Fish EVERYWHERE

The last two days have seen some of the biggest striper blitzes in recent years along the Narragansett shoreline.  Today and yesterday there was a mix of stripers, bluefish and false albacore hugging the entire shoreline from Pt. Judith all the way to the Walls around the Harbor of Refuge, a more than five mile stretch.  Vast schools of bay anchovies were along this shoreline and attracting big numbers of predators.  It is some of the best striper fishing I have seen along here in years.  It is also attracting big numbers of fishermen that form a picket fence of casters in some shore spots. Boaters are also chasing these fish just off shore.

I got out in my brother's boat today and fished this shoreline with my brother Steve and my son Ben.  I saw one school of stripers that was roughly the size of a football field, thousands of fish tearing through bay anchoies in a wild surface frenzy.  In another spot, I saw a smaller school of fish, say the size of a basketball court.  We could see thousands of fish right on the surface and under the boat, all around us.  There was not one fish that wasn't a keeper!  They were all big.  In other places, very fussy false albacore were tearing through the bait.  And, still other spots had big blues.  In all, we must have landed over 20 stripers, at least a half dozen big blues and a false albacore in just a few hours of fishing. The hot lure was a fan tailed plastic Cocahoe mounted on a small jighead.
While we were hammering the fish from the boat, my son, Jon, was banging several keeper bass from shore.  It was one heck of a wild day!

Big Bucks Banging Big Fish

I'm on another roll. In the last few days I've been getting big numbers of bass and blues by day and some big fish after dark.  The daytime action mainly involves stripers and blues from 20-28 inches long that seem to be popping up all over the place where bait comes ashore.  However, after dark is a different story with no fish showing.  I have been targeting breachway waters after dark with a large bucktail jig spiced with a pork rind strip.  I used this last night to nail my biggest blue of the year, a fish that went 13-14 lbs.  It was one of the best fights I have had this year in moving water as I was convinced I had a striper of 25-30 lbs.  Tonight I also scratched a big jig along a channel bottom.  That yielded a good looking 35 inch striper.  When fishing these breachway waters at night, I am using a 1 1/2 oz. homemade hotlips jig that is all white with red thread.  I am adding an Uncle Josh 5 1/4 inch pork rind striper strip.  The jig is cast and allowed to hit bottom.  A slow, bouncy retrieve does the trick.  Once the jig starts to straighten out, reel in.  This lure has accounted for some real large stripers and bluefish in recent years.

Do You Have a Back Up Plan?

These days the marine forcasts are notoriously wrong.  I went down to the ocean yesterday where the forecast called for 3-5 foot waves.  The water at Point Judith was coming right over the East Wall, hardly three footers.  I would have put the waves heights at 5-8 feet, possibly higher in some locations.  It called for an immediate change in plans.
Do you have a back up plan if things aren't right.  And, there's a lot that can go wrong on a trip to the shore....too rough, too sandy, weedy, closed off access, etc.  Before I head down, I always have at least three or more locations in my mind that could produce.  I also try to find areas that are different in their physical make-up but close to one another to avoid burning through gas.  In the above situation, if Pt. Judith is too rough to fish, how about heading into the protected waters of Pt. Judith Pond (second option).  If that doesn't produce, what about a breachway like the Galilee Channel or Narrow River (third option).  Finally, if nothing is working, how about hitting the mouth of the Bay (fourth option).  Being flexible and having several options can make or break a day of fishing.  In yesterday's case, I landed 8 bass to keeper size on a day that looked like I was going to blank.  Having options saved the day.

Score for Day....Bay-5, Ocean-2

I fished in the daytime today at the ocean and the Bay. I had planned to stay down the ocean all day, but some very rough conditions made fishing near impossible.  I suspect that hurricane driven waves were coming ashore, and it shut down the fishing in most places producing sandy and roiled water.  I did, however, manage to find two decent fish in some white water.  They hit a float and Cocahoe rig (see photo).  Sensing I had few options along the rough and tough oceanfront, I decided to hit the Bay on the way home.
Fishing the upper Bay, an area that consistently produced in the past, produced 5 stripers in a variety of spots.  It was one fish here, one fish there with all of them taking quarter oz. bucktail jigs spiced with Pro Bass triple ripple curly tails.  The fish were all about 20 inches except for one keeper that measured 32-33 inches, a terrific fish from shore in this area.
So, for today, the Bay wins.  I'm not all that surprised because I have done well in the past by opting to fish the Bay when the oceanfront becomes unfishable.

Walking Into a Blitz

Not only was the wind and surf conditions right, but the stars must have also lined up as I walked into a wild blitz of stripers tonight along the oceanfront.  I scouted around all over this afternoon and found nothing.  The few fishermen I met were complaining that there were no fish around.  Then, about an hour before sunset I hit a new location and right in front of me was a wild scene.  The shoreline was black with bait (bay anchovies).  There was so much of it I thought it was weed at first. The sky was filled with diving seagulls in a feeding frenzy and stripers were busting all along the white water shore.  And, I was all alone as there was not a soul in sight!  I phoned my son Ben and he joined me shortly.  With the fish on bay achovies, we opted to use Cochoes or bucktail jigs on the float rig.  That did the trick as we landed at least 25 stripers from 22-30 inches (see photos of two of the fish).  As suddenly as the fish and bait appeared, it all abruptly ended at dark as the bait and the fish moved out.  I stayed after dark thinking I could bang a fish or two, but no luck.  The fish are tight to the bait these days, and when that bait departs, the stripers leave too.
I'm on a lucky roll since this type of thing has happened to me several times this month.  Hey, most of this year's fishing  has been fair to poor, but September is surely making up for the rough going I've had in the last two months.

Bait Disappears; Fishing Dies

The last two days have not been good along the oceanfront from shore.  Most of the bait that was around in the last week has disappeared or moved on, and the predators (stripers, blues and albies)  have moved on with them. The fishing was also far more productive in the rough water and northeast wind that was around a week ago. Conditions have been generally calm in recent days.

Unless you fish in the breachways at night with a picket fence of other fishermen, it is very difficult to pick off loner fish.  When the bait is around, big numbers of stripers and bluefish are in pursuit.  But, no bait, no fish. There is not an abundant population of resident fish around.
The bait that has gotten  things going has been small pods of peanut bunker along with large schools of bay anchovies.  Many reports are saying that mullet are around, but I have seen none, and I have  been out just about every day/night in the last two weeks.  I suspect that many confused fishermen are seeing peanut bunker that is about 5 inches long, and they think they are mullet.

A Wild One

I went down to the oceanfront yesterday to fish with two of my sons who attend URI.  It is sort of a bonding thing we do several times a week.  It turned out to be one wild fishing day.  It started off slowly as Ben and I landed a few bass at Pt. Judith.  Not much there so we moved on to another location.  We walked to an overlook and right in front of us was one of the biggest striper blitzes I have seen in years.  Along an entire shoreline stripers were breaking right on the shore. There were thousands of fish.  Further out blues were boiling the water into a froth.  Cast out, and you would hook a fish immediately.  Between Ben, myself and his girlfriend, we  landed about 20 stripers up to near keeper size and a half dozen blues.  This dissipated and we moved to another location where my son Jon joined up.  Same deal with fish busting here and there after bay anchovies.  The fish were fussy but we managed to pick up a few more blues and a bass.  Now it was dark and Jon and I moved to another location where he picked up a big blue (see pic) and I had a couple of bass, one of which was a small keeper.  In short, everywhere I went yesterday there was fish and big numbers of them.  It was one hell of a wild day, which seems to be almost a daily occurrence this September.