There were lots of highlights from this year's saltwater fishing, a good year overall. Striper fishing was great at times, though inconsistent at other times. Blues were on the rampage on some fall days yet disappeared on other days. But, in my experience the biggest thrills of the year were provided by false albacore, better known as albies. From early September right into late October, albie fever gripped most RI fishermen. Many daytime fishermen became hooked, or should I say obsessed, with chasing and catching these hard fighting, prized gamesters. These fish, hard to find and catch in normal years, were around in astounding numbers at times. And, they were all over the place whether you fished from a boat or from shore. For sure, many many fishermen caught their first albies. Fishermen were chasing them along the shores of Jamestown and Newport, the Gansett shoreline ran hot, they were along the south county beaches and breachways and they were tearing up the bait along the far south shoreline in Westerly. At times, they seemed to be everywhere. In the over fifty years I have been fishing the ocean I have never seen albie fishing this good, not even close. In my best outing from the boat while fishing with my brother Steve and my son Ben, we landed over 50 albies. From shore my best outing happened while fishing with my friend Dennis and Ben. That day we had over 60 albies. In other years a good day would have been a couple of fish! So, 2012 will go down in fishing history here in RI as the best year we have ever seen for false albacore. Hmm, can history repeat itself in 2013?
There were lots of highlights from this year's saltwater fishing, a good year overall. Striper fishing was great at times, though inconsistent at other times. Blues were on the rampage on some fall days yet disappeared on other days. But, in my experience the biggest thrills of the year were provided by false albacore, better known as albies. From early September right into late October, albie fever gripped most RI fishermen. Many daytime fishermen became hooked, or should I say obsessed, with chasing and catching these hard fighting, prized gamesters. These fish, hard to find and catch in normal years, were around in astounding numbers at times. And, they were all over the place whether you fished from a boat or from shore. For sure, many many fishermen caught their first albies. Fishermen were chasing them along the shores of Jamestown and Newport, the Gansett shoreline ran hot, they were along the south county beaches and breachways and they were tearing up the bait along the far south shoreline in Westerly. At times, they seemed to be everywhere. In the over fifty years I have been fishing the ocean I have never seen albie fishing this good, not even close. In my best outing from the boat while fishing with my brother Steve and my son Ben, we landed over 50 albies. From shore my best outing happened while fishing with my friend Dennis and Ben. That day we had over 60 albies. In other years a good day would have been a couple of fish! So, 2012 will go down in fishing history here in RI as the best year we have ever seen for false albacore. Hmm, can history repeat itself in 2013? 
