As Wild as it Gets

A Cocahoe trailing off a float was the hot producer today
as stripers were on the rampage in some nasty weather.

I love fishing nasty weather and in the past stormy weather has led to some of my biggest days of striper fishing.  Today was another example of how nasty weather just turns on the fishing.
I fished a beach along the south shore that was devoid of fishermen but had loads of fish, bait and birds diving.  My day started off this morning as I walked into this spot in which flocks of gannets were divebombing, seagulls were hitting the water and cormorants were constantly diving. Yes, the bait (peanut bunker) was around big time and stripers were under it, breaking along the beach.  I looked like a nut running up and down the beach casting to fish that were constantly moving.  It was a wild scene.  This went on just about all day.
The fish were active and hitting.  A Cocahoe trailing off a float was the top producer although my friend Gene was getting some fish on poppers. By the end of the day I had my biggest day in over a month with dozens of schoolies landed. I got no keepers.
In late afternoon, there was a sudden wind shift and a surf build up that went from a few feet to six to eight foot waves in a matter of less than an hour.  That dramatic change in conditions ended the fishing as the birds disappeared and the bait and stripers departed.