Not only was the wind and surf conditions right, but the stars must have also lined up as I walked into a wild blitz of stripers tonight along the oceanfront. I scouted around all over this afternoon and found nothing. The few fishermen I met were complaining that there were no fish around. Then, about an hour before sunset I hit a new location and right in front of me was a wild scene. The shoreline was black with bait (bay anchovies). There was so much of it I thought it was weed at first. The sky was filled with diving seagulls in a feeding frenzy and stripers were busting all along the white water shore. And, I was all alone as there was not a soul in sight! I phoned my son Ben and he joined me shortly. With the fish on bay achovies, we opted to use Cochoes or bucktail jigs on the float rig. That did the trick as we landed at least 25 stripers from 22-30 inches (see photos of two of the fish). As suddenly as the fish and bait appeared, it all abruptly ended at dark as the bait and the fish moved out. I stayed after dark thinking I could bang a fish or two, but no luck. The fish are tight to the bait these days, and when that bait departs, the stripers leave too.
I'm on a lucky roll since this type of thing has happened to me several times this month. Hey, most of this year's fishing has been fair to poor, but September is surely making up for the rough going I've had in the last two months.
