May Forecast:
The month of May is a time when I’d say we finally break through into true warm-weather fishing. That breakthrough varies based on which part of the Long Island Sound you are fishing in, something we will touch on later. Regardless, by the end of May, you can count on the fishing season being in full swing across the Sound. After a couple of slow but fishable months in March and April, May brings warm water, warm air, the right type of bait, and vegetation growth in freshwater waters, along with, if we are honest, an uptick in general angler happiness across New England. Let’s get into it.
Freshwater
Late spring means it’s time for the spawn, which can provide some of the best and most exciting fishing of the year. As bass move into the shallows to do their thing, they become easier to target, although perhaps not much easier to fool, depending on the day. For the average bass fisherman, a group I count myself among, the shallow fishing is much preferred to throwing deep-diving jerkbaits in March or trying to target deeper fish in mid-summer. Like many others, my preferred largemouth tactic is to beat the banks, fish what I can see, and work my way around inviting structures. The month of May is prime time for this, and I’ll often be using some sort of bluegill-patterned bait like a squarebill or a willow-blade spinnerbait. If the conditions are worthy, topwater is always my go-to as soon as it’s warm enough to do so, and in May, that happens.
In general, freshwater fishing in May is a choose your own adventure type of deal. If you want to throw spooks and poppers, get up early and be on the water at false dawn just as the fog is lifting. The water is still cool enough to get a solid bite throughout the day, especially if it’s cloudy and the fish stay active. Spinnerbaits, jigs (especially around wood), chatterbaits, crankbaits, and poppers are typically my go-to baits. There’s a ton to do in May in the freshwater, all you need to do is start casting.
Saltwater
In order to better understand the saltwater fishing patterns in May, during which time all of us are eagerly awaiting the arrival of striped bass, you have to understand the routes that stripers take to get to us. We will certainly have holdover striper action well before migrators arrive, and some of those holdovers can be pretty big, but the arrival of the migrating biomass of stripers from southern waters is truly the kickoff of the summer.
Migrating stripers take one of two routes to get into the Long Island Sound. They either go up along the East River in New York City, or, and I’d argue this is the much larger biomass, they go around Montauk and through the Race. It’s not as simple as the stripers just swimming north. Once they’re up here, they still have to push into the Long Island Sound itself, and by pretty much all metrics, the Sound is a pretty isolated body of water in terms of how fish can access it. This means that you’re going to see anglers fishing in ocean-facing waters in Long Island, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts getting those bigger migratory bass earlier than us. I can tell you from firsthand experience there is little more painful than getting photo after photo of giant striped bass from friends in those places, while we play around with 20-35” fish and wait our turn.
If you want some great early May fishing in the Sound, your best bet is to either focus on tidal creeks or head west. Generally, tidal creeks throughout the Sound will be good in May, even before the migratory bass arrive. But if you’re into it, running west can offer some really excellent striper fishing as those first waves of migrators hit that part of the state. I generally recommend using smaller baits this time of year, as there are a ton of striper of varying sizes, often all mixed together. I use 4-5” topwater baits, 5-7” soft plastics, or 4-5” twitch baits in the early go. I’ll also remove any excess hooks this time of year, since those smaller fish can get a bit torn up from so many hooks on certain plugs.
In terms of location, I’m still going to try and focus on bait-rich areas like tidal creeks and river mouths, particularly on an outgoing tide. Outgoing tides this time of year often dump warmer, bait-rich water into the cooler Sound, so those areas are welcome haunts for early season stripers.
Of course, the bait we are all waiting for in May is bunker. There’s no denying that once the rafts of bunker hit your local waters, you’ve got your day’s fishing plan already made for you – find the bunker and start fishing. In the central sound, as much as we wish it were different, we often won’t get a ton of bunker in early and mid-May. But if you find some, either in the western Sound or otherwise, that biomass should be your target.
There are a few ways to fish bunker schools. The most obvious is to cast net or snag some bunker, throw them on an 8/0-10/0 circle hook, and live-line them. This leads to some of the biggest fish of the year being caught and to some of the most memorable explosive hits as the bunker flees a charging striper. Spoons are another popular tactic to fish bunker schools, as there are often larger bass underneath and behind those schools waiting for wounded bunker to drift down. Imitating those wounded bunker with a Nichols or Tsunami spoon is an absolutely electric way to fish. And, if spoons or live-lining aren’t an option or aren’t working, try throwing bunker-colored topwater or soft plastic baits around the edges of the school, imitating a straggler bunker ripe for the picking.
Aside from stripers, May is when seabass, fluke, and porgy seasons open up as well, reinforcing that May is truly when the real fishing begins in the Sound. Each year, the pattern for seabass and fluke varies, but in general, for early season bottom fishing, you can start shallow and work deep or vice-versa. Fluke specifically can be found shallower as we head toward mid-summer, but that doesn’t mean deeper waters aren’t productive, and many hardcore fluke anglers will focus on 50 to 90-foot depths all summer long. I like to use pinks and whites on my bucktails or fluke rigs early in the season, as there are squid around, and mimicking them is never a bad idea.
Seabass are also found in a variety of depths this time of year, and your best bet is to be structure-focused rather than depth-focused when choosing a place to target them. I prefer to use slow pitch jigs for seabass, particularly the Daiwa SK jig. But all of your normal hi-low rigs and other seabass rigs will work as well.
Porgies will move in during May as well and will essentially set up shop for the summer and fall. Sandworms, clams, or squid on bait rigs always work well for them, as does vertically jigging a metal like the Shimano Current Sniper. Porgy don’t tend to be very tough to fool, rather, the challenge is finding a spot that is holding a bunch of big ones.
In general, there is a ton to do in May in the fishing world. Whether fresh or salt is your game, your options are wide open! Chuck the winter gloves into a drawer, bust out the UV sun shirts, and get your line in the water, because from May until about November, you’re going to have your hands full of fishing options.