Epic Day, One of the Wildest of All Time!

Biggest fish of the night was this 28 inch keeper.

Today had to be the wildest day I have EVER fished in the month of May.  The wind howling up to 50 mph, bait was all over the place, birds were diving, fish were busting and the numbers of fish I landed was staggering.
I hit the oceanfront in late afternoon, just driving about checking a few spots when I spotted a mass of birds diving in the water along a deserted beach.  Yup, I found what I was looking for, big time. I got my stuff on and headed to the water.  What I found was huge numbers of stripers very close to shore. On the first four casts, I had 5 fish and it just continued from there. Birds would start diving after bait, fish would start breaking and I was running from spot to spot like a nut casting and catching on my Cocahoes and teasers.
At one point before dark, masses of baitfish, a combination of silversides and peanut bunker, got driven onto the beach by huge numbers of foraging stripers.  Waves started washing the bait onto the beach.  Within a half hour there were thousands of stranded baitfish just flopping on the beach. In the wash were also thousands of baitfish getting slammed by schools of stripers. I have never seen such mayhem in the springtime.  It was crazy.
While most of the fish were small (10-20 inches). I did manage to snare a keeper in the 28-30 inch range.  By the time my evening ended I had landed over 80 stripers, making this one of my biggest hauls on a May day in my 50 years of striper fishing!

Big schools of stripers are breaking for bait.

Marauding schools of stripers have driven the bait right up onto the sand
of the beach.  Thousands of silversides and peanut bunker have been stranded.

Best April in DECADES

Action from the boat has been
good.  Mike Pickering hoists
a hefty schoolie landed
this weekend.

This good size one
was landed tonight
on a Zoom fluke. The
hot action has
continued into May.

Personally, this was my best April in decades.  There may have been a better start back 30 or 40 years ago, but I can't remember anything better.
I started catching on April 11 and from that date to the end of the month it was almost non-stop action in all the spots I fished.  I can't tell you what the guys along the far south beaches of Westerly were doing or what those along Newport or Jamestown were doing, but I can say that in the spots that I fish it was outstanding.  In three glorious weeks, I have landed just about as many stripers as I caught ALL last year.
What also made this April so unusual was the fact that all sizes were abundant.  I landed a lot of small ones under 16 inches in the early going, and then I started getting bigger schoolies and lots of them in the 16-26 inch range.  And, recently it has been a lot of keepers in the 28-34 inch range. The only thing I didn't get is a real large fish, but I have never gotten a real big one in April.
The fishing shows no sign of slowing down as I continue to score good numbers in these first couple of days of May.
While many out there were predicting gloom and doom for 2016 with decreasing numbers of fish, it has been just the opposite. We have them, and lots and lots of them so far. Hopefully this trend will continue.

Pic of the Day- "First Keeper of the Year from the Boat"

Yes sir, they are in the Bay, and there are some decent ones!
This one fell for (you guessed it) a white Slug-go.

One of the Best April Days EVER; Float and Slug Rule the Day

It was one large fish after another in a
spectacular April evening of fishing.

I have been having a banner spring, but yesterday far exceeded anything I have been experiencing.  It was one  of the best April days I have seen in my over 50 years of surf fishing. The numbers and sizes of the fish were unbelievable for April, a month that generally delivers small schoolies. In a short period of time, I landed well over thirty fish.  I can't tell you how many were keepers because they were all close to or just over keeper size.  My smallest fish of the day was probably 25 inches. It was that spectacular.
I have to credit what I as using for getting most of these fish.  I had a strong wind in my face so my steady, fish catching 7 1/2 Slug-go was no good as it barely casted.  So, I tried an old trick.  I used a wooden egg float with a smaller 6 inch Slug-Go at the hook end.  That was able to cast a good distance to where the fish were holding.  That set up did the trick.  You can find details of how to rig this and fish it in my latest Fisherman magazine article (April 21, "The Lure of Skinny Plastic". It is a novel and innovative way to fish the Slug and works well with a wind in your face.
We are just rolling along this spring with one of the best Aprils ever in terms of numbers and sizes of fish. Certainly, no shortage of stripers here in RI.

The hot lure combo today was a wooden egg float and a six inch Slug-go.
This is a terrific combo to use with a wind in your face in a spot where a
long cast is needed.  It delivered Big time today.

Pic of the Day- "Just One of Many Keepers Tonight"

On the Slug

I landed this near keeper tonight on a white
Slug-go. This is one of my hottest lures
for early season keepers.

I especially like the white, 7 1/2 inch
Slug-go.

You just know that things are heating up when keepers start hitting topwater lures.  It's been happening for me in the last couple of days.  I have been concentrating my fishing in the Bay in the last week and have found decent numbers of fish there.  In the last couple of days I have been plugging away with my white Slug-gos and getting some better fish.  Last year this was a real hot lure and it looks like it is heading in the same direction this year.  I especially like the white, 7 1/2 inch model.
If you want to know the ins and outs and all the finer details of fishing skinny plastic, check out this week's edition of the Fisherman magazine (April 21, 2016). I wrote the surf column story which is called "The Lure of Skinny Plastic". It outlines everything you need to know about fishing skinny plastic from hooking to rigging options to fishing technique.  Check it out!

Spreading Out in the Bay

I found good numbers of schoolies
in the Bay today.  Zoom flukes
on jigheads were the hot lures.

Migrating schoolies have now moved into the Bay.  I fished Narragansett Bay today in multiple locations miles apart and landed good numbers of fish in different spots. That tells me that they are now spreading out all over the Bay in good numbers.
The hot lure in the early going in the Bay is a fork tailed fluke, the lure that landed all my fish today.  I like a light colored (albino) Zoom fluke fitted onto a half ounce jighead.  While Cocahoes rule the oceanfront in April, flukes are a far better choice in the Bay.
Today I was catching the same size fish in the Bay that I have been catching all week along the oceanfront.  For the most part, these are small fish in the 10-15 inch range.
I also made an important discovery today.  In one of my spots that I was fishing I found a huge school of adult menhaden, or pogies. April is very early to find them in the Bay. Watch out when this big bait comes around because it is only a matter of a short time before large keeper stripers find them.