I got out today with my brothers Steve and Mike and we hit a number of locations along the RI south shore and its backwaters. We found fish everywhere. We are off to a phenomenal start to the striper season here in RI. I can't remember a year when I have seen this many schoolies around in April. It is practically non-stop action every single day. Some spots have bigger fish than others, and you often have to find those larger fish spots by moving around.
Most of the schoolies we caught today were on the small size, but I did manage to land one respectable 25 inch fish. Just about everything was on Cocahoes. While we were catching, I saw lots of other people catching too. I estimate that between our catches and other anglers' catches, I probably saw in excess of 200 fish landed.
I got the surprise of the early season right before dark when I was catching loads of schoolies. Suddenly I had a different fish in front of me splashing around. It was a huge white perch (see photo at bottom). I haven't gotten one of these in years in saltwater. I later landed three more as a bonus. Yup, they were running along with the stripers!
