A northeast wind has been battering east facing RI shorelines for the last several days with rough water. It has driven onto these shores a load of bait and big numbers of hungry stripers. It has set up about the best September striper fishing I have seen in a long time.
My sons and I have been steadily fishing the Gansett shoreline from Narragansett Beach to Point Judith. Schools of baitfish, bay anchovies and peanut bunker (see photo), have been popping up in various spots along this five mile stretch. If you can find the bait, you will most likely find stripers, blues and false albacore. The albacore and bluefish tend to be way out, but the stripers are holding in the white water wash wherever there is bait. The numbers of stripers have been staggering at times. For instance, my sons, Ben and Jon, got out today and landed close to 50 stripers in a few hours. Most were schoolies, but they also had several small keepers. Later in the day, my brother Steve and his friend Paul went down and they, too, landed close to 50 schoolies. There have also been some big fish being taken as a 35 pounder was landed today under an afternoon sun by a guy fishing right next to my son Ben.The key to catching big numbers of fish is to move around looking for bait. Once that is found, use stuff that imitates peanut bunker. Some lures working well include a float and jig, bucktail jigs, Cocahoes on jigheads, Storm lures and swimmers.
