I have little confidence that saltwater striper fishing from shore here in RI will improve in the next month. I see September as the earliest we will see any uptick in action. While I am still going down and trying I have cut way back on my excursions to the oceanfront. Instead, I have turned to freshwater where I am having good success.Between my son, Jon, and I we are hitting many of the local lakes and rivers for carp and largemouths. Both fish are active in the warmest of weather and both are plentiful. Jon has mostly been targeting largemouths using plastic worms. He has been getting an average of 7 or 8 fish an evening with many of the fish in the 2-4 lb. range. These are bigger than a lot of schoolies that are around. On the other hand, I have been targeting carp. While they are fairly plentiful they are not easy to fool and the learning curve in this type of fishery is a steep one. In just the month of July so far I have landed nearly 100 carp with several of them in the low twenty pound range. These fish are the giant tuna of freshwater with some places having fish that average 15-20 lbs., similar to the size of good size keeper stripers. You might even get a monster like the one I landed back in May that weighed over 40 lbs.! My baits of choice lately have been maize and doughballs fished on a hair rig. If you are looking for info about how to carp fish, check out my blog at www.ricarpfishing.blogspot.com
We are fortunate to have different types of fishing here in southern New England. Freshwater offers an alternative at this slow time of year for saltwater fishermen. Hey, it beats taking up golf!
