A few nights ago we sat down with Long Island surfcaster Al Albano to discuss fishing back bays — that episode drops Monday. At one point, the subject of targeting weakfish versus striped bass came up. As you’ll hear, when I asked him about the internal debate of chasing one over the other when both opportunities present themselves, he said that, for the most part, he sticks with whatever has been producing the more consistent bite and does his best to ignore the distraction of the other.
I wish I were so disciplined, because the draw of striped bass is too strong in me.
We touched on this topic back in Season 1, Episode 5, though that episode specifically addressed targeting very large specimens of each species. For me, it remains difficult to pass on a night — especially one with real potential — in pursuit of a truly large striped bass.
The conditions for success on both species in the spring are remarkably similar, and over the years some of my better nights have come when those conditions aligned just right. This shouldn’t surprise me — both are apex predators sharing the same water, even if their reasons for being there in the spring differ. When winds, tides, and moon phase all come together at once, choosing which species to pursue becomes genuinely difficult, particularly when you have specific goals in mind.
This very tension has come up several times already this season and will continue to in my local waters for at least another month, though I don’t see myself breaking from the trend anytime soon. I thought this might be the spring where I went all in on weakfish after landing a few in the open surf last fall, but so far it hasn’t played out that way.
It’s stripes over spots for me — but what say you?
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