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| This schoolie, landed yesterday, was caught on a wooden egg float and bucktail jig. Shore fishing improved in the stormy weather of the last few days. |
Fishing activity perked up in the winds and rains of the last few days. I fished three straight evenings in some beautiful white water and came away with eleven stripers and a couple of hickory shad. All the stripers were schoolies in the 15 to 25 inch range, fish we have not seen all season. It was far better action than I've seen in the last two weeks.
I knew from experience that the fishing would improve in this weather. Summer northeasters can deliver a taste of fall with rough water and stormy conditions, two things stripers love. I fished this one spot with a lot of white water, and I saw occasional fish jumping for schools of small bait, something I haven't seen in a while. Right now we do have a good amount of bait which incudes herring fry, sandeels and squid. We just needed the rough water to get the stripers feeding.
All of my fish were landed on jigs, either NLBN paddle tails on jigheads or bucktail jigs trailing off a wooden egg float. Both these are good imitators when small bait is around.
So, in the next couple of weeks, watch for these weather events that can perk up the shore fishing for stripers. Northeasters, southwesterly blows and rainstorms can all dramatically perk up the fishing in the doldrums of summer.
