Sunday, August 19, 2018

Big Time August Blitz

Schools of peanut bunker
seem to be everywhere
along the oceanfront.  This
bait touched off a big blitz
tonight in the NE wind.
This schoolie hit a small Cocahoe that was
fish off a float.  The float and jig was really
hot tonight.
I hit one of the biggest August blitzes of stripers I have ever seen along the RI oceanfront tonight. The northeast wind brought lots of white water along with masses of peanut bunker to the shore where I was fishing. Feeding on the peanuts were tons of stripers. It was wild with so many birds diving for bait in front of me I was worried I was going to hook a bird.  At one point under the birds there were thousands of schoolies in a frenzy after the schools of small peanut bunker.
Using a float and jig (tried a small Cocahoe as well as a bucktail at the jig end) I was able to catch fish after fish.  These were all schoolies in the 18 to 25 inch range. These were bigger fish than I have been seeing along the oceanfront in the last month.  I also had two decent fish on (small keepers?).  One broke me off on a rock and the other straightened out the hook. Now, that's a good sign that some decent fish are prowling RI waters.
August is usually a dead time from shore along the RI oceanfront, but this year is different.  There's a ton of bait around and loads of schoolies. That combination has kept things hopping along the oceanfront.  In addition, pods of bonito are roaming around. It's fishing more like October rather than August. Looks like it is shaping up to be a banner fall here in RI!