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Sandy Hook Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

New Jersey's striper doorstep: seven miles of federal beach where the fall run hits first.

1/5
Tough. Pick your battles.Post-front sun and slick water make them sulk.
Next tide
Low 12:39 AM
Air / High
57 / 61 F
Wind
E 4 mph

Sources: NOAA tides 8531680, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

1/5Tough. Pick your battles.Post-front sun and slick water make them sulk.

Sandy Hook feels the season turning: shorter days, grouping fish. Today brings clear skies, wind E around 4 mph, rising pressure near 1027 hPa and a high of 61. Tides: high 6:07 AM and 6:25 PM, low 12:26 PM: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 64 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:29 AM-11:29 AM and 9:59 PM-11:59 PM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Striped bassGood

Spring and fall are the shoreline seasons: ODWC points to windblown points, riprap and dams during the May shad spawn and the pre-winter feed.

BluefishGood

Fall turns the migration south toward the South Atlantic Bight, and fish feed along beaches and inlets on the way. Follow the bait and the birds.

Tomorrow: Similar at 57 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Water and weather

Live readings.

Tides

NOAA station 8531680 (Sandy Hook). Fish the moving water either side of each change.

Fri
HIGH6:07 AM5.0 ft
LOW12:26 PM0.6 ft
HIGH6:25 PM5.0 ft
Sat
LOW12:39 AM0.2 ft
HIGH6:49 AM5.5 ft
LOW1:13 PM0.3 ft
HIGH7:09 PM5.2 ft

Belmar tide chart: the week and the month β†’

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp57 F
High / Low61 / 53 F
WindE 4-8 mph
Pressure1027.4 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:15 / 18:04
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~64 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunset

Which day to fish Sandy Hook this week

The best day on Sandy Hook this week looks like Sunday Oct 25, at 4 out of 5, against 1 today.

Best day this week: Sunday, Oct 25 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Slow

Post-front sun and slick water make them sulk.

Solunar majors
9:29 AM-11:29 AM and 9:59 PM-11:59 PM
Minor period
3:51 AM-4:51 AM
Sun
07:15 to 18:04
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 26 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Sandy Hook: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Striped bass illustration

Striped bass

Best: spring and fall inland; on the coast, during the seasonal migrations

The largest of the temperate basses, a sea-run fish of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that now also lives in reservoirs across much of the country after hatchery stocking. Inland, it follows schools of shad and herring through open water. Spring and fall are the shoreline seasons: ODWC points to windblown points, riprap and dams during the May shad spawn and the pre-winter feed.

Bluefish illustration

Bluefish

Peak harvest: May-Oct, most in Jul-Aug (NOAA)

Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) are sharp-toothed schooling predators that move up and down the Atlantic coast with the seasons and feed in surface blitzes on menhaden, silversides and squid. Fall turns the migration south toward the South Atlantic Bight, and fish feed along beaches and inlets on the way. Follow the bait and the birds.

When to come: the Sandy Hook calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Striped bass
Bluefish
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 64 F (estimated, not a reading).

4050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~64 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Sandy Hook today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

2/5 Slow. The wind owns today. 29 mph gusts make boat control the real battle. Striped bass led the card at excellent. High of 64 F, wind to 29 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

2/5 Slow. The wind owns today. 25 mph gusts make boat control the real battle. Striped bass led the card at excellent. High of 63 F, wind to 25 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

1/5 Tough. Pick your battles. Post-front sun and slick water make them sulk. Striped bass led the card at good. High of 64 F, wind to 28 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

New Jersey requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

NJ is license-free for saltwater but requires (free) registry. Striped bass: one fish 28-31 inches under current coastwide slot: check for updates.

Access

Gateway NRA parking areas (beach buggy permits for fall), North Beach and the tip rips, bayside pull-offs.

About this water

Sandy Hook unit of Gateway National Recreation Area, Monmouth County, NJ. The gateway of the fall run.

Fishing Sandy Hook: the full guide

The hook that catches the run

Sandy Hook juts seven undeveloped miles into the apex of the New York Bight: the first stop for every migrating striper, bluefish and albie moving along the Jersey shore. Federal parkland means no houses, no jetty gaps: just bars, sloughs, the rips at the tip, and bayside sod banks that fish when the ocean is upside down.

Run seasons

Spring: bunker schools drag big stripers along the ocean side (April-June). Summer: fluke in the rips and channels, small blues everywhere. Fall: the main event: sand eel and peanut bunker blitzes that can erupt anywhere from the tip to Sea Bright, October into December. Albies zip the rips on calm September mornings.

The migration gate

Sandy Hook guards New York Harbor's fish highway: spring stripers round the point chasing bunker (April-June), fluke carpet the sandy channels all summer, and the fall run stacks albies, bass, and blues against the beaches in feeding-frenzy weeks. Surf casters work the ocean side at dawn; light-tackle boats drift the rips off the tip: every tide moves fish past this sand spit.

Common questions

When does the fall run peak at Sandy Hook?

Mid-October through Thanksgiving most years: northwest winds after a blow, birds on bait at first light. When the sand eels arrive, the tip can blitz for days.

When is the fall run at Sandy Hook?

October-November: sand eels and peanut bunker pull the striper migration against the beach. Northeast blows concentrate the blitzes: the day after a storm is the traditional call.

Is fishing good at Sandy Hook right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Tough. Pick your battles. Post-front sun and slick water make them sulk.

Nearby waters

Raritan Bay12 miManasquan Reservoir23 miRaritan River29 miToms River36 miFire Island41 miRound Valley Reservoir45 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Tide predictions
NOAA CO-OPS 8531680 β€” Sandy Hook
Harmonic predictions, datum MLLW, local time. 11 high and low events returned for today and the next two days. A prediction, not a measured water level: wind and surge move the real thing.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 40.4720, -74.0010 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.