We are having a poor year along the RI mainland shore for large stripers. By contrast, it has been a banner year in the Cape Cod Canal. The difference between the two areas is that they have the big bait (herring and mackerel) and we have NOTHING at this point.
If large numbers of mackerel or big menhaden suddenly appeared along the shoreline, things would light up just as they do in the fall when mullet are around. This is not likely to happen. The macs have been gone from our area for years and the large menhaden are wiped out of the Bay by the netters by July. In fact, menhaden all along the East Coast are in trouble with low numbers of fish and the large breeding fish over 1 year old at an all time low. That probably explains why we no longer have peanut bunker. There is an excellent article outlining the menhaden problem in this month's RISAA newsletter that is online at http://www.risaa.org/newsletter/0810/aug2010.pdf
With mackerel gone from our waters, menhaden just about wiped out, and no blueback herring near shore in recent years, mullet have become the most plentiful big bait of the fall. When the mullet come around (mid Sept. to mid Oct.), big fish are around in big numbers.
One more note. Notice the small keeper stripers (28-32 in.) we have had around this year are very skinny (see pic at right). I blame that on a lack of big bait also. By contrast, I saw some real hogs pulled from the Canal this summer.
