It's been a long times since I've caught one of these.....

I landed this weakfish, or squeteague, a couple
of nights ago.  It's been decades since I've caught one.
I also saw others caught. Yes, they are around.
This one was caught on a NLBN paddle tail.

 

Hot Stuff

 

This was the hot ticket in the last
two days when stripers were feeding
on peanut bunker.

The glut of small stripers continues unabated.  I hit a massive blitz of them today.  There seemed to be fish everywhere in front of me as big schools of stripers had peanut bunker pinned up against the shore.  Birds everywhere, fish busting and frenzied baitfish running for their lives! The first 35 casts I made I landed 35 stripers.  There were that many.

Today was almost was a repeat of what happened yesterday but in much calmer water.  The interesting thing about yesterday, a day I was fishing with my sons Ben and Jon, was that Ben was outfishing his father at least four fish to my one.  I was using the egg float with a half ounce bucktail jig.  Ben was using an egg float with a 3 inch NLBN paddle tail with a half ounce jighead. That seemed to be a more effective peanut bunker imitator. The bucktail had been working real well for me when slender bay anchovies were around, but not so good with the peanut punker.  So, I switched jigs and started catching more.

Today I just went with the float and NLBN paddle tail and it worked wonders again.  You can use the paddle tail alone when a long cast is not needed.  Use it off a float when you need a long cast or when you are fishing rocky areas.  This set up is also great when casting into a strong wind.

Ben Pickering lands a slot fish in some
rough water yesterday using an egg float with a NLBN
paddle tail. 

There has been a glut of small stripers around in 
the last few days with an occasional slot.
The egg float with a NLBN
paddle tail has been my best producer.