Inshore · 60 ft · beaches, bays, inlets and rips

Striped Bass

Morone saxatilis. Prime water reaches Penobscot Bay in New England right now (59°F at the surface). Fish it 0–43 ft down — that is where 58–54°F water sits off Penobscot Bay.

Striped Bass identification illustration
LaneInshore · 10 fa (60 ft)
Depth it holds3–66 ft
Prime water54–68°F (workable 54–79°F)
Holds in the column0–66 ft down below the surface, over 3–66 ft of water
Judged onsurface temperature (NASA MUR satellite)
Structureprefers

The water column off Penobscot Bay

0 ft35 ft71 ft43 ft of workable water0–43 ft · 58–54°F

The strip is the water itself, coloured by temperature from the surface down to the 71 ft surveyed bottom at that spot — one band per RTOFS model level. The outlined stretch is where Striped Bass's temperature band (54–79°F) and the depth it holds actually overlap. That thickness is the number that matters: it is how much water you can work, not just whether the spot is warm enough somewhere. One model cycle, not a weekly archive — this holds still while the surface map scrubs.

How it's fished

Live bait or plugs on rips, ledges and boulder fields; dawn/dusk moving tide.

Region by region — right now

RegionSeasonPrime waterTempFish it atMonths
New England in season reaches Penobscot Bay 59°F 0–43 ft
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
Mid-Atlantic off-season reaches Montauk 69°F 0–60 ft
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
"Fish it at" is where this species' temperature band and its holding depth overlap in the water column, from the RTOFS profile (13 levels, 0–300 m) — the depth to actually put a bait, not just the place. "Prime water" is the furthest sampled station on the 10-fathom lane whose surface temperature sits inside this species' band. It is water, not a sighting report.
Charted grounds on the 10-fathom lane
Cape Cod Canal (East End)
The Mud Hole
Chesapeake Light Tower