If you have the striped bass mental illness like I do then no doubt you pay attention to things like wind, tides, time of day and of course moon phases. We are coming off Hurricane Ian and neaqrly a week of a NE blow that really churned things up along the beaches. Lots of new, how long will it last, structure and maybe a fish or two that may be taking advantage of the surf chaos looking for disoriented bait.
The moon phases increase the graviatational push and pull, called tidal force, and cause the high and low tides. When we have a new or full moon those high and low tides are higher and lower than normal. Add some wind on a full moon tide and you have a blow-out tide.
We have seen bait, some days lots of it, along the beaches and definetly holding on to their addresses in their natal rivers and bays. But when these full moons come so does the big flood tides. Couple that with dropping water temps and the pull on the outgoing tides and they are off to the unchartered waters along the beaches. Churned up in the big surf, swimming tight along the beach, or pinned in the corners of the jetties and groins, bait on the move is what we need. But then we also need, well, fish to eat them.
Not sure if Ian crushed the mullet move. There's still bait in the back. My gut, well predcition for this year is...... It won't be a stellar peanut bunker bite but a solid sand eel bite and of course the big adult bunker mostly in the bays and rivers. Kind of like last year. Fishing along the beaches in New Jersey will suck outside of the Thanksgiving Day week blitz here and there and then the annual IBSP short lived madness. And of course is will later than sooner. We're still two months away, give or take a week.