Last Friday the weather forced me to cancel my charter but I braved the rain to go out myself. A quick stop along the sod banks near the marina turned up some schoolie stripers on poppers. Then I spent the next 3 hours chasing uncooperative albies all over the inlet without getting much of a shot. They were coming up in very small groups for very short periods making it extremely difficult to put fly or lure in their path.
With the improved weather on the weekend the mullet run created some spectacular fishing for blues and good size striped bass. This was some "extreme" fishing, with the fish working in the waves breaking over a shoal near the Breezy Point jetty. The key to hooking up was to get in close, hook up quick and pull out to fight the fish from a comfortable position. This tactic resulted in about three dozen fish on light spin and fly for Alan, Patrick and myself. The albies did not show nearby, but they were available if you were willing to wander a bit. Monday was a tough day for Mike and Steve, the fish were on the shoal again but conditions made it difficult to approach. Instead we ranged far and wide to look for albies, but had limited sightings.
In the afternoon the shoal calmed a bit and we were able to get in to work fish busting in the waves. Crease flies, and popping plugs were getting attention, but just as things were starting to look promising a jet-skier came along and started wave jumping right in the middle of three boats that were fishing the area. It's not that he did it once, which might have been both understandable and tolerable, but he kept going back and forth, several times passing near my boat at full throttle! I believe that everyone is entitled to their fair share, but this guy was just down right inconsiderate, needless to say that shut down the bite. Anyway, after this bit of unsettled weather things should be right where we left them with a real chance for a fall slam.
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