The Long Island Fall Run

The Long Island Sound Fall Run: When Everything Comes Alive

If you fish Long Island Sound, there’s one time of year that always gets us excited: the fall run.

But the fall run isn’t something that suddenly starts on a certain date. There’s no switch that flips on September 15 or October 1. It’s a transition, and many of the changes that create some of the best fishing of the year begin well before anglers realize it.

As summer winds down, the days get shorter, nights become cooler, and water temperatures slowly begin to fall. At the same time, baitfish start moving and concentrating throughout the Sound. Put all of those pieces together and striped bass begin changing their behavior.

It Starts With the Bait

One of the biggest mistakes during the fall run is looking for striped bass before looking for what they’re eating.

Long Island Sound holds an incredible amount of forage. Depending on the area and time of the season, bass may be feeding on bunker, spearing, rain baits , peanut bunker and other baitfish.

As fall progresses, that bait begins to move out of harbors, rivers, coves and estuaries and into the Sound. Tides and currents can concentrate huge amounts of bait around points, rips, reefs, channels and other pieces of structure.

And the bass aren’t far behind.

That’s why we pay so much attention to what is happening with the bait. Birds working the surface, nervous water, bait getting pushed against a shoreline or large schools showing on the electronics can all tell us that predators are nearby.

Find the food and you have a much better chance of finding the fish.

Cooling Water Changes the Game

During the heat of summer, striped bass often seek deeper, cooler water and may feed heavily during lower-light periods.

Fall starts changing that.

As the Sound cools, bass become more comfortable moving around and feeding in areas that may have been less productive during the hottest part of summer.

Those first stretches of cool nights can make a noticeable difference. Add moving water and an abundance of bait, and suddenly fish that seemed difficult to find a few weeks earlier can become extremely aggressive.

That’s when we start seeing some of the fishing everyone waits for—bass chasing bait, birds working, fish blowing up on the surface and rods bending one after another.

Don’t Ignore the Weather

Water temperature isn’t the only factor.

Cold fronts, wind, rain, tides and currents can all affect how bait moves through Long Island Sound.

A good stretch of cooler nights can help bring water temperatures down. Rain can increase flow coming from rivers and estuaries, potentially helping push bait toward the Sound. Wind and current can also stack bait against shorelines or concentrate it around structure.

This is why two days during the fall can fish completely differently even though they’re only 48 hours apart.

The calendar might tell us it’s fall.

The conditions tell us whether the fish agree.

The Fish Don’t All Move at Once

Another misconception about the fall migration is that every striped bass suddenly starts swimming west or south at the same time.

It doesn’t happen that way.

Different groups of fish move at different times, and Long Island Sound can hold both resident fish and migrating striped bass. As conditions change, new bodies of fish can move into an area while other fish move out.

That constant movement is part of what makes fall fishing so exciting.

You can fish an area one day and have a good bite—and come back shortly afterward to find an entirely different class of fish has moved through.

Where We Look During the Fall Run

Rather than simply running around looking for breaking fish, we’re looking for the conditions that create a bite.

Current seams, reefs, points, harbor and river mouths, channel edges and areas where bait is being forced into a smaller zone can all become prime feeding areas.

Birds are obviously one of the easiest signs to spot, but some of the best bites don’t have a giant flock of birds giving away the location.

Sometimes it’s a subtle patch of nervous water.

Sometimes it’s bait marking underneath the boat.

Sometimes it’s knowing that a particular tide pushes bait across a particular piece of structure.

That’s where experience fishing Long Island Sound becomes important.

Then the Fall Run Really Gets Going

As we move deeper into September and toward October, the pieces increasingly start coming together.

Cooling water,Shorter days,Moving tides and Concentrated bait.

Migrating fish.

And when everything lines up, Long Island Sound can absolutely come alive.

Topwater fishing, jigging, live bait and other techniques can all produce depending on what the fish are feeding on and where they’re holding.

Some days you find them feeding aggressively on the surface. Other days the action is happening underneath the boat.

That’s why we don’t head out committed to one technique.

We let the fish tell us how they want to be caught.

Our Favorite Time of the Year

There’s a reason we talk about the fall run all season long at Bluefin Sound Charters.

You never know exactly what you’re going to encounter.

It might be acres of bait getting pushed across the surface. It might be a school of quality striped bass sitting on structure. It might be a topwater bite that turns on seemingly out of nowhere.

And as the water continues cooling, the opportunity for those special days only gets better.

The fall run is coming to Long Island Sound and we’re ready for it.

Don’t wait until you’re seeing everyone else posting pictures of the bite. By then, you may already be late.

Book your fall trip with Bluefin Sound Charters and come experience the Long Island Sound fall run with us.