September 15, 2011

Hope all are well and enjoying the start of the fall striped bass season!  I got skunked last weekend at the canal, but fishing has been good in other areas.  Albies are reported to be in thick down along the Rhodie coast right now.  Gonna see if I can get one skishing this weekend!

August

The last couple weeks of August saw fishing pick up a bit.  Had an off & on pick of fish in the Newport/Middletown, RI area.  Mostly small fish, but they had stripes so that made me happy.  Hurricane Irene came and went and stirred things up a bit last weekend.  I'll be out hunting again tonight after having given things a few days to settle down.

Mid-summer update

Spring came and went, and we now find ourselves in a bit of a summer doldrum as far as the fishing goes.  Spring fishing for me pretty much sucked for me this year.  In spite of 60+ hour weeks at work, I spent many hours  in the surf with very few fish to show for it and nothing of any size.  I've pretty much taken July off from fishing and have been working on getting caught up on some things around the house.  I did get out twice last week, and was skunked both times.  Hopefully the fall will be better  :(

It had a good run...

Well my old truck finally bit the dust and has been replaced by it's younger brother.  It's already full of sand and wetsuit stink.  ;)

Fished with John last night.  The seas were quite rough due to heavy storms in the area and had stirred up a lot of weed in the water.  Neither of us had a single hit all night.  :(

Ughh... Fog & dropped fish :(

Fished last night/this morning from midnight until around 6:30am. Super dense fog. Was planning to skish, but I forgot my compass at home so decided to just walk out to one of my usual rocks on the edge of the deep water about 200 yards offshore. Fog was so thick I couldn't see the end of my rod and I missed my rock. By the time I found a different one to get on out of the rising tide, I was way out of position and disoriented, so I stayed there until the morning sun burned off enough of the fog that I could make out where the shore was.

Was a long frustrating night as far as the fishing goes. 3 different times I had a good fish on, good hookset, pulling 10lbs of drag on long runs, then nothing.

Didn't actually see any of them. One felt like a big bluefish, but I'm pretty sure the other 2 were bass that hit my plug. I can only guess that the barbless hooks were the culprit, even though I thought I kept good pressure on the fish the whole time. I must be out of practice.  :(

Heating up

Well the water temps out front are pushing 60 degrees, and striped bass fishing is in full swing.  Memorial Day weekend is coming up and I plan to do some swimming tonight.  Might take the kids out on the pond in the tin boat sometime this weekend and see if we can find some action for them as well.  They're itching to do some catching just like dad!

Spring

Spring is in the air.  The peepers are peeping in the swamp across the road.  The days are getting warmer and longer.  Pictures of fresh caught fish are pouring in from contacts in NJ & NY.  Soon and very soon they'll find their way to my home waters of RI and MA.  I'm ready.

On another note, this coming Saturday the MA chapter of my surfcasting club is hosting a beach clean-up at Gooseberry Island, in Westport, MA.  Weather permitting, we'll get started at 9am and work until around 3pm or so, with a break at noon for a picnic lunch.  If you would be interested in volunteering to help out with this effort, please contact me!   jake@skishingnewengland.com