Far Less Fish but Bigger

The reports paint a rosy picture of our striper fishing this week.  I don't see it that way.  There has been a noticeable decrease in the numbers of schoolies around in the last week in both the Bay and along the oceanfront, but there are reports of some large fish being taken here and there.  However, it will take considerable effort to catch one of those few big fish.

The ocean has been rough this week with the fronts going through.  Many places have been dirty with sand and weed and as of yesterday, good size rollers were still pounding the shoreline.  My sons and friends have been out along the oceanfront many times in the last week. The numbers of fish, particularly schoolies, are down, but there are occoccasionally big fish being taken.  I'm talking fish over 20 lbs.

I have been hitting the Bay from shore.  The numbers of schoolies are down along the Bay, but bluefish are on the increase.  I haven't seen big schools of blues, but these are loners who play havoc with plastic offerings.

My brother has been out in the boat a couple of times this week.  He got a couple of small stripers and small bluefish, but his target was mainly keeper bass.  The upper Bay has a lot of menhaden right now, but not that many big fish under them.  My brother live lined pogies most of one day in some real good spots.  He had several chases from stripers, but the fish were too small to take the bait.  He was also harassed by large blues that were just chopping up the offerings.

So, for the first time in  a month, I would rate the fishing as only fair right now. That could change in the coming days, especially in the Bay where lots of big bait is holed up.  Yes, there are some bigger fish around, but you will have to really work to catch one

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Warning: They're Around

I am talking about bluefish.  Yes, they are around in increasing numbers along both the Bay and the oceanfront.  I fished from shore tonight in the Bay and saw four of them caught and only one striper taken. I got my first bluefish of the year, a scrappy 5 pounder on a pink Hogy (see photo).  Strange thing about these blues tonight was that they would not hit a hard plug.  They were keying on plastics and just tearing these expensive offerings to shreds.  It's always a dilemma in the early going because the stripers tend to key on skinny plastic in the Bay, and they won't hit a hard plug either in some spots.  So, sometimes you just have to keep feeding the skinny plastic to the blues if you want to eventually get to a striper.

Bay a Good Bet Right Now

In the last five evenings I have been fishing the Bay.  It is the first time this year in which I have out fished my son, Ben, who has been slugging it out at the oceanfront.  Problem with the ocean has been that big waves battered the coast in mid week sending in a lot of sand and weedy water.  The rough water has also moved a lot of fish out.
Bay fishing has been very good but not spectacular for me.  I have been getting between five and fifteen fish an evening.  One fish in ten has been a keeper in the 28-30 inch range (see photo of keeper caught last night on bucktail jig). My brother, Steve, hit it real big earlier in the week while fishing from his boat.  He landed an astounding 25 keepers on artificials in one morning of fishing.  Six of those fish went 32-35 inches.
Note that there are loads of pogies in the upper Bay right now, though there seems to be no big numbers real large fish under them.  That could change, though, in the coming days.
So, right now, I think the Bay is the best bet for shore or boat fishermen.  Whether you fish the upper Bay, the mid Bay or the lower Bay, there are lots of stripers to be had if you can find them.

Lure of the Week....the Bucktail Jig

This has been one of the hottest weeks of spring fishing I have ever seen along the oceanfront. My kids and I have landed hundreds of stripers.  While most have been schoolies, there have also been a good number of keepers in the mix.  The hottest lure of the past week has been the bucktail jig (check out pic of angler with a fish taken on a bucktail jig yesterday).  Oh, the Cocahoe has also been getting its share, but when the water kicks up and it's rough, the bucktail jig far outshines the Cocahoe.

The bucktail jig tracks much deeper than the more buoyant plastic Cocahoe minnow.  At this time of year, the stripers are right along the bottom and the lure that can stay in the productive zone the longest tends to score the most fish. So, in the last few days when the strong northeast winds kicked up a big surf, I went to the bucktail jig.  I was having my best  luck on a homemade 3/4 oz flathead jig.  The jig has a white painted head and white bucktail and is tied with red thread.  For those making or buying bucktail jigs, the key is to stock a number of sizes from 1/4 to 1 oz.  The size of the lure you choose will depend on the surf conditions.  It is also important to add a plastic curly tail to the jig.  I prefer the triple ripple tails from Bass Pro (see photo).  The three inch size goes well with the jigs I am using.

Here's how I work my jigs.  Cast out and let it sink to the bottom or close to it (need to develop a feel for this).  Reel at a slow to moderate pace with an occasional bounce of the rod tip. Pull back on anything you feel.  Braided line will give you the best feel when working a jig.

Getting Out With the Boys

As many of you know, I have four boys. My boys are now pretty much all grown up and range in age from 19 years old to 26.  I taught them all to fish when they were young.  When they were little, I often took them to a local pond pushing two in a double baby carriage and holding the hands of the other two. They all continued doing it as they grew into adults.  Even as adults, they still love to fish with their father.  Yes, I am lucky!  So, it didn't take much prodding when they called yesterday to see if I wanted to meet three of them along the oceanfront. My son, Matt, drove down from Boston where he lives and works, and my sons, Jon and Ben, live in Narragansett since they are students at URI. My other son, Chris, was in Kansas City for the weekend.  You never can get all of them together at once.  So, Matt, Jon, Ben, and I headed for one of my favorite spots for an evening of surf fishing for stripers.

We went to a location where I often took them when they were kids.  When they were seven or eight years old they could  just barely get around in a baggy pair of waders and swinging an eight foot surf rod was a chore.  But, they loved wading in the surf, tossing a lure into the waves and battling stripers. It was in their blood. I have photo books of them hauling in some decent fish on the spring runs catching fish that were half as tall as them.  It was like deja-vu yesterday.

The fabulous spring run of fish along the RI oceanfront was still in full swing.  The three kids were excitedly hauling in striper after striper, sometimes scoring double and triple headers using a teaser rig.  The fish were all sizes, ranging from 10 inch schoolies up to keeper fish of 28-30 inches.  There were increasing numbers of larger schoolies in the 22-26 inch range. I took pictures in between catching fish.

The four of us landed and incredible number of fish, and yesterday will be remembered as a great fishing day that we'll talk about many times this year when we have family get togethers.  Just another memorable day of family fishing in a lifetime of many.

 

Menhaden, Keepers, and Bluefish

Things are moving fast in the Bay as fishing has exploded.  I went out last evening and was treated to quite a sight.  Before dark, there were menhaden flipping here and there in front of me.  While this was happening I landed a keeper bass (second of the evening...see photo) along with some smaller fish.  However, right at dark the menhaden came to the surface in astronomical numbers.  They were like rain all over the water as you could hear them and see them.  Occasionally one came flying out of the water as I assume it was being chased by big fish. It was awesome.

While this was going on in front of me, a friend of mine was fishing about ten miles away in another section of the Bay.  He reported the same thing going on in front of him.  There were also decent numbers of stripers in his area as he landed two keepers.  Surprisingly, two guys fishing next to him also landed several bluefish! Yikes, they are here already, no doubt lured into the Bay by massive numbers of pogies.

While all this was going on, my son Ben was thirty miles away fishing the oceanfront.  He landed 20 stripers (one keeper of 32 inches) along with 5 hickory shad.

I can tell you that fishing is as hot as it gets in the springtime right now.  Big numbers of fish are along the oceanfront and the Bay. There are lots of schoolies around but increasing numbers of keepers are also available.  And, you might even hook into a blue!

Fish Spreading Out in Bay

I fished the last two evenings in the Bay.  Yesterday I fished from shore and tonight I fished from my brother's boat.  The good news is that there seems to be fish all over the place.  The bad news is that there are still not real big numbers of fish.
I had an interesting outings last evening.  I fished a number of locations in the upper Bay.  I landed two fish on Zoom flukes.  The big surprise is that one of the fish was a keeper of 30 inches.  I got that fish in a location in which menhaden were popping all over the place.  Yes, this big bait is around.
Tonight we hit a number of locations in the mid and upper Bay from the boat.  Just about every shallow water spot we plugged yielded a hit or a fish, but it was simply one here, one there.  We found no big numbers.  However, a couple of fish that we caught were hefty schoolies in the 24-26 inch range (see photo).  All the hits and fish fell for Zoom flukes on half ounce jigheads.
So, fishing in the Bay is on the upswing and should certainly improve in the coming days and weeks.