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Good size peanut bunker fueled this
massive blitz |
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There were loads of
keeper stripers in the mix.
These were 28-30 in. fish.
The bucktail jig was hot. |
Today I hit one of the greatest blitzes I have hit along the RI shore in years. It featured keeper bass, big blues and albies all blitzing on good size peanut bunker at the same time! And, this went on from morning until night. Simply an incredible sight!
I had not been getting many stripers in the last couple of weeks along the RI oceanfront. The few I was catching were small, around 20 inches. Blues had been non-existent. That all changed today.
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The biggest blue of the
day was a fish in the teens. |
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Albies were also in the
mix with good numbers
breaking along with
stripers and bluefish. |
I walked into a major blitz this morning as birds were diving, the water was black with peanut bunker and fish were busting everywhere along a half mile stretch of shoreline. Stripers were in tight to the rocks, blues were out a little further and albies were all over the place. The stripers were real good size, generally keepers in the 28 to 30 inch range, a size I have not seen in any abundance this year. There were also a few hefty 24-27 inch schoolies in the mix. The hot lure was a flathead bucktail jig with a curly tail fished off the float or alone. At the end of the day, I had a total of over 30 stripers with the majority of them small keepers. The blues were also good size, running 6-10 lbs. on average, and I had one real big one that went about 14 lbs. I landed 7 blues on the day. They were hitting the jig but were also taking skinny metal. With so many blues around I turned to metal to catch the albies. I landed 4 of them on the Kastmaster XL but had a lot of hits and smashes.
Today's blitz was fueled by large peanut bunker that went 4-5 inches long. I had not seen loads of peanut bunker around the oceanfront until today. I am guessing this bait is starting to move southward from Gansett Bay and points further north. That bait should continue to light up the fishing in the coming weeks.
