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| Huge schools of schoolies were busting all over the place off this beach. This went on for three solid months this fall along the RI oceanfront! |
Every year I do my own fishing evaluation of the past year. I usually evaluate the fishing for stripers, blues and albies. Here is the review for 2020:
Stripers (Schoolies)- From the first ones that I got along the oceanfront until the last ones in early December, it was simply loaded. I got my first migrating fish along the oceanfront on April 15, right on schedule. Late April and early May brought a bunch of hefty schoolies in the 20 to 27 inch range. The oceanfront was particularly hot as the float and bucktail jig was consistently luring big numbers of them. This was the first spring in which I saw schools of fish on the surface attacking small bait. There were birds hitting the water and loads of fish breaking on a daily basis in spots. I left RI in early summer as the fishing slowed and fished the Canal a lot. Same deal there- loads of hefty schoolies with some keepers in the mix. August brought big schools of peanut bunker to the oceanfront and that lit up the striper fishing once again in RI. From August right through November, it was massive amounts of bait and schoolies. Some days it was smaller schoolies in the 12 to 20 inch range. On other days it was 20 to 27 inch fish. The fall brought more schoolies to our shores than I have seen in any other year in over 60 years of fishing....simply astounding numbers. Grade for schoolies- A+
Stripers (Slot Limit Keepers)- I thought we would see tons of these this year. We did not. There were
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| My best bet for a slot limit keeper this year was the Canal. I fished there a lot in the summer. Big fish over 40 in. were a disappointment there this year. |
some around, but when the percentage is one slot limit keeper in every 150 fish landed, the odds were not that good. I got my first slot limit keeper along the oceanfront on April 23, once again, right on schedule. They were a pick along the RI oceanfront in the spring. My son, Jon was scoring more slot limit keepers from the kayak while fishing in the Bay in the spring. My percentage of slot limit keepers proved better in the Canal last summer where there were better numbers of 28 to 32 inch stripers mixed in with the more abundant schoolies. The fall RI fishing proved much of the same....lots of schoolies, far fewer slot limit fish. Even fishing at night was not what it was in the past for larger fish. Grade for slot limit keepers- C
Stripers (Bigger Fish over Slot Limit)- Let's talk 40 inch fish. They were rare from shore. I got exactly one 40 inch fish from the boat. My son Jon got several from the kayak when fishing near schools of menhaden in the Bay. He also got several on one "lucky" morning at the canal in early summer. I know that sharpie boaters get a lot of these bigger fish way out off Block Island, but near shore it was a bust. I saw tens of thousands of stripers landed from shore this year and I only saw one fish that was in the 38 to 40 inch range landed from shore. Not good. Grade for big stripers- F
Bluefish- Back in 2019, we had a banner year for blues in the Bay and I was convinced we would see
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| Bluefish were a disappointment overall. However, Jon and I had some hot fishing for them for a short period of time in June from the kayak. |
that upswing continue this year. I was wrong. They never came around in big numbers for any length of time. Jon and I hit one outstanding week of them in June where we landed big numbers of 4 to 7 lb. blues from the kayak along with a few in the teens. But, that was it in the early going. Along the oceanfront, I landed exactly 20 of them from September to late November. It was really poor numbers despite the fact that the acres and acres of bait that was around at times. Grade for bluefish- C-
Hardtails, Albies and Bonito- I got my first albie along the oceanfront on September 5. This was sooner than expected and the initial numbers were good. However, the run did not last and the rest of the fall delivered a few fish here and there. It was somewhat disappointing compared to a few years ago when we saw big numbers of them. Rather that sitting on a rock all day waiting for a fish or two to show, I quickly turned my attention to chasing stripers which was the better bet. I ended up landing about a half dozen of them and never really found any big numbers from shore. I always say with albies three scenarios can happen: there can be a lot of them, some or none. This year was mediocre with some. Grade for albies and bonito- C
