Monday, August 13, 2012

Wind + Clouds+Bait = Feeding Stripers within reach!!!

I was able to get down to a favorite spot of mine in the bay this weekend.  The conditions were promising with a steady wind, cloudy conditions and visible signs of larger bait being present.  I started out fishing a secondary spot at the location as my primary spot was being fished by another guy.  I watched him chug poppers through the white water being stirred up by the heavy surf for about a half hour.  Finally, he gave up and left.

As soon as he moved on, I moved in.  The water looked great.  The tide was just right.  On my second cast I landed a nice, hard-fighting schoolie-sized bass of about 26"-27".  The success continued for the next 30 minutes or so and made for a very memorable afternoon of fishing in what is usually a very slow month for taking striped bass from shore.   All in all I landed 6 nice sized shoolies the smallest being about 14"-15".


So, what was I using?  A home-made casting egg with a short leader and a home-tied 3/4 oz. white bucktail with a pork rind attached!  This setup is killer in these type of situations as I found out for the first time today!  Thank you Dave Pickering for all of your posts about using this very effective method for presenting a small offering in windy weather and rocky locations. 

It was a very memorable afternoon that I was blessed to share with my lovely and beautiful wife Jennifer who took these wonderful pictures.
See you in the surf - jc