Thanks for the compliment Finnegan
Thank you. I'll keep the posts coming.
As for humpbacks, they are in our waters throughout the season but there are two shots each year at finding them in greater concentration.
The first is right now. Scup usually spawn at the same time as Weakfish in our waters, right around the new moon in June. If you check the reports and ask around, you'll hear about surfcasters who have recently landed and released jumbo porgies on whole skimmer clams that were meant for stripers.
The second real decent shot is as Seawolf described, in the fall when they school up for the annual migration to the offshore winter grounds. This can happen anywhere from late August to December, depending upon the water temps.
One interesting note, according to divers and commercial trawlers who I've spoken to about their porgie observations, it seems that scup are just like bluefish, who INSIST on schooling up only with fish of the same size range. It's as if the elders stick together and push the juvenile fish out of their schools and into their own.
Keep this in mind next time you start catching smaller fish. It could mean that it's time to move to another location in search of the pods of larger fish.
