If you look really, really close into the wave above you can see......nothing! In the fall there's nothing like a backlit wave to show a column of bait, blues or bass. It really gets your blood pumping. Today the barometer is dropping and a cold front is moving in. Coupled with an east swell, southeast wind, and the threat of thunderstorms and rain today things are starting to start to look like fall. Today the air was warm and water colder. We're still hovering +/- 70 degrees.
Anglers are waiting patiently for the fall run to start. They are reading the reports and forums from faraway places like the Canal and Montauk to see if things have "gone off" yet. I would say outside of a hot day or two from Connecticut north it has been slow as of yet. A friend is heading to Martha's Vineyard tomorrow for a week. He was told, " Good, bring the fish with you.", from someone that is already up there.
There is loads of bait in the bays and rivers getting ready to pour out. Either the water temps, tides, or moon will signal to them that it's time to move. But, I say, what good is bait out front if there is nothing to eat it. As of late things have been slow, real slow. Schoolie bass to 25 inches have been the take that I have seen or talked directly to the anglers that have caught them. There are cocktail blues spottidly caught here and there and gators being caught off the boats in deeper water.
What we hope for is a collision. A point when water temps, bait, blues and bass and albies!, and some good old snotty fall weather meet. Fall weather from the northeast help to cool things down, churn up the surf, create new structure, confuse the bait, and turn on the bass.
We are supposed to get a good dose of rain today which may flush some bait out and will hopefully get the bigger fish moving and eating. My hope is that the bait stays put until the next big tide moon so we give the bass and water a chance to arrive for a collision that will signal the start of the fall run.
