Shore Fishing Lights Up Also!

We know that the boat fishing along the oceanfront in the last few days has been phenomenal from what I have been writing about.  Well, I can also tell you that the shore fishing has also lit up in the last few days.  It is all being fueled by huge amounts of bay anchovies along with dropping water temperatures (in the last week, water temps dropped by 5 degrees), and that has set an early fall feeding spree in motion.  It's albies, bluefish, and stripers anywhere you can find the bait.

Yesterday I went down and fished from shore in the afternoon and evening.  In the middle of the daytime under a bright sun I found tons of bait, birds diving and stripers all over the place I was fishing.  These were decent fish in the 24-28 inch range on a rampage after bay anchovies.  I ended the day with 15 stripers and one lone blue.  It was all daytime action since I stayed and tried a couple of places after dark and found nothing.  The key to catching these fish was to go small with your offering.  I was using a small bucktail jig with a curly tail (see photo).  Others who used a Cocahoe on a small  jighead or a Zoom fluke on a jighead were also catching.  Those using big poppers, large metal and big Storm lures came away with nothing.  Go small and get your offering under the bait schools if you want to catch.

I will also tell you that my son Jon was fishing from shore two days ago while I was out killing the albies from the boat.  Just to give you and idea of how many fish were around in this all day blitz, he landed over 70 (said he lost count) stripers and bluefish in an "off the beaten path" spot along the oceanfront.  Of the bunch, he had a good number of stripers, and had at least half a dozen keepers in the 28-35 inch range.  He was getting them on bucktail jigs, Cocahoes on jigheads and small swimmers.
If you can find the bait you will find the fish.  By shore or boat, fishing is as hot as it gets at this time of year right now.