Pic of the Day- "First Keeper of the Year from the Boat"

Yes sir, they are in the Bay, and there are some decent ones!
This one fell for (you guessed it) a white Slug-go.

One of the Best April Days EVER; Float and Slug Rule the Day

It was one large fish after another in a
spectacular April evening of fishing.

I have been having a banner spring, but yesterday far exceeded anything I have been experiencing.  It was one  of the best April days I have seen in my over 50 years of surf fishing. The numbers and sizes of the fish were unbelievable for April, a month that generally delivers small schoolies. In a short period of time, I landed well over thirty fish.  I can't tell you how many were keepers because they were all close to or just over keeper size.  My smallest fish of the day was probably 25 inches. It was that spectacular.
I have to credit what I as using for getting most of these fish.  I had a strong wind in my face so my steady, fish catching 7 1/2 Slug-go was no good as it barely casted.  So, I tried an old trick.  I used a wooden egg float with a smaller 6 inch Slug-Go at the hook end.  That was able to cast a good distance to where the fish were holding.  That set up did the trick.  You can find details of how to rig this and fish it in my latest Fisherman magazine article (April 21, "The Lure of Skinny Plastic". It is a novel and innovative way to fish the Slug and works well with a wind in your face.
We are just rolling along this spring with one of the best Aprils ever in terms of numbers and sizes of fish. Certainly, no shortage of stripers here in RI.

The hot lure combo today was a wooden egg float and a six inch Slug-go.
This is a terrific combo to use with a wind in your face in a spot where a
long cast is needed.  It delivered Big time today.

Pic of the Day- "Just One of Many Keepers Tonight"

On the Slug

I landed this near keeper tonight on a white
Slug-go. This is one of my hottest lures
for early season keepers.

I especially like the white, 7 1/2 inch
Slug-go.

You just know that things are heating up when keepers start hitting topwater lures.  It's been happening for me in the last couple of days.  I have been concentrating my fishing in the Bay in the last week and have found decent numbers of fish there.  In the last couple of days I have been plugging away with my white Slug-gos and getting some better fish.  Last year this was a real hot lure and it looks like it is heading in the same direction this year.  I especially like the white, 7 1/2 inch model.
If you want to know the ins and outs and all the finer details of fishing skinny plastic, check out this week's edition of the Fisherman magazine (April 21, 2016). I wrote the surf column story which is called "The Lure of Skinny Plastic". It outlines everything you need to know about fishing skinny plastic from hooking to rigging options to fishing technique.  Check it out!

Spreading Out in the Bay

I found good numbers of schoolies
in the Bay today.  Zoom flukes
on jigheads were the hot lures.

Migrating schoolies have now moved into the Bay.  I fished Narragansett Bay today in multiple locations miles apart and landed good numbers of fish in different spots. That tells me that they are now spreading out all over the Bay in good numbers.
The hot lure in the early going in the Bay is a fork tailed fluke, the lure that landed all my fish today.  I like a light colored (albino) Zoom fluke fitted onto a half ounce jighead.  While Cocahoes rule the oceanfront in April, flukes are a far better choice in the Bay.
Today I was catching the same size fish in the Bay that I have been catching all week along the oceanfront.  For the most part, these are small fish in the 10-15 inch range.
I also made an important discovery today.  In one of my spots that I was fishing I found a huge school of adult menhaden, or pogies. April is very early to find them in the Bay. Watch out when this big bait comes around because it is only a matter of a short time before large keeper stripers find them.

Quite the Day

I got out today with my brothers Steve and Mike and we hit a number of locations along the RI south shore and its backwaters.  We found fish everywhere.
We are off to a phenomenal start to the striper season here in RI. I can't remember a year when I have seen this many schoolies around in April. It is practically non-stop action every single day.  Some spots have bigger fish than others, and you often have to find those larger fish spots by moving around.
Most of the schoolies we caught today were on the small size, but I did manage to land one respectable 25 inch fish.  Just about everything was on Cocahoes.  While we were catching, I saw lots of other people catching too.  I estimate that between our catches and other anglers' catches, I probably saw in excess of 200 fish landed.
I got the surprise of the early season right before dark when I was catching loads of schoolies.  Suddenly I had a different fish in front of me splashing around.  It was a huge white perch (see photo at bottom).  I haven't gotten one of these in years in saltwater.  I later landed three more as a bonus. Yup, they were running along with the stripers!

Fish Spreading Out, Getting Bigger, FIRST KEEPER Landed

There were staggering numbers of fish today with most of them
averaging over 20 inches.  The white Cocahoe minnow
continues to be a very hot lure.

Wow, things are hot right now.  I got out today and fished multiple spots along the oceanfront and found fish in every spot. The big difference between this week and last week is that the fish are getting bigger.  Most of the fish I landed today averaged around 20 inches, considerably bigger than what was around last week.
However, the big news of the day for me was my first keeper.  I got a fish that was just about 28 inches long if you stretched the tail.  It was considerably bigger than any other fish I had today. It was caught on a Cocahoe minnow.
I landed staggering numbers of fish.  In my best one hour stretch, I had thirty fish so the numbers on the day were off the chart.  I also landed fish on a variety of lures.  Cochahoes on jigheads, Zoom flukes on jigheads and shrimp fly teasers all worked in various spots.
Right now the spring schoolie fishing is as good as I have ever seen it. Hopefully, it will continue.