The Complicated Bass Migration

This is the most frustrating time of year with a fly rod in NJ saltwater. The Hudson Class stripers entered the Raritan Bay end of march and stage and feed on the abundance of bait fish the raritan has to offer. In the beginning they are very eager to take plugs and flies the first 2 weeks. End of April and May they became very picky and it became a chucking or live bait game. As of now the majority of bass have or are making their journey up the Hudson to spawn. The wait for the Chesapeake class striper migration is very frustrating. There is no way to know what route they will take to head north. The last couple years it seems they have stayed offshore. Years past they would stop at the bunker pods from IBSP to Monmouth County where you could witness acres of bass blitzing on top and have the opportunity to get a 50 on the fly. Last week there were some large spawners caught trolling on the 3 mile line. I went out to investigate and it seams like these fish are singley trickling up the coast. So you could cast all day in 50' of water and hope that single fish swims by. I don't like those odds and neither will your arms. I'm not sure why they are not traveling in schools closer to our coast but, it's about to either break wide open in about a week or the bass will skip us again. Luckily, we have some bluefish showing up to play with.