Sunday, August 25, 2019

When Only One Thing Works

The Jumpin Minnow in a blue back was a hot producer in
the last couple of days for stripers and blues.  It was the only
thing wo\rking yesterday.
For me, the oceanfront has gone from red hot to lukewarm.  A week ago, it was daily blitzes.  The last few days I had to work for my fish.  Still, the stripers and blues are around if you look and fish the right places with the right stuff. In the last couple of days, there have been small pods of bait and small groups of fussy fish after it.
Yesterday, my son Jon and I went down to the oceanfront.We couldn't find much in the afternoon and we were staring at a blank in the evening.  Then, about an hour before dark, we found some fish breaking after small bait. I thought this would be easy.  I went to my float 'n' Cocahoe, the best bet earlier in the week Nothing doing....still fish breaking but not hitting.  I then went to my Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencil, my second best producer all week.  It got a lot of whirls, no takers. To my right I saw Jon catching.  He went with a blueback Jumpin' Minnow. I put that on and finally hit my first one, a bass of about 24 inches.  From that point until dark, Jon and I were steadily catching, many times both on at once.
When stripers and blues are on small bait, they can be mighty fussy.  I have many go-to lures when that happens.  These include the Jumpin' Minnow, the Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencil, the float and jig, jigs alone and small swimmers.Usually, one of  those will do the trick as it did last evening.