Playing the SLOTS

The Northeast's fall striper run this year was the best it's been in two decades. The question is, why?

-  CAPT.  JOHN MCMURRAY

We were fishing big gear for bluefin tuna-which had shown up relatively close to shore-when one of the rods goes off. A few short, uneventful moments later, and I'm freaking out because we're looking at the largest striper I've ever seen. After a quick measurement and photo, we sent her on her way. A whopping 55-inch fork length, and this thing was fat! Well over the 60-pound mark.

That was just the beginning. For weeks, from right up on the beach to a few miles out, the largest concentration of 30-plus pound bass I've ever witnessed were crushing plugs along the edges of massive bunker schools. I mean, seriously. We saw more 50-pound-class fish in the space of a few weeks than I've seen in the two decades I've been running striped bass charters.

By November, as peanut bunker left the estuaries, we became flooded with fish in the 26- to 35-inch range. Raging blitzes became a daily occurrence.

This was not just happening in my neck of the woods (Western Long Island). It was happening from Montauk to Cape May. Yeah man, October and November were simply the best two months of striped bass fishing that just about all of us had ever seen in decades.

As I write this in December, it's still schoolie city out there. Acres of stripers in the 20- to 30-inch range continue to blast peanut bunker schools. It won't last much longer, but it's shown no sign of slowing down.

After nearly a decade of declining striped bass availability along the coast, this fall is reminiscent of the glory days. But has there been a definitive increase in striped bass abundance? Is this going to be the new normal? I think it's too early to make that assumption.