Saltwater Fishing
Fall run madness is happening all over the LIS, as the albies have moved in heavily, and blitzes fueled by bait and birds are the norm. Albies have been caught in the Western, Central, and Eastern LIS, and are hitting a variety of lures, most commonly epoxy jigs and Albie Snax. Egg float and fly is also a good tactic to have on hand if they get finicky. For epoxies, silver, pink, and electric chicken have been great, along with green and olive. The key is to have many on hand because albies are notoriously finicky. If you're seeing feeds and getting good chances but they aren't hitting, you should consider a lure color change, lure size change, or downsizing your leader from 15lb fluoro (the general starting strength) to 12lb fluoro. Cloudy days with some wind are usually the best, but if there is bait around there have been albies in most of the typical hot spots.
Stripers are hitting topwaters well, with some blitzes continuing even during the middle hours of the day. Bait such as peanut bunker, bay anchovies, and silversides are plentiful, and schoolie to over-slot stripers are more than willing to chase bait around and explode it into the autumn sky. Deadly dicks, swimbaits, metals, and small topwaters have worked well. Some larger stripers are also still being caught on live eels and large topwater plugs like the Doc or Mully. Low light is your best bet for bigger stripers. If you want to try jigging below blitzes, Nichols spoons in size 6 or 8 have been producing all year and continue to do so. There are also some chopper and gator bluefish swimming around, so keep an eye out for those.
Freshwater Fishing
Freshwater fishing has been solid, with largemouth bass mimicking the pattern of their saltwater counterparts and chasing big balls of bait in preparation for a long winter. A big key is slowing down your presentation, so tactics like using a jig near grass lines in 5-10' of water work well. Additionally, offshore humps have been great places to slow things down and pick apart.
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