Afternoon Bite Sucks!
On days when the morning through mid day bite is on fire (locally), and across on LI, the afternoon bite has consistently been awful. It is a miracle to find a couple of fish, let alone hook them. Meanwhile during the day friends are reporting catches of 6-15 albies.
Albie Observations for 2018...
- 9am-2pm is best when tide is moving
- Slack high, or slack low shuts off bite completely
- If you go fishing in afternoon/evening, consider yourself lucky to see 1-2 small pods
- Color of lure does not matter
- Consistent mild weather patterns produce best...ex. a few days of the same wind produce best
- If the wind switches directions drastically the bite shuts off completely for that entire day
- Light west or north wind is best. South Wind is ok if its not greater than 10mph. EAST WIND SUCKS!!!
- Bright sunny days are best. Cloudy/rainy days are no good
- If the waves and wind are greater that 10 mph and greater than 1-2' don't bother fishing
- Move the boat only to close distance, don't run and gun
- By the time you get to the pod you saw breaking they will be down, hope for a second feeding in the same area
- Fluorocarbon size does not matter. I have caught them on 12lb, my friend has caught them on 25lb
- There have been many small pods of 1-5 fish where the fish are feeding over a large area
- I have only seen 1 or 2 larger pods of 50 or more fish feeding together
- The fish are staying near structure and running the shoreline in 3'-40' of water
