2009, Year in Review

Well, the striper fishing for me was a rollercoaster ride in 2009. It was an up and down year with lots of twists and turns.
Spring fishing was fair at best with poorer than expected numbers of schoolies in the upper Bay and along the oceanfront. Early boat fishing in the mid Bay was good for about a week in mid May with good numbers of large schoolies and small keeper bass chasing rain bait. Boat fishing was good for large keeper bass in Narragansett Bay in late May and early June until the pogy boats entered the Bay in June and cleaned out the pogies. That began one of the poorest stretches of striper fishing I have ever encountered with a very poor fishing continuing all summer. There was little bait along the oceanfront and the Bay and very few fish to be had. The season was salvaged in the fall as the fishing suddenly perked up in September and remained red hot into early November. There was one four week stretch in which I must have landed 700 stripers with scores of keeper fish while fishing along Narragansett and the south shore beaches. I have no idea where all these fish came from. Winter fishing in December in the Providence River was off compared to past years but there were decent numbers of keepers around.
If you would have asked me in the summer to sum up the season, I would have said poor. Thanks to the fall fishing, I would give the overall season a "good".
I put together a short video of some of my favorite pictures of the past season. Click on the YouTube video, sit back, turn up the volume and enjoy!