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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Game On!

The weather changed some things over the weekend and I had to switch some of my days around but when it gave us the chance to fish we took full advantage of it.  There was tons of bait and aggressive bass ranging from 33-40 inches.  Even with pressure from multiple boats the fish just kept feeding.  We lost our fair share but made up for it with a 14 fish morning, all released successfully.  The only fish kept this week was by our future hall of fame 11 year old angler as he was an animal on the rod. Boated two fish in this similar class range all by himself.  Incoming tide on this full moon seemed to be best.

Fish seem to be spreading themselves out as reports like this are starting to filter in from other parts of the bay. All I know is that I was the first one on the water at 3 am, one phone call later and I had myself a party (broke my own rule).  Oh well, everyone enjoyed themselves but I was the lucky one to have anglers that only took what they wanted for dinner that night.  Hopefully these teen pounders will make it to enable us to see them when they hit 40!  Get out in the bay as soon as you can, its an awesome time of the year and the fish are feeding hard. Don't worry about getting bait, as we lost one, we just snagged another next to the boat.  We don't know where they will be in a day let alone a week especially if we get any kind of heat wave.  Go explore, check out some areas other than where the fleet is and most importantly, have fun!

Friday, May 24, 2013

Weekly update

While there are still plenty of the fish in the 20-32 inch range feeding on silversides, there has been a turn for the better with fish this week feeding on live pogie/bunker. These fish have averaged 12-15 lbs which is normal for the first run of bigger bass in the upper bay.  This is more of your 35+ inch fish.

 If you have had a difficult time locating surfacing bait, keep an eye on your sonar. These fish are just below the surface most of the time and can be had with a little patience! If you do see them on top, don't rush over to them! Let them gather up a little and approach them from the sides. You will find you will be able to get more than one cast into them and won't put them down for others that may be on the same school.
In shallow water, after you snag one/or have one in the live well, remember not to use any weight. Stripers are moving quickly through the water column and have no need to worry about what is only on the bottom... That is unless the blues are in.. which they are in deeper waters of the bay.

With weather questionable for the weekend, you should have a lot of room to yourself. I actually prefer it this way!

Surface feeding bass - soft plastics have been the way to go. My favorite has been the 6 inch Hogy with a weighted hook.
Blues may go through them quickly so have several packs on board. For some reason the hard plastics have not induced as many strikes as the soft subsurface baits.

I will be out for the next 3 days so hopefully I will have more updates by the weeks end.

Have fun and be safe,

Capt. Brian

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Weekend Update

This past weekend was filled with surface feeding bass, blues and tons of bait! Like clock work, each day produced fish via topwater and subsurface at the same times and locations. While most of the stripers were on the school size, there were several in the 26-34 inch range.   Larger fish were marked  on the screen as you can see in the photo below.  Outgoing tides seem to spark the feeds in 3 specific locations that we spent time.  Our lure of choice was small Hogy lures in amber and black/silver. It was interesting that most of the bait was not even close to the Hogy but still worked wonders. We did use some topwater lures, and even did get some takers but nowhere near the hits that the subsurface stuff did.
After finally marking the bigger fish down deep, we even picked up a bass on live pogie (bunker) mid day.
The forecast for this week: with the weather keeping cool, the bass will be moving further north. Reports from NJ states that the bass have left the bays a week ago and the larger fish are going to show up over the next two weeks. As those fish move north, they will be feeding on the larger baits and the topwater stuff may slow down a little except near the shorelines.  We will continue to use flies to catch those fish feeding on the sand eels but will also use live and cut bait to fish those slobs coming to Rhode Island for the season.  There are some big blues cruising around so be prepared to switch techniques when they are around your baits. Be prepared to hear some larger fish being caught in CT and Southern RI this week. With luck, they will swim fast to the upper bay!

Monday, May 6, 2013

May is setting up to be fantastic!

Well, I told everyone this would be the only place I was going to put any form of reports so for those of you that subscribed or took the time to check my page out, you are in luck today! May is setting up to be the same, if not better than last year. Here is why:
 Upon the regular tour of my fishing spots that I do this time every year, I was welcomed with bait EVERYWHERE! I never went more than 5 minutes from the ramp to find Herring and Bunker AKA pogie all around. They were so spread out that it was actually hard to get a single location for them. I will venture to say that there was actually more schools than this time last year and for those that fished with me in May last year you know what I am talking about.  While there were only a few "swirls" of fish witnessed from a distance, they were not in any amount of numbers to tell everyone you "should have been here".  I will say for those that have a charter on the books for next week and thereafter, things are looking better than expected.  If you want to go Striper Fishing and stay close to the ramp to maximize your charter time, get a date in the books sooner than later.  As an FYI, the weekend days remaining in my books are as follows for May: 19,26. All other days are also limited but weekends seem to be the most popular for obvious reasons.

Blackfish reports have also been steady, while not my target species this time of year, they are found in the same spots you would fish for them in the fall. The wrecks and structure areas in the upper bay are producing some keepers, but the season ends at the end of the month and will not reopen until August.

I will post up images from the structure scan of the bait pods later this week but man, once the fish find them there will not be too many skinny stripers this season!  Get things in order now because it will be pure mayhem this time next week!

Capt. Brian