Yes, my son
Jon and I did fish in that storm on Tuesday.
It was one of the most intense storms I have ever fished in along the RI
oceanfront. It featured everything “stormy”. There was wind with gusts up to
hurricane force. There was a driving, pelting
rain. And, the surf was kicked up as
angry as it gets with moving water. We were in safe spots casting from mostly
dry shoreline. I know full well that
stripers love these kinds of conditions, and they didn’t disappoint.
Upon
arriving at our spot in mid afternoon, the wind was brisk from the southeast
and the ocean was kicked up but not unmanageable. We found stripers whirling in the white water
feeding on small bait. The bucktail jig off the wooden egg float did the trick. If I casted into the white, moving water left
behind by a wave, I had a hit or a fish on just about every cast. These were 20 to 27 inch hefty schoolies with
the bigger fish just under keeper size.
After about
an hour or so of fishing and catching, the skies suddenly darkened and within
what seemed like minutes, everything took a turn for the worse. It started pelting rain and the wind picked
up dramatically with gusts that nearly knocked us over. The water also began to rise from the surge
of a pushing wind and waves or water. What should have been low tide looked
like high tide. I was getting worried a tornado was somewhere out in front of
us.
At that
point we decided to head back to the truck for a break. Just as fast as the
storm arrived, it began to let up and soon the skies were blue, but the wind
was still ferocious. We headed back out and found our spot now loaded with weed
pushed in by a wind that had turned south and in our faces.
We moved to
a new location that had cleaner water, but the abundant fish that were around
earlier in the day were now few and far between. We did manage about a dozen more fish before
dark but the easy pickings were gone.
It was a day
to remember…rough conditions, a charged up atmosphere and sea and lots of fish,
just what I was expecting.
 |
| The water was rough but clean and the fish were there. Stripers love to forage in rough water. |
