Just when I thought we were in for a very slow summer of fishing, tons of sandeels appear along the south coast, and they have lured stripers, bluefish and fluke close to shore. I have never seen the numbers of large sandeels that I witnessed yesterday. These were all sandeels in the 3-5 inch range, very large for these parts. While fishing off the West Wall yesterday, I saw one huge black patch after another move down the beach and along the wall. The water was so clear, you could seen striper after striper under them and occasionally breaking for them. The stripers, however, were fussy and scattered and would not hit in the daytime.
What was hitting in the daytime was fluke. They were everywhere there was bait. Using a bucktail jig spiced with a plastic grub tail, I landed 21 of them, but only one was a 21-inch keeper. I found some striper action after dark with some fish breaking close to shore and some hitting. Fishermen in boats were faring far better as they could chase breaking fish in the daylight along the Walls and in front of Pt. Judith where from shore I could see birds diving and fish breaking. The hot lures for me and friends who fished from shore were teasers (either Red Gills or Deceiver flies) fished ahead of Hogys or Slug- Gos.
Hopefully, the sandeels will jump start the fishing.
