Not Good

The last time the fishing was good was a week ago, During this week we have had persistent NE winds and a heavy surf.  Most east facing shorelines were completely shut down due to high waves, sand, weed and roiled water. Enter round two today with another round of stormy weather on the way.  Only thing, this is even worse. NOAA is forecasting a week of very heavy surf and high winds.  The predictions are generally for 7-12 foot waves for the next 5 days with gale warnings at times.  Not good.  Add to that the fact that we may see hurricane waves later in the weekend as the effects of Hurricane Joaquin come northward.  Not good.
Even once this weather passes, I am guessing it will take days for the water to clear up. I suspect there will be limited or no surf fishing along the whole oceanfront until mid next week at the earliest.
I don't know if this is by coincidence or planned, but my latest article in the Fisherman magazine (which I got today) is called "Rough Water Strategies for Fall Stripers". It basically outlines how to deal with rough water but emphasizes there is a fine line between rough water which can be productive and water that is too rough and dangerous to fish. In the next few days it will be too rough unless you want to fish the protected backwaters, inside the breachways, the coastal ponds or the Bay.
What we find when this mess clears up will be very different than what we had in mid Sept. I suspect the albies will be gone.  Yup, short and sweet this year, but kiss em good-bye.  We'll have to chase the bait on their migration southward (Bay is loaded right now), and hopefully we'll still have a good month left of stripers and bluefish, if we have no more severe weather.