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| This is one of many hefty schoolies that I landed in the last couple of days. This one hit my NLBN paddle tail, a hot lure this fall. |
The stripers and bait are on the move along the oceanfront. The last few days have featured big blitzes of schoolies in multiple locations. Most of these fish have been huge schools of schoolies in the 18 to 22 inch range, sizes of fish that have been in short supply all year. But, they are here now as they had to come down from waters north of us. There have also been some slots in the mix as I got one today and saw some yesterday, and I even heard of some over slots landed after dark in the last couple of days.
While the last few days of fishing have been very good, yesterday was LIGHTS OUT. I was into fish from morning until after dark in one location as massive schools of stripers were chasing down huge schools of peanut bunker, another baitfish that has not been around the oceanfront for most of the fall. All this action has grabbed the attention of an army of shore fishermen. In one particular spot I was fishing yesterday, I must have seen at least 250 stripers landed in a couple of hours by roughly 20 fishermen. With the stripers feeding on peanut bunker, they were charged up and not fussy. All types of plugs and jigs seemed to be working. I got just about all my fish, close to 40 of them, on 3-inch NLBN paddle tail.
So, the peak of the fall run is here. I'm sure this hot fishing will continue in the days and maybe the weeks ahead. The migration is underway!
