Albie help.
 

Pretty simple, i need albie help. Ive tried a variety of tins, sluggo's, small plugs like rapala's, and ive thrown them at, around, infront, and behind them. Tied direct to 12 lb mono. Varied the retreives and still have only managed to hook up with one for a 10 minute battle wrapped around a lobster pot 10 feet in front of me. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Im not sure if my retreives are not sexy enough or what.

Have you tried a casting egg with small flies?

the faster the better.

I'll tell you, it's much easier getting them from a boat than the shore. When I had access to a big boat, flies and metal both worked quite well, although the flies worked better. Also, there are some guys who use the six inch sluggos in pearl with great success.

But a few key points in fishing for these things ... keep your offering in the water ... if they are jumping up beach from you and down beach from you, the fish are cruising around ... I cannot tell you how many times I have hooked up on these fish when they were in the general neighborhood and not jumping directly in front of me.

Also, try fishing a teaser with your metal, that may do the trick for you. But again, from the beach we often only get a cast off before the things have passed on ... still take a few casts after they have gone ... if the bait is still hanging around, the fish will be back.

As for a retrieve, vary your retrieve ... fast, then adjust accordingly.

Speculation on how and where is always easier sitting here at the computer then in person ... hard to tell exactly what's going on without being there ... but if you can position yourself in an area where they hold up for a period of time, stay put, as the fish will often come back to the bait.

A pocket before a point, the outgoing tide at an inlet ... at times these will hold the fish longer than the half-second splash and go. There are some very well known spots that hold the fish like that up and down the coast, we don't need to name them here.

Also, when the crowd continues to run down the beach after the fish, one time, hang back and see what happens. When I used to fish Montauk from a boat ... the main body of fish would stay on those massive clouds of white bait, but as the crowd of boats moved down the beach with the cloud of bait, often the fish would pick up again in the same spot they started at, and no one would be around.

It's this pattern that I look for when fishing the beaches/rocks for the albies these days.

Always prefer the fly to spoons, but again, if you have a fly teaser, it may get the job done. But, I have also had albies crash on plugs and large flies with heavy metal leaders meant for bluefish ... so one never knows what will happen with these finicky feeders. Hope there was something useful in this rambling.

Good luck.

Throw any topwaters at them? Try a Tattoo Walking Stick or a Rebel Jumpin Minnow.

I tried a couple small needles, a super strike thats about 4 inches and, a couple stubbys.

If you know they are in the area, keep blind casting, don't wait for them to pop up.

Small metals, egg with flies, jumpin minnow as Pete said. When we try to find an area holding them in a boat, we'll troll small windcheaters. Change out the hooks to 4x.

dynamite

Im about ready to chuck dynamite, it might be more effective.

Aggravatin' isn't it

Im glad to see that sometimes they just get lockjaw. Makes me feel so much better. Going to whip out the casting egg and some killer flies that my neighbor gave me.

I've caught a few dozen from shore on bunny flies. Also threw deadly #^&#^&#^&#^&s, plastics, no takers other than on the fly. Worst thing I ever saw was a bunch of yahoos popping bunker chunks on top,...and hooking up. Go figure.

try fast trolling for them.you woudny believe how easy they become.just gotta deal with the bluefish. 6 to 8 knots.