Bluefish and Albies and….. Bass? Oh my!
We are going to skip shop news for this one. We have a few exciting things coming, but we’ll hold off on revealing them for now and go right to the fishing report.
As can be expected, participation is down during the middle of the week in late September compared to middle of the week in July or August. That is participation from the anglers, because the fish are out there and willing to play.
The mullet run is going strong and the bluefish are taking advantage of it. They are willingly hitting mullet fished on mullet rigs, plus hitting metals and poppers in the surf and the inlets.
The false albacore have been moving in and out of the surf and the astute anglers are getting their shots at them.
We are also getting reports of striped bass in the surf in the dark and low light conditions. They are hitting small poppers while there is still light to see and plastic swimming plugs when it gets dark.
For the upcoming weekend, the weather doesn’t look great. The remnants of Hurricane Ian is going to give us a 90% chance of rain with 20+ knot northeast winds, which are going to make the beaches unfishable and keep all the sane boats at the dock. That leaves the back bay as an option if you really need to get out and wet a line. There are a few spots producing small stripers at night on small swim shads, Kettle Creek shads, and Vudu Shrimp.
This is the first report in a long time where I don’t have to type "bucktails and Gulp!" Wait… Oh man…
On that note, here are some notable catches:
In our lead-off picture, our own Jenni with a nice bluefish taken on a popper in the surf.
Legendary Larry also got into the bluefish action.
Scott got out in a proper boat and got into the albies using epoxy jigs.
Even our own online store guy got out with a friend from another tackle shop (stories of the animosity between tackle shops tend to be greatly exaggerated) and got into albies and bluefish on epoxy jigs and Nomad Vertex Max vibes.
Elio and his friend had over 6 bass Wednesday on Madd Mantis Cherry Poppers and plastic swimming plugs. They reported mullet pouring down the beaches with bass and blues on them.
Last, and certainly not least, our own Sean’s “Mini-Me” with a nice bluefish she landed as “Uncle” Scott cheered her on. “Uncle Scott? “ Lord help her…
And while we are on the subject of Scott, we will give Ray another day off of the reports whipping post. Scott wasn’t only into albies and blues. He also got a rare, feathered, squawking salmon. Don’t worry, after a good choking it was released unharmed.
