Striper fishing from shore has bottomed out in the last week. I don't care whether you fish on stormy days or in the dead of night, it is just plain poor. Yes, we are in the dog days of summer, and July is not a very good month for shore fishermen here in RI. Read the reports and you'll see it's not good in the Bay, it's not good along the oceanfront, and it's not even good in the Cape Cod Canal, a place that has saved me in past Julys.
There's lots of blame to go around for the poor fishing. The water's too warm. That excessive warm spell we had last week really shot up the water temperatures sending a lot of fish packing. There's very little bait close to shore. That's true also. Looks like we will just have to wait for the peanut bunker to arrive (mid August if we are lucky) to perk up the fishing. And, the numbers of stripers are way down, a problem that was predicted to happen this year, and we are seeing it play out.
All late spring and early summer, I had been having some good fishing in nasty weather. Well, last week I had the stormy and rough conditions. I thought for sure I would score some big numbers and big fish in the white water, wind and rain. Nope, two days of hard fishing in multiple spots and not even a hit. That REALLY tells you they are just not around.
I know many shore fishermen who have given up until September. I still plan to go, but only a couple of times a week just to keep it honest. I am now turning most of my attention to freshwater where I have been fishing for carp and having good success. In the last three days, I landed 12 fish up into the high twenties (pounds), near record size for RI. Several of those fish were over 20 lbs. So, that's a fishery that has been good, even in the heat of summer.
