This June is going to be a bit different for me than in years past as I recently bought a boat. I own several kayaks, and I have a couple of very good friends with boats and often find myself joining them for a day on the water, but when I just felt like fishing in past years, I’d often end up hitting the surf. We’ll see how things play out as it has been quite some time since I owned a boat of my own, but I have some big plans for my little Aquasport Classic 170 in the coming months.
Now is when things really get going for legions of anglers pursuing the 7-striped bass in Southern New England. April sees a trickle of holdovers, May has fluctuating bumps of migrating fish, but it’s the sixth month that really ushers in the full arrival in local waters.
Expect to continue to see the west-to-east improvement of action, but as fish come both inside Long Island Sound, as well as around the South Shore of Long Island, they can seemingly appear from out of nowhere at times. Continue to look for them where they were found in May – around the larger tidal rivers – but it can also pay to broaden the hunt to the inshore reefs. Trolling Mojos or diving plugs that mimic large bait species always produces huge bass this month, and the popularity of the flutter spoon has added another great option. Traditional diamond jigs also produce, especially on the deeper, faster-moving reefs.
June also sees converging forage species fueling striped bass bites as herring, squid, and bunker are on the menu, while other species less commonly perceived as “forage” for striped bass are prevalent. In this latter category I include fluke, black sea bass, porgies, and the likes. Many of these species move inshore to spawn in May/June, and there is no denying that striped bass, especially the larger ones, seek them out! Fishing any of these baits live, whether free-lined or on a 3-way rig, is quite popular (just make certain that the meet legal requirements as the bag and size limit applies equally whether being retained for bait or for harvest.) While it has seen a bit of drop in popularity in recent years, there was a time in the not-so-distant past when livelining scup over shallow reefs was all the rage. Many large striped bass fell to this tactic, with several documented catches of fish in excess of 60 and even 70 pounds being made in May and June.
Last year saw an exceptionally good run of spring weakfish in Long Island Sound. As usual, it began on Long Island in the southern bays from Jamaica through Moriches, then it really took off in Peconic Bay before spreading into Connecticut waters. And it didn’t just hit the usual spots around New Haven as weakfish catches were consistent from Norwalk to the Thames River. Will we see a repeat of this in 2024? I certainly hope so and I’ll be looking.
Weakfish can be targeted with the very same gear you’d use for striped bass, and they’re often caught mixed with spring stripers and bluefish. To increase your chances of intercepting a tiderunner, target areas near where they spawn (which is why they’re here in the first place.) This includes marshes and protected tidal bays, as well as salt ponds and even some smaller tidal rivers and creeks. They spawn on the moons – new and full – and larger fish are usually landed around these cycles. Traditional weakfish lures consisted of bucktail jigs adorned with Mann’s Jelly Worms, and colors were usually pink or purple, but modern weakfish anglers find success on a wide variety of lures and colors. Paddletails fished on jigheads have become extremely popular, as have 5-inch plastic swimming plugs like the SP Minnow, Hydro Minnow, and Swarter. I find myself falling back on pinks and purples at times, but I have found my best success over the years on yellow and natural, bunker-like patterns. Whether or not the color actually makes any difference here will forever be debated, but the day (or night) that you don’t have the color they want in your kit might sway your opinion.
June is also when cooler-filling, bottom fishing ramps up. Porgy season opened on May 1; fluke opened May in Connecticut, May 3 in Rhode Island, and May 21 in Massachusetts; and black sea bass opened May 18 in Connecticut (note that is CLOSES June 23 – July 8), May 22 in Rhode Island and May 20 in Massachusetts. I discussed the specifics of the regulations – minimum length, seasons, and bag limits – in more detail last month, so I won’t rehash it all here today.
The hotbed for all three of these species in May is usually Peconic Bay, but as we are now into the sixth month the action spreads further north. Long Island Sound is usually on a similar schedule with Peconic Bay, although we do see it light up a week or two later some years. In Rhode Island and Massachusetts waters, however, it’s more of a June hotspot with the waters inside Block Island on over to Buzzards Bay finally getting going. Sea bassing, especially, lights up this month in Buzzards Bay with some downright giant humpheads to be had in the waters off Westport. This fishing is so fantastic once it gets going that fishing with bait will often slow you down and most anglers instead opt for jigs. Diamond, bucktail, butterfly, speed; they all work as at times you just need to get something with a hook in front of them! This is the one place where I have witnessed full-on surface blitzes as hordes of black sea bass push baitfish right up in the water column.
Although often overlooked, blackfishing still remains an option in Massachusetts where the season does not close in the spring (bag limits are 1 fish in June – July.) The season is closed for June and July in Rhode Island, and it is closed for May and June in Connecticut.
Last up, June is when we start looking offshore, albeit this fishing is more of a trickle than a full-on rush this month. Usually there is a push of larger bluefin moving through Southern New England in the beginning of the month, with most fish exceeding the recreational size limit unless you’re looking to steam east and south. Within the range of most of the smaller private boats, this is a month of exploring to find your own bite, or having a good network of trustworthy fellow anglers to tip you off on where the fish might be found. Usually by month’s end it’s a better option, so we’ll hit it with more copy in July.