Well the summer pattern of top water slurping stripers has convincingly moved to a late summer pattern of “prospecting”. The shorter daylight and coolish temps are taking hold and the stripers are holing up along the rocky shoreline and reefs. For most of last week I had to work hard (prospect) to boat a dozen stripers per outing. Getting the boat in tight to breaking surf and navigating rocky reefs was the key to success. Like their freshwater cousins, stripers are ambush predators and seek out structure like; breaking surf, seaweed beds, and rocky outcrops (and don’t pass up deep, dark pockets). Casting a fly or other light tackle offerings into the foam or behind rocks can pay significant rewards this time of season.

There are huge schools of peanut bunker and other baitfish just a mile or so off the beaches and when they begin to move in closer, the early fall bonanza will begin. Bluefish are present from Halibut Point, to the south on the Flat Ground, and at the Salvages.They are gorging on peanut bunker as every bluefish we landed last week were stuffed with them.

I expect the bait to move in closer as this month comes to a close and September begins. By the looks of it right now, this fall should be exceptional.

On Friday, I had the opportunity to fish with Capt Dave B. and Dr. Steve Margles for some striper “prospecting”. We enjoyed a good day boating several stripers and a few hard fighting blues. I look forward to fishing with Steve again in the near future.

Report from Porter B.; Sunday, 8/19 I fished for about an hour and a half in the morning on the front side of Cranes Beach, about 1 mile or about a 45 minute walk to the south. I plugged a nice little sand bar and landed about 2 dozen bass up to 25 inches.....all the fish where caught on top with a Salty’s chartreuse 1.25 oz bottle popper fished slowly! , no blitzing or birds just blind hookups! Great morning.

The tuna bite has not yet commenced. Capt Allan Smith has been offshore several times over the past week and has seen a minimal number of tuna and no hook ups. He has covered a large area from north of Halibut Point out east to the S/W corner of Jefferies on to the south at Middle Bank. He continues to observe a huge amount of bait so when the tuna finally get into these waters we should enjoy a spectacular bite.