Migration Lights Up

Here is one of the small
keepers that I landed on a
bucktail jig fished off a float.

Large peanut bunker in the
4 to 5 inch range were
washing up onto the beach.

It took just a couple of cold nights and a stiff north wind that quickly triggered the movement of bait and stripers along the oceanfront in a big way. I hit one of the biggest striper blitzes of the fall today along the RI oceanfront. I walked into blitzing stripers that were slaughtering massive schools of peanut bunker and mullet.  These were big peanuts, the 4 to 5 inch ones, that attract larger stripers.  All the fish I was getting today were in the 25 to 30 inch range. I had a lot of hefty schoolies, but I also had several keepers from 28 to 30 inches in the mix. I even saw some bigger ones taken.  I was getting my fish on a float and bucktail jig, a good choice when stripers are on peanut bunker.
This was the first time in weeks that I hit it big along the oceanfront.  I had been getting big numbers of stripers and bluefish in the Bay, but those numbers began to dwindle (along with the bait) in recent days.  My guess is that the massive numbers of stripers, blues and bait are starting to exit the Bay. I also had reports from friends who were fishing multiple places along the beachfront today where fishermen were catching.  Look for hot fishing to continue along the oceanfront in the coming weeks if rough water does not come along to mess it up.

There are blitz conditions along the spot I was fishing at the oceanfront today.
Birds and stripers are after massive schools of peanut bunker and mullet.