Saturday, May 9, 2009

Gansett Bay Fishing Explodes

I knew it was just a matter of time before striper fishing exploded in the Bay. Well, it happened in the last two days as big numbers of stripers have entered the bay after large schools of silversides that move like dark patches just under the surface. My two brothers, Steve and Mike, and myself fished mid Bay locations today and the fishing was wild. Diving gulls, cormorants, and terns were hitting the water while stripers were breaking in large schools. It was like an October blitz.
The bait was small and the fish proved to be quite fussy, explaining why most boaters were not catching. We managed to get roughly a hundred fish between us using Cocahoe minnows mounted onto small jigheads. It was a perfect example of how you had to go with small artificials to match the prey the bass were feeding on. I also got several nice fish on a Zara spook fished on top. Most of the fish averaged 24-30 inches. Roughly one in ten fish was a keeper!