A massive amount of bait hit the oceanfront in the last two days. The bait was bay anchovies of 2 to 3 inches, and big time numbers of stripers were on them. It was fall blitz-like action that I haven't seen in a long time. Thousands of birds were diving from above as stripers were blasting from below. It was two days of wild fishing for me which delivered big numbers of stripers from schoolies and slots up to an overslot of 40 inches. Most of the fish, however, were schoolies.
There were loads of fish, but I have to say they were fussy and lots of guys who were tossing large plugs were getting nothing. When on small bait, stripers can be super fussy, and often you have to take a finesse approach to catch them. Two artificials were very effective for me. One the first day, I used an unweighted white Albie Snax which did the trick. On day 2, I had a stiff wind in my face so I went with a float and jig with a curly tail attached to the jig.
Hopefully, this is the start of consistent fall striper fishing.
Take a look at the bird/bait action below:
