data, USGS stream gauges, and current reports across regional fishing blogs, captain updates, and angler forums. Check local regulations before keeping fish. Never trust a single source for a trip decision.
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