Today was a humbling day. I saw tons of fish breaking, mostly stripers feeding on big schools of bay anchovies that were about an inch long. It's always tough when stripers are feeding on bait that small. There is no artificial that can match bait that small and that numerous. Your offering becomes a needle in a haystack. To make matters worse, the ocean was flat with no wind and clear water, always tough conditions to fool finicky fish. Yikes, I was lucky to catch the 4 schoolies that I did manage to fool in the daylight. I saw at least 25 other frustrated fishermen trying every artificial lure known to man, and I don't think the whole bunch of them managed 20 fish.
My son, Ben, and I decided enough was enough and we packed it in and went looking for false albacore. Yes, we found them.......lots of them. For a solid hour we had a jump to cast to every single throw. But, they would not hit either. We each had a whirl on a float and fly and that was it. There were at least 6 boats in front of us with frenzied fishermen casting away and the whole group of them got nothing.
But, my bad luck day took a turn for the better after dark. Finally, well after dark, I was able to snare two 35 inch stripers (see photo) on a Daiwa Salt Pro Minnow, a plug that has become my favorite go to lure after dark. These fish finally made my day.