Photos of the Day

Don't get excited.  This is a holdover striper I landed tonight.  It was one of many as
the holdover fish were active in this warm weather.

Besides holdover stripers I also found some white perch in the same waters.
Both the stripers and white perch were caught on Zoom flukes mounted on
quarter ounce jigheads

Striper Watch is On

Look for the start to happen in a couple of weeks. Cocahoe
minnows mounted on jigheads should be hot producers.

It will happen some time this month. We are down to a matter of weeks.  The oceanfront will go from nothing to millions of schoolies. Just when it will happen is open to opinion. If you look back over the years, the big start generally takes place from April 10 to April 20.  A good indicator is a series of warm, sunny days with southwest winds. If we look back over the past three years, the start varied greatly.  These were the days I landed my first ones.  In 2014, I got my first ones on April 22.  In 2015, it happened late on April 29.  And, last year, 2016, I landed the first ones on April 11.
Back in the dead of winter, everyone was predicting an early start because of the warmer than normal winter.  However, March has been one of the coldest on record and that has cooled off the early start talk.  I don't know what all this means, but I am guessing it will be a later start than last year.
The start should see huge numbers of stripers in the 16-24 inch range based on the record numbers of small fish we saw last year. Your best bet will be to hit shallow water spots along the oceanfront that heat up quickly.  Your best lures will be jigs like Cocahoes on jigheads or bucktail jigs with grub tails. Shrimp fly teasers knotted onto your leader can also be very effective.
Watch the blog in the coming weeks for updated reports as I will be looking for those first ones in a couple of weeks.

Loading Up

Every year I buy stuff for the upcoming season based on what happened last year. My fishing showed that some of the hottest surface plugs last year were those pointy nosed skimmers. Many would call these "spook" type plugs based on the famous Heddon Zara Spook. These plugs would consistently outfish traditional poppers.
I've expanded my line-up of skimmers this year, stocking up on four different varieties.  These include the Rebel Jumpin' Minnow, the Heddon Super Spook, the Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencil and the Bomber Walk the Dog (see photo of these from top to bottom). You might have noticed that I used the Jumpin Minnow and the Super Spook a lot last year and had very good success on both stripers and bluefish.
All of these plugs are of the lightweight variety ranging in size from a half ounce to an ounce.  They are great to fish in Bays and protected waters with light tackle, not so great where a long cast and a big plug are needed. I also favor light colors on all these plugs as you can probably see from the photo.
The knock on just about all of these plugs is that the hooks and possibly the split rings should be beefed up.  Here are the modifications I make on each:
Jumpin' Minnow- Hooks must be changed to VMC 4X, size 1. Possibly change split rings to more heavy duty.
Super Spook- Remove middle hook and split ring.  Change front and rear hook to VMC 4X, size 1/0. Possibly change split rings.
Yo-Zuri- No change needed
Bomber- Change hooks to VMC 4X, size 1/0. Possibly change split rings.

2 MILLION

We have quietly gone over two million pageviews on the blog. Amazing!
I know there is huge and dedicated following because I constantly meet fishermen from all over New England.  I meet them at the fishing shows, along the water, in malls and even in some strange places.  I was skiing the other day at Wachusett Mountain and a guy came up to me and asked if I was the fisherman who wrote the RI striper blog. I can't believe he recognized me because I was all geared up in winter clothes, helmet, goggles, etc.
The guys and gals who are regular followers are in the thousands, and many have said how much they appreciate the info on the blog. One guy told me he checks it in the morning with his coffee, at lunch and again in the evening.....EVERY DAY! I can also tell you from my stats page that there are increasing numbers of readers from all over the world and there is a good following coming from the UK. Hmm, maybe tourist/fishermen who visit the East Coast. I also notice that the pageviews for my posts have really gone up this winter.  I suspect cabin fevered fishermen are going back and reading past posts.
So, thanks to everyone who frequents the blog. Watch the blog in the next month because soon we will REALLY have something to write about. It's coming!

Next Stop on Show Tour....River's End Tackle Striper Surf Day, March 25

My next show stop will be at River's End Tackle in Old Saybrook, CT. This popular and free event titled Striper Surf Day will be held on Sat., March 25.  It will feature sales on tackle, tackle reps., demonstrations, and seminars. This will be my first year doing this event.  Other seminar speakers include Toby Lapinski from the Fisherman magazine, Steve Mc Kenna, well known big striper hunter from RI and Dennis Zambrotta, another famous RI surf caster.  Looks like a great event.
Here is the link for more info: River's End Tackle Surf Day
My seminar will be a Power Point Presentation on fishing for keeper stripers, large blues and albies from shore. Hope to see many of you there for this fun event.

Next Stop on the Seminar Tour.....Springfield Sportsmens Show

My next stop on my winter seminar tour is the Springfield Sportsmens Show at the Big E in Springfield, MA.  I will be there on Sat., Feb.25.  I will be doing my saltwater seminar titled Keeper Bass and Big Blues from Shore and Boat along with my latest carp fishing show. The exact seminar time schedule should be posted soon.  I did the saltwater seminar at the New England Fishing and Outdoor Expo in Boxboro, MA several weeks ago and it was packed with fishermen. I expect the a similar turnout in Springfield.
The Springfield Sportsmens Show is a huge event billed as the biggest outdoor show in New England.  It features everything outdoors with an emphasis on hunting and fishing. All the show information is HERE. 
I hope to see many of my followers at the show.

Beefing Up the Jumpin Minnow

First step, remove
the original hooks and
split rings.

Add the replacement
hooks and split rings.

One of the hottest plugs for me last year was a Rebel Jumpin Minnow. This inexpensive plug, under 6 bucks in a lot of places, caught big numbers of stripers and bluefish of all sizes in Narragansett Bay as well as the RI oceanfront.  It was super effective when the fish were feeding on peanut bunker.
The big problem with this plug out of the box is its flimsy hardware.  It comes with cheap and weak split rings and flimsy hooks. So, the first thing I do before using this plug is to beef up the hardware.
First step is to remove the rings and hooks with split ring pliers.  I then add new split rings which are 4H, 80 lb. test.  Next, I add VMC 4X trebles in a size #2. It all takes about 5 minutes to accomplish.  I buy my split rings and hooks online from a place called NJ Tackle.  The website is HERE.
That's about it for beefing up this plug.  The plug is now ready to take on just about anything in saltwater.

On this plug I will be adding 4H, 80 lb. test split rings. The original hooks will be
replaced with VMC 4X trebles, size #2.