SurfCowboyXX
Member
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2011
- Messages
- 501
I haven't had the opportunity to take advantage of it, but I have it from solid sources that the bass bite near shore is and has been off the hook from Manasquan down through LBI, particularly around daybreak and late afternoon/evening. Folks are regularly catching 18"-44" fish every day for over a week. This is because the fish are on sandeels and have been for weeks now. The sandeels are finally coming in to the sandbars now at evening time to dig down into the sand for the night. The stripers expect to find the sandeels in the sand in the evening, burrowing down. In the morning, the sandeels come out of their burrows and gather together on the surface before drifting offshore for the day. In the morning, stripers expect to see them either on the surface or moving up through the water column. If the weather holds and the bait remains thick, this pattern could go on for another month or more. That said, if you want to catch a striper from shore on a fly rod, now is your chance. In the evening, a sparsely tied clouser fished low and slow, and in the morning, either the same fly fished faster or a weightless, sparsely tied and thin deceiver or something of that nature. Typically, you need to get the fly out to at least the second bar, so low tide is generally key, as is some creative wading and casting at the top of wave crests. Good luck, and you're welcome.
