From Best Day to Worst Day

Two days ago I had my best day of the fall.  Today I had my worst day of fishing this fall. I was hoping the fishing would perk up after Friday's big hit, but it has died again.  Welcome to this fall's up and down fishing.
Today was one of those days I would have predicted would be good.  The weather was cloudy and drizzly, we a light to moderate northeast wind that produced some moving white water along with a choppy surf and we had a big moon tide.  However, all of that didn't matter because there was no bait around and no stripers.  Unlike other outings where I could see fish way out, today there was nothing in at least four spots I fished.  I fished all these spots hard, but realize it is near impossible to pick off a resident fish from shore.  The fish are under the bait.  No bait, no fish....it's that simple.
We are about halfway through the fall season and it has very much been a hit or miss proposition from shore with more misses than hits.  I'm hoping the fishing will become more consistent but don't count on it.

Big Time Shore Blitz! Finally!

Many of the fish today
were small keepers
up to 30 inches.

The hot lure today was a small
white Cocahoe fished alone an
not on a float.

Finally, a big time shore blitz of stripers hit the spot we were fishing in today.  It was the best day of shore fishing thus far this fall.  Unlike the past month when the schools of bait and stripers held way out off the shore, today they hit the shoreline with a vengeance.  Like a storm surge coming ashore, everything...birds, vast schools of bay anchovies and big schools of hungry stripers all charged the shore.  At one point I was standing on a rock and I looked down and right at my feet were dozens of keeper bass along with some smaller ones just tearing through the bait.  It was like looking at an aquarium.  This type of action went on for hours and there was hardly a fisherman around except for my two sons and me.
In all we landed 75 -80 stripers today with at least 25 of them keepers in the 28-30 inch range.  We got no big fish but just about everything was over 24 inches.  These fish were hefty and well fed.  I will tell you that the fish were fussy.  They always are when they are on those small bay anchovies.  The hot lure today was a small, three inch Cocahoe fished alone (no float).  You couldn't cast it way out but when the fish are at your feet, you don't need a long cast.  I tried after dark and landed half a dozen schoolies on black, Deceiver teasers fished ahead of a black Hogy.
It was quite the day and hopefully the start of a trend. We've waited a long time for this.

Bait, birds and tons of stripers all hit the shore today setting
up some wild action.

After Dark Does It

A homemade black Deceiver teaser
was effective tonight.

Some of the larger schoolies
were hitting the skinny Hogy.

Today was a weird day from shore.  I got down to the oceanfront in late afternoon.  In the first spot I stopped at there were several big schools of stripers way out and well out of casting range. For two hours these fish were on the surface eating away just teasing the few of us on shore.  Once in a while, they would come in close enough for my son, Ben, to reach them with his ten foot rod. He landed several schoolies on the float and jig while I got nothing.

On cue, everything disappeared at dark.  However, I decided to stay and try into the night.  I used a 9 inch, black, skinny Hogy with a black Deceiver teaser rigged ahead of it.  In the past, this has been one of my go to rigs at night.  Well, it worked like a charm as I began getting hit after hit, sometimes two or three hits on a single cast.  I have no idea what the fish were doing, but they were not getting hooked!  I must have had 20 hits before I landed my first fish, a schoolie, on the teaser.  I landed quite a few more fish after that with half falling for the teaser and half on the Hogy.
So, maybe the key to catching those daytime fish that seem to hold way out is to fish after dark.  Clearly, this evening those fish moved close to shore with darkness. 

Boaters Have Big Advantage; Shore Fishing Continues Poor

Today's outing from shore
produced this lone schoolie.

I got down today to fish from shore.  I slugged it out all afternoon into the night in a number of locations and landed one lone schoolie at dark.  There was practically no one fishing and for good reason.  Shore fishing has been poor.  Yet, if you ride around and scan the ocean's surface way out with binoculars you can find birds diving here and there and an occasional fish breaking way out. I have spotted fish way out on just about every outing, including today.  Everything....birds, bait, stripers and blues are way out and not close to shore.

Fishing from the boat this weekend was fantastic.
Bait, birds and stripers all seem to be all hanging
way out and well out of range of surfcasters.

We went out in the boat this weekend and had a banner day. I have friends who have been fishing in boats, and they all report good and consistent success along the oceanfront from Narragansett to Charlestown.  However, I also know a lot of fishermen who have been fishing from shore and they all report fair to poor fishing. They all complain that there is little bait near shore and very few blues and  stripers except for occasional schoolies.
I think we need some stormy weather to get things moving.  The beautiful, tranquil weather has been going on for a month now. In the past storms like northeasters and tropical storms have moved a lot of fish and lit up fishing after they have passed.

Phenomenal Striper Day from the Boat

We hit an incredible day of striper fishing today from the boat.   I have said all along this fall that the bait and the fish seem to be hanging way out away from surfcasters.  It was proven today as we fished in water that was generally 15-20 feet deep.  There we found incredible numbers of stripers.  In all my brother Steve, my son Ben and I landed well over 80 stripers.  At least 35 of those fish were keepers.  Many of these keepers were hefty fish in the 32-37 inch range.
The big hit of fish almost didn't happen because these fish were not showing.  We were traveling along a shoreline along the mainland when my son Ben spotted a fish that broke water.  We stopped the boat and started casting. Almost immediately we hooked up with decent fish.  Schools of them would show up on the fishfinder down deep, and when they showed it was a sure bet to get them.  They were so thick in places that all three of us would hook up at once on a drift.  These fish were all caught drifting and casting super Zoom flukes mounted on 3/4 ounce jigheads.  This fishing continued for hours.  We never saw big numbers of fish jumping, found little bait, and saw no birds were working, but the fish were around big time. It proves you just have to work some spots to find the fish, and we did that today in a big way.

These are two keepers from a haul of 80 stripers in an afternoon/evening
 of fishing along the RI mainland shore.

Way Off

I caught this schoolie this evening off the beach.
Schoolies are chasing small pods of bay anchovies
that pop up here and there along the oceanfront.
Keepers and bluefish are scarce.

There has been a slight uptick in the shore fishing this week, but the bottom line is that the fishing thus far in September is way, way off.  In fact, I will tell you that this is one of the poorest Septembers that I have ever seen in recent memory. Between myself and my two youngest sons, we are fishing every day of the week.  We are fishing both daytime and nighttime and cover the south shore beachfront as well as the rocky shores of Gansett.  Here is what is going on:
*Bait continues to be a big problem.  There are  small pods of bay anchovies here and there, but their numbers are way off. These pods have been hanging out well past casting range for the most part.  Every once in a while the bait comes close to shore, like yesterday when my son Jon landed 16 schoolies in a little over an hour in one small area.  Today, it didn't happen.
*Keeper bass are scarce from shore.  Most of the stripers around are schoolies.  They are generally small, averaging about 20 inches, but their numbers are off compared to past Septembers.
*Bluefish are scarce.  Hey, not much bait, not much blues.  Pretty simple.
*False albacore are nowhere to be found.  I'm writing them off.  A big slug of them does not suddenly happen in October. Their numbers generally build during September and we are at zero right now. Without a lot of bait, there will be few or no albies.
*There are rumors around about mullet in some of the breachways. If you can find them, you have a good shot at larger fish.  I have not seen any yet.

Dead as a Doornail....Bait, Stripers Disappear; Albies Nowhere to be Found.

We're on a downhill slide once again.  Since Thursday, the fishing along the oceanfront has slowly fizzled.  Today I went down and checked out places that had been producing earlier in the week.  I found no bait, no birds diving, no fish and no fishermen. I fished a lot of white water and rocky drop-offs today but could not even find a schoolie or a bluefish.  It was dead as a doornail.  Just when it looked like fall fishing was gaining some steam earlier in the week, it has suddenly come to a halt. With bad weather forecast tonight it looks like tomorrow could be ugly.
Note also that there are no albies around. If they are not here by now, don't expect a big run of them.  I'm hoping there will be a short run in the next week or so, but I'm not sure that will happen without a big shot of bait.  I can tell you that if you look back over the last twenty or thirty years, there were years in which there no albies.  They are never a sure bet. Many inexperienced fishermen look back over the last couple of years, great albie years, and think it will get better and better every year.  Not so.