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Well my old truck finally bit the dust and has been replaced by it's younger brother.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

Itching

In a good way ;)

As I was driving to work this morning before the first signs of dawn streaked the sky, I couldn't help gazing at the huge moon hanging in the sky just above the treeline.  Really made me wish I was hunting bass instead of driving to work.  Is it spring yet??

Hello 2011!

Well it's 2011.  Big whoopdee doo.  ;)
I hope you all had a great holiday season!

Not much new on this front this time of year except that I'll be starting swimming lessons for the kids soon at the local YMCA. Can't wait to get wet again!!  

Are there any specific subjects that anyone would like to see blog posts about this winter?

Merry Christmas

Sorry for how long it's been since my last blog post here!  Trying to get caught up on some of the things that I neglected during the fishing season....  Stay tuned for more soon!

Merry Christmas to all!!   May there be peace on earth and plenty of  big, healthy, stripey fish in the sea!

Custom Surfcasting Rod Raffle!!

John from Stripercoast Surfcasters Club is raffling off a truely custom surfcasting rod to help out a brother in need.  This isn't an off the shelf "custom"  this is a "you pick the blank, wraps, seat, guides, handle, etc. and I'll build it for you" kind of custom!  Check it out HERE !!    You can see some of John's work HERE.

Don't delay... Deadline is November 10th!!

SkishingNewEngland.com on Google

After MUCH hard work, http://www.skishingnewengland.com/ is back to near the top of the first page on Google results for "skishing", following the hacker attack that got me banned completely from their listings for over a month.  Did I ever mention that I do not particularly care for hackers and those who employ them to do their dirty work?  They suck....

Montauk, Oct 2010

Just got back from Montauk last night after 4 days of skishing & rock hopping.   Had a blast!  Frankie & Sonny both got their first skish fish on this trip, so big thumbs up to them!   I had a couple fish largest around 15lbs while skishing, and some gorrilla blues from the rocks.   Lots of small bass on small bait there this weekend.  I had to swim far offshore to find the 15lber...  Bad wind for most of the weekend, but it turned southeast on Sunday and the south shore turned on with blitz after blitz along the shore. 

Now.... back to the grind ;)

Ugh

This whole underwater photography thing is weird.  This photo was taken at about 9am on a sunny day about 25 feet under the surface.  Underwater visibility was cloudy beyond 10 feet, but not dark at all. A photo taken without flash came out just black.  With flash I got this (yeah, my stinkin mask fogged up,,, I've since fixed that problem).  I don't get it.  Looks like I was diving in the middle of the night....

Stripercoast Surfcasters Club forum is open for public registration

Just wanted to give you all a heads up that there is a new section of the forum hosted by Stripercoast Surfcasters Club that is now open to the public, where club members and non-members alike can read and post. The majority of the forum is still private and viewable by current club members only, but I'm in the process of putting together a nice collection of forums for public use as well.
It is still a work in progress, but just wanted to let you know that you can now log in and post in the public forums, even if you are not a current Club member. We'd love to keep up with you and know how you are doing!

Here's the link:
http://www.stripercoastsurfcasters.us/forum/index.php 
If you have any troubles logging in, just let me know and I'll be glad to help!

Fishing in RI has sucked lately

I don't know what the heck is going on.  Places that should be on FIRE this time of year are ghost towns.  It's been nearly 2 weeks since I last caught a fish and it was a scrawny little bastard.  I skished with Ed last on Friday night and I think he caught the only fish that was around,,, probably not more than 15" long,,, and this place should be full of good fish right now.  Fished it again Sunday night and was skunked then too.  Gotta shrug it off and keep trying.....

Last weekend

Had a couple good swims last weekend.  Didn't find many fish though.  One baby striper caught off Brentons Reef saved me from a skunk...

On a good note, think I've finally figured out the intricacies of the tidal currents around Brenton's Reef, and how to hit the trough in the reef on the outgoing so that I don't get swamped by the point break.  I'm much more comfortable getting close to the main reef and working it's edges that I was last fall.

Tonight

Should be a great night for a swim!  Looking forward to getting pulled around.  Might do some diving after sunrise if the underwater visibility is decent.

Hey Ed.... I'll say hi to the sharks for you.  They'll be disappointed you can't join us tonight!  [insert tongue wagging emoticon here]. 

Apnea training

I just held my breath for 4min and 23 seconds,,, new personal record.  Learned some great techniques & training excercises to increase tolerance to CO2 buildup and low O2 levels.

Should really help improve my bottom time when freediving.


On a skishing note,,, tides look great for a  Friday night swim this week. I'll post a report sometime Saturday.
Tight lines everyone!  Stay safe!

This weekend

I didn't get out at all this weekend.... Spent the weekend re-roofing my house instead. Man am I sore!!
Thanks again to everyone who stopped by to help out!!  You all rock!!