The famous shore spots for albies have collective traits that can help you find albies without the crowds.
My favorite day of albie fishing occurred during a cloudy September afternoon when my spot of choice was so crowded, I didn’t even shut off the engine when I pulled into the lot. I drove away dejected. But feeling a twinge of determination, I made a turn back toward the water and parked to stop and think. The spot I’d planned to fish was a current obstacle that stuck way out from an otherwise uniform shoreline. A dredged channel offered close access to deep water and the protrusion of this piece of land funneled the current and the bait that were traveling along the shoreline around the tip of a short jetty that fell off into deep water.
I quickly realized that this was a trap, when the bait came to that edge and had to swim out and around that little jetty, it was exposed and the albies seemed to know and understand this as they routinely crisscrossed the tip, erupting into explosive feeds that were well within casting distance of shore anglers. There was a little shadow of pessimism in my choice to strike out on my own, but I had to believe that these speedy torpedoes weren’t genetically programmed to only take advantage of a deep water ambush in those few spots along the coast that we all know the names of.
I was lucky, in that I knew a spot that seemed to fit all the criteria and it was just a short drive away. I pulled off on the side of the road and walked to the shoreline, without my rod, that pessimism had me already certain I would see nothing. I peeked around the corner and saw two large schools of fish breaking under hundreds of birds. I strained my eyes to see the forceful forward lunges of albies charging through the bait. My heart rate doubled and I sprinted back to get my gear. For the next three hours I only shared those albies with a single – very courteous – boat and we exchanged several virtual high-fives as we doubled up at a distance of two casts or more.
I have since replicated various levels of albie success by using the same logic. I will admit that these spots are often not as reliable as the famous ones, but those famous albie outposts are basically “better by default” since they always have a gang of casters on them who only stay because no one else will leave, so – of course – they’re going to get into them every day. But it’s often at the expense of many hours of nothingness, trust me, I’ve been there.
I’m going to give the profile of an ideal spot, you don’t need to have all of these things, but the more you can stack into one location, the better off you are. I like to fish a spot that has some influence from a nearby estuary; that could be a small salt pond inlet, tidal river or expansive bay system… I want the injection of bait and – if possible – some current flow. Then I look at the area and try to predict how the current will ‘encourage’ the bait to travel when it’s flushed out. From there I look for a deep water access spot with an obstacle. This could be a jetty, a humped-up bar, a large boulder or some kind of point of land. I feel confident if I can cast into at least 15 feet of water. I want the bait to be forced to traverse the point and travel out over deeper water, if there’s current it may get pushed out deeper and that’s even better.
I find these spots both ‘out front’ and just inside the rivers and estuaries. Likely spots include “outside corners” where a river widens sharply, river mouths with a deep edge or protective jetty, long rocky points that interrupt the flow of the tide or sandy spits that terminate in a deep drop-off. The hardest part is making yourself go searching instead of just going where you know they are. But fishing is made better when you add some hunting to it, take my advice and I think you’ll find that solitary success you’ve been craving.
