Crazy Good Day Fishing

 I have started my winter projects after work since it gets dark so early. However, any day that I got out of work early enough to make a trip to the ocean worth it, I've gone. I went fishing Wednesday after work. Fishing has been so good that catching ten schoolies and a few hickory shad is just an okay day. It seems like every time I go down I run into fantastic fishing somewhere. I may not catch fish at my first or second spot, but finding large concentrations of feeding fish  has been easy. Yes, I have been spoiled by the easy fishing.

Well yesterday, I was like the rich kid in a toy store. I walked into the largest blitz I have ever witnessed. For five hours straight I watched stripers of all sizes bust up huge schools of peanut bunker. The bunker was in schools the size of football fields.  Some of the stripers were as small as stocked trout, but there were some keepers in the mix. Among the thousands of stripers there were a few blues mixed in. I saw a guy reel in a half a schoolie that a big blue cut in half. Also my buddy Dave got a large blue, which was the only one I saw caught.

  I caught so many fish that the "bass thumb" we all hope for actually started bleeding from lipping so many fish. Dave was smart, he has caught so many fish this week and his hands so raw from it, he wore gloves.

The stripers were feasting on peanut bunker that ranged from an inch and a half to four inches. My goto lure was a three inch Cocahoe on a 1/2 ounce jighead. Others were using four inch Cocahoes and Storm Wildeyes. I saw others using metal and fly fishing, but they did not catch many fish. The white Cocahoe and the perfectly shaped Wildeyes were a deadly combination.

Since the weather is going to be stable the next few days, I suspect the terrific November fishing will continue. This has been by far the best November I have ever had. Usually I'm happy to catch a few fish on a trip to the ocean. Not this year, twenty fish days have come easy and days with four times that amount have become the norm. I hope it continues!