Saturday, November 10, 2012

Huge Numbers of Schoolies, Hickory Shad Invade Oceanfront

It was simply a glut of fish today.  I hit the south shore checking around different spots and fishing.  I can tell you that access and parking has greatly improved all over.  The fishing has also greatly improved as tons of schoolies as well as hickory shad are roaming various south shore beaches in search of schools of silversides that they are moving along the shoreline. I fished with my son Ben and his friend Harry, and we had a combined "over a hundred" schoolies with another forty or fifty hickory shad in the mix.  We were doing real well using a four inch white Cocahoe minnow on a half ounce jighead.  This was fished ahead of a shrimp fly teaser that dangled off our leader.  About half the fish took the Cocahoe and half took the teaser.  We had a lot of double headers (see photo).  The stripers were all schoolies, running 14-23 inches.  I saw lots of other fish caught.  There were no keeper bass and surprisingly, no bluefish.  I saw no gannets around today and no one reports seeing any big bait around (herring or menhaden) which explains the lack of keeper bass.
I am pleased to report that Charlestown Beach Rd. is now open to the breachway lot. It had been closed almost all week. The breachway lot has been all cleared of sand and 15 ft. high mounds of sand encircle the parking area.  Whoever cleared this lot and the road going in did a good job.