Well I guess I kinda am. While I could really give two shits about who's catching, it's the where that I like to watch each spring and fall. These fish amaze me, and you know, especially bass on the move. So, do I care that the Laura Lee Fleet and and other boats out of the South Fork of Long Island are running two a days mauling and hauling and tossing 200 fish around each trip? No. What I like to see in the migration patterns and timing. Kind of like my own On The Water magazine migration map.
So the bass have hit the South Shore and are down along the Rockaways and in and around the Lower New Bay back to Perth Amboy and in and around Sandy Hook and Breezy Point. But, for now, it's a boat fishing game. This weekend will be a total shit show out there was the boat traffic will be insane. Can the boats push the bait and bass to the beaches? Only time will tell. There's bass around The Hook and down into Long Branch, but they are off, way off.
Some things we know to be true, at anytime. Live eels will find the big fish, especially down deep and trolled through the water column where their irritable scent can attract a big fish from hundreds of feet away. But what was really interesting was Captain. John McMurray's revelation that the sand eels showed up. Seems a tad early for that.
What I have found over the years when it comes to bait and the fall run is that we usually have one good bait, like solid and in big numbers. If we have a stupid peanut run then the sand eels don't show up, and vice versa. The beauty with sand eels is the birds are always over them, well most of the time, if the bass are pushing them up to the surface.
This weekend will bring out the hordes of beach fishermen and it'll only take one or two big fish pics to bring out the report waiters and watchers to get the fall run in gear. Remember, I called October 21st for the season to start, and that's three days away.