An October to Remember

 

It was a good ole fashioned October of fishing for me.
There were very good numbers of stripers and the sizes
were excellent. Daytime action far outpaced nighttime.

For me, it was a good ole fashioned October of striper fishing. I landed close to 200 stripers for the month from shore along the oceanfront. In addition to the numbers, I had size also with many of those fish slots and overs.  In one particular spot, I hit blitz after blitz of fish day after day for much of the month.  Masses of bay anchovies stayed in this location and fueled the outstanding fishing. And, they stayed for most of the month regardless of the wind, tide, surf conditions and storminess.

Many of you will find this unusual, but it was mostly a daytime bite. This often happens when the stripers are feeding on bay anchovies. If I had to pick the best time to fish this October, it would have been from noontime to 2:00 in the afternoon. I know many of my friends slugged it out after dark in some of the same locations in which I was killing them in the daytime. They got little or nothing in the darkness. Many of those after dark fishermen have had a poor October. So much for after dark being the best time to catch stripers.

The other interesting fact about this October is that the fish were super fussy. If you didn't play a finesse game, you weren't catching.  The stripers were often feeding on one inch bay anchovies and imitating those was often challenging.  Three lures worked well for me. A white albie snax, a three inch white NLBN paddle tail (alone or off a float) and a float and fly did most of the damage. I often had to switch lures to find what was working, but one of those three would often be the ticket on any given day. 

I'm guessing we are going to move into November with the same type of fishing as October.  I'm also guessing we will continue to see this small bait. There has been little peanut bunker around. Throughout October I only found peanuts on one occasion. It just hasn't been around.  Too bad because that would make the stripers far easier to catch since they are far more aggressive when feeding on peanuts.

We've got about a month left of solid fishing (if we are lucky). Good luck in the coming weeks.  It should be good, especially in the daytime.

Surprises of the Day

 

Yup, they are still around. This
was one of the big surprises
of the day.

I was out for stripers this morning, and I did land good numbers of them.  However, the bite quickly faded.  At that point I noticed something else going on in front of me- albies breaking way out. Not a lot of them but occasional lone fish or a few at a time breaking.  I knew this would be tough since there were not that many, and I also knew they were super fussy at this time of year. On top of that, they were feeding on micro bay anchovies.

I also knew from past experience that there could also be black sea bass around.  Everything eats these small bay anchovies, and they were in abundance again today. In the past I've let my metal lure (in this case, a Clarkspoon) sink to the bottom and jig it back to the shore just like you would a bucktail, and occasionally it would produce a black sea bass.

So I decided to try for BOTH black sea bass and albies.  I'd let the lure sink to the bottom and jig it a few times then reel it ashore and hope something hits it.  Right away, I started getting hits, and I hooked up to a decent black sea bass. After that first one, they seemed to come one after another.  I'm guessing I had a school of them in front of me. I was surprised that many of them that I landed were good size. Then on one cast, I jigged the Clarkspoon a few times and got nothing so I proceeded to reel it ashore. Suddenly, BANG, the rod arched, and I was onto a freight train.  I knew this was no black sea bass as it ran off line at a frenzied pace. After a back and forth battle I had an albie in the wash and up onto the shore. 

This was another big surprise today as I jigged
up good numbers of large black sea bass using
a Clarkspoon.

Switching tactics and jigging jigging today extended my fishing day and provided a good amount of excitement and surprises. Keep this in mind next time the striper action slows. There are other fish out there!

How do you imitate this?

 

How do you imitate a small, one inch bay anchovy?
Think small offerings that have the right 
movement and profile.

I was into a big blitz of stripers today that lasted from morning till evening.  The stripers were feeding on huge schools of small bay anchovies.  We are talking bait about and inch long. Put millions of those together in massive schools and they can turn water the size of a football field brown with bait.  Add schools of finicky stripers feeding on them and you have one of the toughest situations to imitate with a lure. Luckily, I found something that worked pretty well for me today.

You can't snap on anything at the end of your line that will imitate a one inch bay anchovey, but you can attach artificials that move like them, and have a silhouette like them and those are the keys to success. Small artificials that have the profile and movement will be your best bets.  Today I was using a white Albie Snax.  This has been one of my go-to lures when fishing this situation.  Snax have the natural movement of a small baitfish and that's why stripers will hit them even when feeding on small bait.  I landed big numbers of stripers on the Snax today.

Good size stripers like this slot can be feeding on
small bait that is difficult to imitate.

I looked around me at the few successful guys who were catching today.  One of my friends was using a small Joe Baggs jighead/ paddle tail. He was catching.  Once again, good profile and good action.  And, to my right there was a fly fisherman who was really scoring using some type of fly. The fly had it all- small, right profile and good movement, and this guy knew how to work it.

In these situations where the bait is small and the fish are fussy, I will often rotate through several offerings in my bag if what I'm using is not catching.  I like the Albie Snax if I don't need a long cast.  Next, I might try the wooden egg float with a fly. I might go with a small bucktail jig or a small NLBN paddle tail. Usually, one of those artificials will get the job done.

I can tell you that as I looked around today, most fishermen I saw using large poppers, big jigs, swimmers and even metal were not catching any stripers for the most part.

An On and Off Deal

 

It was one lone striper yesterday in
the kayak in the Bay.  I found no
schools of bait.

Two words describe the current fishing along the oceanfront- NOT CONSISTENT. I know a lot of this involves the whacky weather we have been experiencing lately.  Still, I've gone down one day and had a great day, and the next day with the same conditions will produce nothing or maybe one fish. Many of the fish are under the schools of bait, and the presence or lack of bait determines whether fishing will be good or not.  A lot of the stormy weather, high winds and extremely rough surf tends to also move the bait around and kill the fishing.

The same thing is happening in the Bay.  Two days ago my son, Jon, went out in his kayak and had a banner day.  I went yesterday in the same location, same time and got one lone striper that I got trolling. I found no bait while Jon ran into schools of peanut bunker. So, the lesson here is that if you are in a boat or a kayak, move around and make a real effort at finding some bait.

Adapting

 

The egg float and a three inch NLBN
paddle tail was the hot ticket tonight.
This is a great combo when fussy 
stripers are on small peanut bunker.

I hit good numbers of fish again tonight in the northeast blow and rough water.  But, tonight's action came with a different twist. I started off casting the egg float and the bucktail jig.  It brought little success.  So, I reached into my bag of tricks and pulled out an egg float with a three inch NLBN paddle tail.  I had great success on this last year when fussy stripers were on peanut bunker.  That little paddle tail is a dead ringer for small peanuts. Well, first cast brought a hit and a striper.  And, that was my ticket for the rest of the evening.  I landed good numbers of hefty schoolies along with one slot fish.  They were all caught in the white water just like last evening.

Fishing for stripers can be hot right now IF you can find the bait and IF you can find fishable water. With the ocean calming down in the next couple of days it should open up more safe places to fish along the oceanfront.

Killing It in the Nor'easter

 

The wooden egg float with a bucktail jig was the
hot combo this evening in the rough water.

I had a big day today in the howling wind, rain and high surf.  While the monster waves were breaking as far out as I could see, the stripers were, at times, right near my feet.  They were going nuts in the white water in close, blasting away at big schools of peanut bunker that were being driven right onto the shallows.  I even saw some peanuts wash up onto the sand where I was fishing. The birds were also going nuts picking the bait up from above while the stripers blasted them from below.  It was truly and all out blitz in the midst of this nor'easter.

Upon arriving at my location, I snapped on my wooden egg float along with my half ounce bucktail, a great combo top use when the stripers are on peanuts.  First cast into the melee I had a hefty schoolie.  And that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the evening.  It was a fish or a hit on just about every cast for over an hour before the bait and fish moved on.  All the fish today were hefty schoolies in the 22 to 26 inch range.

I would advise to proceed with caution if you get out and fish in the coming days.  It is VERY rough and dangerous with a big surge of water coming in. I was standing on dry shore today casting.  Most rocky drop offs are way to dangerous to fish right now.

Lights Out Fishing for Slots/ Over Slots

 I had two of the best back to back days that I've had in a long time. It was a bonanza of big stripers with nearly all the dozens of fish that I landed being slots and even overslots.  There's been a shortage of these larger fish all fall, but not in the last two days.  I saw blitz after blitz of stripers smashing through massive schools of small bay anchovies that were one to two inches long.  At times the water was brown with them in massive schools the size of a school gym.

Given the size of the bait, the stripers were incredible fussy and most of the fishermen throwing big plugs caught nothing, even when tossing into a mass of breaking fish. It was a finesse game.  Two things were working for me.  The first day, the float and fly ruled.  I was using a pink Deceiver. On the second day, they did not go for my float and fly trick so I snapped on a white Albie Snax.  That did it and got me lots of hits and fish. I used a slow retrieve with twitches of the rod tip along with a stop every so often.  As I've stated many times, a lot of hits come on the stop.

An interesting weekend is lining up before we get battered with another big storm. Tomorrow's weather seems to be ok but then all goes downhill for Sunday with rain, wind and BIG seas coming our way. Monday is forecasted to be very stormy with high NE winds along with massive waves hitting the shore.  If you are going to get your fishing in the Columbus Day weekend, tomorrow looks like the better of the two days.