With rumors of 50 degree water temps in the back bay, I decided to do a scouting mission on Little Neck Bay before Easter dinner.
I launched at around 2 pm and fished until 3:30 pm. High tide was at 2:50 pm.
It was a warm day with air temps in the high 50s. However, it was overcast. As such, the water temps in the back bay didn't rise with the flood tide and maxed out at about 44 degrees. Once I saw this, I knew I wasn't going to spend much time.
The wind was strong. It was predicted to be blowing from the south at 15 knots, but it seemed to be blowing harder with that, with some strong gusts as well, making the trip to the back of the bay pretty tough with my face in the wind. Due to the wind, it took me 25 minutes to get to the backbay.
After trolling to the back of the bay, I casted plugs for a half hour and didn't get a hit. I trolled with the wind at my back to the launch and my plugs returned to the boat untouched.
It is still a bit early for LNB. Had I known that the water temp was hovering between 43 - 44 degrees, I would have chosen a different location to fish that day. I usually start catching small stripers on the western sound when the water turns to 46 degrees. The bite gets consistent at 48 degrees.
This was the first time in three seasons that I didn't catch a striper in saltwater on Long Island during the month of March, which is illustrative of the cold temps we had throughout the month in 2013.
I will continue to monitor the water temp situation there, but unless this is an above average week in terms of the warming trend, I don't think I'll be returning to LNB for two weeks, especially if there are onshore winds next weekend.
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