Your boat is drifting with the current through a fog covered rip line and you hear the high pitch squawking of terns just a few yards away.

Could they be working over a school of fish?

There they are!

Is it just one fish and a couple of birds?

No.  It’s going off!

Two terns wait for their opportunity to feed on the silversides that stripers are herding.

What are they feeding on?

Could it be squid?

It might be bay anchovies.

It’s spearing!

A tern makes a quick meal from a single spearing it snatched off the surface

Wait, there are some big bass mixed in with the schoolies.

Both a single tern and a single striper feast on silversides near the surface

I can see the bass opening their mouths and gulping down the bait.  It’s really starting to heat up now.

A striper clears the water as it gulps down a meal of silversides

Wow!  The stripers are coming right out of the water as they suck down a quick meal of spearing.  Awesome!

Just how much bait is down there?

Silversides or spearing packed together near the surface.

Another big fish just flew out of the water!   This is insane…I’ve got to get a cast out there.

A large striper feasts on a silverside it sucked off the surface

But, I’ve got a big pink, squid fly on…what the hell, no time to tie on a smaller fly.  Where are they?

Over there!  The birds are gathering.

The focus of attention is a school of silversides being harassed by stripers

Get the boat closer.

Common terns hoovering over schooling baitfish

I’m on!  He took the squid fly!

Sometimes you should't 'match the hatch' but instead go large

If you’ve ever experienced a similar occurrence, whether alone or with friends, you know the excitement of having a a mini-blitz all to yourself.  It’s amazing to watch the dramatic trials of life unfold right before your eyes; the almost irritable timber of the terns squawking, the sounds of tails slapping the water, fish crashing bait, birds diving, and bass flying out of the water…all  happening in your very own room, squared off by a curtain of fog.  And just as quickly as it erupted, it’s over.  Even if you can’t connect with a fish, the sights and sounds have to arouse your emotions and  leave you in awe.

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A feeding frenzy showing bay anchovies being ambushed underwater by cigar minnows and a fish-eye view of the perils baitfish face when schooling up against a breakwater.  Striped bass, triggerfish, stingray, tautog, black sea bass, rudderfish are also highlighted in order to provide fishermen with a highly detailed anglers-eye view of bait.

Bay anchovies packed like sardines in a can

This dive on the last day of July was simply extraordinary.  I entered the water at the base of the breakwater near East Matunuck state beach and proceeded to dive the entire length of the wall, up and back.  Along the way I stopped to film the “trials of life” that the hapless bay anchovies were experiencing.  

I hope the video gives you a feel for what it must be like to be under constant attack from all sides.  The cigar minnows are not a common sight in our waters and a lot of bathers have no idea that giant stingrays weighing several hundred pounds could be cruising right off the beach.  

Each year more and more triggerfish show up and the same can be said for jacks and banded rudderfish.  The tautog were along the bottom where the sand reaches the stone wall, while the bass cruised  the mid-water zone looking for a quick meal.  I saw flounder, lots of sea bass, cunners, snapper blues, baby peanut bunker, silversides, scup, and a host of other marine life.  It was a fantastic dive, in so much as there was always something going on; it’s always nice to see a healthy ocean with lots of biodiversity.