I got the biggest fish in a while from the kayak today. The overslot "biggie" hit an unweighted Finesse Fish twitched on top in shallow water. I was using light tackle.
I found a pile of stripers today. While most of them were small, I did manage to catch several slots/ overslots. With all the fishing focus on albies these days, this is a reminder that there is still good striper fishing to be had, even though few are fishing for them.
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| It was a productive day yesterday in the kayak in Gansett Bay. |
Yesterday was a typical outing. After peddling around a lot, I eventually found good numbers of stripers busting on small bait. They jumped all over my weightless Finesse Fish as they often do. These were all aggressive and hefty schoolies that had been well fed. I ended up catching good numbers.
The many nooks and crannies of the Bay offers a good alternative to the oceanfront and tends to hold lots of stripers if you can find them. In the right weather, a kayak is a perfect craft to take a stealthy approach which works the best in places like this.
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| Bonito have also been in the mix. |
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| Albies hit the RI oceanfront in big numbers this week. Here's a large one I landed from shore. |
The stripers and the bonito were already around with a few Spanish mackerel in the mix, and a few days ago big numbers of albies also hit the oceanfront. Everything is feasting on the big schools of bay anchovies. While boaters have a big advantage on chasing down schools of albies, the shore guys are also scoring along deep water dropoffs at times. Mornings have been the most productive. There are tons of fishermen out their searching for the hardtails. I landed a couple this week on 1 1/2 oz. Clarkspoons, a hot metal lure. Others are scoring well on white, amber or pink Albie Snax when the wind is at their back or when the fish are right in close. Boaters in particular are doing well with the Snax.
Lost in all this pelagic action is the fact that striper fishing has been super good in the last week with big numbers of bass around in the daylight in certain spots, especially in rough water. In the last 4 days, I've landed close to 60 stripers from shore mostly using a float and jig and mostly fishing in white, rough water. I've seen very few fisherman even trying for stripers since most striper fishermen are directing their attention to the hot pelagic fishing.
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| There have also been good numbers of stripers around, particularly in the evening. Most of them have been hefty schoolies but there are also slots and overslots in the mix. |
A massive amount of bait hit the oceanfront in the last two days. The bait was bay anchovies of 2 to 3 inches, and big time numbers of stripers were on them. It was fall blitz-like action that I haven't seen in a long time. Thousands of birds were diving from above as stripers were blasting from below. It was two days of wild fishing for me which delivered big numbers of stripers from schoolies and slots up to an overslot of 40 inches. Most of the fish, however, were schoolies.
There were loads of fish, but I have to say they were fussy and lots of guys who were tossing large plugs were getting nothing. When on small bait, stripers can be super fussy, and often you have to take a finesse approach to catch them. Two artificials were very effective for me. One the first day, I used an unweighted white Albie Snax which did the trick. On day 2, I had a stiff wind in my face so I went with a float and jig with a curly tail attached to the jig.
Hopefully, this is the start of consistent fall striper fishing.
Take a look at the bird/bait action below:
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| I found very good numbers of schoolies along the oceanfront today in some rough water. |
We had a big east wind today at the oceanfront and that kicked up the waves in certain locations. Since the spring, every time I fished a rough surf, I've had good fishing. Today was no exception. I fished multiple spots and came away with real good numbers of stripers fishing in the white water pockets. They were all schoolies in the 20 to 24 inch range. All were caught on a float and jig.
In addition to the fish I caught, I saw birds working here, and there but no fish breaking. Still, a good sign. I'm guessing they were after micro bait that seems to be on the increase. I also heard about some bonito, Spanish Mackerel and even some albies that were caught in various places along the oceanfront today. Seems everything was active and on the prowl today.
This seems to be the start to fall fishing along the oceanfront. With Labor day in the rearview mirror, it's time for the fishing to move into fall mode.
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| Striper fishing has been super for me from the kayak. There are lots of hefty schoolies along with some good size slots and overs. |
I have been out in my kayak as well as fishing from shore in the last 7 days. For me, the key to success has been fishing in the Bay. Some places in the Bay are loaded with bait right now (mainly peanut bunker), and that has brought in a lot of predators. On the other hand, the oceanfront has improved but is still off compared to other years. A lack of bait and the recent extreme waves have caused the marginal fishing for stripers and blues along the beachfront, although sharpies fishing at night are finding some success. All of this might improve in the coming days and weeks. Contrary to recent reports you might be reading, there are NOT a lot of bonito around. I know guys who fish for them every day in all parts of the oceanfront from shore and boat, and they have been catching very little. It's all part of the albie and bonito hype that comes along at this time of year.
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| From the yak, the plastic Finesse Fish fished weightless has been a hot lure. |
Blues are on the rampage in a number of shore locations in the Bay almost daily, but they are fussy. I've been doing best using DOA paddle tails and Cocahoes on half ounce jigheads. I'm going through lots of paddle tails. I hate using plastics for bluefish, but they are rarely taking the hard plugs. Most of these bluefish are 3 to 5 lbs. I've seen several mini blitzes of them in the past week.
So, fishing is really looking up as we go into this Labor Day weekend. Hope you get out and catch some of the action. Fall fishing has started. early this year.
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| Matt with a big albie on his 39th birthday! |
Just a short ride from the boat ramp we found birds working and fish breaking. At first Matt thought they were bonito, but I knew the breaks were too big to be bones. They were albies, and there were good numbers of them. But, as is the case most often in Vineyard Sound, they were super fussy as they were feeding on small bay anchovies. We threw everything we had in our bag of tricks and had no takers. Finally, Matt tied on a small pink epoxy jig and threw it into a bunch of fish on the surface. Bang, one hit it, and it was off the the races. This was a big battle, and we knew it was a decent size one. When we got it to the boat, WOW, it was a big one in the 8 to 10 lb. range. But, that would do it for the albies as the wind picked up and the fish were gone.
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| Troy and Grandpa with a black sea bass that Troy caught all by himself on his new fishing outfit! |
So, super successful day and always great to get out and spend time with my kids and grandkids, especially "fishing time".
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| The scup were also hitting our epoxy jigs. |
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| Small bluefish in the 3 to 5 lb. range were on the rampage this evening in the Bay. |
I ended up landing 10 of them. They were 3 to 5 lbs. Hard to believe but they were fussy. They would not take a hard plug. The hot lure tonight was a small D.O.A white paddle tail on a half ounce jighead. Yes, I went through a lot of paddle tails. My friend and charter boat captain, Jerry Sparks, gave me some of these D.O.A's to try out. No question, they are effective. Dare I say just as effective as the NLBN paddle tails and a whole lot cheaper. They also come in bags of 12. Those D.O.A paddle tails are a soft plastic, a pure white color and they have great movement in the water. I'm looking forward to trying them on stripers and chub mackerel in the fall along the oceanfront.
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| The hot lure tonight for me were these D.O.A paddle tails mounted on a half ounce jighead. |
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| I've landed good numbers of bluefish this week in the Bay where the water has been fishable. |
Between the bait and the cooling water temperatures, it has caused the fish to become much more active. A hint of fall is in the air and hopefully a sign of things to come.
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| They were around yesterday in the rough water. |
I got out yesterday along the oceanfront. It was super windy and rough. There was a lot of white water in any location where the wind was coming at you. I saw no bait and birds, and there were no fish breaking. Yet the stripers were in many of the white water pockets that I fished. And, I caught good numbers of them in multiple spots.
My hot lure of choice was an egg float and a half ounce bucktail jig spiced with a curly tail. This is a killer in this type of water yet few use it. I saw a few other people fishing using big poppers and big Kastmasters. They caught nothing.
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| The hot ticket in the rough water was an egg float with a half ounce bucktail jig trailing off. |
With real rough water coming, I'm guessing there will be good windows of opportunity to catch in the coming days. Proceed with caution though since there is a fine line between good fishing water and too dangerous to fish conditions.
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| There are decent numbers of bluefish around in Narragansett Bay. They are chasing down huge schools of peanut bunker. |
With so much bait around, they can be difficult to catch. You'll see a big school of bait raining on the surface and you might see a blue or two spray them up. I have not seen big numbers of blitzing fish yet, but it's coming.
These blues can also be fussy. They love my expensive NLBN paddle tails, dead ringers for peanut bunker. Instead of going through one paddle tail after another, I have been opting to go with small, half ounce bucktail jigs with a plastic grub tail. It's not as effective as the paddle tails but still works, and it's durable. They have turned their noses up on poppers so far, but I'm guessing that will change too.
All my focus has been on fishing the Bay in the last week or so where the action has been good for blues and an occasional schoolie. The oceanfront is still a dead zone except for that occasional big striper caught late at night on eels.
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| Back in business with a couple of hefty schoolies from the Yak this evening. |
Yesterday I fished from shore and landed three bluefish. These were small ones of 4 to 5 lbs, but very feisty. Today I went out in the kayak and landed a couple of decent sized schoolies. Both outings saw huge schools of peanut bunker hugging the shoreline with occasional predators spraying them up.
I'm guessing my first fall blitz is coming soon if we can get some cooler weather
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| Hailey Pickering, age 6, hoists a good size sunfish. |
If you have younger kids or grandkids who want to get into fishing, the easiest route is to target bluegills and sunfish in an easy to fish location. It will keep their attention and the action can be non-stop!
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| Troy Pickering, age 4, just landed a good size bluegill! |
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| My latest magazine article is titled, "Summer Storms Light up the Surf". I was living this story in the last two days! |
That's just what happened in the last few days for me. I was out both yesterday and today fishing some rough water in the northeast winds. In spots where I hadn't caught anything in weeks, the fish appeared in the turbulent white water. I landed good numbers of schoolies up to near slot size using a combination or artificials. Bucktail jigs (alone and off the egg float) and albie snax were the hot lures. Nearly all the fish were taken in pockets of white water close to shore. Note that nothing was showing, no bait, no fish breaking, but they were there. So, there are some fish around if you make an effort to find them. Few fishermen were out trying as I could count the other fishermen I encountered in two days on one hand.
By the way, I really put that Varivas braided line I've been writing about to the test. I pulled some of my fish out of rugged, rocky, weed strewn areas with no problem. It also casted super well into the wind. I was also using the Varivas Fluorocarbon for my leaders and line trailing off my float. It proved to be very tough stuff in the rocks.
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| I landed all schoolies fishing the white water pockets. |
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| My blue Varivas braided line performed super in the rocks and weed. I was also using Varivas fluoro for my leaders. |
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| I've seen a major decline in the numbers of stripers in the last five years. This year is particularly bad. |
We are currently about halfway through the striper season for 2025. It has been fair to poor for me, and it has gotten poorer as the summer has worn on. I have to go back to the moratorium days to find years with similar poor fishing. I know other fishermen, particularly boaters, have been finding some fish. Even some shore fishermen I know have hit it lucky once in a while especially for larger fish. But, there is no question that the numbers overall are DOWN for most striper fishermen.
Here are my striper totals for the last five years up to the end of July:
2021- 703 stripers
2022- 350 stripers
2023- 272 stripers
2024- 222 stripers
2025- 183 stripers
Note that each year I fished about the same number of outings mostly from shore but sometimes from a kayak. These are the totals up to the end of July. The sizes have varied with a larger percentage of bigger fish in the last couple of years and more schoolies back around 4 or 5 years ago. No surprise here since research tells us the schoolie population is way down due to poor spawning years.
The naysayers will give you a lot of excuses about why they think I'm full of you know what. You've heard many of them I'm sure. Global warming, warm water, the population is shifting north, the fish are mostly offshore, the bait has moved, and some people just don't know how to catch them!
One positive note here. Better fishing could be coming. The pattern for me in the last five years has been much better fishing the second half of the year. We have seen decent fall fishing. I'm hoping that will happen.
In the meantime, I will keep plugging away and hope fishing improves.
I'll bet most of you haven't heard of this line. I don't know if it's sold locally but they are hoping to expand their market. The staff at Varivas sent be a bunch of samples to try out along with some info about this line. One specific important detail is that the line breaks at the lb. test listed on the package. She suggested I up my line strength from what I currently use (for the most part, Power Pro 30 lb. test). Generally US made lines break above their lb. test. So, I spooled up with Varivas' 37 lb. test. I spooled my Daiwa BG with the Varivas 8 line in a blue color. I've used it now for several outings.
I guess the true test of any line is how well it holds up when it counts. I'm hoping to land a few big stripers in the coming weeks in some real rugged spots. How well will this braided line hold up when a big fish pulls drag out and runs along the rocks and weeds? We'll see, but for now, all is great with the line.
Here is what an Ai generated review had to say about the line:
Varivas braided line is generally well-regarded for its thinness, smoothness, and strength, making it a good choice for various fishing applications. It is often praised for its casting performance and ability to handle tough situations, like pulling lures out of snags. While it can be more expensive than some other braids, its quality and performance often justify the price for many anglers.
Striper fishing from shore has bottomed out in the last week. I don't care whether you fish on stormy days or in the dead of night, it is just plain poor. Yes, we are in the dog days of summer, and July is not a very good month for shore fishermen here in RI. Read the reports and you'll see it's not good in the Bay, it's not good along the oceanfront, and it's not even good in the Cape Cod Canal, a place that has saved me in past Julys.
There's lots of blame to go around for the poor fishing. The water's too warm. That excessive warm spell we had last week really shot up the water temperatures sending a lot of fish packing. There's very little bait close to shore. That's true also. Looks like we will just have to wait for the peanut bunker to arrive (mid August if we are lucky) to perk up the fishing. And, the numbers of stripers are way down, a problem that was predicted to happen this year, and we are seeing it play out.
All late spring and early summer, I had been having some good fishing in nasty weather. Well, last week I had the stormy and rough conditions. I thought for sure I would score some big numbers and big fish in the white water, wind and rain. Nope, two days of hard fishing in multiple spots and not even a hit. That REALLY tells you they are just not around.
I know many shore fishermen who have given up until September. I still plan to go, but only a couple of times a week just to keep it honest. I am now turning most of my attention to freshwater where I have been fishing for carp and having good success. In the last three days, I landed 12 fish up into the high twenties (pounds), near record size for RI. Several of those fish were over 20 lbs. So, that's a fishery that has been good, even in the heat of summer.
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| The shore fishing was very good yesterday in some roughed up water. This slot fish has a bucktail jig in its mouth. The jig was fished off a wooden egg float. |
My lure of choice was an egg float with a half ounce bucktail attached. I threaded on a three inch , white, Bass Pro triple ripple grub tail onto the jig. That is so important when dealing with fussy fish and gives your jig that extra appeal.
Nearly all the fish I caught were in the white water in front of me. I landed very good numbers of hefty schoolies and a couple of slots. So, while we think there are no fish around, they do seem to come around in the right conditions whether its July or October.
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| I got out a couple of days ago and fished some great water, but all I found was this lone schoolie that I caught on a bucktail jig. The fishing has cooled off. |
The water was also noticeably warmer after the heat wave. I'm guessing the record heat warmed up the water at least 5 degrees along the oceanfront. Was that enough to send the sandeels and the stripers packing for deeper and cooler water? Maybe.
Friends of mine went out in the early morning today to search for bonito and stripers along the oceanfront. There was a lot of effort, a lot of guys fishing and only a few small bonito were caught. No stripers. The bonito were also more plentiful prior to the heat wave. Bait has a big influence on the bonito numbers and it wasn't there today.
So, for now, it seems that we are heading into a summer lull. That sandeel invasion is usually a June/early summer thing, and I'm guessing most big schools have left the area. The next bait wave to draw the stripers to shore would be schools bay anchovies and peanut bunker. Those baits usually show up in late summer. So, it could be a wait until the shore fishing lights up again.
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| Decked out and ready for a day of fishing in the sun. |
So, when fishing or anytime out in the sun, here's some ideas to protect you from harm:
1. Sunscreen and Lip Balm- I use Banana Boat Ultra SPF65, about the most protection you can find. I put it on any exposed skin. For my lips I use Banana Boat 45 lip balm.
2. Sun shirts, Sun hats, Neck Gaiters and Gloves- I tend to always wear a UPF50 long sleeve sun shirt. I also have some with hoods that I wear. Columbia makes a wide assortment of these. While these shirts are long sleeves, they are still quite cool and comfortable. For hats, I always wear a Glacier Glove Sun Hat that provides a lot of shade for my face and the back of my neck. For gloves, I wear Kast King sun gloves to protect my hands. They have open fingers and you can cast quite well with them. I have an assortment of neck gaiters that I also wear. A lot of times I pull the gaiter up over my face to cover my lips and cheeks.
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| Sun Gloves from Kast King and Banana Boat Ultra 65 Sunscreen ready to go. |
3. Sunglasses- Lately I have been wearing the Rival Shield sunglasses made by Shady Rays. These give my face and eyes maximum coverage. Mine are polarized blue mirror, and they have UV protection. They are also very moderately priced at about 50 bucks on sale. Many fishermen have asked me about these and where I got them.
As fishermen who fish from shore, boat or kayak in the daytime, we are very prone to sunburns and other problems. Never hurts to be proactive, and you do get used to doing much of what I do above every time out.
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| Decked out and ready for a day of fishing in the sun in my kayak. |
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| Here's a slot fish coming ashore with my Albie Snax in its mouth. |
It was one of those cloudy, drizzly days with an east wind and a charged up surf with lots of white water. I headed down the oceanfront in late morning, and my plan was to hit a number of spots knowing that the stripers and the sandeels were moving around. My plan was to hopefully find them. I struck out in the first two locations. As soon as I got a glimpse of the water in my third location, Holy Smokes! Stripers were breaking EVERYWHERE in front of me with not another fisherman in sight. Big jumps, small jumps, multiple jumps, out far, in close, bait spraying out of the water.
It took one cast of my Albie Snax and teaser to hook up with a slot fish. Next cast I had two good fish on and one busted off my Albie Snax (why I don't like using a teaser). So, I switched strategies and cut the teaser off and just went with the Snax. The fish continued to feed and hit as the tide dropped, though they were fussier and fussier as the afternoon moved on. Later, I switched to a float and Red Gill, the best producer for these fussy fish that were going crazy in the white water.
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| This was a very effective lure combo as the fish turned fussy later in the day. It's my wooden egg float with a Red Gill teaser attached off 3 feet of Varivas fluoro. Throw it in the white water and reel it in slowly. Deadly when fussy stripers are on sandeels. |
That day I fished just about a whole tide from high to low. The action continued till right before dark when everything settled down and died.
Score for the day- 44 stripers landed, dozens more on. Most fish were in the 24 to 26 inch range, but I had at least a dozen fish that were slots and over. One of the best June days I ever had.
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| Here's a striper that grabbed my Red Gill Teaser, a dead ringer when stripers are feeding on sandeels. |
Make no mistake about it. Stripers can be darn fussy when they are slurping up thin sandeels the size of a toothpick. I've been experimenting with a number of finesse approaches, and I had what they wanted last evening. I was using a leader set up with a Red Gill Teaser. These teasers are dead ringers for sandeels and they can be rigged as a teaser or fished off a float. There are many different ways to attach the teaser, but I've always had the best success knotting it to the swivel at the top of my leader. It should dangle about 6 inches off the swivel. At the clip end last night I attached an Albie Snax, a hot lure all spring for me. Note that this set-up is not going to give you a booming cast, but it was no problem last evening as the fish were right in close in the white water.
Think small profile when sandeels are around. Plugs such as SP Minnows, Needlefish, thin profiled jigs and skinny plastic can also produce. Where the fish are feeding and surf conditions will dictate the size of the plug you want to use to get to them.
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| The hot set up for me last evening was a leader set up with a white Albie Snax and a Red Gill Teaser. |
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| I've been out in the kayak about a quarter of the days this spring. I'm fishing the Bay from the yak on calm days. |
The hot lures for me so far has been as follows. In the kayak, it has been an unweighted 5.75 inch Finesse Fish that has been the hot ticket. An Albie Snax is a close second. I've caught no fish on hard plugs from the yak this spring. From shore I've mixed it up. The Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencil has been hot especially in rough water. But, at times I've also gone with unweighted plastics such as the Finesse Fish, Slug-gos and Albie Snax. Wind conditions and how far I want to cast have dictated my choice.
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| Shore fishing has also been good for larger fish. About three quarter of the time I have fished the Bay or along the oceanfront |
I've spent about three quarters of my fishing days from shore this spring and about a quarter of the time in the kayak. That strategy has led to some consistent fishing with few blanks.
Finally I got the beast alongside the yak. Now, I had to get the Boga grip on it. Its lips were so large that the Boga barely opened wide enough to get it on!
Holy smokes. I'm guessing this monster was in the 45+ inch range, maybe even 50 and weighed in the mid 40 lb. range. It is one of the biggest stripers I have ever landed from the yak, and it's the biggest I've gotten in years.
By the way, caught at dead noontime. So much for fishing at night for big fish!
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| The fishing has seen an uptick in the last week. Kayakers and boater have had the advantage. I landed this one a few days ago from the yak. |
No question that boaters have seen the biggest uptick. The fish are scattered and the more moving around you can do the better. The same goes for kayakers although the wind has been bad for the most part in the last week. I've had steady success in the kayak when I could get out.
The shore guys are also catching but it's a grind. It's also become a nighttime game for the most part. But slug it out and you could catch a monster fish. I've heard of catches in the high 40 inch range this week. I've also seen some monster blues caught that weigh in the low to mid teens.
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| I've seen a big uptick in fishing from my kayak during this Memorial Day Weekend. This decent size striper hit a weightless Finesse Fish twitched on top. Weightless plastics fished on top have been hot. |
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| Here's a serious fish landed last evening from the Yak using a my finesse approach. |
I was using the same lure- a 5.75 inch Lunker City Finesse Fish mounted onto a BKK Titan Rider Hook. I decided to change out the leader. I now went with a fluorocarbon leader to replace the regular mono leader. I was using VARIVAS leader material in 30 lb. test. One of my charter boat buddies gave me some and told me to try it out. This stuff was super thin and soft unlike other stiff fluoros I tried in the past. I also cut down on the hardware on my leader. I went with a smaller cross-lock snap that replaced the larger line clip. I also went with a smaller swivel at the line end.
It all worked out well as I hooked my first 5 out of 6 hits, all decent size schoolies and slots. And, these were solid hits- no fooling around. Can't be sure if it was the fish in an active mood or what I was using? But, I intend to find out in the coming days as I up my finesse game.
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| My leader material was this 30 lb. test Varivas Fluoro Carbon. |
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| My hot lure was a weightless 5.75 inch Lunker City Finesse Fish mounted on a BKK Titan Rider hook, size 5/0. |
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| I landed this decent one a couple of nights ago in a backwater location. Overall, there are a lot less stripers around this year, but there are some quality fish. |
I'm still catching but getting way less than in past years. In places where I would catch a half a dozen fish a few years ago, I am lucky to get one fish. This applies to the many places I have fished in the Bay as well as along the oceanfront from shore. The same results have happened in my kayak fishing. A lot less this year than in other years.
If there is any good news here, it's that there are some decent size stripers around. Roughly half of the stripers that I have landed this spring have been slots. But, once again, the numbers are not there.
The hottest lure for me in the last week or so has been an Albie Snax in a white color and rigged with a BKK Titan Rider Hook (size 5/0). The fish have been fussy, and the Snax has worked better than anything else in my bad of tricks. Easy to fish- twitches of the rod tip and reel in slowly with an occasional stop.
It seems that boaters are scoring much better right now than the shore guys. Their advantage is that they can cover a lot more water looking for fish. Those fishing the Bay and backwaters are also doing better than those fishing out front.
Good luck if you get out this holiday weekend.
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| Back in the kayak and catching! |
All my fish were taken on a weightless 5 3/4 inch Fin S fish twitched on top with a stop every once in a while. As I have written many time before, most of my hits came on the stop. Another interesting phenomenon I encountered was a lot of spooked fish. I would peddle along and I'd scare one fish after another in spots. They seemed to be near the surface just doing nothing. On one outing, I must have spooked close to a hundred fish, but only caught one that evening. So, there are fish around, but just not feeding at times.
One other note- I saw just about no bait in the multiple locations I fished. The one time I did see a small pod of bait, fish were breaking on them, and I nailed five of them in short order.
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| The Albie Snax mounted on a BKK Titan Rider hook was a hot lure last evening. |
We immediately snapped on weightless plastics. Jon used a 7 1/2 inch white Slug-go while I put on a white Albie Snax. These were weightless offerings with just a BKK Titan Rider hook up front. I've written a lot about how to fish these....slow retrieve, twitches of the rod tip, stop every once in a while. I've also written that you will get a lot of hits on the stop. That happened last evening many times.
Jon and I came away with five decent fish landed, and they were all slots. We also had a lot of other hits and swirls, a sure sign that good numbers of stripers were around. I would bet that if we were using large plugs here, we would have gotten nothing.
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| A finesse approach works well in quiet, skinny water spots. It got us many good size fish last evening. |
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| Jon Pickering holds a slot fish that was taken from shore. These larger fish have been hanging around places that have schools of menhaden. The fish was released in good shape. |
I've been out just about every day/evening for the last two weeks. While I've had very few skunks, it has mostly been one fish here and there. The oceanfront has had fair numbers of small fish at times, but no bonanza of fish. Most of them that I have caught there have been schoolies in the 12 to 18 inch range. I haven't even seen anyone get a fish over 24 inches.
The Bay is fishing better for larger fish. That is because there are schools of menhaden in various places that are attracting slot and over slot fish. These fish will only take the real thing. The fishing with menhaden is best done by boat or kayak. Find the bait and you tend to find some fish. Still, I have been able to catch a number of slots and even an over slot recently but there have been no big numbers. In places where I get a couple of fish one evening, I'll go down the next evening (with the same conditions) and get nothing.
As for bluefish, I got that one over a week ago, and I've not gotten or seen one since. They have not been around. They haven't even been around the schools of menhaden. Maybe too early?
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| I landed this hefty overslot last evening in the Bay. |
Thus far these have been my best lures. For schoolies along the oceanfront the NLBN in a three inch , white model has been hard to beat. But, other paddle tails like a Cocahoe and Al Gag's have also worked. In the bay, topwater plugs rule. My best producer there has been a Yo- Zuri Hydro Pencil in a bone color. Other topwater plugs that have scored have been standard poppers and Doc lures. White or bone color have been the best.
I have to say that we had better and more consistent fishing last year. While this year has been super at times, it has mostly been an on and off deal though I have only had one blank in the last two weeks. I think the weather has added to the inconsistency.
Surprise, surprise! I landed my first bluefish of the year this evening along the oceanfront. The fish, about 6 lbs., hit a NLBN paddle tail that was intended for a striper. This is very early for a blue along the oceanfront. With everyone complaining that the water is so cold, it was even more unusual for this blue to be around. We'll find out in the days to come if this was a fluke or if a run of spring blues has started.!
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| First blue of the year landed this evening. |
