Photo of the Day- "First One for 2026!"

 

I landed my first striper for 2026 today. I actually landed 2 fish
tonight and had multiple hits to begin my new striper season.
Both fish fell for a white Albie Snax, one of my hottest
lures last year.

One Month From Now

 

It's coming roughly one month from now!

It's coming.  In about one month from now we will begin to see the first of the migrating stripers along the south shore oceanfront of RI. I expect we will see the fish at about the same time as we've seen them in recent years.  Yes, it's been a cold winter this year, but I've seen cold winters and warm winters in the past, and it all has little effect on when the first ones arrive. They always seem to get here around the same time.

Here is a rundown of when I have caught my first ones in the last five years:

2025- April 15

2024- April 15

2023- April 18

2022- April 15

2021- April 19

Note that I started trying before these dates above, but April 15 seems to be the ticket, give or take a few days. On all those dates above I know I had migrating fish since all of them had sea lice, a dead give-away that these were migrating fish. Of all those dates above, the most interesting was in 2023.  That date, April 18, on my first 7 casts with a one ounce bucktail jig, I landed 7 stripers, all slot fish. With the low numbers of schoolies around these days, don't be surprised if your first one of the year is a slot fish.

Here is one other common theme of all those first fish of the year.  They were all caught on jigs. Some hit the bucktail, some went for a Cocahoe on a jighead and in recent years the NLBN paddle tails have been hot. All these first ones were taken right off the bottom, the main strike zone where you will find the first ones.

Highlight of the Day- A Huge Perch

 This yellow perch is about as big as they get.  My son Jon and I got out on the ice today.  We were just jigging, and it was all yellow perch. I got this big one on a small Kastmaster tipped with a plastic maggot. 

We continue to see the thickest ice in a decade especially away from the coast. Looks like the ice fishing is going into March this year!

Ice fishing remains hot in RI and nearby MA.  This huge 
perch that I jigged up today was the highlight of the day.

Catch of the Day!

 My son, Ben, holds up the catch of the day as he jigged up this beautiful largemouth bass through the ice today.  It was a banner day as we jigged up 8 largemouths along with numerous perch, sunfish and crappie. They were all caught on small gold Kastmasters tipped with either a plastic mealworm or a Gulp maggot.

By the way- over 12 inches of ice, the most we've seen in decades!

 

Next Seminar Stop- Springfield Sportsmens Show

 My next stop on my winter seminar trail is the Springfield Sportsmens show at the Big E in Springfield, MA.  I will be there on Saturday, Feb. 21.  This show is billed as the biggest pure outdoor show in the northeast. There are a lot of fishing related booths and exhibits for freshwater and saltwater fishing enthusiasts.  But, there are also a lot of other outdoor features like hunting, camping, taxidermists, kayaks, boats and more. It's a very well attended and popular outdoor show that has been running for a long time.

I will be doing my "Situational Striper Fishing" seminar which is all new for 2026.  It will feature various situations striper fishermen encounter and how you fish those situations for best results. The seminar is mostly about shore fishing but I do also have segments on kayak fishing for stripers.  I did this seminar a couple of weeks ago, and it was very well received. I will be doing my first seminar at 1:00 and I will be doing it again at 4:00.

For more information on the show and seminar schedules, check out the website HERE

Only Show in Town- ICE FISHING REMAINS HOT

 

I jigged up this nice crappie today in some bluebird
weather.  This fish hit a small gold Kastmaster
tipped with a Berkley Gulp Maggot.

The weather is cold, really cold, but the ice fishing remains hot.  I've gotten out several times in the last week jigging several different ponds and I've gotten good numbers of fish.  It's been a lot of variety with perch, pickerel, crappie, largemouth bass and bluegills all hitting. 

Today I got out on the ice with my son Ben. I was amazed that there was almost 10 inches of ice in the pond we fished.  For the most part, we were jigging small Kastmasters tipped with Berkley Gulp maggots. That seemed to do the trick but the biggest fish caught today actually hit a Kastmaster with a plastic maggot.

My son, Jon, hit a first yesterday as he jigged up a pike, the first we ever caught while jigging. It was a small one, about 3 to 4 lbs. A day earlier he got a bigger one on a tilt. He's been scouting around in a number of places and doing quite well jigging after his work day is done.

Yellow perch have been on a tear this
winter. This one was caught today.

VARIVAS on the Ice

 

The weather was cold, but it was
hot fishing today while jigging.
I had a chance to try out some 
Varivas nylon line today, and it
worked out well as you can see
from the photo!

As many of you know, I am a line tester for Varivas lines.  I've written a lot about their braided lines and fluorocarbon for saltwater applications. Now, I'm back to ice fishing when I'm not skiing, and I had a chance today to try out some of their monofilament lines (called nylon line) on my ice jigging rods.

I received several samples of Varivas lines to try ice jigging. I spooled up one of my outfits with 6 lb. test Super Trout Advance line, a thin monofilament line.  On the end of the line I tied on about a three foot shock leader.  I used Varivas 10 lb. test Extreme Shock leader.  Like their braided lines, these lines were super thin for their pound test, but provided a great feel for those "soft" hits you get while jigging. I was jigging a small gold Kastmaster with a Berkley Gulp maggot on the hook. I was trying out the maggots for the first time.

I got a chance to put the lines to the test as the action was very good.  I landed about fifteen fish with a lot of variety- largemouth bass, crappie and yellow perch. Some of the bass were decent size. So, the two things I was trying out today- the Varivas line and the Gulp maggots worked great.

By the way there was about 8 inches of ice where I was fishing in nearby MA although about two to three inches of it was that crappy, snowy ice. Still, there was at least 5 inches of hard, solid ice. There was also a good amount of snow on the ice as you would expect.

If you are interested in Varivas lines, visit the website at https://www.varivas.fishing

The main line on the reel was Varivas Super Trout Advance
in 6 lb. test.  My shock leader was 10 lb. test Extreme Shock Leader.