Signs of Life

 

I've landed good numbers of stripers
in the last three days from schoolies
to slot size fish.  

Ever so slowly, the shore fishing is ticking upwards here in RI.  In the last three days I have caught more stripers than in the last three weeks. I've also seen turns working here and there on small bait (bay anchovies?, maybe peanut tiny peanut bunker?).  That has led to sporadic fish breaking close to shore.

I hit some good fishing on the windy and stormy evenings of the last three days catching good numbers of hefty schoolies and small slots.  Friday and last evening were carbon copies of one another.  Approaching storms brought strong winds, lots of white water and a surging sea right into the spot I was fishing. I believe that moved some stripers close to shore.  It's those kinds of conditions that will move fish that are residing in deeper water close to shore at this time of year.  Recently reports have been loaded with news of lots of fish in deeper water, and boaters are scoring much more consistently than shore fishermen right now.

High water temperatures have driven most of the stripers into the deeper and cooler water.  Bay water temperatures of upwards of 82 degrees were reported this week.  Yikes! The ocean water temperatures are hovering in the low to mid 70's. Hopefully, this will come down as the cooler weather settles in this week. I've also said many times that huge numbers of peanut bunker will be a game changer regardless of water temperatures.  That hasn't happened yet, but I believe it is coming soon. When it does, the shore fishing will explode.

Slow Going in RI

 I've posted very little recently, and that should tell you I am catching very little.  Still trying almost daily, but not having a lot of success, especially with bigger fish here in RI. This happens in the doldrums of mid summer. 

The water is warm.  Water temperatures in the Bay hit 75 degrees this week.  Along the oceanfront, it was reported to be 73 degrees.  That is really warm for striper fishing. Because of that, many shore fishermen have been heading to places north of us where the water is cooler and the fishing is better. My son, Jon, hit some hot fishing for larger fish in the Canal a week ago.  Since then, the action has slowed.

In addition, the bait here in RI is small and scattered, and it is mostly sandeels.  In the last two evenings I found good numbers of sandeels in one location and caught a mix of hickory shad and small schoolies.  The hot lure was a Red Gill teaser. Still, the stripers were fussy in the warm water.  Last week, I did catch a few schoolies in some white, rough water, which seems to be producing better than calm conditions. 

This is the time of year in which boaters have a huge advantage over shore fishermen.  The boaters can fish deeper water and dropoffs along the oceanfront where the water is cooler and the fish are more active.

I suspect the fishing will improve greatly when the massive schools of peanut bunker head our way in the next two to three weeks (according to past records).  In the past the peanuts have lit up the fishing in both the Bay and along the oceanfront for more than just stripers. They have also lured in many pelagic fish including bonito, Spanish mackerel and chub mackerel and later false albacore. 

Float and Jig Scoring in the Rough Water

This hefty schoolie was landed on the
float and jig, a great choice in rough
water.  There are good numbers of 
stripers around from hefty schoolies
to slot size fish. along the oceanfront.

 It has been rough, I mean REALLY rough, along the oceanfront in the last couple of days. I like fishing rough white water, but this was a bit much in a number of places I fished as it was downright dangerous.  I did, however, find a couple of spots that were safe and fishable, and the stripers were hitting. I scored good numbers of stripers up to slot size fishing this white water.

The float and jig, so good in the fall, was the ticket to success.  With a lot of sandeels around, a small  jig is a good choice to imitate this slender bait.  In the rough water, the float is the ticket to deliver that small jig a good distance.

I have been using a homemade through wired egg float.  My jig is a homemade half ounce H style jig (looks like a slender fishead).  I also added a 3 inch, plastic Triple Ripple Bass Pro tail to the jig. Toss that into the white water and just reel it in slowly.  The turbulence and currents will give the jig all the action it needs. It's super deadly in rough water. 

There are good numbers of stripers around especially along the oceanfront, but you have to find them.  Daytime action can be good if the water is rough and the weather is stormy. Nighttime might be a better choice under calm conditions.  I'm guessing a lot of people will be getting out to fish this holiday weekend.  Good luck and hope you find 'em.

Two Biggest Fish so far Have Come from Freshwater!

 

My biggest fish of the year so far came from
freshwater.  This behemoth carp weighed
38 lbs., 12 oz.  It would have smashed the
official state record by OVER 6 lbs. I chose to 
release it!

It's been a good (though not great) first third of the striper season. No question, there are fewer big ones around than the last couple of years.  There are also a lot fewer small ones which is more of a problem for the future. My biggest stripers have been in the low to middle twenty pound range.  Last year at this point I had many thirties, particularly from the kayak.

Many of you will be surprised to learn that my biggest fish this spring have come from freshwater. As many of you know, I am also an avid carp fishermen, and I do this quite a lot in the morning and mid day. In the last two months I have been competing in the CAG National Big 4 Tournament.  In that event, you enter your four biggest fish, along with photos and documentation. This year I was able to land two whoppers of 38 lbs., 12 oz. and 36 lbs., 4 ounces. I also got a couple of twenty nine pounders bringing my four fish total to 133 lbs., 12 oz. Those fish landed me a third place finish in the national tournament!  All four fish beat the weights of any stripers I have landed thus far. Those 38 and 36 lb. carp would have smashed the RI state record for carp by a lot.  Instead of killing the fish and bringing them down to have weighed for the official record, I chose to release these two monsters. Most carp fishermen are very conservative and release everything they catch.

Carp are some of the most underutilized fish in southern New England.  However, make no mistake about it- the biggest ones are hard to catch.  They tend to be moody feeders, and the fishing for them is vastly different than traditional fishing. I've been fortunate to fish with and learn from some of the best European carp fishermen in the world who live in nearby MA.

Down in the Rough

A large bucktail jig spiced with
a pink Fat Cow jig strip has been 
my best producer in the last week.

 I'm back to fishing mostly from shore in the last week.  That persistent northeast/east wind has really kicked up the oceanfront. I've always said that rougher is better than calm water, and I will say that the fishing has been good this week.  Find some clean, rough water, and you will likely find some stripers.

Jigs have been the hot numbers for me all week.  I'm mostly fishing one ounce bucktails in rough water, but I have also fished half ounce NLBN paddle tails where the surf has been calmer.  Both have been getting me good numbers of 24 to 28 inch stripers.  I've gone back to using pink Fat Cow jig strips on my bucktails, and that has been effective.

Even when I have seen fish breaking I have been unable to catch anything on a topwater plug.  The float and jig is also not working.  It seems that the stripers are down deep in the rough water column, and that's where they are taking.

Expect this rough surf to continue as we have lots of rain and stormy weather in the forecast for the next week.

Father's Day Fishing, 2023

 The boys and I did our annual Father's Day Fishing Outing today.  Last year we did this for the first time out in the kayaks in Narragansett Bay.  This year we got a lot more fancy. Matt got a new boat, a Grady White 18 footer, and we decided to take it out into Buzzards Bay for a guy's day on the boat. There was myself and my sons Jon, Matt and Ben.  Chris, my fourth son, could not make it and is having me over for dinner tomorrow.

Buzzards Bay is a place that offers variety plus.  And, that's just what we got.  We landed some stripers. big numbers of bluefish, lots of black sea bass, a lot of scup and even a couple of fluke. We had great weather and could hit a number of spots in the Bay. Topwater lures got the stripers and blues while vertical jigging with skinny metal got the black sea bass, scup and fluke.

I cherish these days of fishing with the kids. We all share a common love of the water and fishing. And, today was just one more chapter in the book of life. 

Jon, myself, Matt and Ben

Ben got the first striper of the day, a hefty schoolie.

Matt lands a good size fluke.

I got myself a decent bluefish.

This was one of many black sea bass. Most were small but feisty.

Jon had this hefty schoolie.

Ralph Pickering, 1929-2023

Sea run brown trout on the fly rod!

 It is with sadness that I report the passing of my father, Ralph Pickering at the age of 93.  I know many of my readers knew him as we fished together for decades.  In fact, everything I know about fishing I attribute to him teaching me.  From the days of being a toddler to retirement days, I fished just about every weekend with my father. We went on a lifetime of fishing adventures together.

He was the best I ever saw when it came to fishing for everything.  He fished mostly freshwater in the early going.  It was generally largemouth bass and trout. He loved plugging the local ponds and lakes for largemouths, and he loved fly fishing for trout with flies he tied himself. He later taught my brothers and me how to tie, and we would frequently spend winter evenings at the kitchen table tying flies. Around the 1960's he began hearing about the great saltwater fishing for striped bass.  This piqued his curiosity, and we all began saltwater fishing which would lead to chasing stripers, blues, mackerel and squeteague. It was a chore getting down to the oceanfront in those days with no rt. 95 to guide our way. So, like many others who fished in those days, he looked to getting a camper so we could fish and stay down there on weekends. No one had the fancy campers like you see today.  He bought himself a 1950 bread truck and built the inside with beds, a small kitchen and bunks for storage.  Our water came from a beer barrel mounted on the roof!  He named the camper after my mother and called it "The Connie".  For almost a decade, two adults, three kids and a dog would crowd into the camper and head to the oceanfront to fish just about every weekend.

The family fishing Beavertail for tautog.

We got more sophisticated in the 1970's and 1980's as he got rid of the camper and bought a Jeep 4x4 Wagoneer.  Now, we could actually go right onto the beach.  His friend, Bob Thomas, lived at Orleans at the Cape, and we would stay at their place.  For many years we fished Nauset, Race Point and Chatham a lot in those days under star lit nights from sunset to sun up and caught a lot of stripers. It was the best striper fishing on Earth back in those days, and we were part of it.

My father loved the Cape and we began fishing in the spring for trout and smallmouth bass with the fly rods. We later branched out and started exploring some of the outflows for sea run brown trout.  We had decent success catching those too.

As he got older, my father tended to fish nearby in Narragansett Bay and along the RI oceanfront.  We fished some great squeteague runs in the Bay, epic bluefish years and great striper blitzes.  We bought a boat together, a Boston Whaler, which the whole family fished from for years.  He fished with the fly rod more and more in his old age as he really enjoyed the experience.

Our bread truck camper, the "Coonie"
that my father built.

Several years ago at the age of 90 his fishing greatly decreased. Most of his time now was spent taking care of my mother who was also 90 and suffering from dementia.  He was determined to keep her out of the nursing home as long as he could. His health was slowly deteriorating also at this time, and last year it all got to be too much, and he was forced to put my mother into an assisted living/ dementia facility.  While she thrived, his health problems mounted.  Several months ago he came down with pneumonia which he never could really shake. With worsening COPD, mobility issues and general worsening health, he ended up in and out of the hospital for several months, and grew weaker and weaker.  In the end it was a deadly blood infection, sepsis, that got him.  It all ended very quickly; really for the best. He did not want to live like he had for the past couple of years in poor health, unable to do anything including fishing and separated from his wife of 72 years.

I was with him the last day of his life and I was the last to talk to him. Like every time I had seen him recently in the hospital, he asked how was mom doing, how are the kids (his grandsons) are doing , and how was the fishing. He passed three hours later.

He lived a great life, and we have fishing memories that will last forever. 

First stripers at Nauset Beach at the Cape.

Early days along the RI shoreline.

A big blue from the Boston Whaler that we
bought together.

Grandpa (in the background) fishing for albies with grandsons 
and friends.