Heard about a good daytime sand eel bite yesterday up and down the shore but I was caught up in clinical and then class till 8pm. Hit it after and had an interesting 3-1/2 hours. Incoming, basically flat. Started in a good spot and found fish, either small bass or shad, busting out and in, but I couldn't get one to bite. Looked down at the water and found it to be off-color. I was using 300 gr line and sand eel thinking the bottom was the way to go. But I guess I was wrong.
I moved north and hit two spots thinking I would find clearer water or the same busting fish....neither. So instead of going home I went back and re-rigged with an intermediate line and a floating sand eel and a small black Deceiver as a dropper. The slashing had died but I picked up two on the lip basically casting to rising fish. Now my fish were 18-24 inches but I heard of some keepers caught yesterday and more football shaped fatties in he mix. These weren't about to pop from the sand eels so I don't know if I had found the mother load of bait.
Before clinical this morning I had an hour from 830-930 and luckily this office is in Long Branch. Fished but didn't get a tap on the incoming tide. A friend a town or two away had fish biting on every cast and left them eating. I found the water not as clear as I thought it would have been with the steady west winds as of late. Gotta just get out there and go when you can and hope for the best.
