The Fall Run is Coming
By Jared Wood
The eighth month is the beginning of what lies ahead. Juvenile bait is going to start making its way out onto the beach front from back in the estuaries and rivers. They will be joining up in large numbers to prepare for their migrations offshore and southward. The far reaches of the stripers range is where this first takes place. Maine and New Hampshire surfcasters see bait congregating in great numbers to prepare to run the gauntlet of hungry bass waiting for them.
The first half of August the stripers are still holding onto their summer patterns. They have windows that feed during and when not feeding they are staging waiting to feed again. The patterns that you have figured out from fishing the previous month and years past have aided in your pursuit. By figuring out the patterns you can spend your time actively fishing and not guessing. Putting a plan together using wind, current, weather, tide, and bait place you in the best position to catch that cow you have been after.
There is a boulder field my fishing partner and I have named the cow pasture. This specific spot has large boulders lined all along the shore line and drops off into 20 feet of water. The bait year after has been the same pogies, lobsters, and mackerel. When wading out into this spot you can look down and see lobsters in every nook and cranny. After 10 years of fishing this spot we have a pretty good handle on where the bass like to stage and where they come in to feed.
We have figured out that the month of August is our best month for big bass here. The spot has plenty of ambush points with access to deeper and colder water. Two hours into the incoming tide we have figured out the bass start to come into the boulders. By fishing the highways the bass use to come in and ambush prey we have figured out the pattern. The more time we have spent there we have gathered that the fishing is really good for the next couple hours of the tide. When the tide slacks out the fish scatter all over the place to set up in a new location to ambush bait being drawn out with the changing tide or to digest their meal. It has been many sleepless nights to get to this point.
This time of year I tend to throw larger profile plugs at night. A classic danny tends to be my first plug out of the bag. Crawling it thru the boulders working with the current sweeping it to where I believe a bass lay in ambush. If I get no takers on the danny I switch over to a slow sinking needlefish. My plug bag is rounded out with a pair of glide baits, a darter, paddle tail soft plastics on a jig head, and a fast sinking needle to get down into the deeper water just past the boulders. Using the plugs I bring with me allows me to cover all levels of the water column. Boulder fields have plenty of hang ups to get stuck on so counting in your head during your retrieve will allow you to figure out when to increase the speed of your retrieve to get over them and where you can slow down your retrieve.
The water close to shore this time of year is above the stripers’ comfort zone during the day. So locating the deeper colder water with ambush points is a good place to start your efforts. Fishing at night will increase your odds of hooking up.
Take your time when releasing a fish. The water is really warm and puts stress on the fish during the fight. Keep bass in the water so that they can get the oxygen they need to recover. They just fought really hard and needed the time to recover before you took them out of the water for a quick picture. For every minute you fight the fish give it that much time to recover by facing her in the current to revive the bass. Stripers will let you know when they are ready to go. They will raise their dorsal fin, start biting down on your thumb, and they will try to shake loose. Do the best you can to send them back so someone else can catch them in the future.
The second half of the month is the kick off to the fall run in the northern end of the stripers range. The fish begin to set up adjacent to river mouths and harbors waiting for the young of the year bait head out to open water. When the peanut bunker starts to spill out in vast numbers the bass will be there waiting. Peanut bunker fueled blitzes are intense and matching their size this time of year can be difficult when they are an inch or two long. Small soft plastics like the Al Gags Whip it Fish are a perfect match. They are a close match to get you in the game. Juvenile herring are another bait that begins to make an appearance towards the end of this month dropping back after spending the summer growing in freshwater. They will tend to hang around the inside the river mouths for a while before heading out to sea. When the bass are on herring fry you can see the bass gulping down mouthfuls on the surface. A well placed soft plastic on the surface will get you tight. The adult bunkers are still here as well and give themselves away when they are under assault from below flipping on the surface and jumping out of the water. A well placed spook or pencil popper on the end of the school acts like a fleeing bunker which usually leads to your plug getting inhaled.
When the turn up sand eels bring thin metals, Ronz’s (bouncing them off the bottom to create a puff of sand like a sand eel trying to evade predation), and bucktails during the day and needlefish and soft plastics after dark. The sand eels tend to take up residence so the fishing can last a few days or a few weeks. Mackerel are here and there but when they find the sand eels they feed on the sand eels and intern the bass to target them. I had gone out one night with the fly rod knowing the sand eels were in abundance. Low and behold I started catching mackerel on my sand eel fly. I grabbed my surf rod and put on a mackerel colored magic swimmer and bass to twenty pounds mixed in with the schoolies I was getting on the fly. Large pencils and swimming plugs (magic swimmers, pike, bombers) work well when the mackerel are in thick.
Pay attention to the weather this month. A tropical storm or offshore hurricane can really put the pressure on the bass to feed. These weather systems tend to move bait around so if you have a good idea where the bass are staging leading up to the weather, fish it hard. When the hurricanes and tropical storms start churning up the coast, be safe and trust your gut. If you feel that you are pushing yourself out of your comfort zone in the surf, find a safer spot to fish or move to a protected area that keeps you out of the storm surge. The big surf and white water can make the fishing lights out but it is not worth your safety.
Staying in tune with what the bait is doing will help you know where to target bass and what plugs to pack with you. Drive the coastline, walk the beach, or take a bike ride and find what the bait has the bass doing. When the conditions for lights out fishing happen do not miss your shot. Burn a vacation day or two and get in on the action.
Jared Wood is a surfcaster who fishes from Maine to Connecticut. Targeti Striped Bass, Bluefish, Albies, and Bonito in the surf. He can be found on Instagram as surfcaster_jared. For any questions he can be reached at jaredwood25@gmail.com.