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Fishing the Fall Run - 9/18/17

Fall is commonly referred to as the best best time to catch striped bass and bluefish in North Eastern waters - especially those of Long Island Sound. Starting the first full moon of September, stripers and bluefish follow the large concentrations of adult bunker south into the Sound. During Mid to late September through the middle of November, surf-casters have the opportunity to catch.

On Sunday September 10th, my first experience with the 2017 fall run began. I first started off casting a 4.5 inch Tsunami Talking popper into a end of the outgoing tide. The sun was still high, as it was 5:15 P.M. on an end of the summer night, so I was plenty aware that it would be at least an hour until the fishing really started to pick up. I started fishing a current break with the popper, trying to determine if there were any fish waiting for disoriented bait to flush over the rocky embankment; after fishing for 30 minutes without any hits on either the popper or a 5 inch swim shad, I feared that I had timed the run too early. This fear soon dissipated after I switched my position to behind the overflowing stonewall that separated the inlet from the salt pond. On my second cast to the opposite end of the inlet and a slow rhythmic "walk" of the popper back halfway back to my feet, my popper shot out of the air accompanied by a splash that without a doubt was a decent striped bass. I continued my rhythmic dance of the lure for three or four seconds, anticipating the fish's return, and again, the fish shot the lure out of the water but wasn't hooked. Unperturbed, I stopped the movement of the lure and let it drift naturally down the current of the inlet, imitating a weakened or injured baitfish. Stopping the lure proved to be an effective action, for soon there was another splash but also a heavy object on the end of my line. It is important to remember when using a pencil popper, to retrieve the pencil popper very slowly while popping ferociously, imitating an injured baitfish, to give the predator an opportunity to actually eat the lure; when the fish keeps knocking the popper out of the water, to just stop the popper and replicate the death of the baitfish - an easy meal for any hungry predator.

The fish turned out to be a 'schooly' striped bass just under 20', which was a fun catch. After the end of the fishing session, I managed to catch four stripers and a seven pound bluefish, all of which were returned back to the ocean.

Despite the size of some of the fish, a properly presented pencil popper is irresistible.

Joe and Paul- 9/20/2017

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