Jimmy Fee

Massachusetts

Managing Editor at On The Water

On The Water: The Angler's Guide to Fishing the Northeast

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Striper Migration Map – May 23, 2025 - On The Water

2 weeks ago | onthewater.com | Jimmy Fee

A nor’easter, the new moon, and big stripers spread out from New Jersey to Boston. There’s lots happening to get the stripers moving as we go into Memorial Day weekend. The Striper Cup has begun! Sign up today, and you’ll receive a Striper Cup box loaded with stickers, discount codes, a Rapala lure, VMC Hooks, and a fresh, new Columbia PFG shirt featuring an awesome original striper design.
Circle Hooks for Eels

3 weeks ago | onthewater.com | Jimmy Fee

We’re five years into the mandatory circle hook regulations for striped bass, and some fishermen are still working out their favorites for certain baits. A natural bait commonly used for striped bass are live eels. They are readily available at tackle shops, easily transportable on boats or from shore, and are a favorite of big stripers wherever they swim.
Featured Lure: Squid Jigs

1 month ago | onthewater.com | Jimmy Fee

Squid jigging is an art form. If you doubt it, put yourself in the lineup at one of docks where calamari-crazed fishermen huddle in the droning hum of their generators and the alien-green gleam of their HydroGlow lights. Watch the regulars. They’ll be the ones intently staring at their rods, making precise upward sweeps, filling their buckets at a much faster pace than you.
Best Squid Run in Years in Southern New England

1 month ago | onthewater.com | Jimmy Fee

Anthony DeiCicchi and I were marveling at the number and variety of baitfish attracted to our light as we shone it over a mid-Cape dock. An hour before, we’d fired up the generator and aimed the light at the water and watched as more baitfish schooled beneath us with each passing minute. And then the squid showed. Dozens of them ghosted up from the bottom, and began darting into the light to snatch baitfish with their tentacles.
Striper Migration Map - April 18, 2025

1 month ago | onthewater.com | Jimmy Fee

The big news this week was the arrival of migratory schoolies in Rhode Island. The full moon tides brought big bass into the Raritan, and bunker are drawing stripers out along the South Shore of Long Island. The Striper Cup starts in two weeks! Sign up today, and you’ll receive a Striper Cup box loaded with stickers, discount codes, a Rapala lure, VMC Hooks, and a fresh, new Columbia PFG shirt featuring an awesome original striper design.
NOAA Cracks Down on Pier-Based Tuna Fishing - Pier Anglers Fight for Access

1 month ago | onthewater.com | Jimmy Fee

Last week’s wild bluefin blitz close to the beach in Nag’s Head, North Carolina, during which multiple tuna were hooked from the end of Jenette’s Pier, has attracted the attention of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which manages the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna fishery through the Highly Migratory Species Management Division.
Bluefin Tuna Caught from Pier and Kayaks in North Carolina

2 months ago | onthewater.com | Jimmy Fee

Aku Min and his kayak-caught bluefin from Nag’s Head, North Carolina, shared by Ocean’s East OBX on Instagram. Something wild was happening in the Outer Banks over the last week. Schools of bluefin tuna moved close enough to the beach to allow kayak anglers and pier anglers to present baits to them. One angler on Jenette’s Pier in Nag’s Head caught and released a bluefin while casting from the end of the pier.
Try Seaworms for Spring Tautog Fishing

2 months ago | onthewater.com | Jimmy Fee

While pushing the lawnmower through its second tour of the yard for the spring, I was lost in thought, wondering which pond to fish following the requisite Saturday yardwork, when a splash of yellow caught my eye. There, directly in the path of the lawnmower, the first dandelion of spring stood above the green blades of grass. I stopped for a moment, pondered what it meant, and mowed it down while forming a new plan for the afternoon’s fishing.
What's Biting in April in New Jersey?

2 months ago | onthewater.com | Jimmy Fee

The shad run is one of my non-negotiable, must-not-miss events of the springtime. Luckily for me, my friend Joe Cermele always saves me a seat in his drift boat for a float down the Delaware in April. While shad are always Plan A on these trips, plans B and C (for striped bass and catfish) can take a good shad day and turn it into one of the best fishing days of the entire season. That’s what happened back in 2023.
A Surfcaster Looks at 40

2 months ago | onthewater.com | Jimmy Fee

By the time you read this, you, the cultured, well-read anglers of the Northeast, I’ll have crested the “hill” and turned 40 years old. Approaching this manufactured milestone, I passed out and I rallied and I sprung a few leaks, and I have become acutely aware that the tide is ebbing, and there is still quite a bit I’d like to do before it bottoms out, six feet down.