Current and Recent Surf/Ocean Conditions
Recent weather affects surf fishing more strongly than the current conditions

    Although each of these weather stations has slightly varied instrumentation, in general each will provide average wind velocity and direction, gust velocity and direction, wave height, swell height, swell period, air temperature, dew point, water temperature, barometric pressure. Another nice feature is the stations will show you these details for every hour of the past 24. It's more important to know what the wind has been doing for the past 24 hours than just what it's doing right now. If we see "current weather" and it shows us the wind is blowing at 13kt from NE - what does that tell us in terms of surf fishing? Nothing at all. We need to know how long has it been blowing NE? What were the conditions when it started blowing NE? How big were the waves when it started blowing NE? I honestly feel that looking at the past 24 hours wind/wave/temp/barometer would make much better sense than looking at current conditions alone.

    It's no secret that with eastern facing coastlines, that an onshore north east or east wind can make for some spectacular striped bass fishing. Unless you are lucky enough to live within daily range of the surf fishing locations you love, you'll need to keep an eye on the weather. One of the most likely scenario for solid striped bass fishing is when a surf that's been calm and clean for 48 hours or more is suddenly awakened by mother nature. Be it from an onshore wind or an offshore storm generated swell - you'll want to be there as the surf builds and the waters gets rougher. Striped bass will commit suicide in those conditions - and apparently dead surf can come to live for a few wild hours. Get there while it still too calm and you won't see a thing. Show up after it's been rough and banging around for 5 or 6 hours and it may be already too dirty or weedy. The surest way to time it right is by keeping a vigilant watch on the current conditions, but remember, what it's doing right now is only what it's doing right now...it's what it was doing for the past hours and days that is going to most affect your surf fishing.
    One suggestion - if you click on one of these stations and any of the features are not working, make sure you email the link on that station's page and let them know which features aren't working. That's the only way NOAA ever gets around to fixing these weather platforms and buoys :-) Ambrose Tower, the closest station to Sandy Hook or the West End of Long Island, is notorious for getting hit by ships - which takes out some of it's instruments. It's only through reminding them constantly that we rely on those weather stations that they ever bother fixing them. Here's a list of the more common stations around the NE and down to South Carolina:

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NOAA Weather Stations

Ambrose Light (NJ) Platform - Located about 9.4 miles ESE of the point at Sandy Hook and 8.5 miles NE of the green can on the Shrewsbury Rocks - this is an excellent source of current wind, wave, and water temperatures - when the water temp and wave height readings are working. They are notoriously unavailable...

Montauk NY Buoy- Located 23 miles SW of Montauk Point, NY and 23 miles SE of Shinnecock Inlet, NY.

Long Island, NY Buoy- Located 23 NM S of Democrat Point, Fire Island, NY and 39NM ENE of Shark River, NJ.

Delaware Bay Buoy- Located 26 miles SE of Cape May, NJ - in the mouth of the Delaware Bay - almost due east of Ocean City.

Buzzards Bay, MA Buoy- Located in Buzzards Bay, MA.

Thomas Point, MD Platform- Located at Thomas Point, MD.

Virginia Beach Buoy- Located 64 NM east of Virginia Beach, VA.

Duck Pier, NC Platform- Located on Duck Pier, NC.

Diamond Shoals, NC Buoy- Located on Diamond Shoals, NC - about 10 miles SE of Hatteras Point, NC.

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