July is a great time to fish! Not only is it warmer and the fish are plentiful, many think that the only time to fish is in June, so the river is less crowded! I've fished 8 of the first 9 days of July and probably handled more "Keeper" striped Bass than many will all season. The fish are getting bigger too!!!!!

 Unfortunately bait is still a topic. I did have 3 days of stupid, easy bait fishing. You could have almost dip netted them they were so thick but now we are back to hunting and chumming heavily for the mackerel. Breaking Rock and Hampton Shoal Ledge are the places I look. I've heard Speckled Apron has worked too, but stay with what I know best. It is all about time management on a charter.

 I had my second Bluefish bite-off on July 9 and also landed my first blue on the 9th. The water is warming up and we have had a fair amount of easterly wind so I knew it could happen. There are solid reports of very large blues off Halibut point and around the corner in Gloucester. I hope they stay there a little while longer, I'm not done with live bait fishing foe stripers yet!

Here are a couple of photos from the past few days....