Many people will be on vacation in the next week, and many will want to fish for stripers. If you are planning to fish from shore, the outlook is fair to poor. From a boat, you have a better shot at catching but even that is way off compared to other years.
Traditionally June has been a good month of shore fishing for stripers here in RI. In the past, we've had them on two fronts in RI in June- in the Bay and along the oceanfront. In the past, large schools of pogies (menhaden) brought good numbers of big blues and keeper bass to the Bay from both shore and boat. In the past the oceanfront has seen big schools of sandeels and squid that would draw good numbers of striper to the supper table. None of those things happened this year. In the last month, it's been a lack of bait and a lack of both stripers and blues. In fact, I can't remember a poorer June overall than I've seen this year.
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| The fishing in June has been poor overall, but there have been some quality fish around if you can find them. Expect a lot of blanks in the coming weeks with an occasional good day or night. Bait has been scarce. |
Most of June has been a skunk fest for me in many different locations. It's been the same for a good number of sharpies that I know. But, for those who persisted, there were occasional days and nights here and there that had some decent fishing from shore in June. I think there were some small pods of fish moving around the oceanfront and occasionally I would find them especially in rough water. A little over a week ago, I had one good night where I caught a good number of fish in some really charged up water. These fish were all generally slots and over slots. There was no bait around so I can only surmise that these fish came in close in the white water turbulence to look for food. The next night was not so good in great conditions and by the third night, there was nothing.
On yet another day this week, I fished in a completely different location where the water really dropped off, a good bet because fish tend to seek that cooler, deeper water at this time of year. I had great conditions, but could only lure one large schoolie to hit. I would have bet anything I would have killed them in this location based on past experiences.
My experiences of the past week (out every night) are examples of just what is happening. My friends who fish all the time are doing the same thing- a good night here and there with decent size stripers but a lot of blanks in between. I think the two main factors contributing to this poor shore fishing are a lack of bait and a declining striper population.
So, as many of you hit the vacation week fishing, I would only say keep at it and move around, because you will hit a good outing eventually. Look for rough water conditions and work the deeper dropoffs from shore. You will fare better from the boat than shore because you have a lot of mobility to move around.
Good luck because you'll need it!
