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| I landed this schoolie yesterday while fishing in some rough, white water. It hit a NLBN paddle tail fished off a float. |
It looks like the cold weather is here to stay. And, with it, the striper fishing has really cooled off along the oceanfront. Yes, there are still some around, but I get the sense that things are winding down with a lot less fish around as the days tick away.
I fished the last two days and made a lot of casts. In those two days, I saw very few fishermen around in some popular spots. There were no fish showing but some around. Yesterday I did find some schoolies while just plugging while walking along a beach. They were hitting NLBN paddle tails fished off a wooden egg float. I had some great white water in front of me, and most of the fish were lurking in the white. Today was a different story. It was dead flat calm which brought dead fishing. I saw good amounts of bait (peanut bunker) and occasional birds and gannets diving at them, but no stripers. It's always a bad sign when there's lots of bait and no stripers. By sunset, I was the only one fishing a wide expanse of beach. No fish, no fishermen. I even fished a good spot later after dark. Once again, bait there, but no stripers.
So, we are moving slowly toward the end of another season. I'm sure you can catch some here and there along the south shore beachfront in the next couple of weeks, but be prepared for some skunkings also. It is winding down.
