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In my experience, the hardest fighting fish are those who have just arrived in spring after the migration north. In days of old on a windswept Island shore south of Chatham, we anxiiously awaited the first big fish of the year.
We started our pilgrimage there in small tin boats on Memorial Day and we always referred to those bass as "freight trains" as they took hard in the first wave and ran like run away trains.
The water temps would be 50 to 55 degrees. Cooler oxygenated water of the outer beaches surf brought out the best ( and still does) in Striped Bass and having the added factor of just completed swimming 900 miles plus/minus, they were bad ass bass with nasty attitudes.
Do not wish for an early arrival. Early arrival means the cycle is skewed. Colder springs mean the mung lays off for a longer period of time. Two years ago the mung showed in late June with a warm spring heralding it's arrival. Mung is inevitable but cold springs shorten it's stay by keeping it at bay until late July and seeing it off by just after Labor Day.
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