I had been getting a lot of schoolies in the upper Bay in the daytime, but yesterday I was looking for something bigger. I had a lot of time so I decided to get back to fishing the oceanfront. I slugged it out there for several hours in the afternoon hitting at least 6 different spots. It was incredibly dead. There was no bait, no bird action and few fishermen. The few fishermen looking around reported that fishing has been poor since last week's big blow.
Things perked up for me after dark. In one location, I had a lone fish, but it was a keeper of 28-29 inches (see photo). I got it on a Daiwa Salt Pro Minnow. It was my only hit, but I was satisfied. I then moved to a quiet backwater spot and found a bunch of schoolies even though none were breaking as there was no bait around. They were just hugging the bottom. These were all small fish in the 12-18 inch range but they were quite feisty on light tackle. A small bucktail jig was catching most of them (see photo).
Realize, the fishing along the oceanfront has slowed considerably in the daytime due to the sudden lack of bait. The big schools of bay anchovies are gone. They often disappear at this time of year. The mullet seem to be gone as they, too, disappear at this time. The albies are also gone as they are mainly a September/early Oct. fish. Everyone seems to be expecting the herring to arrive soon like they did last year bringing large stripers and big blues, but I can tell you that is no sure bet. So, we are in a lull right now. We are still over a month away was from the end of the season, but it's a matter of waiting for more bait and migrating fish to arrive.
