No Bait, No Fish

A basic tenet of saltwater surf fishing for stripers and blues is that the fish are where the bait is.  That is really magnified in the fall.  Unlike the summer where you can pick off a resident fish here and there in some white water, catching a loner in the fall is tough. The fish are schooling up in the fall and moving with the schools of bait.
I got out yesterday and spent a good six hours casting and looking for fish.  I covered a good piece of the oceanfront from Jamestown to Galilee.  I can only describe yesterday's water in spots as a perfect "10" for surf fishing.  It was rough, but clean and had good movement to it.  There was no sand or weed in the spots I fished. Yet, I never got a hit. I saw no bait and no birds working. I did see a few guys trying and all commented on the poor fishing.  They expected it to be better based on the reports they had been reading. Yes, last week's big NE blow and heavy surf did bring some real good fishing to a few pinpoint spots, mainly protected areas from the heavy surf.  Those spots that were good had big amounts of peanut bunker that drew in big numbers of keeper bass and big blues.  For the most past, that bait seems to have disappeared since the storm.  I suspect a lot of it went into the coastal ponds and Gansett Bay.
We will just have to wait until the bait begins its movement southward to see a return to good fishing.  It will happen....just a matter of time.