Saturday, September 30, 2017

Big Waves Have Changed the Fishing

I landed 5 schoolies today in multiple spots.
There were no concentrations of fish along
the oceanfront in the places I fished.
 Fishing has cooled after the
big waves of the past week.
Huge waves from Hurricane Maria have been battering the oceanfront for the last week.  Prior to that the fishing was very good.  There were lots of false albacore, good numbers of stripers and increasing numbers of bluefish along with a lot of bait. That great fishing has changed for the worse.
I fished the oceanfront today and my son Ben has been fishing it for the last two days. Ben got three schoolies yesterday afternoon and caught nothing this morning.  I got 5 schoolies this afternoon/evening while fishing in multiple spots.  There were no concentrations of fish anywhere.
I saw no bait, no birds working and no fish breaking.  Realize, too, I was fishing some great water.  It was clean and it was rough, the type of conditions that would appear to be a sure bet for big numbers of fish.
I also saw no albies breaking.  While I don't think they have all left, I think their numbers have really dwindled as big storms tend to move them out. I'm sure you will see some small pods of them here and there in the next couple of weeks but the big blitzes of a couple of weeks ago seem to be a thing of the past.  Let's hope I am wrong.
So, we are in a post storm lull right now.  Rest assured there are a solid two months left to the fishing season and things should perk up in the coming days as bait streams southward.