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| Expect jigs to catch most of the early season stripers. This April schoolie, caught last year, hit a chartreuse tail Cocahoe threaded onto a half ounce jighead. |
We are currently playing out the preseason in saltwater striper fishing here in RI. There is a limited inconsistent holdover season in play right now in a few select places in the state. My son Jon has been out fishing for stripers a number of times in the last week, and he has gotten a few fish. His highlight has been a big 35 inch holdover that he landed last week. Holdovers tend to be on the small side, generally 20 to 25 inches so this was quite a catch.
We are still a month away from what I call the regular season. At that time, migrating stripers will head northward. They should hit the south shore oceanfront about the middle of April, give or take a week depending on the weather. Last year I landed my first "ocean" striper on April 15. The year before I got my first ones on April 16. Could they show earlier, say in late March? Unlikely. If I look at the past three decades, there was only one year in which good numbers hit the south shore in late March and that was an unusually warm winter.
When it happens, it should be lots of fish, big time. I expect we will see increased numbers of slot limit keeper, those fish from 28 to less than 35 inches. There should also be big time numbers of hefty schoolies in the 24 to 28 inch range. Those fish were around in huge numbers last year and I see no reason why we won't see a lot of them this spring.
If you want to pack the surf bag early, stock a lot of jig type lures. Lures like bucktail jigs with plastic curly tails, plastic flukes on jigheads and Cocahoes on jigheads will be the hot lures in the early going. Small swimmers and metal will be a distant second in terms of effectiveness. Leave the poppers home until May.