Finally, a fall blitz. I was down the south shore beaches today and I hit a wild day. Vast schools of peanut bunker (see photo at left) moved along a mile long stretch of beachfront as stripers were feeding on this prime bait. It was an old fashioned blitz with loads of seagulls diving, bait being blasted out of the water and fishermen chasing the bass all along the beach. For the most part the bass were schoolies but there were some keepers of 28 inches taken. There were also some bluefish landed. Most fishermen who were there several hours landed 15-30 fish apiece!
Get out the jigs if you are looking for success when peanut bunker are present. The stripers can be finicky when on this bait and it is important to get your offering below the school of bait where the stripers lurk. I like to use a half ounce flathead bucktail jig with a three or 4 inch plastic curly tail attached(see photo at right). Storm lures as well as shad bodies threaded onto jigheads work well. Kastmasters are also effective.