Loaded the boat up at 1 PM on Wednesday with the intentions of plugging the North Jetty for the top of flood tide and beginning of outgoing. I took a friend who has been begging me to put her on her first striper. Conditions were perfect with occasional showers, 10-15 out of the NE at times. Great bass water. Got to the Jetty and saw birdplay and was a bit let down, not wanting to get covered up in blues while plugging for bass.

I took a closer look and saw hundreds of albies pinning sand eels and rainfish against the rocks. Off came the plugs and teasers and on went the 007 metals... Every cast, instant hook up...and subsequent screaming drags on light tackle... even threw a popper a couple times to get some explosions on the surface. Could have caught as many as we wanted, but only kept 8 of about 16 we landed for shark bait. The tide turned, the albies pushed out, and we plugged the jetty briefly before it got really sloppy with a strong ebb tide against the swell. My guest was getting nervous, had sore arms, and was ready to call it quits. No first striper for her, but tangling with albies for the first time is nothing to scoff at.