Many of you will find this unusual, but it was mostly a daytime bite. This often happens when the stripers are feeding on bay anchovies. If I had to pick the best time to fish this October, it would have been from noontime to 2:00 in the afternoon. I know many of my friends slugged it out after dark in some of the same locations in which I was killing them in the daytime. They got little or nothing in the darkness. Many of those after dark fishermen have had a poor October. So much for after dark being the best time to catch stripers.
The other interesting fact about this October is that the fish were super fussy. If you didn't play a finesse game, you weren't catching. The stripers were often feeding on one inch bay anchovies and imitating those was often challenging. Three lures worked well for me. A white albie snax, a three inch white NLBN paddle tail (alone or off a float) and a float and fly did most of the damage. I often had to switch lures to find what was working, but one of those three would often be the ticket on any given day.
I'm guessing we are going to move into November with the same type of fishing as October. I'm also guessing we will continue to see this small bait. There has been little peanut bunker around. Throughout October I only found peanuts on one occasion. It just hasn't been around. Too bad because that would make the stripers far easier to catch since they are far more aggressive when feeding on peanuts.
We've got about a month left of solid fishing (if we are lucky). Good luck in the coming weeks. It should be good, especially in the daytime.
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