I'll give you a LI example. From the boat and the surf in our 2010 fall run, we had quite alot of baitfish at Montauk for a few weeks, mostly whitebait.
Toward the end of Oct and into Nov/Dec, there was a huge body of sandeels set up between shinnecock and moriches. The bulk of the bigger bass came from that area. They were keying in on the sandeels. Other areas like the rockaways and breezy had not much going on. Only 25 or so nautical miles distance, and it was like night and day. As the run progressed, you knew not to go anywhere other than where that hot action is, why bother. So the bait/forage concentration is key in any fishing excursion.