If you are content to catch schoolies, there are millions of them around (and I'm not exaggerating)! I went down to the RI south shore beachfront today and saw some of the biggest schoolie blitzes imaginable. On some of the south shore beaches the flocks of diving birds, bait and fish extended for miles. In one particular spot that I fished I had a fish or a hit on every single cast using a Cocahoe for two hours straight. I caught loads of fish off three different beaches that were miles apart. It seemed like the fish were everywhere.In all this mayhem, I did not see one keeper caught. I must have seen 500 fish landed, and the biggest one was maybe 22-23 inches. The average fish went 16 to 18 inches. In addition, I didn't see a single blue and did not see any albies breaking.
I spoke to one guy who said his buddy landed a 36 inch fish at daybreak this morning. I'm guessing this was a one in a million catch.
I will also tell you that it was mighty cold. As the afternoon wore on, the wind increased as the temperature plummeted. When I got back to my car around 4:00, the water on my waders was frozen solid! Still, there was a good number of hardy fishermen out there today who didn't seem to be bothered by the cold or the wind. Catching fish will do that to you.
