Striper Migration Map
Updated
Where the migrating striped bass run most likely is today, from Cape Hatteras to Maine. It's a model, not sightings.
Each shade holds about a quarter of the migrating fish. The brighter the shade, the tighter they're packed. Water with no color holds the last tenth.
With water temperature on, the stripers show as outlines: solid around the brightest two shades, dashed around the rest.
Move and zoom with two fingers, or on a computer drag and Ctrl/⌘-scroll. The stripers layer is a model of the migratory stock (fish that make the coastal run, mostly over 28 in), not sightings. Water: NASA JPL MUR satellite analysis. Coast: Natural Earth.
Built from eight years of catch records, tagging and tracking studies, NOAA trawl surveys and the latest available satellite water temperatures. Updated when new daily satellite data arrives. The water date can be earlier than today.
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Our model puts 63% of the migrating run in three stretches: NY Bight & Long Island (30%), New Jersey (19%) and Chesapeake & DelMarVa (14%). Where the fish are packed tightest, the water is around 5 ft deep, within about 4 miles of the beach, at 58–63°F. About 21% of the run is in Massachusetts water from Buzzards Bay to Cape Ann, and 35% is south of New York.
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Share of the run, by stretch
The modeled share of the migrating run in each stretch of coast, north to south.
Along the route
North to south. The water figures are near-shore averages within about 15 miles of land. “Vs 2017–24” compares the last 30 days with the same days in 2017–24, the years our catch calendar comes from; “behind” or “ahead” is that difference divided by the normal seasonal rate.
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Cape Ann to Maine
2% of the run54°near-shore water- 30 days
- −5.0°F
- vs 2017–24
- −1.6°F
Cooling about 10 days ahead of recent years.
Fish sampled here in summer are 80–88% Chesapeake-born. Tag studies are thin north of Cape Ann, so this stretch follows the catch record. Wojtusik 2025 · MRIP 2017–24
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Mass Bay & Cape Cod Bay
11% of the run57°near-shore water- 30 days
- −6.8°F
- vs 2017–24
- −2.5°F
Cooling about 11 days ahead of recent years.
Hudson-born tagged fish typically left in late September; Potomac-born fish stayed through October. In one Plymouth Bay study, half the tagged fish had gone once the bay’s weekly mean fell to 62°F. Kneebone 2014 · Secor 2020a,b · Hollema 2017 · Mather 2025
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Cape Cod & Islands
10% of the run59°near-shore water- 30 days
- −7.4°F
- vs 2017–24
- −2.8°F
Cooling about 11 days ahead of recent years.
Fish pass through the Canal and outside the Cape. The share here is spread over a lot of water, so it reads lighter on the map than its percentage. Kneebone 2014 · MRIP 2017–24
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Rhode Island & eastern LIS
12% of the run62°near-shore water- 30 days
- −7.9°F
- vs 2017–24
- −2.2°F
Cooling about 10 days ahead of recent years.
Some small bass tagged at Plum Island spent the winter in Long Island Sound. Mather 2010 · MRIP 2017–24 · ALS tags
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NY Bight & Long Island
30% of the run63°near-shore water- 30 days
- −8.1°F
- vs 2017–24
- −2.3°F
Cooling about 9 days ahead of recent years.
Fish that summered in New England typically pass here October to December, the group advancing about 4 miles a day. Some Hudson fish live here year-round. Secor 2020b · Callihan 2015 · Waldman 1990
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New Jersey
19% of the run63°near-shore water- 30 days
- −9.0°F
- vs 2017–24
- −2.9°F
Cooling about 10 days ahead of recent years.
Roanoke-born tagged fish summered off northern New Jersey and New York, then moved south October to December. Callihan 2015 · Able & Grothues 2007
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Chesapeake & DelMarVa
14% of the run64°near-shore water- 30 days
- −12.5°F
- vs 2017–24
- −2.8°F
Cooling about 10 days ahead of recent years.
Some fish live inside the Chesapeake year-round. The winter grounds off the capes fill December to March. Secor 2020a,b · Rothermel 2020
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Outer Banks
2% of the run65°near-shore water- 30 days
- −15.0°F
- vs 2017–24
- −1.4°F
Cooling about 6 days ahead of recent years.
The winter grounds of the 1950s–2000s. Since about 2011 fish have wintered farther north and offshore. Chapoton & Sykes 1961 · NCDMF 2024
The season, from tag studies
When tagged striped bass were typically in each stretch. Each row comes from telemetry or tag-return studies. A blank row means no study has dated it.
How the stripers layer is modeled
Where along the coast
We start from where anglers, tag returns and tracking studies find the run on each date: NOAA's recreational catch survey for 2017–24 by state and month, American Littoral Society and VIMS tag returns, and Hudson and Potomac tracking studies. In Maine and New Hampshire, where tag studies are thin, it follows the catch record.
Which water in each stretch
Fitted to 16,246 tows from three public trawl surveys, 561 of which caught striped bass: NOAA's offshore survey, the near-shore NEAMAP survey and the Maine–New Hampshire inshore survey. In fall the fish favor the shallowest water and cooler water, fading above about 61°F. Summer uses the published temperature range because no survey fishes New England in July and August.
This year's timing
Each stretch follows its average calendar from the 2017–24 catch record. We tested sliding that calendar with each year’s water temperature against 2015–25 catch, and it did not time the run better, so the map no longer slides it.
What moves them
The regional trend, not today’s reading
Off Maryland, a month of warming or cooling across the region predicted when tagged bass passed better than the local water temperature that day.Rothermel et al. 2024, ICES J Mar Sci
Big fish travel, small fish stay
At about 32 inches, half of Potomac-born bass leave for the coast. Nearly all of the biggest fish make the trip, while many smaller fish stay in their home estuaries.Secor et al. 2020a · Dorazio et al. 1994
A smear, not a wave
A single fish can cover 15–50 miles a day, but the group advances only 4–7 miles a day because departures are spread over several weeks.Secor et al. 2020b · Callihan et al. 2015 · Rothermel et al. 2020
“They follow the 50–55° water” doesn’t hold up
No study has found the fish tracking one temperature. Hudson fish arrived to spawn anywhere from 43°F to 53°F depending on the year. At one site, fish sat in 45–46°F water in spring but 52–57°F in fall. In the only Massachusetts bay where departures were measured, half the tagged fish were still there at 62°F.Secor 2020b · Rothermel 2020 · Hollema 2017
What this map can’t tell you
- Where one school is right now.
- Whether the fish are feeding, or will bite for you.
- Fish inside rivers. From April into May much of the run is up the spawning rivers, which the satellite can’t see.
- That everyone has left. Some bass stay the winter in rivers and bays from Maine to Long Island Sound.
Embed this map
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Cite this map
Credit it as Striper Migration Map by StripedLines, https://stripedlines.co/striper-migration-map, water date October 22, 2026. Keep the link and the water date, and call it a model of the migrating run, not sightings. The embed code above carries the same credit as a plain link.
More on the season
Where this comes from
- Water: NASA JPL MUR SST v4.1 (1 km, daily) and NOAA OISST v2.1 with its 1991–2020 daily normals, via NOAA CoastWatch ERDDAP and NOAA PSL.
- Where along the coast: NOAA Marine Recreational Information Program estimates 2017–2024; American Littoral Society tag recaptures 2002–2023; VIMS spawning-stock tag recaptures 2008–2021; Secor et al. 2020a,b (PLOS ONE) tracking data.
- Which water: NOAA NEFSC spring, fall and winter bottom-trawl surveys 2000–2024; VIMS NEAMAP near-shore trawl 2007–2013 (water temperature added from satellite on each tow's date); Maine–New Hampshire inshore trawl 2000–2019. 561 tows with striped bass out of 16,246.
- Tag-study calendars: Kneebone et al. 2014; Secor et al. 2020a,b; Callihan et al. 2015; Rothermel et al. 2020, 2024; Hollema et al. 2017; Mather et al. 2010, 2025; Waldman et al. 1990; Chapoton & Sykes 1961; NC DMF 2024.
- Coastline: Natural Earth. Depth: NOAA ETOPO1.
- Loaded October 23. This is StripedLines' model of the migratory stock. It is not a count of fish or a forecast of what you'll catch.