After many reports started filtering in of a phenomenal days worth of fishing the day before I began getting excited to head out Saturday morning with friends Jon and Jon. From what I heard the albies were basically suicidal the day before and we would have no problem finding them today. We headed out with high hopes. There was a haze on the water that made it very difficult to make out breaking fish. We did a few loops zigzagging in and out of all of the islands looking for any signs of life. Our spirits were lifted when we saw a few boats balled up in 50' of water outside. We checked it out and we were amazed to see a pod of 20-30 dolphin swimming southwest fast. Many times the dolphins broke the surface jumping and breaching as they traveled to Long Island. This was a rare and unusual sight for the waters of Western Sound. I attribute it to the blossoming menhaden populations that have been on the rise in recent years.
After enjoying the dolphins we were back to fishing. We hoped by 9:30 (the magic hour) we would for sure see some action. 9:30 quickly turned into 10:30, then 11 and we saw nothing. We covered water from Fairfield to greens ledge light (West Norwalk). We saw one small blitz pop up right next to the boat which we quickly casted to and were somewhat disappointed to find out they were mini stripers and small/medium sized blues. We then resorted to jigging out deadly dicks and Hogy Epoxy jigs for porgies and sea bass. We caught many of each. Then Jon had a bite that was not a bottom fish for sure, as it immediately started peeling line. Soon the drag was singing. Could it be? He fought the fish hard. Then we saw color, it was in fact an albie, caught the most unexpected of ways. We landed that Jon's first albie, and never saw a single one in the area for the rest of the day.
I don't know what to make of the albies this year. I am sure that this warm weather, and inconsistent temperature yo-yoing has paused any advancement in the albie invasion. I have been keeping a log as I do every season. I would have expected them to have infiltrated the islands in earnest by now, but their here one minute gone the next day attitude is not easy to pattern. It seems as though if the CT side is not hot, then the Long Island side is. Another conclusion I can make is it seems as though they will feed feverishly for a day or two on small bait in our area, then be absent for the next two to four days. They have not been consistently here in the islands every day like in the past year or two. Also it seems as though the nicer the day out the more prevalent they are and more eager they are to feed. I really have no way of knowing for sure what is happening all of the time because I am just one person. These are just some anecdotes that I have pieced together.
After hearing it went off Saturday afternoon (when I wasn't Fishing)and skipping Sunday I fished Monday October 9th as well. There was strong SW winds which created a tight chop of 2-3' in the sound I did many loops inside the islands occasionally poking outside to see if I was missing anything. I did not see a single fish break. I limped back to the dock with my tail between my legs.
Apparently Tuesday the 10th was another banner day for not only amazing feeds by albies, but small stripers and blues as well.
