October 28, 2017 Acres of Blitzing Bass and Albies
This is what the fall run is about here in Western Long Island Sound! The thermometer read 40 degrees when I left the house and even though it warmed up to 60 degrees later in the day, that autumn chill was in the air. Within the first 3 mins of leaving the dock my friend Brian and I encountered our first small bass blitz. We quickly got 3 or 4 small bass each then were ready to move on. Within minutes we ran into the next bass blitz. The next group were all cookie cutter 20" fish with the occasional chubby fish mixed in. They had peanut bunker pressed against a rocky shoreline on the main land in 7 feet of water. The bait was spraying clear out of the water and the water erupted as bass exploded on the baitfish. An epoxy jig worked as effectively as a jighead and soft plastic. Eventually we we caught enough schoolies, and we were ready to move on to our next quary of the morning; albies. A call from a friend pointed me in the right direction of where to find them. The albies were in the new location, but spread out in small groups of 1-3 fish. We could not connect. When they are that sporadic it is difficult to get a single fish to commit to your offering. We left fish to find fish and it paid off. Behind the islands we found another pod, and an albie quickly ate my epoxy jig. That bite died down so we again moved, only to find more bass blitzing close to shore. Caught a few then moved east. We found acres of bass and albies blitzing very sporadically spread out over acres of open water. It was difficult to single out just one group to cast to, but once you did you were rewarded with a bass. The albies in that group were as sporadic as the first group we came across in the morning. It was very difficult to leave the fish biting, but I needed to get home and it was very frustrating knowing there were albies there that were just a little too spread out to bite. The name of the game was covering ground, and not being afraid to leave fish to find fish. When its good, its good, and there were fish around almost every corner.
This is what the fall run is about here in Western Long Island Sound! The thermometer read 40 degrees when I left the house and even though it warmed up to 60 degrees later in the day, that autumn chill was in the air. Within the first 3 mins of leaving the dock my friend Brian and I encountered our first small bass blitz. We quickly got 3 or 4 small bass each then were ready to move on. Within minutes we ran into the next bass blitz. The next group were all cookie cutter 20" fish with the occasional chubby fish mixed in. They had peanut bunker pressed against a rocky shoreline on the main land in 7 feet of water. The bait was spraying clear out of the water and the water erupted as bass exploded on the baitfish. An epoxy jig worked as effectively as a jighead and soft plastic. Eventually we we caught enough schoolies, and we were ready to move on to our next quary of the morning; albies. A call from a friend pointed me in the right direction of where to find them. The albies were in the new location, but spread out in small groups of 1-3 fish. We could not connect. When they are that sporadic it is difficult to get a single fish to commit to your offering. We left fish to find fish and it paid off. Behind the islands we found another pod, and an albie quickly ate my epoxy jig. That bite died down so we again moved, only to find more bass blitzing close to shore. Caught a few then moved east. We found acres of bass and albies blitzing very sporadically spread out over acres of open water. It was difficult to single out just one group to cast to, but once you did you were rewarded with a bass. The albies in that group were as sporadic as the first group we came across in the morning. It was very difficult to leave the fish biting, but I needed to get home and it was very frustrating knowing there were albies there that were just a little too spread out to bite. The name of the game was covering ground, and not being afraid to leave fish to find fish. When its good, its good, and there were fish around almost every corner.
