The few bunker schools we have in the area are being blitzed by stripers, and blues. I went out Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon. I was discouraged to find only a few bunker schools behind the islands, however the schools that we found had fish on them.
We started out before 6 and caught a bunch of schoolies casing plugs around the islands. Once we had our fill we moved south to deeper water. We covered a lot of water. I periodically stopped the boat to search, visually and with my fish finder for signs of bait and fish. My fish finder was lit up with big marks from the bottom to the mid way point of the water column with large marks. These marks are suspended/migrating stripers that have not yet "turned on" to eat. We tried trolling and casting plugs on the surface in those areas with no success.
We moved on to another popular spot to find many boats trolling around a bunker school being attacked by hungry stripers. It was surprising not see anyone else veering from their literal path, to capitalize on this great opportunity. We swooped in and Steve connected with a nice 20lb striper. We had a few other run offs, but the window for catching the them closed as quickly as it opened.
Later in the afternoon, I went back out to the spot that I marked all of the suspended stripers. Finding a bunker school was near impossible. But once I found it, I also found fish on them. I missed one fish and connected with a nice 20+ lber that I quickly subdued and released.
 |
| 39" |
 |
| Phoebe Enjoying the Sunset Boat Ride |
*It is important to use appropriate med. heavy/heavy tackle when targeting larger stripers so they can be fought quickly (5 mins or less), revived, and released.
I use med heavy shimano trevala, shimano baitrunner 6000d spooled with 30lb braid, and a 60lb leader.
