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| Here's a slot limit keeper that was landed on a Jumpin Minnow this week. There have been big numbers of slot limit fish around in the last few weeks. |
There has been no shortage of slot limit keepers in the last couple of weeks along the RI shoreline. My son Jon and I have been getting big numbers of stripers from shore. Roughly 30 to 40 % of them have been slot limit keepers of 28 to 32 inches. The rest have been hefty schoolies from 24 to 28 inches. There have been massive schools of them on the surface feeding on vast schools of peanut bunker.
So, where's the decline or the shortage of stripers? In the spring many of the experts were predicting gloom and doom for the stripers in 2021. Some went so far as to say they were disappearing. But, here in RI it has been big numbers of stripers of all sizes from the start of the season to now. The spring saw a glut of smaller fish under 20 inches. In late spring and early summer, Narragansett Bay and the oceanfront had big numbers of slots and over the slot fish which were generally after adult menhaden. In the last month, it has been lights out for large schoolies and slot fish with occasional over the slot larger fish mixed in.
It shows no sign of letting up, and I believe we are heading for a lights out fall run of good size fish along the oceanfront. No shortage of stripers here in RI! We've got the numbers and we've got the sizes!
