Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Back to the Bay of Plenty

 

This is one of many stripers and blues
that I landed today in the Bay
from the kayak. They were 
chasing down schools of peanut
bunker.

Last evening/night I hit the oceanfront in a place where the tide and conditions were just right.  The only thing missing was bait.  I made a lot of casts and came away with one striper, a schoolie, along with a keeper fluke on a bucktail jig. It was slow, typical of what has been going on along the oceanfront.

Today I loaded the kayak into the truck and went back to the Bay of Plenty. Right off the boat launch, I encountered massive schools of peanut bunker, which led to stripers and blues breaking all around me at times. The fish were aggressive and I landed good numbers of both stripers and bluefish.  All the action came on a bone colored Rebel Jumpin' Minnow, a hot plug right now in the Bay.  Just goes to show that if you find the bait, especially peanut bunker, you will almost surely find stripers and bluefish. No bait, few or no fish!