October is a special time for run and gun fishing in the Northeast.
A lot comes to mind when I think of October fishing in New England. I think of fast action with epic surface feeds, I think about an abundance of bait, up-and-down weather patterns and of course the infamous hardtails! But one thing is for sure, you better be ready for anything, October fishing can be just as unpredictable and epic as the weather. So make sure you gear up to do battle with many species, because you really don’t know what you might encounter and you definitely don’t want to miss out because you weren’t prepared!
If you want a little view into my world in October, I always have a small Plano box that lives in my truck just in case I see anything, just driving around town. This box is packed with different sizes of epoxy jigs and topwater plugs just so I don’t miss a popup blitz! I call it my ‘break-check box’ and I swear, by November, I need a neck brace from whiplash, stomping the brakes for blitzes with my head on a swivel, constantly rotating like a poltergeist! Fitting that Halloween comes at the end of the month.
With all that being said, whether you’re on the boat or on the shore, you need to be prepared for a diverse spread of possibilities. And you want to be ready, meaning your gear is in working condition, your line is relatively fresh, hooks aren’t a rusty mess… etc. The fall run is not always the time to be sitting on your favorite spot waiting for something to happen, covering water will help you find the fish and put you in position to find those epic blitzes. With all this in mind, I’m going to break it all down, from rods, reels and line to lures, tactics and approach. They call it ‘run and gun’ fishing but you want to have the right guns in the right holsters – so to speak – before you shove off the dock!
Running & Gunning
‘Run and gun’ fishing is definitely my favorite part of the fall run; and one of the main reasons why I love it is that it encompasses so many species. You might find blitz feeds of striped bass, bluefish, bonito or false albacore… or you might find mixed schools including all of these, plus Spanish mackerel, chub macs, even sea bass will sometimes fire up on a topwater feed! These blitz situations require fast action and precise casting, as you will often only get one, maybe two casts into the melee before the fish dive and regroup. This is a ‘head on a swivel’ moment for sure. A good set of polarized sunglasses and even a pair of binoculars on the console can work wonders to keep you on the fish.
On the best days, you will feel like the proverbial ‘chicken with its head cut off,’ as multiple feeds fire up, seemingly, in every direction. Adding to the mayhem, one blitz may be albies, another might be stripers and the next one might be small bluefish, this is where assessing the situation will really pay off. Learn to recognize what the feeds of different species look like; small stripers pop while big ones crash and punish. Albies charge ahead in forward lunges, bonito slash and sometimes ‘air out’. It can also be key to identify what the fish are feeding on; if the fish are on sand eels and you’re throwing peanut imitations, you might be in for a long day of frustration. Every little detail can bring you closer to unlocking the rare and infuriating finicky blitz bite.
This is why it’s so important to carry an array of options to have ‘at the ready’ when the fish pop up and you can identify their species, size and prey. It could be seen as a chaotic ‘kitchen sink’ approach, but when you keep it organized it makes sense. Having multiple rods rigged to present to the various species you might encounter, you save a ton of time ‘in the moment’. And if you just let fly with whatever rod you happen to be using at the time, you may be setting yourself for a sad end. Flinging a $12 epoxy jig tied direct to 10-pound fluoro into a bluefish blitz is a losing proposition, every time. Take an extra second to observe and then choose wisely.
The Arsenal
On a typical October inshore run I carry four setups. The first one is what I call my ‘finesse outfit’, a Jigging World Onyx 7-foot medium heavy rod paired with Van Staal VR50, spooled with 30-pound PowerPro and topped off with a 20-pound fluorocarbon leader. This outfit gets the call when albies and bonito show up and will handle throwing epoxies, smaller soft plastics and light bucktails. Next up is my ‘big artificials’ combo, a Tsunami Platinum medium/heavy rated 1 to 4.25 ounces, paired with a Tsunami Salt-X 4000 spooled with 50-pound Sunline PE and topped off with a 40-pound fluoro leader and a 75-pound TA Clip. This setup handles the heavy lifting, throwing medium and large topwaters and larger soft plastics. Third in line is my eeling outfit, a Jigging World Nexus 2.0 medium/heavy rated 1 to 4 ounces, paired with a Shimano Baitrunner 6000. I spool that with 50-pound PowerPro and 8 feet of 50-pound fluorocarbon leader. This stick is designed to deliver live eels to big bass and covert them to a fish landed. The last one I call my ‘fun stick’ – it’s technically a salmon rod and it’s a ton of fun with albies, bonito and smaller bass and blues, too. It’s a 7-foot medium-light St. Croix Triumph (TSR70MF rated 1/4 to 5/8) paired with a Penn Battle IV 1000 that’s spooled with 10-pound Super Slick and 4 feet of 17-pound fluoro. I’m a big fan of Opsin fluorocarbon and I use it on all these setups, but whatever you like will work as well.
The other half of the arsenal is – of course – the lures. We have a huge variety of bait species to mimic in the fall that range up the size chart from snot bait, to bay anchovies, to silversides, to peanuts, to squid, mullet, mackerel, sea herring adult bunker and more. And lucky for us, there are amazing tackle companies out there that cover most of this. There’s more great stuff out there now than any of us can possibly use, but here are a few of my proven killers for the fall run.
| BIRDBRAINED! |
| For many of you, this will seem like a no-brainer, but there are a lot of you guys out there that need to hear this. When the blitzes are hot, it seems like there are always a few boats feel like they have to drive like they’re in the Daytona 500 and then drive right up to and through surface feeds, putting the fish down immediately in the process. This is wrong. If you move in slowly, you’ll do at least 10 times better. Here’s the trick. Start by assessing the direction the school is moving and estimate their path, approach slowly alongside the path and cut the engine. You’ll drift close to school and – sometimes – the bait will run to the boat, attempting to use it as cover! Using this approach will put you in the position for multiple hookups from each blitz, and if everyone in the area takes the same approach, the action will last a lot longer. When the fish go down, hang out for a few minutes, even if you see another blitz nearby; at least 75% of the time the other boats will leave and then 4 or 5 minutes later, the fish will pop right back up and you’ll be back on the fish and all by yourself. |
Starting with one of my favorites, the Ron-Z 4-inch in bright pink is a killer for albies and even the 6-inch gets bites when the bait is bigger. Game On Exo Jig 3/4 and 1 ounce, in ‘electric chicken’, this durable ‘resin jig’ casts a mile and swims like the real thing, great for all species of fish it can be swum at slow speeds, ripped along the surface or vertical jigged with equal effectiveness. The Doc, both 7 and 9 inch, this spook needs no description, these things crush big stripers. The Jeck’s Bucktail in both 3/4 and 1-ounce, I like to have white and blurple on hand, these catch everything and are made tough and reliable. Next up in the Gravity Tackle GT Eel both sizes, threaded onto jigheads of 3/4 and 1-ounce, these baits are nighttime striper assassins. All sizes of the NLBN paddletail with the appropriate size heads, up to an ounce. These simple, durable and effective plastics are must haves, the 3-inch version destroys albies and bones and stripers can’t resist the 5 and the 8, the genius rigging system makes them indispensable. And finally, the Daiwa SP Minnow is something every angler should always have on-hand, the 5-incher will catch bass, blues, bones and even a few albies, the larger version is a great bait to cast into boulders at night and reel slowly back to the boat.
Get Hyped
October marks the start of the fourth quarter for our inshore fisheries and it can feel like it’s time to get out there start throwing Hail Mary’s from the 1-yard line. October brings a lot of excitement which can really cool down by the end of the month, so as you’re reading these words, keep this in mind: “the fall run is like Momma’s home cookin’ you gotta get it while it’s hot!” Pack smart, keep your head on a swivel, approach with stealth and be accurate in the moment. If you do that, you’ll be just as fired up as I am and you’ll be ready for more when the calendar flips to November. You might burn all your sick days, heck you could even lose your job! But we only get one fall run per year and here in southern New England, October is primetime.
