Thursday, October 17, 2024

WILD Outing- Stripers on Top, Bonito Below

 

Good size stripers were on the prowl in recent
days. The float and fly was the ticket.

It's been a wild couple of days for me as I have been chasing down big blitzes of fish.  Both stripers and bonito (yes, they are still around!)  are feeding on huge schools of small bay anchovies that are sometimes less than an inch in size. What has been bizarre and something I have not seen in the past is that BOTH bonito and stripers are in the same mix. For the most part the stripers have been slurping on top while the bonito have been down deep and not showing but still feeding.

Yesterday I kept rotating lures.  When the stripers were slurping in front of me, I would go with the float and fly, a combo that has been deadly in the last few days.  It far out fished anything other fishermen were throwing. When no stripers were showing, I switched to a green backed Colt Sniper lure that was a killer for the bonito. I would cast out as far as I could and let the lure sink almost to the bottom.  Then, I would reel fast. I had either a hit or a fish on at least 50 % of my casts.

Bonito were feeding down deep, often under the 
stripers.  The Colt Sniper lure was a hot lure
yesterday.  A fast retrieve was best.

I ended my day with 20 stripers landed.  They were just about all slots. I also landed 5 bonito but had a ton more hits and fish on. The bonito were running 3 to 5 lbs., generally the size we've had all fall.