I've gotten feedback from enough contacts by now.... that I can try to put some of these thoughts together here.....
1. The Sept full moon is less than 2 weeks away. I know there is a big push of mullet usually during the Oct Harvest moon, but I feel this year will be different. Look for a big push of mullet along many of our East Coast surf and inlet areas during the Sept full moon.
2. This is already happening in the Island Beach area. Cuts and outsucks that have been slow during August, are now holding bluefish and other predators. While the predators are mostly small at this moment, that can change in an instant once the larger groups of predators start finding these fish (primarily mullet for now) which will be streaming down the coastline.
3. Those who know what they are doing and understand the night tides, are already catching larger fish in various inlet areas at night.
Listen to what surfstix is telling ya's here, people...he knows stuff.....
Just remember, for those fishing artificials at night..... What is the predominant forage in your area?
Those obsessed with throwing "big wood" are not doing the best thinking they can do, (unless fishing Montauk or Block at night...AND bunker are in your area regularly.)
The predominant forage I am seeing where I have been fishing is small and skinny right now.
If you are seeing the same things when you are fishing/scouting, think how best you will present to the fish that are feeding on them.
Teasers should be part of what you're carrying with you at night, unless you are fishing very rocky areas, or areas of high weed content, where they could be a problem.
** Last night, the fishing was terrible for me.
This was primarily because the conditions made it tough for presentation and dirtied up the bay waters. Constant W wind at a steady 20mph. This only minimized when I was leaving. Made fishing tough and scattered the bait, and the predators as well.
However, the different types of bait I ran into, were encouraging.....(in a few isolated areas)
Spearing, glass minnows, snapper blues, an abundance of needlefish feeding on the spearing, and for the first time, some small reddish type shrimp, different than the average normal grass shrimp one would see in the back bays.
Also, some sort of worm hatch, probably cinder worms, brought on by the new moon.
To me, this is all part of my fishing trips, and can sometimes turn a depressing night into a fascinating one.