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.

Rare "Hat Trick" Today

 

This albie was landed on a float and
pink Deceiver fly.

I had a rare hat trick today in some hot fishing from shore. The "hat trick" in saltwater fishing happens if you can catch an albie, a striper and a blue all in one day.  It happened today as I had multiple fish that contributed to the hat trick. I've only been able to do this once before a long time ago from shore. By the way, some fishermen call this a "slam"; others refer to it as a trifecta.  Whatever you want to call it, it's a rare event, especially for shore fishermen.

Today was on of those dreary, rainy and rough days that most fish love to feed in. And, they were feeding! There were stripers in and out all day, but they were fussy. My best producer for the finicky stripers was my float and fly although I did land one on a white Albie Snax. I landed several with a couple of them being slots.  The albies were also in and out, and I saw a good number of them breaking.  I got two to hit a silver Clarkspoon, a hot lure for me this year, and the other albie I landed was caught on a float and fly.  That fished grabbed the fly no more than 20 feet in front of me! The bluefish was landed on a Colt Sniper metal lure.  All the fish today were feeding on small bay anchovies which made catching them difficult.

Overall, this has been a good week for fishing along the oceanfront for multiple species.  Let's hope it continues!

This striper took an Albie Snax.

This bluefish that I landed today completes the hat trick!

Float and Fly Gets it Done

 

A wooden egg float with a pink
Deceiver fly was the hot set up
yesterday for stripers and albies.

I hit a pile of fussy stripers yesterday in front of me that were feeding on small bay anchovies.  Most fishermen who were tossing large plugs could not even get a sniff. So, I snapped on one of my old "finesse fishing" favorites in this situation, the float and fly.  The set up here was a wooden egg float with three feet of 30 lb. test Varivas fluoro trailing off with a homemade pink Deceiver tied at the end of the fluoro.  That pink Deceiver had the profile and movement of the bay anchovies and the pink hackles used on the tail acted as an attractor. In the past this fly was my most effective in this situation.

First cast in tight, had a hit.  Second cast in tight, hooked and landed a slot striper.  On the fifth cast, I decided to toss it way out.  Couple of cranks of the reel and BANG-  hooked, fought and landed a good sized albie when nothing was showing. 

The beauty of this set up is that it is very effective for stripers AND albies. While metal and epoxy jigs will lure the albies to hit, I never found them to be very effective for stripers.

My pink Deceiver fly is in the mouth of a slot striper

.

A few casts later I landed this albie on the float and fly.

Biggest Striper of the Fall comes from the KAYAK!

 I got the biggest fish in a while from the kayak today. The overslot "biggie" hit an unweighted Finesse Fish twitched on top in shallow water. I was using light tackle.  

I found a pile of stripers today.  While most of them were small, I did manage to catch several slots/ overslots. With all the fishing focus on albies these days, this is a reminder that there is still good striper fishing to be had, even though few are fishing for them.

Back in the Kayak

 

It was a productive day yesterday
in the kayak in Gansett Bay.

I decided to forgo the madness along the oceanfront yesterday and heading to a quiet spot in the Bay in my kayak. In the last month the Bay has offered steady fishing for stripers because of the vast amounts of bait (mostly peanut bunker) that has settled in there.

Yesterday was a typical outing.  After peddling around a lot, I eventually found good numbers of stripers busting on small bait. They jumped all over my weightless Finesse Fish as they often do.  These were all aggressive and hefty schoolies that had been well fed. I ended up catching good numbers.

The many nooks and crannies of the Bay offers a good alternative to the oceanfront and tends to hold lots of stripers if you can find them. In the right weather, a kayak is a perfect craft to take a stealthy approach which works the best in places like this.