Striper Blitz Intensifies on Long Island

What's Biting

What's Next

With the full moon now passed and tides settling into a waning gibbous phase, the striper action that exploded around the May 4–5 full moon should hold strong through the weekend. Post-full-moon periods tend to keep bass schools pressed against structure as tidal flow moderates, and with bunker schools well-established across Long Island Sound and the South Shore surf — per On The Water — New York / Long Island — those fish have both forage and motivation to hold in place.

On the North Shore, Campsite Sport Shop (Huntington) is reporting fish to 40 inches at buoy 15 and Cold Spring Harbor on poppers and Mojo's; Hi-Hook Bait and Tackle echoes steady catches on bunker chunks and trolling setups inside the same zone. For Montauk and the East End, The Fisherman — Long Island East End notes boats working in front of the lighthouse finding quality fish on moving tides — diamond jigs and bucktails fished near the bottom are the primary producer. Multiple shops and charter captains across all zones cite tide-change windows as the consistent trigger, so plan entries around those transitions rather than simply arriving at first light.

With 4.6-foot offshore seas (NOAA buoy 44025) and 22 mph winds this morning, protected bay and Sound fishing will outperform exposed ocean beaches in the near term. Back harbors, creek mouths, and inlet edges are the smart play until seas moderate.

For fluke, Sea Rogue Charters (Freeport) found good numbers including keepers to 5 pounds on exploratory runs. J&J Sports (Patchogue) recommends Shinnecock Inlet and Moriches Narrow Bay as prime early-season zones — a spearing-and-squid combo on a standard fluke rig is the consensus setup. With water still running 49–52°F (NOAA buoys 44025 and 44065), fluke will hold near inlet mouths and channel edges rather than distributing across open bay grounds; target depth transitions adjacent to sandy bottom structure.

Porgies are the species most likely to improve over the next week. Cow Harbor Bait and Tackle and Campsite Sport Shop both describe the North Shore scup bite as slow but expect it to "bust open within the next week or two." WeGo Bait and Tackle on the North Fork notes porgies already beginning to show at Cedar Beach in Southold on bloodworms and sandworms — a leading indicator for what's coming Sound-wide.

Offshore, Keel Hauler Charters (Freeport) reports tilefish limits on recent weekend runs with prime dates still available through May — a reliable option when rougher nearshore conditions push the inshore bite off.

Context

For Long Island and Montauk, water temperatures in the low 50s (°F) during the first week of May are running slightly cooler than typical. River Bay Outfitters (Baldwin) directly flags "cooler-than-normal water temperatures that have lingered into the season," which is slowing the eastward march of migratory fish but also concentrating stripers in western and central zones longer than usual — a dynamic that tends to produce high catch rates for anglers in the right places at the right tide.

Despite the temperature lag, the striper migration itself appears largely on schedule. On The Water — New York / Long Island reported April 30 that schools of bunker in Long Island Sound and the South Shore surf triggered a decisive uptick in the bass bite over the preceding week. The Fisherman's Long Island video forecast from the same date described fish spread from the East End back bays to the South Shore surf and into the western bays, with slot-size fish becoming consistent and larger bass pushing into the 30-inch class and beyond. OTW Saltwater's May 5 striper migration report placed big bass running beaches from Maryland to Long Island — the signal that the post-spawn female push out of the Chesapeake is arriving in New York waters, right on the typical May calendar.

The fluke opener falling with water temps still in the 49–52°F range is fairly normal for early May on Long Island. Early-season fluke are nearly always inlet-oriented in cooler water before distributing bay-wide as temps climb through the mid-50s into June — anglers who target depth transitions near major inlets will outperform those who work open bay grounds prematurely.

Porgy action described as slow but building is the classic mid-May setup for Long Island. Scup reliably lag the striper arrival by two to three weeks, and the "about to bust open" language from multiple North Shore shops is consistent with late-May peak action — putting the species right on schedule. No comparative signal in the current intel suggests an unusually early or late season for bluefish or tilefish relative to prior years.