Blitz of the Week!

 The striper fishing has gone from red hot to ice cold in a matter of days. On Friday I hit one of the biggest blitzes of fish that I have seen in years.  At one point a school of fish in front of me was bigger than the size of a football field. It was a wild scene with fish breaking, birds diving and bait flying out all over the place.  It was all slot size fish with even some over slots in the mix.

Two days later I can't find a fish anywhere. Our up and down year continues!

Float and Fly Kills It Today

 

The float and fly was super effective
today because the stripers were feeding
on small bay anchovies.

Today was the best day of fishing for me this year! I hit a massive blitz of stripers that were feeding on small bay anchovies.  This is a slender baitfish that is super hard to imitate, but I have a trick up my sleeve for when this happens. While a number of fishermen had a very difficult time getting the fish to hit, they were readily smashing my float and fly.  These were all decent fish, mostly slots with one large overslot that I landed.

The killer was the float and fly.  The fly, a homemade pink Deceiver, is a perfect imitator of this small bait.  It has the profile, size and the movement to imitate bay anchovies.  The egg float is simply a casting weight to get the fly out.  Reel slowly with and occasional pull of the rod tip.  Even stop reeling once in a while.  Many hits will come on the stop. 

Many fishermen will knock this set up saying it only catches small fish.  Not true. This is the same crowd that mistakenly will tell you that you have to use a big plug to catch a big fish. Not when the fish are feeding on two inch baitfish. Today out of hundreds of fish landed, I had the biggest one I saw,  a fish that I estimated to be 23 lbs.

One of many, many fish that fell for the float and
fly today.  Note the pink Deceiver in the fish's mouth.

Stripers Gone Wild!

 

                                                     

                                             It was a wild day at the oceanfront as stripers were on

                                             big schools of small bay anchovies!