An On and Off Deal

 

It was one lone striper yesterday in
the kayak in the Bay.  I found no
schools of bait.

Two words describe the current fishing along the oceanfront- NOT CONSISTENT. I know a lot of this involves the whacky weather we have been experiencing lately.  Still, I've gone down one day and had a great day, and the next day with the same conditions will produce nothing or maybe one fish. Many of the fish are under the schools of bait, and the presence or lack of bait determines whether fishing will be good or not.  A lot of the stormy weather, high winds and extremely rough surf tends to also move the bait around and kill the fishing.

The same thing is happening in the Bay.  Two days ago my son, Jon, went out in his kayak and had a banner day.  I went yesterday in the same location, same time and got one lone striper that I got trolling. I found no bait while Jon ran into schools of peanut bunker. So, the lesson here is that if you are in a boat or a kayak, move around and make a real effort at finding some bait.

Adapting

 

The egg float and a three inch NLBN
paddle tail was the hot ticket tonight.
This is a great combo when fussy 
stripers are on small peanut bunker.

I hit good numbers of fish again tonight in the northeast blow and rough water.  But, tonight's action came with a different twist. I started off casting the egg float and the bucktail jig.  It brought little success.  So, I reached into my bag of tricks and pulled out an egg float with a three inch NLBN paddle tail.  I had great success on this last year when fussy stripers were on peanut bunker.  That little paddle tail is a dead ringer for small peanuts. Well, first cast brought a hit and a striper.  And, that was my ticket for the rest of the evening.  I landed good numbers of hefty schoolies along with one slot fish.  They were all caught in the white water just like last evening.

Fishing for stripers can be hot right now IF you can find the bait and IF you can find fishable water. With the ocean calming down in the next couple of days it should open up more safe places to fish along the oceanfront.

Killing It in the Nor'easter

 

The wooden egg float with a bucktail jig was the
hot combo this evening in the rough water.

I had a big day today in the howling wind, rain and high surf.  While the monster waves were breaking as far out as I could see, the stripers were, at times, right near my feet.  They were going nuts in the white water in close, blasting away at big schools of peanut bunker that were being driven right onto the shallows.  I even saw some peanuts wash up onto the sand where I was fishing. The birds were also going nuts picking the bait up from above while the stripers blasted them from below.  It was truly and all out blitz in the midst of this nor'easter.

Upon arriving at my location, I snapped on my wooden egg float along with my half ounce bucktail, a great combo top use when the stripers are on peanuts.  First cast into the melee I had a hefty schoolie.  And that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the evening.  It was a fish or a hit on just about every cast for over an hour before the bait and fish moved on.  All the fish today were hefty schoolies in the 22 to 26 inch range.

I would advise to proceed with caution if you get out and fish in the coming days.  It is VERY rough and dangerous with a big surge of water coming in. I was standing on dry shore today casting.  Most rocky drop offs are way to dangerous to fish right now.

Lights Out Fishing for Slots/ Over Slots

 I had two of the best back to back days that I've had in a long time. It was a bonanza of big stripers with nearly all the dozens of fish that I landed being slots and even overslots.  There's been a shortage of these larger fish all fall, but not in the last two days.  I saw blitz after blitz of stripers smashing through massive schools of small bay anchovies that were one to two inches long.  At times the water was brown with them in massive schools the size of a school gym.

Given the size of the bait, the stripers were incredible fussy and most of the fishermen throwing big plugs caught nothing, even when tossing into a mass of breaking fish. It was a finesse game.  Two things were working for me.  The first day, the float and fly ruled.  I was using a pink Deceiver. On the second day, they did not go for my float and fly trick so I snapped on a white Albie Snax.  That did it and got me lots of hits and fish. I used a slow retrieve with twitches of the rod tip along with a stop every so often.  As I've stated many times, a lot of hits come on the stop.

An interesting weekend is lining up before we get battered with another big storm. Tomorrow's weather seems to be ok but then all goes downhill for Sunday with rain, wind and BIG seas coming our way. Monday is forecasted to be very stormy with high NE winds along with massive waves hitting the shore.  If you are going to get your fishing in the Columbus Day weekend, tomorrow looks like the better of the two days.

Stripers on Small Bait Driving Fishermen Nuts

 We are in this pattern of a lot of small bait along the oceanfront.  I'm talking one to two inch bay anchovies.  Albies, stripers and blues are feeding on them.  When they are on the small stuff, they can get mighty picky, and that's what's going on right now.  

The larger bait, peanut bunker, is generally holed up in the backwaters and in the Bay.  It just doesn't seem to want to come out.  When it does, the fish will get far more aggressive.  The other larger bait that we often see at this time of year is mullet. I've seen very little of this bait so far this year. The stripers get super aggressive when on this bait and will hit a variety of mid size plugs.

When bay anchovies are around, I've had my best luck catching stripers on a wooden egg float and a fly, something I have written a lot about.  The fly I have been using is a pink Deceiver. That fly is running about three feet off the float with a Varivas fluoro 35 lb. test leader. Judging by what I see being caught around me, my float and fly is your best bet right now to catch stripers and even albies (when you see them feeding on top) when these fish are keyed on small bait.

Take a look at this video clip of stripers foraging under schools of bay anchovies.  It is typical of what's been going on in the past couple of weeks:

Big Waves Pound the Coast

 Here we go again with another round of hurricane waves just pounding the south shore coastline. I did fish yesterday in it, and I must say it was quite dangerous and unfishable in some places. I finally found a place that was fishable and safe and ended up doing quite well fishing a float and jig in the white water. I landed a good number of slot fish. So, the fish are still around, but use extreme caution if you get out in the coming days.