Grading the 2024 Season

It was a very good year for Slot Stripers.
These were our bright spot.

 It's that time of year.  The season has ended and the teacher in me is about to grade the season.

The catch word for the entire season has been inconsistent. I can't remember a season that has had so many ups and downs. The bait situation was also inconsistent with less peanut bunker than we've seen in past years. The adult bunker were also in short supply and non-existent from late spring till the end of the season. That greatly affected our big fish populations of stripers and blues.

Stripers will be in the crosshairs of management this off season.  While the goal of regulations in the last few years has been rebuilding the stocks, it hasn't worked out that way.  I think we are in one spot just spinning our wheels. This year I landed exactly 851 stripers.  Last year I had 769. So those numbers are pretty close. Back 4 or 5 years ago, I could consistently catch over a thousand fish a year. I suspect there will be big changes to our regulations next year, though I have no idea what those changes will be. Rebuilding of the stocks is just not working.

So, here goes.

It was a poor year for bluefish.
However, there were a few real
monsters around.

Stripers:

Schoolies- This continues to be a problem because of poor spawning. I landed my first one on April 15th this year, right on time. Spring along the oceanfront and in the Bay was disappointing.  In fact, I landed more slots this spring than I did schoolies.  This poor schoolie fishing continued right into the fall. However, a surge of late fall fish brought "good old time" action with schoolies along the Gansett shore where a glut of them took up residence for almost a month. But, overall, the numbers were not good for 2024. Grade for Schoolies- C-

Slot fish- These fish continue to be the bright spot as we saw good numbers of them in the spring and throughout the fall. I landed my first slots along the oceanfront on April 22, early for this size fish. The Bay, either from shore or kayak, proved to be the best spot for me as early season slots were on the tails of migrating menhaden. Summer was inconsistent and generally poor no matter where I fished. I even hit the Canal numerous times and even that was fair at best. Rough and stormy water in RI did produce at times during the summer.  Fall was very good overall and I even found some big blitzes of fish that were all slots and above. Grade for Slots- A

Over slots- I found less big ones around from shore this year than last year.  I sense these are in decline also. I did land a half dozen big fish over 40 inches from shore and kayak.  They were caught at  different times of the year. The lack of adult menhaden in the Bay from mid spring on had a negative effect on our big fish population. It also seemed like boaters had better luck with bigger fish in the deeper water. Grade for Over Slots- B-

It was a banner year for bonito, one of the best
of all time.  There were around in good numbers
for months.  However, there were no albies.

Bluefish- With all the talk about stripers in decline, bluefish are under the radar. This was a very poor year for them here in RI.  I landed exactly 10 of them, mostly big and most came from the Bay early on. Many good fishermen that I know landed less that 5 blues for the year.  Once again, that lack of large bunker really had a negative effect on the fishing for blues. Grade for Bluefish- F

Albies- Forget it. It never happened this year.  I know of exactly 2 that were caught from shore. I never saw them in all the days I fished, even when there was a lot of bait around.  Historically, we have had years with none so it can happen.  These are pelagic fish. Sometimes they come close to shore, sometimes they don't. Grade for Albies- F

Bonito- It was a banner year for these, probably the best year I have ever seen.  From mid August on, these were along many of our deep water drops and jetties.  These were even off the beaches in late fall. I know of some shore fishermen that landed well over a hundred of them this season. On the negative side, they were mostly small, running 2 to 5 lbs. Grade for Bonito- A

One of my biggest fish of the year came in late 
fall. These monsters well over 40 inches were in short
supply for shore fishermen. Though scarce, some real large
ones even up to 50 lbs. were landed this year.