A Bad Day

Today was a reminder that fishing is not always good. The hot fishing that we had experienced along the oceanfront in the last three weeks came to a screeching halt today.  I fished from the shore and for the first time in a long time I saw no birds working, no bait and no fish caught in the daylight.  I worked some good looking white water in multiple spots with no success. I did manage to avoid the dreaded blank with a lone fish after dark that hit a teaser.  That fish was a skinny 24 inch schoolie. A guy who was fishing with me also got a schoolie and those were the only two fish I saw caught all day.
There are some trends to watch for along the oceanfront in the next week or so based on what has happened in other years at this time.  No question, the albies are thinning out especially for shore fishermen.  In most past years, there were few around past mid October.  We are almost there. Those abundant bay anchovies have been a September up to mid October thing in past years.  I expect those to also thin out. We have seen no peanut bunker along the oceanfront yet, but I know there are a lot of them in the Bay along with good numbers of adult menhaden.  Watch for that bait to migrate along the oceanfront in the coming weeks.
We are a long way from the end with a lot of good fishing expected in the next month or so. However, we will have those bad days along the way.  Today was one of them.