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| The first half of the month brought good numbers of big blues into the Bay. I got this one from my kayak. |
An abundance of stripers of all sizes- hefty schoolies, slots, over slots. Big bluefish. Big bait. Small bait. Hot fishing in the Bay from the kayak. Great fishing along the oceanfront from shore. If you didn't know, you'd think I would be talking about October fishing. But, this is July and it has been one of the best Julys I have ever seen. Normally, I am fishing the Cape Cod Canal in July. Not this year....it has been all RI fishing.
In the first half of the month, the cooler half, I was fishing just about every day in the Bay from my kayak. I was chasing down schools of menhaden, and there were loads of big stripers and big bluefish under most of those schools. About a quarter of the fish I was catching and releasing were over slot fish with the rest being slot fish. Mixed in were good numbers of big bluefish up into the teens. I have never seen the good fishing for big fish extend this late into the summer in the Bay.
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| There were also good numbers of big stripers (slots and over slots) from the kayak in the Bay. |
Once the hot temperatures arrived around mid month, I began fishing the cooler times of evening and nighttime along the oceanfront from shore. There I found loads of stripers of all sizes that were chasing down big schools of baby bay anchovies. I fished some evenings where decent sized stripers were busting all around me in the white water. Most of the fish were hefty schoolies in the 24 to 26 inch range, but I had some slots also and even one big fish of 41 inches that I measured. Most of these fish fell for jigs fished along or off a float. I fished just about every evening in the second half of the month and never got skunked. It was consistently very good.
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| This good size bass was taken from the shore later in June along the oceanfront. Large numbers of stripers are feeding on tiny bay anchovies along the oceanfront. |
So, as we move into August, I believe this hot RI fishing will continue, especially along the cooler waters of the oceanfront. Boaters will have a big advantage as they can move around a lot. Still, shore fishermen should have good fishing especially during the cooler hours of evening, nighttime and early morning.
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| Another big fish comes ashore on a Cocahoe minnow. Jigs have been hot lures along the oceanfront in the past two weeks. |
